Year in Review: The Top 10 Exhibitions of 2009
Paul-Émile Borduas Bercement silencieux 1956 Estate of Paul-Émile Borduas / SODRAC 2008
THE YEAR IN REVIEW: When you see hundreds of strong exhibitions in a 12-month period, pegging the ones that stand out can be a challenge. In this list, Canadian Art's editor checks off his favourite exhibitions of 2009 across the country, pinpointing newly relevant trends and resonant historical references along the way. What makes the cut is a mix of old and new, and an array that highlights feats both curatorial and artistic. Read on for all the details, and the lessons learned.
James Carl “jalousie” 2008 Installation view Courtesy of Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkenscheid
10. James Carl at Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
Closing in mid-January 2009 after a late November opening, this was the show that got away from 2008’s list. Carl, usually a cool customer, outdid himself with these colourful, wickerwork, sculptural wonders. Sitting tall on slim, low bases like reinvented Jean Arps, Carl’s inside/outside revealing body-form vessels regathered the modes and energies of early abstract sculpture. The antithesis of the generic “unmonumentalism” that has staked a post-9/11 claim on recent sculpture, the works were scooped up by the National Gallery where they will update a near perfect, but now nearly stranded, minimalist collection. Carl’s show ushered in a year where sculpture came out of the long shadows cast by photography and painting over the past decade.
Allison Hrabluik A Mild Case of Smallpox 2007 Video still Courtesy of the artist and Tatjana Pieters/One Twenty Gallery Gent
9. “How Soon Is Now” at the Vancouver Art Gallery
Internationalist fevers have laid to waste excited appreciation of local art-making in Canada beyond high-profile competitions that mirror Britain’s Turner Prize formula. That’s why last year’s Quebec Triennial was such a blast: it was terrific to see substantial resources and production standards brought to bear on a thoroughly engaging show of contemporary art at Montreal’s Musée d’art contemporain. The same holds true for “How Soon is Now,” the BC-style biennial put together by VAG assistant curator Kathleen Ritter. With 34 artists and collectives from across the province, the show was a well-documented survey that lifted a number of unheralded names into the spotlight, from Abbas Akhavan, Raymond Boisjoly and Samuel Roy-Bois to Marina Roy, Kyla Mallett and Carol Sawyer. It delivered living proof—once again—of how the pervasive intelligence of Canadian contemporary art widely outstrips its appreciation, coverage and commercial opportunities.
Jake and Dinos Chapman War 2004 Courtesy of White Cube London
8. “Diabolique” at the Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina
This was the little show that could. Well, actually, it was not so little at all; it’s just that we’ve gotten out of the habit of expecting up-to-the-minute national touring shows from the Dunlop since its near-expiration a few years ago. Indeed, this show came in two parts, with the likes of William Kentridge, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Dan Perjovschi—international art stars all—teaming up with Canadians Douglas Coupland, Rebecca Belmore, Wanda Koop and 16 other artists to make a topical, border-crossing show about the impact of war and violence on contemporary art. Curator Amanda Cachia wielded the savvy and organizational energies of a big-leaguer to win her show touring exhibition slots in Montreal and Calgary in 2010, all the while raising expectations for her next curatorial adventure.
Thomas Kneubühler Electric #6 2009
7. Thomas Kneubühler at Projex-Mtl, Montreal
Swiss-born photographer Thomas Kneubühler lives and works in Montreal where he took his master’s at Concordia in 2003. In a year when photography took a back seat in galleries to a renewed interest in sculpture and painting, Kneubühler’s Electric Mountain series commanded attention by capturing the eerie nighttime illuminations of Quebec ski resorts in photos that were both ironically picturesque and seriously documentary. Like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his photos show a strange, abandoned recreational universe where the lit slopes seem like sign code directed to the stars. In the midst of its waning surprise as an art form, photography is returning to the merits of original, compelling subject matter. Kneubühler’s nocturnes of cold, white artificial illumination tell the tale of a unique kind of landscape that waits for dark to come into its own—both land art for the sports-minded and a meta-image of photography’s indebtedness to light.
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