-- Advertisement --

                           

-- Advertisement --

Canadian Art

See It

Bowie: When Art-Rock Rocks Art

Clark and Faria, Toronto Jul 30 to Sep 6 2009
Derek Liddington  <I>Portrait (David Jones as David Bowie as Jareth as Goblin King)</I>  2009  Detail  Courtesy of Clark & Faria Derek Liddington Portrait (David Jones as David Bowie as Jareth as Goblin King) 2009 Detail Courtesy of Clark & Faria

Derek Liddington <I>Portrait (David Jones as David Bowie as Jareth as Goblin King)</I> 2009 Detail Courtesy of Clark & Faria

Summertime is interchangeable with music-festival time for many Canadians, with events like Osheaga, Hillside and Sled Island happening coast to coast almost every weekend. For the dog days of August this year, Clark and Faria is going with the flow, organizing a group show not just on pop music, but on one of pop music’s biggest living icons: David Bowie. Granted, with his history of outrageous outfits, multiple stage personae and even a studio art practice, Bowie isn’t necessarily the most out-there choice for an art-show theme. But he is a timely one: the 40th anniversary edition of Bowie’s Space Oddity album hit iPods recently, and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting a singalong screening of Labyrinth in a few weeks’ time. At Clark and Faria, the tributes are more visual than aural, with emerging Toronto artist Derek Liddington’s pencil drawings of Bowie’s hairstyles offering one perspective and American Tim Bavington’s abstract musical-score translations offering another. A 1973 collage by Roy Arden and works by Douglas Coupland, Dave Dyment, Will Munro and others round out the offerings. All that’s left is to—obviously!—bring your own body glitter. (55 Mill St, Toronto ON)

This article was first published online on August 6, 2009.

RELATED STORIES

  • Diabolique: A Touch of Evil

    An impressive range of international and Canadian artists offer their take on war, violence and human conflict in a new Saskatchewan group show. William Kentridge, the Chapmans, Douglas Coupland and others promise to provoke much sober reflection here.

  • Douglas Coupland: Mom and Dad

    Douglas Coupland interweaves artistic and biological lineages in his latest exhibition in Vancouver. Working with mixtures of wigs and hair, the result is a mix of darker and brighter (or, perhaps, blonder) symbols and symmetries.

  • Doug and Ken: Two Against the Beyond

    As everyone from professional trend forecasters to late-night cable psychics know, the future is an unknown quantity to most. Now, a collaboration between Douglas Coupland and respected comic-book artist Ken Steacy is putting thousands of Coupland’s own prescient words into farsighted pictures.

 

FOUNDATION NEWS

More Foundation news

ONLINE

  • Will Munro: Ecstatic Legacies

    In 2010, at the age of 35, Toronto artist/DJ/promoter/activist Will Munro succumbed to brain cancer. Here, David Balzer reviews the first big survey of Munro’s work, which makes apparent how talented, prolific and perceptive this creator was.

  • Painting Canada: Artistry in the UK

    The Dulwich Picture Gallery’s recent Group of Seven show was one of the UK museum’s biggest hits ever, drawing 41,000 visitors. The attention was deserved, writes Sarah Milroy, as the exhibition offered new insights even to seasoned Canadian-art observers.

  • David Altmejd: In the Belly of the Beast

    The Occupy movement has galvanized the way we think about haves and have-nots. But where do artists fit in? As Joseph R. Wolin observes in this review of David Altmejd’s show at the Brant Foundation, context can be as powerful as content in determining the split.

  • A Stake in the Ground: When Language Wounds

    What happens to identity when our relationship to land and language is disrupted? This is a key question raised in “A Stake in the Ground,” an exhibition of works by 25 First Nations artists, curated by Nadia Myre, that’s currently at Montreal gallery Art Mûr.

  • Canadianartschool.ca: Tips for a Successful Winter Term

    Our education and careers site has just posted more stories and tips to help students achieve a great winter term. Highlights include a profile of internationally renowned fashion designer Jeremy Laing, a Q&A on grad schools and more.

More Online

- Advertisements -



- Advertisements -
Report a problem