Canadian Art - See It

A Stake in the Ground: When Language Wounds

2012-01-26T16:57:00Z

Dead Indian Stories 2011, Tania Willard Thunderbird 2007 and Nicholas Galanin Inert 2009 Installation view / photo Guy L'Heureux" />
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.

Chronicles of a Disappearance: On the Affirmation of Absence

2012-01-19T17:10:00Z

5000 Feet is the Best 2011 Film still Courtesy gb agency Paris & Arratia Beer Berlin / photo Yon Thomas" />
While contemporary art often underlines hidden issues in society and politics, the acute absence of an issue is something less easily defined. Opening this week in Montreal, “Chronicles of a Disappearance” makes an attempt towards this difficult project.

Emanuel Licha: The Fog of War

2012-01-19T17:05:00Z

How do we know what we know? 2011 Video still" />
How do we know what we know about war? That’s a question raised by Montreal-based artist Emanuel Licha in “Striking a Pose,” a two-venue show in Saskatoon and Edmonton. Best known for his War Tourist series, Licha explores journalistic reportage in his newest works.

Steve Bates: On the Sound of Time

2012-01-12T16:48:00Z

For me the noise of time is not sad 2011 Video still" />
Amid the many distractions of an information-saturated world, a quiet moment of reflection may seem rare, and even slightly disorienting. Artist Steve Bates (recently featured in the Quebec Triennial) taps this tension in new sound-and-video works showing in Montreal.

Rethinking Art & Machine: A Second Take on Technology

2011-12-08T17:03:00Z

Exploded View 2010 / photo Derek Weidl" />
Two years ago, curator Marla Wasser developed a compelling Kitchener exhibition on Warhol’s cultural influence. This fall, she brings a similarly wide reach to a show on art and technology featuring Jim Campbell, David Rokeby and other innovative artists.

Maskull Lasserre: Playing to Extremes

2011-12-08T17:02:00Z

Coriolis 2011" />
Creation and destruction, harmony and discord, refinement and brute force—these are some of the tensions that abound in “Vertigo,” an exhibition of sculptural works by Montreal artist Maskull Lasserre currently on view at Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain.

Studies in Decay: Where Endings are Beginnings

2011-12-01T17:10:00Z

Freedom Machine 2011 Detail" />
If the world tends towards decay, is that a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand, it could be gloomy, on the other, transformative. Now, three Vancouver-connected artists are riffing on these extremes in a group show at Or Gallery.

Jerry Pethick: Spectral Poetics

2011-11-10T17:03:00Z

Lippmann Looking at a Plate at the Sorbonne-Vienna Suite 1982 Courtesy Merrilyn & John Farquhar" />
Some artists are popular stars, while others are artists’ artists on the quieter margins. The late Jerry Pethick falls into the latter category, and is now getting his due with a career-spanning exhibition of works at the SFU Gallery in Burnaby

Attila Richard Lukacs: Love Letters in Hamilton

2011-11-10T17:02:00Z

1-800-MIKE (diptych) 1989 Courtesy Salah J. Bachir" />
Canadian painter Attila Richard Lukacs has seen some major fluctuations over his career, including a crystal meth addiction. But he rightfully retains many admirers—among them philanthropist Salah Bachir, whose collection of Lukacs works is currently on view in Hamilton.

Mathieu Lefevre: A Remembrance

2011-10-27T16:04:00Z

Last Wednesday, the Canadian art community suffered the sudden loss of 30-year-old artist Mathieu Lefevre, who had recently moved from Montreal to New York. Here, critic Tess Edmonson remembers the promising and charismatic young talent.