VoCA Recommends...Exhibitions in Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto

1. CONVERSATION PIECES

12 January to 10 February

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston Ontario


Deirdre Logue, Why Always Instead of Just Sometimes. Image: deirdrelogue.com

Conversation Pieces is an exhibition of new media work by Canadian artists Linda Duvall, Germaine Koh, Deirdre Logue, Matt Rogalsky and Laurel Woodcock. Audio, video and multimedia installations explore acts of communication through verbal exchanges.


Laurel Woodcock, conversation pieces, 2001. Image: laurelwoodcock.ca

Lecture: Sunday 13 January
Frances Dyson: Chat and chatter: searching for the true voice via tone, affect and algorithm.

Panel: 3:15 pm
Sarah E. K. Smith in conversation with the artists

For more information, please click HERE


2. PASCAL GRANDMAISON: LE GRAND JOUR
CONSTRUCTED VISIONS: DRAWINGS BY RONALD BLOORE
NOT A TRIVIAL PURSUIT: HUNTING IN INUIT ART

14 January — 13 April 2008

Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa

Le grand jour is a solo exhibition of new work by the young Montreal photographer and video artist, whose work is gaining national and international attention. The exhibition takes its title from the earliest work presented,


Dan Flavin, Monument, 1967. Image: mccullagh.org

Le grand jour (2004), a three-part video projection that brings to mind the work of the American minimalist Dan Flavin. Although apparently abstract, this black and white work in fact records the reversing movement of the gases present in an ordinary fluorescent light tube, shot in progressive close-up.

Bloore’s drawings are inspired by his travels and by his study of archaeology and architecture, and in them we see his idiosyncratic iconography – a visual language constructed of abstracted symbol-forms such as leaves, arches, crosses, and discs. Constructed Visions features a selection of the more than 100 Bloore drawings in CUAG’s collection. His early drawings are subtle and delicate graphite works made in the 1960s.


Ron Bloore, After Egypt (Number 18), 1965. Image: ronbloore.ca


Ron Bloore, a work from 1982. Image: ronbloore.ca

For many first-generation artists who lived in traditional camps before moving to settlements, hunting was a fact of life and a common subject of their art. Depictions of hunting by younger artists, in contrast, often portray stories they heard from their elders, or attest to the challenges of their forebears’ life on the land. Not a Trivial Pursuit explores how Inuit artists address the pervasive theme of hunting in drawings, prints, sculptures and video. Artists featured include Parr, Zacharias Kunuk, Pitaloosie Saila, and Andrew Karpik.


Andrew Karpik, Char Fishing, 1986. Image: carleton.ca

Artist's talk: Ronald Bloore

Tuesday, 15 January, 12:00 noon


Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, The Journals of Knud Rasmussin, 2006. Image: blogs.indiewire.com

For more information, please click HERE.


3. NEW WORLD: OLIA MISHCHENKO, MONA VATAMANU & FLORIN TUDOR

January 10 to February 24, 2008

The Koffler Gallery, Toronto


Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Vacaresti, 2003. Image: monavatamanuflorintudor.ro

New World brings together video work by Romanian artists Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, presented for the first time in Canada, and a new body of work by Toronto-based Olia Mishchenko.

These artists address the elusive promise of progress through their shared experiences of growing up in Communist systems. Originating from distinct but sometimes overlapping viewpoints, the works presented at the Koffler Gallery address the turmoil and expectations intrinsic to rebuilding one’s life on unknown territory.

Please click HERE for more info.