Painting: Thick and Thin opening at the Glenbow Museum

We've got the paintings hung, the lights pointed at them, the chafing dishes counted and the booze ordered.
We're having an opening.
Painting: Thick and Thin at the Glenbow Museum July 25th to September 28th, 2008.
Featuring works by: Kim Neudorf, Miriam Bankey, Dave & Jenn, Ryan Sluggett, Kyle Beal, Chris Millar anbd Patrick Lundeen.
Curated by Wil Murray

Opening reception July 28th, 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
4th floor Gallery, Glenbow Museum
130 - 9 Avenue S.E.
Calgary, Alberta

Before she was prize winning, before she was the Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac

Back when it was just called "the painting I'm working on". Early February.
*photo by Yannick Grandmont

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Four(Continued)

The conversation around Painting: Thick and Thin continues.
Another response, this time by Kyle Beal, to the same questions asked in the first half of this post.
I've included the intro I originally sent with the questions
Wil Murray: My questions about place and me and you seem a little safe tonight. So...for the next can of worms, I'd like to crack open the "regional style" variety. Now, in every interview I've been adamant about this show not being a regional style show, and this has always felt a bit dodgy on my part. Mostly because I dread the association with a group, or a style, but also because I have tried to defer my won responsibility for the show, and thus any accolades for doing so, by making it clear that i could just as easily be an artist in the exhibition as the curator. That said, I'm leery to have an art team, or at least one that has been identified by an outside source. So I'm curious about a few things, and would like anyone willing to speak on this be heard.
How do you feel about the implications of a regional style that this exhibition carries with it?
Kyle Beal:I don't really, a 'regional style' might be better in terms of marketing to some, but I think that the sample is too thin to really make any serious claims to any Calgary school.

WM: Does the naming of a community(or art team) serve anyone beyond the person who named it?
KB: Hard to say, though there is certainly a whiff of careerism with naming. In other cases for other times and other cities the high of such team recognition might be somewhat use full as something to push against, on the other hand who wants to be constantly in opposition?
It makes me think of an old Groucho Marx quip...

WM: How do you feel about my position as outsider to the city I am speaking about?
KB: Well your like and insider on the outside sort of. Which is handy to some degree in that you have a more intimate knowledge compared to a total outsider, along with what might be the advantage of distance. I think that there is value in your having a gap of time and space, it seems difficult to think or reflect a bit when your in the midst of participating.

WM: Who benefits from an exhibition like this tracking a geographic community or style? How do the viewers benefit? The community beyond the artists and curator?
KB: It is just good to look up once in while. I'd compare it to a block party, because you don't always know whats happening or who's living in your neighborhood.

WM: I've been gone for eight years and don't know if the fascination with what is happening in the city goes on past this exhibition. As you might read clearly in these words, I'm struggling a bit with my position in this. I'm not fortune-teller and sometimes don't trust what my hands do while I sleep.

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Four

Who can wait until tommorrow, when there's such good stuff in my inbox today(especially after the FFWD review)? The next round of questions, answered by Kim Neudorf(who made my father's favourite paintings in the exhibition). I'll add the other artists as they weigh in on the same questions.

WM: How do you feel about the implications of a regional style that this exhibition carries with it?
KN: My thought is that this exhibition includes artists who for one reason or another, happened to have lived in Calgary and have been found here, like traces. Other layers of meaning will happen when the exhibition is seen in person, adding to any expectations of “regional” and altering long-distance or drive-by experiences of the work.

WM: Does the naming of a community (or art team) serve anyone beyond the person who named it?
KN: A group name can be one way of creating a means to be more visible, for the group and for the namer, and for the public to access the work. I like temporary names that expire or become wizened, or have split-personalities.

WM: How do you feel about my position as outsider to the city I am speaking about?
KN: The circumstance that artists from Calgary, or Canadian artists in general, often no longer live and work where they’re from - this seems very normal and practical now. Though as someone who hasn't lived here for years, you may be able to see things that the Calgary-based artists can be too close to.

WM: Who benefits from an exhibition like this tracking a geographic community or style? How do the viewers benefit? The community beyond the artists and curator?
KN: If there is a tracking of a geographic community or style, I like the idea that “geographic” can also include mediated and metaphoric spaces, like the spaces in-between, described in that great book about Canadian photography – "Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography And The Canadian Imagination". Maybe the point can be about reminding viewers about what is already mediated, such as clichés and conventions about what is “geographic style”.

Ryan Sluggett (answering on the general themes presented in this round of questions):
I did recieve a specific grounding in painting from Chris Cran in
perceptual painting, and in perspective from Eric Cameron. So yes, I
have been formally trained in a regional tradition. I find that a lot
of artists assume that they are homeless these days, ignoring what is
going on in their own backyard by always thinking internationally. But
keeping yourself locked away in your studio without a context for
your work in presents other, perhaps more critical, difficulties. It's
a balancing act. I just hope that art in general will get a little
less international looking. It has a flattening effect aesthetically
and spiritually.
I wonder, is Morandi a regional artist?

*Photo by Ashley Bilodeau

Tasty FFWD Review of Painting: Thick & Thin

Erin Belanger has written a review of Painting: Thick & Thin for FFWD weekly in Calgary.
Read it here.

This leads into tomorrow's blog post exploring my position in relation to naming and tracking art-teams for this exhibition.

Sexe Mania Mania Mania Mania

A little source material....
I couldn't help but add one more "maniac" to it for the painting's title.
Photo from VieuxBandit's Flickr Photostream

"Portrayal" Group Exhibiton at Diane Farris Gallery

I remember when I lived in Vancouver and how far the galleries of South Granville seemed from Pender Street.
I'm very excited to announce that my work will be featured in a group show coming up in Vancouver in August. This will be my first show with the Diane Farris Gallery, with more to come in the new year.
Check it out:

Portrayal
August 7 – August 30, 2008

Gallery and guest artists

Diane Farris Gallery is pleased to present Portrayal, an exhibition of varied portraits by gallery and guest artists. Portraiture has held a prominent position in western art and society throughout the ages and although creative and technological advances have altered the traditional portrait, the genre retains its prevalence and high regard. The exhibition at Diane Farris Gallery explores the portrait’s diversification by showcasing contemporary works in a variety of media such as oil, ink, photography, collage and cedar.

Diane Farris Gallery 1590 W. 7th Avenue Vancouver, Canada V6J 1S2 tel (604) 737-2629 fax (604) 737-2675

Thick and Thin Post Number Three: Where You From?

Expanding on the themes of the exhibition, beyond the very brief curatorial statement, I am sending out questions to all of the artists in "Painting: Thick and Thin" to answer at their leisure.
I'm beginning to think that the answers given will display more disparity than cohesion, and this delights me. Working on this exhibition has highlighted the thousands different paths that eight people, connected by medium, school and geographical ties can take through, to, or from the same city. Threads holding together this exhibition, as I stare harder, are more and more transluscent and move every time I take my eyes away. All the while the circle drawn around becomes more solid by exhibitions, articles and talk.
Painters, except in their paintings, wear their angled skin so all blows are glancing, like those radar-deflecting spy planes. I they stand just right, everything is deflected into the paintings on the wall.

1.Given all the ways an artist can be from a geographical location (born, attended school, lived, or lives), describe to me how you are “from” Calgary.

Kim Neudorf: I’m “from” Calgary in the sense that I’ve lived here for seven years, which is the longest I've lived in any city, so it has probably influenced my perception of "city" and "living and working" more than any other place I've known. As a kid from Saskatoon, “Calgary” used to be associated with Banff, relatives' weird livingrooms, pirate ships in shopping malls, and The Spoons video for 'Romantic Traffic' mixed with an idea that the C-train was another version of the gondola (you wait forever, pay a cryptic currency, and sit cramped with strangers for an anti-climactic time). Saskatoon was about extreme weather survival, independent coffee shops, cult films from the public library, the Mendel Art Gallery, a community orchestra (8 years of violin lessons), and painting lessons from Degan Lindner. “Calgary” has been about Artist-run Centres, film festivals, The Banff Centre, Cat Power (Sled Island 2007), the BFA years (and the U of C library), my first studio at Untitled Art Society, the art and writing community, and longer-lasting friendships. There’s also the “commute”, which has introduced all kinds of new contexts for public waiting/purgatory. Mainly though, Calgary has felt and acted like a starting place (or a waiting place), not a staying place.
Chris Millar: I am from Calgary as a result of moving here to attend art school. I stuck around after graduating because I liked the city and the people who live here.
Kyle Beal: Well I was born in Calgary, and am actually third generation Calgarian. I attended grade school up to college in the city as well. More abstractly where I grew up was on the eastern most edge of the 'Properties', which at the time was the end of the city, after that was just prairie and big sky. Which might be formative in its own way.
Ryan Sluggett: I was born, attended school and lived in Calgary

GRREEDEN Installation Photo

Photo by Ashley Bilodeau

Painting: Thick and Thin Post Number Two

Images from the first installment of "Painting: Thick and Thin", the group show I curated for the Sled Island Festival in Calgary, at the IKG:







The exhibition features the work of Kim Neudorf, Miriam Bankey, Kyle Beal, Dave & Jenn, Ryan Sluggett, Chris Millar, and Patrick Lundeen. It will be re-opening for a longer show at the Glenbow Museum Jluy 25th to September 28th.
Photos by me and Kim Neudorf

Maybe Vegas will lay odds on the RBC competition this year.

Click On Image to See Larger Version

While I may win, I'm not sure I'll cover the spread.
This is the painting of mine shortlisted for the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. It is called "Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac" and is 66" tall, 52" wide.
The other shortlisted paintings can be seen here:
2008 RBC Shortlisted Paintings

*Image by Yannick Grandmont, from rbc.com

5 years on

It's pretty hot in this bus shelter.
Not quite as hot in my studio since I bought two six dollar sheets, one pink and one the colour of sand, and made curtains. The trailing edges are knotted so they don't blow into the wet paint.
The studio is a constant wake for nothing. As if nothing were something by virtue of being named.
I can't bear to just post the photo above wordless and watch the comments roll in. 364 days a year that building is a biographical curiosity to be exploited, but today(or was it tomorrow) I'll try to concentrate.
Not a wake for more than nothing, like the dark. Or less than nothing, like porno when you're hungover(thanks Jim).
More a wake for when there was nothing, nothing to fill nothing with, and no pressing need to fill it.
Not agony or tears in the bath or boredom.
More like it makes me nostalgic in the worst way. Like an old man getting riled up about people who hurt him in the past, or all the places he can't go because they don't exist anymore and all that's a real shame because it's mostly about desire and all the books aren't quite right when they describe characters who are free in their dreams to visit everything that's all gone.
Maybe free, but not pleased.
I never dreamt of it when it still stood*

*I wrote this on the first page of "Other People" by Martin Amis, under his biography.
I didn't mean to like his books so much, but I couldn't help it. These things happen.You know all about that.

Like Dog Day Afternoon without all the crying transvestites. Attica! Attica!

RBC names semi-finalists in the tenth annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition

Jury selects from over 600 artists across the country

 TORONTO, July 2 /CNW/ - RBC, with the support of the Canadian Art
Foundation, today announced the semi-finalists in the tenth annual RBC
Canadian Painting Competition - the largest competition of its kind in Canada
awarding a total of $145,000. The paintings were chosen from more than 1,200
works that were submitted by more than 600 artists from across the country.
The semi-finalists are:

Eastern Canada:
- Jeanie Riddle of Montreal
- Wil Murray of Montreal
- Rick Leong of Montreal
- Justin Stephens of Montreal
- Patrick Howlett of Fredericton

Western Canada:
- Collin Johanson of Vancouver
- Lorenzo Pepito of Vancouver
- Eli Bornowsky of Vancouver
- Jeremy Hof of Vancouver
- Andrew Dadson of Vancouver

Central Canada:
-   Martin Golland of Toronto
-   Sarah Jane Gorlitz of Toronto
-   Amanda Reeves of Oakville
-   Drew Simpson of Toronto
-   Emmy Skensved of Toronto

    To celebrate the competition's 10th anniversary
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of
Canada, has lent her patronage to this event. The winner will be announced at
the first stop of the national tour at the National Gallery in Ottawa this
September. The national winner will receive a $25,000 prize, the two
honourable mentions will each receive a $15,000 prize, and exclusive to the
10th anniversary event, the 12 semi-finalists will each receive a prize of
$7,500.
"The RBC Canadian Painting Competition was established in 1999 as a
catalyst for the careers of many emerging Canadian artists," said Gordon M.
Nixon, president and CEO, RBC. "Over the past 10 years, the competition has
brought to the forefront the works of artists that may have otherwise gone
unrecognized, setting a strong example of what can be achieved when Canada's
arts and business communities come together."
Submissions were accepted from professional and practicing visual
Canadian artists who are within the first five years of their careers. The RBC
Canadian Painting Competition is judged by some of the most respected artists,
gallery directors and curators in Canada.
As in past years, the works of the national winner and the two honourable
mentions will become part of the RBC art collection to be displayed in RBC
locations across the country. This year, in honour of the competition's 10th
anniversary and the Governor General's patronage, the 12 semi-finalists' works
will become a part of the Canadiana Fund's Crown Collection and be displayed
in the Official Residences including Rideau Hall, 24 Sussex, Harrington Lake
(lac Mousseau), The Farm at Kingsmere, Stornoway, 7 Rideau Gate and The
Citadel.
"This is an exceptional year for the RBC Canadian Painting Competition as
it celebrates its 10th year and the Canadian Art Foundation is proud to
continue to be a part of this great Canadian tradition," said Ann Webb,
executive director, Canadian Art Foundation. "The RBC Canadian Painting
Competition continues to introduce Canadians to some of our country's finest
artists early in their careers, providing us with the rare opportunity to
watch these talented individuals grow and mature in their practice."
The winners will be announced this September in Ottawa, kicking off the
national public touring exhibition at prominent galleries at the following
locations:

The National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, ON
September 13 - 25, 2008                 

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Montréal, Québec
October 9 - 19, 2008

Museum London
London, Ontario
October 22 - November 2, 2008

The Power Plant
Toronto, Ontario
November 11 - 23, 2008

The Rooms
St. John's, Newfoundland
December 1, 2008 - January 4, 2009

Mendel Art Gallery
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
January 16 - February 1, 2009

Art Gallery of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
February 7 - 22, 2009

Contemporary Art Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
March 26 - April 3, 2009


All semi-finalists will be featured in Canadian Art magazine and on the
web at: rbc.com and at www.canadianart.ca.