What Reibetanz uncovers for readers and viewers, who should interpret the poems and the art in a dual fashion, is how the Dutch painters “specialize in what’s unseen” – how they “peel layers of misogynistic myth from [the] domestic scene.”
60 years ago, when Parker and University of Toronto professor Marshall McLuhan were at the height of their cultural influence, form, they said, determines content. Or as McLuhan put it memorably, the medium is the message.
A love letter to Cape Breton while also depicting the layers all communities behold, Beaton humbly discusses the importance of a support system, the art of being kind to yourself when you need to make difficult decisions, and the value of respecting your self-worth regardless of the financial gain.
Hosted at York University, the free, public events gather writers, artists, and thinkers from various disciplines and geographies to discuss the most pressing issues of our time. The insights shared at the live and streamed events are later transcribed and expanded in artful books published by Alchemy, a Knopf Canada publishing program, in collaboration with York University.
To gaze upon Mary Pratt’s work is to come face-to-face with another world, one that is brighter, more keenly observant, and more knowing, for embedded in the fractal structures of her oft chosen subjects: glass, aluminum, and plastic wrap, are reflections of time and space.
Tom Thomson, one such artist and adventurer, lived and worked in the park during his short, but prolific career, and it is his life’s work that is so exceptionally curated in the McMichael Gallery’s North Star exposition and its accompanying exposition catalog, published by Goose Lane Editions.
Unwashed gives us poetry where a green “2000 Chrysler Neon”, “Dragon Ball Z” and “grainy 240-pixel videos” have the same poetic value as “the kings of old Egypt”, the lives of Dr. King. and Malcolm X, or the hagiographies of Buddha and Krishna.
A weird mix between the campus novel, a mediation on motherhood and academia, and a strange time travel-esque adventure, The Caravaggio Syndrome by Alessandro Giardino, translated by Giardino himself and colleague Joyce Myerson, is an odd, somewhat unruly beast.
four essays examining the artist Donald Andrus’ work throughout his career, spanning his different creative periods, his inspirations and larger scale projects, and his meditations on his own career and life.
The impacts of lived experiences in the totality of misery and death along the Western Front were enduring and consequently reflected in their art. Douglas Hunter’s biography Jackson’s Wars: A. Y. Jackson, the Birth of the Group of Seven, and the Great War explores the impacts of World War I on A. Y. Jackson and the Group of Seven in shaping their vision of a distinctly Canadian School of painting.
To really understand the words in this book, it’s pretty much mandatory that you track down the CD or go to the website mentioned in the book so you can hear for yourself the range of Heighton’s songs.
In former Art Gallery of Nova Scotia curator Ray Cronin’s Nova Scotia Folk Art, the works of 50 contemporary folk artists are shared across “waves,” or phases of trends and styles over time. In lieu of not being able to visit this art gallery in person, this guide presents a stunning illustrated overview of folk art that found their way from one’s home to museum showcase.
I was delighted to receive Carla’s latest, Warp and Weft, a beautifully stitched chapbook of poems and paintings.
Shawna Lemay’s engrossing collection of essays, Apples on a Windowsill, should be required reading for anyone with an interest in creating art and being human in challenging times.
Pictures on the Wall: Building a Canadian Art Collection is an interesting kind of coffee table book: heavy with weighty paper and beautiful pictures, but also a memoir of a life spent admiring art, pursuing art, and most interesting – repatriating art.
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