1. Director’s Meandering Preamble
I’m back from Niagara Palooza in NF. That was the conference held yesterday that featured noted cultural/economic theorists Eddie Friel and Richard Florida. It was a sellout! Perry Farrel woulda been shaking his head like a cat afflicted with ear mites. Judging by the packed hall, I figure we’re already behind whatever wave we’re supposed to be catching – though maybe the density of the attendees is relative to the faint hints of economic desperation wafting on the breezes that blow through Niagara. I gotta say things started well enough with talks by Friel and Florida (who might be a Scientologist) but by the afternoon things started to boil down: first a spoiled potlicker video game stew, one of the most banal power point presentations ever to see the light of a projector, and a panel discussion that devolved into a debate over who offers the most rewarding cinematic experiences: Werner Herzog or Bruce Willis. In the care on the way home I was still seriously stuck on the video games. I ended up with a Lou Reed song in my head:
Down at the arcade the defender is there
Down off of Broadway he's there playing his games
It's very dangerous putting money down on Robotron
Oh, I'm the Great Defender
And I really know just how to get along
The president called to give me the news
I've been awarded the Nobel Price in rhythm and blues
And Stevie Wonder wants to record one of my songs
Oh, I'm the Great Defender
And I really know just how to get along
Oh, I'm the Great Defender, listen to my song
I really hope you like it, it isn't very long
It's rooted in the fifties but its heart's in 1984
And if you really like it
Then I sing it for you once more
Down at the arcade
Oh, I'm the Great Defender
And I really think I've got it made
In other important cultural news, NAC is a sponsor of the Crystal Beach Comets, a local hockey team named in honour of the roller coaster at the defunct Crystal Beach Amusement Park. The Comets play in the Good Times Hockey League (GTHA), a Toronto-based artist hockey league. NAC members on the team include: James Desjardins, Joe Lapinksi, Jay Peters, Miles Coverdale, John Venditti, and Jay Peters. By sponsoring the team NAC gets to place our logo on a team member jersey. That jersey belongs to number #69, the year of NAC’s founding, and is worn proudly by a legend of the league known simply as “The GOOCH”. After hearing enough myth-making anecdotes to fill a tome the thickness of the Manhattan Yellows, I had the great pleasure of finally meeting “The GOOCH” at the Comets’ last home game. Here is a picture of Chad Andrews (NAC Community Relations), yours truly (of indefinable occupation), and “The GOOCH” (centre), toasting the Comets’ victory.
overnout
S.
Stephen Remus, director
2. Hatchery
By Rob Elliott
In the NAC Exhibition Main Space
Saturday 19 January – Saturday 1 March
Opening Reception: Saturday 26 January at 8pm
Concealed in the skin of an information kiosk from a long-gone World’s Fair is a crude ice fishing hut flanked with kinetic trophies. The exterior, with its backlit mid-century tourism photos of happy fishermen, sporty styling, and tilted luminescent roof, idealizes the promises of the Sporting Life and Nature. The interior walls tell a different story: jabbering mechanical Billy Bass interspersed with the ghostly silhouettes of extinct Great Lakes species.
Hatchery is about the uncomfortable intersection between people and animals. All the “nature” represented in this work is an artifice, from the tourism booklet photos to the bonded wooden materials of the walls. The Billy Bass, all plastic and rubber skin, is only the most perverted example.
The nature of angling is a carefully stocked and maintained version of nature. The Great Lakes, once nearly dead, have been nursed back to a state of health, but as a near monoculture of sport fish. This conflict, that nature only exists if it can serve humans in modified form, is the spine of this installation.
- from the artist’s statement
3. (the return of) 3-D Exquisite Corpse Project
Curated by NAC Member Christine Cosby
In the Dennis Tourbin Members’ Gallery
On display from Saturday 26 January – Saturday 9 February
Opening Reception at NAC Saturday 26 January 2008 at 8pm
Includes work by NAC members: Julia Blushak, John and Anne Carruthers, Ernest Harris Jr., Melanie and Bev MacDonald, Judy Marquis and Chantal Visca
In 2007, Christine Cosby launched a collaborative artist project titled 3-D Exquisite Corpse, based on the parlour drawing game but done with fabrics instead of pen & paper. Participants were provided with some basic instructions and were invited to create imaginative three dimensional body parts, which were then mixed & matched to create new exquisite corpse creatures. Artists generally worked in isolation of each other, which added to the surprise of the assembled parts. Results of the 2007 project are documented at www.swizzle.ca/pages/exquisite_corpse.html
Look for an article about Christine’s show in the Thursday 31 January edition of PULSE Niagara.
4. Afternoons in the Karmaforest
Painted acrylic works by NAC Member Julia Blushak
In the Dennis Tourbin Members’ Gallery
16 February to 29 February
Opening Reception Saturday 16 February from 2-4pm
5. Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance
NAC final submission deadline: Friday 8 February 2008
OAC Exhibition Assistance is a program for individuals:
Purpose: The program provides grants of $500 to $1,500 to assist individual artists with costs related to presenting their work for an exhibition. Grants are made through third-party recommenders (public art galleries, artist-run centres and arts service organizations) throughout the province. Artists must apply directly to a recommender located in the zone in which they live. Approved applications are forwarded to OAC by the recommender once the decision to award a grant has been made.
Eligibility: This program is open to Ontario-based professional visual artists, craft artists and media artists who have a confirmed, upcoming public exhibition.
Deadlines: Applications are accepted between July 2007 and February 2008. Recommenders establish their own application deadlines for Exhibition Assistance, or may decide to accept applications on an ongoing basis. Artists should contact recommenders directly for further information.
For more information, please contact:
Lisa Wöhrle, Associate Visual and Media Arts Officer, 416-969-7419, toll free 1-800-387-0058 extension 7419, lwohrle@arts.on.ca, OR Kadija de Paula, Program Assistant, 416-969-7455, toll free 1-800-387-0058 extension 7455, kdepaula@arts.on.ca OR Services in French or English are available by contacting Lia Kyranis, Program Assistant, 416-969-7461, toll free 1-800-387-0058 extension 7461, lkyanis@arts.on.ca.
Program Guidelines and Application Form:
Program Guidelines (print version)
Application (you can fill this in on your screen) (print version)
Map of Exhibition Assistance Zones (print version)
List of Exhibition Assistance Recommenders (print version)
Frequently Asked Questions (print version)
6. Get on the A List!
Be Included in NAC’s Directory of Artists
NAC is putting together a directory of our working artist members. A copy of this directory will be kept at NAC for any one wanting to see the breadth and depth of art work that our members make. Often we get walk-ins or cold calls from people interested in finding painters or filmmakers for a specific commission or project. We’ll get this directory together so we can lay it on them. We’re also going to give copies of the directory to all our donors and many of them are in the habit of collecting local work. Get in the directory and get hooked up!
All we need can be sent to us electronically. If you don’t have digital versions of what you’d like to send, bring your slides or what have you to NAC and we’ll scan them for you.
What we’re after:
1. Your CV or resume
2. 3-5 images of your work with at least 150 dpi resolution (images will be printed in colour)
3. A one paragraph bio and artist statement
Email us the stuff to artists@nac.org with “directory” in the subject line, that’s it!
7. Time and Space
By NAC Member Maggie Groat
At CRAM
February 1 – 25, 2008
Opening Reception
Friday 1 February 2008 7-10pm
Time and Space features the work of Maggie Groat, the youngest member of St.Catharines-based collective CRAM.
Working entirely with found images, Time and Space looks at the overlooked or “in between” moments of captured memory. This multimedia exhibition includes video, light boxes, 35mm slides and photography, each work created through subtly manipulating appropriated imagery. The moments chosen are linked by themes of everydayness, banality, routine actions, insignificant events, and nostalgia.
The CRAMplex
24 James Street - 2nd Floor
downtown St. Catharines, Ontario - The Garden City of Niagara
between Christopher's Magazines & Smoke Shop and The Office*
Contact: Tobey C. Anderson
Mobile: 905.380.3910
www.cramart.ca
info@cramart.ca
8. Trinities: Thirty-Three Years of Painting
By NAC member Tobey C. Anderson
Curated by Marcie Bronson
At Rodman Hall Art Centre - Brock University
22 December 2007 – 24 February 2008
Closing Reception: Sunday 10 February at 2pm
Tobey C. Anderson has been exhibiting his work since 1969. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, most recently an Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Artists Grant (2007), and he is represented in private and public collections. He is currently working on and touring a significant body of new work, The New American Century Project. Rodman Hall Arts Centre is pleased to present a selection of Anderson’s painted work spanning the last three decades.
Born in Washington, DC in 1946, Anderson grew up in Iowa. In 1969 he immigrated to Ontario and settled in Kingston where he spent a decade of artistic activity and employment in the Visual Arts Department at St. Lawrence College. He became a Canadian citizen in 1975.
In the late 1970s Anderson was Founding President of Kingston Artists’ Association/Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre and at the same time was President of Artspace, when he worked closely with David Bierk, Dennis Tourbin and other notables in the provincial and national artist-run network. In the 1980s Anderson returned from a hiatus in Iowa and San Diego, California before settling in St. Catharines in 1990.
Most recently, Anderson was Director of Niagara Artists’ Centre from 1990-98 before retiring to work as a full-time artist. He is actively involved in cultural development in Niagara and served as the inaugural Chair of the Culture Committee following his involvement in the development and adoption of a new Cultural Policy for the City of St. Catharines. In 2005 Anderson was the recipient of the Mayor’s Trillium Award for Artistic Excellence and in 2006 he established gallerie CRAM collective, which features contemporary artists with strong ties to St. Catharines.
- from the press release
For more information visit
www.tobeycanderson.com
www.cramart.ca
or
Rodman Hall Art Centre - Brock University
rodmanhall@brocku.ca
www.brocku.ca/rodmanhall/exhibitions/index.php
9. New Paintings
Melanie MacDonald
2 February – 24 February 2008
Opening Reception Saturday 2 February 2-4pm
Cobalt Gallery
870a Kingston Road, Toronto ON
416-694-0156
Gallery Hours Tues – Sat: 11am – 5pm & Sun: 12-4pm