Saturday, May 6, 2006

Stuff Seen - Claude Caron

Howdy!



A-

Again from a while long time ago. This was an extremely pleasant surprise. We'd been out galavanting around looking at all sorts of stuff, both good and not so good. And we were plumb tuckered out, so we decided to hightail it over to Le Boudoir (850 Mont-Royal Est) and lo and behold we saw the best stuff we had seen all day. I don't know if the glee upon finding it was due to just the complete surprise, or us being tired, but even if you take that away Ms. (or Mr.) Caron's art rocks.

Unfortunately I don't know anything more about the artist. However, the stuff that gets shown at Le Boudoir is generally quite good - and from what I've heard they also treat the artists very well, and stuff sells when it is hung there.

Friday, May 5, 2006

Breaking News!

Howdy!

Guy Cogeval ain't a happy camper. The Art Newspaper reports that the National Gallery in Washington DC has paid $37,500 to Annette Leduc Beaulieu and Brooks Beaulieu. The article refers to a press release from the Musée des beaux arts that states "the museum and its director 'completely exonerated'. Lawyers for the MMFA state: 'Mr Cogeval is not part of the [US] settlement and, as such, neither himself nor the MMFA have admitted any type of liability.'" Unfortunately the Museum's website doesn't have a copy of said press release.

This is not good news.

Why is it, that Sarah Milroy, Peter Goddard, Jerome Delgado, Stephane Baillargeon, Henry Lehmann, either of the Dault's, and Joe Cummings (all people who work for daily NEWS organizations) missed this?

It is all the rage!

Howdy!

Nicolas Baier has already met Kara Walker, as you read a couple of weeks ago , but now there's another one! Nicolas Baier may I introduce Louise Bourgeois? She is doing it at the Walters. I wonder how many other museums are doing it?

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Stuff Seen - Vous êtes ici by Dominique Blain

Howdy!


Ungraded because Dominique Blain is a friend.









Again, back in March we saw some of the 1% for art thing that the Bibliotheque Nationale had procured. Why is it that the 1% art is always hidden in the back?

I've interviewed Dominique Blain before and for the most part quite like her work. If you go to the library you should go looking for her piece, it is quite witty, and very nicely done.

Stuff Seen - L'Abécédaire des insectes

Howdy!



Ungraded because it ain't an Art exhibit.

Back in March we went to the Bibliotheque Nationale, I already wrote about the exhibit they had on the history of Galerie Graff. But they also had two other exhibits, including this one, that nobody was able to find for us (honest, we asked four people, one of them twice, and not a single person knew where we could find the Jacques-Ferron stuff.

However, we were able to find the ABC's of the insects, and they were fun. As with any exhibit done with government money, I always wonder who got what money. But they (for some reason that I can't understand) always prefer to keep things secret.

Some pictures from Il Modo Italiano

Howdy!

I'll have more to say when I've had a little bit of time to digest it. In the meantime, check these out - and then get your fanny on down to the Museum of Fine Arts and see the freakin' show.

A Bugatti chair


Bonazza's story of Orpheus


A wicked cool lectern


Wildt's portrait of a guy who was cuckholded


Imagine this on your window


The beginning


Albini's swinging armchair


The first room


Where stuff starts to get very interesting


The other side of the room


I don't know if I could get any work done if this was my desk


More cool stuff


Keeping an eye on what you eat


Sort of what I expected


I had one of these when I was growing up


The legend continues


What's the square root of -1?


More wicked cool stuff


The beginning of the end of civilization as we know it


Who needs flowers


It ain't as stable as you think


No comment


Gaetano Pesce's chair

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Stuff Seen - Jeanie Riddle

Howdy!




Ungraded, because Jeanie is my friend.

Yet another artist who had a show almost a year to the day after the Concordia thingy at Parisian Laundry last year. I much prefer Ms. Riddle's work this year in comparison to last year's. It might have to do with them being larger, or there being less stuff on each surface, or something else, I'm not certain.



Click here if you'd like to see some of last year's work.



The pastels were very pretty colors, and the high contrast of the stuff stuck on the islands (for lack of a better term) made for a very happy space. I have some other pictures of the dollar store objects Ms. Riddle placed on the islands.



Now, upon thinking a little about it, I do believe that's the reason that I think this one is way better than last year's. Those doo-hickeys bring back some sort of memories of some sort of childhood (in my case the dollar store was called a five and dime). Not quite minimalist, not quite pop, not quite sculpture, it falls between the cracks of any easy definition sort of like when you're taking a nap on a train and you can understand the conversation taking place in the seat's behind you, but you don't want to open your eyes and participate, so you incorporate it into your dream.



I think the bestest part of the exhibit (and remember that Ms. Riddle's shows despite being made up of individual and separate parts are always stronger than the sum of those parts) were the Wiffle Ball wannabes. For the most part Ms. Riddle just places the objects, and in certain cases doesn't even place 'em, just sorta lets them land where they might.



But when she starts using her imagination to combine dollar store objects into "new" things, that's pretty much what I'm looking for in art. "Found Art" is all fine and dandy, and if it is presented well, then so much the better. But there is a limit to how much I can take or stand at one time.