Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: Barbara Astman at Corkin Gallery, Toronto

My first Critics’ Pick from Toronto for Artforum.com is now online. Writing short, concise reviews is still one of the most challenging critical writing tasks for me, so it took some effort to try to distill Barbara Astman‘s current solo show at Corkin Gallery, titled “Daily Collage,” into only 300 words.

This new series seems a bit of a departure from Astman’s past works, but still meditates on the affect of ubiquitous public images through the manipulation of images from newspapers. What particularly appealed to me about Astman’s take on collage was that it managed to avoid the sometimes bombastic readings that the juxtaposition of “political” images with luxury consumer goods tends to evoke in works by some contemporary artists that use the same montaging techniques (Martha Rosler’s most recent iteration of Bringing the War Home came to mind, for instance, which to me seems to over-determine the viewer’s possible readings of the image).

Astman’s work is on view for another two weeks at Corkin Gallery in the Distillery District. If you have a chance to stop by, they’re well worth a look in-person.