Every Artwork is a Trap: Interview with Abbas Akhavan in Canadian Art
One of the rare pleasures of working as an art writer is doing an interview with an artist whose work you have long admired, and discovering they are just as intriguing as their work. That was my good fortune in interviewing Abbas Akhavan for the latest issue...
Panel discussion at Now You Can Go, “In or Out?: On Leaving the Art World and Other Systems”
Last month, I had the pleasure of chairing a panel on tactics and politics of refusal, withdrawal, and exit from the art world as part of Now You Can Go: a 10-day program events that considered feminist thinking, art and activism, that took place across The Showroom,...
Essay in Prefix Photo: Chromophobia–Race, Colour and Visual Pleasure in Richard Mosse’s “The Enclave”
After many months of research—spent either slack-jawed in awe or infuriated over catalogue essays, image captions and formulaic exhibition reviews—and writing and editing, my first effort at unpacking Richard Mosse's photographic work in the Democratic Republic of...
Out now: New Documents’ book, Jon Rafman, “Nine Eyes”
I could not be more pleased to be included in this just-released monograph on the work of the brilliant, Sobey-nominated Jon Rafman, edited by Kate Steinmann and brought to you by New Documents (some of the same folks behind Fillip). My 2011 essay, "Exhaustive images:...
“Stopping the Sun in its Course,” reviewed for Canadian Art
I spent a month in Los Angeles this summer, and though I was technically on vacation, managed to see a number of shows in the city, most of which meditated in some way on poetry: or, at the very least, the role of language in meaning-making. While many of them left me...
How to Write a Review of Richard Mosse’s “The Enclave”
I've been working on an essay about Richard Mosse's The Enclave (2013) for the past few months, reading every review, interview and essay I can get my hands on. And, in a way I have never before experienced when researching a contemporary artwork, there is an...
Exhibition essay for Hajra Waheed’s “Asylum in the Sea” at the Darling Foundry, Montreal
I recently had the pleasure of writing an exhibition essay to accompany a new body of work by the Montreal-based artist Hajra Waheed, currently on view at Montreal's Darling Foundry. "Asylum in the Sea" is a suite of 24 new paintings and collages that depict the...
Collecting Contemporary Art continuing studies course at OCAD U
I'm very pleased to once again be teaching the Collecting Contemporary Art course in OCAD U's continuing studies program this spring, a class that explores the themes, questions and concerns that private, corporate and institutional collectors all face when building...
Jason de Haan reviewed in Art in America
Writing for a new publication can be an exercise in humility, in the best ways. A reminder of your crutches and tendencies as a writer (including, for me, always including two nouns when one will do. This sentence is a case in point), but also a chance to hone your...
“No ‘expert’ intermediary can help you think for yourself”: rules for reading
My dear friend cheyanne turions, who has been thinking alongside me about the practices of looking and reading for quite some time, sent me photos of several pages of A Great Books Primer (1955) this holiday season, which offers 10 rules for running and participating...
Feature on Aleesa Cohene in Canadian Art
I have been trying to write about the work of my friend Aleesa Cohene for many years now: an artist who works with video as a medium in a way I have never seen before. I have been fascinated and entranced by her installations over the past few years, and have enjoyed...
Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: Karen Kraven at Fonderie Darling
The title of Karen Kraven’s first institutional solo exhibition, “Razzle Dazzle Sis Boom Bah,” signals the Montreal-based artist’s infectious enthusiasm for mimicry, subterfuge, and speculation across a new body of work comprising sculpture, photography, and ceramics....