Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: Jason de Haan at Clint Roenisch Gallery
Two art critics whose work I admire—Sholem Krishtalka over at the Toronto Standard, and Murray Whyte at the Toronto Star—have already espoused all of the wonderful qualities at play in Jason de Haan's sophomore exhibition at Clint Roenisch Gallery, "Year Zero." So my...
Exhibition essay on Linda Duvall’s “The Toss”
For her latest exhibition, The Toss, Linda Duvall has created a fascinating, self-reflexive installation about her experience of learning "to toss" other people (basically a self-defense/stunt trick where she grabs someone by the arm or around the neck and flips them...
Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: Valerie Blass at the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal
Earlier this month, I had the good fortune to spend a weekend in Montreal just as a bunch of excellent shows were opening. My favourites, though, were the three solo exhibitions by contemporary women artists currently on view at the Musée d'art contemporain de...
Book review in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Curatorial Studies
This week marks the Toronto launch of the new Journal of Curatorial Studies, co-edited by Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick of the curatorial collective Displaycult and published by Intellect Books. The Journal of Curatorial Studies launches its inaugural issue at...
Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: “Coming After” at The Power Plant, Toronto
It felt like The Power Plant had me in mind as a viewer when they planned their winter programming. Not only are they presenting a selection of photographs from a new body of work by Stan Douglas (curated by Melanie O'Brian), but concurrently showing is "Coming...
“Models for Taking Part” and “You had to go looking for it” reviewed in esse
My reviews of two provocative group exhibitions in Toronto which I caught late last year are now online at esse magazine. One, "Models for Taking Part," has already received some thorough discussion and criticism during its public presentation at the Justina M....
Top Ten exhibitions of 2011
It's taken me longer than usual to compile a list of the ten or so shows that stood out for me in 2011. Maybe it's because I didn't have the push of a deadline from Sally McKay and L.M. this year (and, let me say, I'm sorely missing Joe McKay's annual list of best...
Artforum.com Critics’ Pick: Didier Courbot at Susan Hobbs, Toronto
This month on Artforum.com, I review Paris-based artist Didier Courbot's solo show at Susan Hobbs. I was first introduced to Courbot's work through "Site Exercises," a show that Jen Hutton organized at Hobbs' space in 2010 that featured several of Courbot's drawings...
“Exhaustive Images” and Jon Rafman’s “The Nine Eyes of Google Street View”
A longish essay that I wrote for Fillip for their new series on photography and biopolitics is now online through their website. Commissioned by Kate Steinmann, associate editor at Fillip and the series' editor, the text tries to borrow ideas from Ariella Azoulay's...
Making sense of exhibitions, latently
I have been auditing a course this semester on pedagogy and social difference, led by Aparna Mishra Tarc, that examines how theories about the psychic experiences of learning might help us to understand how people make sense of others' (often traumatic) experiences....
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...
Sharon Hayes on “accelerated becoming”
My friend and colleague Jacob Korczynski, who has just returned from De Appel's Curatorial Programme and is now the Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), recently drew my attention to this talk by New York–based artist Sharon Hayes, which she...