Two Toronto Reviews out in esse: Adrian Blackwell at Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and Katie Bethune-Leamen at MKG127

Traveling through many of London’s contemporary art galleries over the past few weeks, I find myself continuously visiting the gift shops, often to check out which (if any) Canadian art publications they carry. So far, the news has not been great and the only Canadian mag I’ve found has been the Montreal-based, bilingual esse in the Tate Modern’s shop (though I am told Fillip should be there by now and I got there just before they were restocking).

I’m a big fan of esse, and not just because they let me write two Toronto reviews for them each issue: their themes each edition are great (this time it’s “Bling”), the feature writing is critical and serious without being overly pretentious or academic and their layout and art is always adventurous (in the last issue, themed around “Sabotage,” many of the layouts were purposely wrong, upside down or appeared unfinished, in line with the content of the articles). And their reviews are available in full-text on their website.

This month, esse includes my reviews of Katie Bethune-Leamen’s excellent solo show “Dazzle Shizzle” at MKG127 and the latest in Adrian Blackwell’s ongoing series of Model for a Public Space installations, commissioned this time for the extra-curricular conference at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.

Coming soon: a report on the Deschooling Society conference at the Hayward Gallery (really, I promise, once the National Archives release me from their evil clutches) and a review of the “No Soul for Sale” 10th birthday party extravaganza at the Tate Modern which features dozens of installations by international artist-run centres where the only three Canadian organizations are from Vancouver (Artspeak, Or Gallery and Western Front). Makes me think those concerns at the Toronto biennial panel (as reported by Leah Sandals) that, when planes fly over Toronto, “an international curator [is] in there, jetting direct from Europe to Vancouver,” might not be so off-base.