explorations in toronto art.

I recently visited Erin Stump Projects to see my friend Vanessa Maltese’s new show, sum forms. I also wrote a profile on the space, for BlogTO.. read it here!

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge fan of Vanessa’s paintings. They’re a really great mix of geometric forms, curious perspective, pure colour and natural texture. I love seeing the wood show through in her work and I find it interesting to see how she is working with wood in new ways: for example, sum forms features a wood plinth with different types of wood inlaid at the top.. unusual and definitely beautiful.

General Hardware Contemporary was one of the galleries I was really looking forward to visiting, and it didn’t disappoint. The space is stunning, and I enjoyed chatting with the director, Niki. Bonus: after I arrived, I found out that the main exhibition of paintings by Kate Wilson, was accompanied by some small works by the great Vanessa Maltese, a painter friend of mine. Neat!

The profile I wrote was posted yesterday on BlogTO. Read it here.

Over the weekend I visited the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I went on Saturday to visit my friends’ booths, and on Sunday to attend a talk with R.M. Vaughan and Jen Hutton on “hybrid art”.

Vaughan kicked off the discussion in a bold (and logical) way, by rejecting the term “hybrid art” as a category, suggesting that the overarching concept of “hybridity” is much more relevant and applies to many kinds of art practice. The discussion veered to craft, democratization of art, and our society’s renewed interest in handmade objects and tactile experiences— certainly fitting topics, given the venue.

Most salient was the underpinning of the rise of art-fair culture— artists selling their own work directly to people, in a public marketplace situation. This seems to be a growing phenomenon, given all the various events that take place in Toronto alone— neighbourhood art walks from Queen West to Riverdale, the twice-yearly One-of-a-Kind Show and its sibling Artist Project, etc etc. Hutton and Vaughan predicted we’d see more and more of these, as they allow for unprecedented levels of artist-viewer interaction, in person, which can be very valuable.

Interesting, since a friend and I had recently been speculating about the value, for artists, of these kind of fairs. Though they have grown in number, I notice a lot of the same exhibitors when I visit different fairs. Do they break even for the price of their booth? Do they get a spike in hits to their website in the weeks following the exhibition? Are there other benefits that make it worthwhile? The talk suggested that personal interaction is a benefit you can’t put a price on— the artist gets to explain their work in more human terms (highfalutin’ artists’ statements are even colder when read online), and viewers get to meet artists, learn about their practices, and have their minds opened in a comfortable way, sans white cube.

As I emerged back into the square, I looked at the exhibitors/vendors/artist (they’re all these things, really) through this lens of hybridity, craft, and marketability. Vaughan’s comments about artists knowing their market well enough to make different works at various price points really rang true.

And, sort-of coincidentally, I left with a great little piece of art in my hot little hand: a wooden pebble made by Vanessa Maltese. Like the ones above (also hers), but different. I love it. It’s fun to roll around in my hand, looks beautiful, smells nice and woody. And it cost less than my monthly phone bill. A perfect microcosm of everything I’d been turning over in my mind.