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August 22- August 29,2004 |
Toronto's artistic renaissance
Year exemplifed by Degas and Beatrix Potter exhibitions as well as alternative fare
By Jennifer Febbraro
Originally Published: 2004-01-11
This year's wave of art shows swelled to full capacity and could not be caught up with. It felt as though going to art openings and viewing the entire wealth of visual lushness the city had to offer could be a virtual full-time job, a job I had claimed for myself, but was never quite able to fulfill. The shows I managed to see almost always blew me away. Is it the fact of implicit hopefulness present in the act of creating and displaying art in such futile times that inspired me? Or was it those few brief months of abstinence from the art world that made going back all the more intoxicating, such that even Beatrix Potter's minor sketches alongside letters worked like little lasers along my skin?
I confess that among my personal favourite exhibitions this year was the ROM's Beatrix Potter exhibit. Though more historical than artistic per se, Potter's worn clogs juxtaposed with her devotion to lettuce frills and water-coloured carrot bunches proved thrilling for an old fan. Also on the traditional bent of curatorial choice was the Degas exhibit at the AGO. Sure, the final stages of bronze may not have been even touched by Degas, but the controversy which arose out of this exhibit raised interesting questions about art, authenticity, and the buyer. As well, Degas' perfection in roughness pushed and pulled the body in fresh positions that remade clay into the animate medium it was destined to be.
And speaking of the body, Casey McGlynn's Not Real at the Katherine Mulherin Gallery took the case of cut-outs to a new level, telling humiliating slash compulsively fascinating stories of his sexual history in comic book fashion, but with wood. His simultaneous plays on pop, memory, and nostalgia turn the viewer into a child who must view his own history frame by frame.
The Joseph D. Carrier Gallery's Connections exhibit also challenged preconceptions of the body by making space for artists with supposed physical disabilities. This juried show of paintings and sculptures pried open the limit of the 'dis' and showcased only ability and vision on themes of desire.
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