Category: Uncategorized
-
Why is it the public in the UK likes to watch television shows about its artists, unlike, say… Canada? Last night I stumbled across yet another UK art series streaming in Canada. Extraordinary Portraits has been around since 2021 and continues to issue new episodes. In each episode a noteworthy individual is matched up with…
-
Years ago I responded to a call for entry to a show at the Eastern Front Gallery that explored the colour blue. The invitation came through my involvement with the Riverdale Art Walk, having participated for several years in a fundraiser for them. I recently signed up for the Artists’ Network, the same group of…
-
When I entered Toronto’s Scarlett Heights Collegiate Institute in the early 1970s, I thought it was normal that a significant proportion of the school’s art program was in art history. I loved it, and the education I got in grades nine and ten set me up for my eventual enrolment at the University of Ottawa’s…
-
My focus has always been on our (human) interaction with the world, and lately, I see stories emerging with each painting. I’m coming to see that the landscape is not just out there, that we are very much part of that landscape. Even the one I just started today… which is actually about cows. Albeit…
-
It is the end of summer. The calendar has barely flipped and yet the leaves have already begun to change, no doubt aided by a long period of very dry weather. We’re in a bit of a frantic period preparing to go abroad to the UK and taking care of all the tasks involved in…
-
When I was at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, everyone was aware of US conceptual artist John Baldessari’s work at the college. In 1971, unable to afford to bring Baldessari to Halifax, students from the college worked on an exhibition based on Baldessari’s instructions delivered to them remotely. The idea was simple:…
-
The art world was in one of its “painting is dead” moments in 1987. It had been three years since New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) had last held an exhibition of contemporary painting. One of the pre-eminent gatekeepers of modern art, it would not stage another for 25 years. That alone speaks volumes…
Rick Janson Art Studio 