CUAG Connects

Well, we’re wrapping up our Winter ‘11 shows this week. Sunday is the last day to see Colin Campbell’s crazy videos, Anthony Burnham’s paintings, and a whole bunch of prints and stamps by Inuit artists. If you’ve already stopped in to see them, however, there are lots of other artsy things to do around town this weekend.

We’ve got a really great event happening at CUAG this evening. The Carleton University Art History and Theory of Architecture Student Society have curated a video programme that responds to the work of Colin Campbell. Expect some exciting contemporary Canadian video art (and saucy commentary) from Lisa Steele, Clive Holden, Kent Monkman, and Ottawa local Marc Adornato. Colin, I’m Yours, CUAG, Thursday, January 26, 6pm, Free.

On Friday night, there’s a vernissage for the new Peter Guindon show up at Wurm Gallery in Invisible Cinema. Guindon’s a local guy, and his “Liquidation Landscapes” are visual cluster-*%#@s (in the best way possible): pink unicorns wearing an army tank backpack, Mozart(?) riding a machine-gun touting dinosaur, handcuffed clowns…You get the idea. The technicolour images explore warfare in pop culture, and the playful mix of toys and violence remind me of Andrew Morrow or Kent Monkman. More Liquidation Landscapes, Wurm Gallery (Invisible Cinema, 319 Lisgar St.), 8pm, Free.

If you have kids, bring them to campus on Sunday for the first annual Art Child - Bully Bulldozer Fair. It’s an afternoon extravaganza of art workshops: painting, poetry, design, and music, as well as performances and special guests like local spoken word artist Hyf the Golden Sun. This is a great way to get your children interested in creative expression, and encourage art education from an early age. Art Child, Carleton University, Sunday, January 19th, 12pm-8pm, Free.

Also, the new exhibition over at the Bytown Museum opened a couple days ago so be sure to check that out. It’s called “Six Moments in the History of the Urban Forest,” and it explores the contested place of trees in Ottawa’s urban history. It was curated by Carleton professor Joanna Dean, so it should be interesting! Maybe it will make you think about the folliage on your way to work in a new way. Six Moments in the History of the Urban Forest, Bytown Museum, Opened January 24.

Here’s one more bonus event for you: On February 2nd, filmmaker Zacharius Kunuk will be giving an artist talk and screening at the Odawa Friendship Centre in support of the youth media arts programming at Indigenous Culture Media Innovations. Kunuk is one of Canada’s great filmmakers, so this is a great chance to meet him and hear about his work! Zacharius Kunuk Artist Talk, Odawa Friendship Centre (12 Stirling Ave.), Thursday, February 2, 5pm-8pm, $15 for dinner.

Okay, have a great weekend everyone!

This week is just zooming by! It’s almost done, but it still feels like Monday. I haven’t decided if this is a good thing or bad thing…The unchecked items on my “To Do” list suggest the latter. This calls for ART and PARTIES (and preferably the two together) so let’s get to the events happening this week.

Head to the Market tonight for a vernissage at Galerie St. Laurent + Hill. Their new show BIG/GROS features six artists, including Leslie Reid (who just had a show at CUAG last fall). Thursday, January 19, BIG/GROS,Galerie St. Laurent + Hill (293 Dalhousie St., 5pm, FREE

There’s also an interesting show opening at the City Hall Art Gallery tonight called Cymatic Prints. Ottawa-based artist Donna Legault mixes sound, technology, and sculpture to create an installation in “which traces of sound are visible in organic material, white sand…A system is created as sound is picked up by microphones on the ceiling, distributed to speakers and transformed into oscillations of metal beads falling to the floor that leave behind patterns in the sand.” Thursday, January 19, Cymatic Prints: Donna Legault, City Hall Art Gallery (110 Laurier Ave. East), 5:30pm, FREE.

On Friday night, Spins & Needles returns to the James St. Pub for collective craft-making and beer-drinking. DJs Jason Pelletier, Chris International and Meterman provide a great soundtrack to a night of making either a DIY 2012 Calendar or a Collaged Resolution Calendar (for those who are still keeping up with their resolutions!). Friday, January 20, Spins & Needles, James St. Pub (390 Bank St.), $8 cover (or $6 for students).

Patrick John Mills Gallery is throwing a real, live Art Party on Saturday night, replete with artists (the new group show “I Love You”), musicians (open mic starts at 7pm), dancers, performers, a potluck AND an open bar. Yes, you heard right. See you there? Saturday, January 21, Art Party, Patrick John Mills Gallery (286 Hinchley Ave.), $20.

On Tuesday evening, we’ll be showing Patricia Rozema’s classic film I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing as the last film in our Spotlight on Colin Campbell screening series. Screening starts at 7PM, but you can come earlier for a tour of People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell, which closes in a couple weeks.

Upstairs at CUAG, guest curator Michelle Bauldic will be moderating a dialogue between Linda Grussani and Jeff Ruhl for “Truly Canadian”: Inuit Art and National Identity. Debate cultural appropriation and nation-building, and then pose for a photo with Ookpik. “Truly Canadian” Dialogue, Carleton University Art Gallery (St. Patrick’s Building), Wednesday, January 25, 6pm, FREE.

That’s all for now, see you next week!

This re-post is for Sandra Dyck, our lovely curator. Her excellent writing skills in exhibition catalogues (like this one and this one) come from going over every word five times. She’s no amateur, that’s for sure! :)

• Remember to never split an infinitive.
• The passive voice should never be used.
• Do not put statements in the negative form.
• Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
• Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
• If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
• A writer must not shift your point of view.
• And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
• Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!
• Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
• Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
• If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
• Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
• Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
• Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
• Always pick on the correct idiom.
• The adverb always follows the verb.
• Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

(Source: http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/research/groups/protein/pert/safire.rules.html)

This weekend is quite busy for the visual arts! There are a ton of vernissages and screenings (especially on Friday night) so you’ll have to choose wisely. Don’t let the “high” of -18 degrees deter you!

On Thursday night, Avant-Garde Bar is having a party for the opening of the photography show Ballet in the Streets/Ballet en merge. The photographs of dancers in Ottawa were taken by Mercedes Déziel-Hupé. I haven’t been to this gallery yet, but it seems like an interesting space. In any case, the models will be there so that should be incentive enough. Ballet in the Streets/Ballet en merge vernissage at Avant-Garde Bar (135 1/2 Besserer St.), Thursday, January 12th, FREE.

Choose between two vernissages on Friday night:

Over at Gallery 101, Lianne L’Hirondelle newest show Bureaucracy showcases the work of multidisciplinary artists Immony Men & Rene Price. The subject of the show - bureaucracy - is an apt one for this city, and these two artist mine the meaning, implications and banality of these systems that seem to rule our everyday lives… no matter the job title. L’Hirondelle writes in the exhibition essay that “the work of these two artists forces us to think about how we spend our time, our work, and our lives.” There will also be a panel discussion the next afternoon. Bureaucracy at Gallery 101 (301 1/2 Bank St.) Friday, January 13th, 7PM, FREE. 

If that show does work for you (ha!), head over to SPAO’s Red Wall Gallery for the exhibition Call and Response. Rob McClennan asked local poets to respond to photographic works, and tonight’s event brings together Pedro Isztin’s photographs “Study of Structure and Form” with Sandra Ridley’s “Shadow Lines.” This is the fourth response in the series so check out the other responses happening in the future. Call and Response at Red Wall Gallery (168 Dalhousie), Friday, January 13th, 6PM, on view until February 7th.

If video art is more your thing, then you’re in luck this weekend. SAW Video is screening new work from their members on Friday night. The video programme, “Resolution,” is filled with great new video works from local artists: experimental to documentary, and everything is between. This is sure to be an interesting event, and the artists will be there for a Q&A session afterwards. Don’t miss it! Resolution at Arts Court Theatre (2 Daly Ave., 2nd floor), Friday, January 13th, 7:30PM, $5.

We’re hosting another great video art event here at CUAG on Saturday afternoon. Jon Davies, Peggy Gale, Penny McCann, and Lisa Steele will be in the gallery to participate in a panel discussion on the life, work, and legacy of Colin Campbell. A pioneer in Canadian video art, Campbell’s works are playful, intoxicating and exuberant. His oeuvre spans from the early ’70s to his death in 2001, and his work has influenced countless artists working today. I may be biased, but this is going to be an amazing event. See you all there! Colin Campbell panel discussion, CUAG (St. Patrick’s Building, Carleton University), Saturday, January 14th, 2PM, FREE.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Welcome back! Classes started yesterday and even though it’s a short week, I’m sure it feels like the longest one for returning students. Here are some artsy events to lift your spirits out of the back-to-school (and oh yeah, it’s winter!) glum.

Calling all art historians! On Friday evening, Patrick Mikhail Gallery will be hosting the vernissage for their new show of Shin II Kim’s works. Kim’s video installation combines drawing and video and focuses on issues of representation surrounding the idea of the Masterpiece. The artist calls attention to the layers of viewership within a work of art in the museum space. Shin II Kim at Patrick Mikhail Gallery vernissage, Friday, January 6, 6-9pm.

If you’re in Orleans, drop by the Shenkman Arts Centre to check out “Freedom of Expression in Broad Strokes,” a traveling exhibition of Canadian editorial cartoons. This one caught my eye because CUAG has an upcoming exhibition of French prints called “Making the News in 18th Century France.” Editorial cartoons exist at the intersection of art, satire, and news, and they provide a powerful commentary on society today, and a unique look into the past. “Freedom of Expression in Broad Strokes” at the Shenkman Arts Centre, until January 19th. 

On Sunday afternoon, an interesting show called, “O Brother, Where ART thou?” opens at Cube Gallery on Wellington. It features the work of three brothers, Dennis, Don, and Peter Monet, who all work in different mediums. It’s an intriguing idea from a curatorial perspective, and should be worth a look! “O Brother, Where Art Thou” vernissage at Cube Gallery, Sunday, January 8th at 2pm.

There’s also an interesting show on at AXENEO7 of the work of Hugo Gaudet Dion and Stephanie Chabot. It opened last month, and will be on until February, but the titillating description of “Amour, Hystérie, Exaltation, Perversion, Paranoïa, Sexe et Mort” definitely warrants an immediate viewing. Hugo Gaudet Dion + Stephanie Chabot at AXENEO7, until February 15th.

We’re screening a great film here at CUAG on Tuesday night: Guy Maddin’s “Twilight of the Ice Nymphs” (perfect for this week’s icy weather, no?) is part of our “Spotlight on Colin Campbell” screening series with Carleton University’s GLBTQ Centre. Maddin is the master of camp, and this fantasy tale set in an imaginary world complete with llamas and legless matriarchs. Colin Campbell’s videotapes share Maddin’s self-conscious camp aesthetic feel. This screening is not to be missed! “Twilight of the Ice Nymphs” (1995, dir. Guy Maddin) screening at CUAG. Tuesday, January 10, 7pm.  

That’s it for now. Have a good first week back!