Cathy's Art Diary

Neat small exhibition at Canada House marking the centenary of the building. The show examined the history of the building, including its refurbishment in 2015, and the role of the high commission over that period. The story was told via a timeline with illustrations and objects along it. It told a complex narrative in a clear and imaginative way.    

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of prints from pictures by Ningiukulu Teevee reflecting stories told by the Inuit people of Canada. The commentary explained how her drawings have been translated into prints for the Kinngait annual print collections. The studios there have produced an annual print collection every year since 1959. I loved the clarity of the work and the descriptions helped to me to understand the stories that had inspired them. It was interesting to read how stories had been shared across different areas and I found some of them similar to British and Irish stories such as that of the kelpie translated here into a fox. I loved this image based on the story of the owl and the Raven. When you look you can see that the head of the owl is actually a raven. Closes 1 June 2024  

Exuberant exhibition at Canada House of large portraits of contemporary Canadians authors by John Hartman. Hartman chooses the authors based on his own reading and preferences then invites them to choose a landscape that means something to them. He then sets the mainly head and shoulder portraits in front of the landscape rather than placing them in it. Both the portraits and landscapes were impressive, working best from a distance but close to you could see the way the brushstrokes shaped the image. The commentary by each picture was by the author which was a nice touch but I would have liked a bit more about them and what they’d written. I did get that from the catalogue as well as learning that these nine pictures were part of a larger series. Closes 1 April 2023

Strange exhibition at Canada House by Skawennati, describes as an “urban mowhawk woman and cyperpunk”. The premise of this show was that the work was all created within the virtual environment, Second Life. She makes movies she calls “machinimas” and photographs “machinimagraphs”. Both of these are made by her avatar. She uses this medium to look at indigenous people and to raise their profile and sees it as a world in which they can have their own voice and not reinvent as ‘normal’.   I loved the wall of portraits from this virtual world but am struggling a bit with whether I think they are fine art. They are however clear, bright, striking images. I’m afraid I didn’t have time to invest in the video presentations. I also liked the series of three doll sculptures, a real Barbie in a customised outfit, a 3D print of that Barbie and a corn husk version. Closes March 2020

Complex exhibition at Canada House of work by Sonny Assu who investigates what it means to be an Indigenous Canadian. I liked these pieces in on immediate look but you had to know a lot to understand them. Luckily there was a good handout! Assu works with the formline tradition of indigenous art which uses a complex series of ovals, s-shapes and u-shapes to mark useful and ceremonial objects. For examples some of the works took romanticised Canadian landscapes by 19th century artists and tagged them with these shapes to show the rewriting narrative of a ‘vanishing race’.   See what I mean! I’m always a sucker for art works made from maps and some of these overlaid these shapes onto colonial marine charts owned by his grandfather to destabilise the borders on the maps. I also liked the works where he uses his old comic book collection to replicate the formline tradition of storytelling. I particularly liked this triptych. Closes 26 October 2019

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of new work by Mfanwy MacLeod. MacLeod’s work tends to be for public commissions. This show was dominated by a series of beautiful water colours of migrant birds that live and breed in Canada for a set of posters to mark the 100th anniversary of the Migration Bird Treaty Act between Canada and the USA. The mirror Dutch floral still lives called “Impossible bouquets” as the flowers, in this case the birds, would not be seen in the same place at the same time of year. These were shown with two sculptures,   “The Birds”, marquettes for 20 time life sized sculptures made for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and “Wood for the People” shown here, a wooden log and seven plaster casts o fit, a precursor for an installation at the University of British Colombia. I loved this later work and how the logs looked different depending on the angle they were placed at even though you knew they were the same cast. Closed on 8 June 2019

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of recent work by Barbra Rae. Inspired by her namesake, the Arctic explorer and fellow Scot Dr John Rae, who explored Canada’s Arctic during his time with the Hudson Bay Company in the 1830s, Rae has made four journeys to the area. These pictures reflect the conditions she met on these trips. There is an amazing sense of the colour blue in these works which show an abstracted version of the landscape she saw and some include ghostly figures of previous explorers. I particularly liked the smaller pictures which seemed to concentrate the image. I liked the inclusion of Rae’s sketchbook and objects from the Belle Shenkman Collection of Inuit art. Closes on 16 February 2019

Strange but interesting exhibition at Canada House matching seven guitar makers to artists from the Canadian Group of Seven Artists and commissioning a work from each. The Group of Seven Artists came together in the early 20th century in a shared belief that direct contact with nature could create a distinctive Canadian art form. From the photographs in the exhibition their works looks beautiful landscapes and I’d love to see more of it. I’ve never seen guitars used as a basis for art before and these were beautiful objects. Each guitar maker chose an artist and produced a piece based on their work. The guitar makers, or luthiers, have also created a collective legacy which is shaping the guitar making industry. I loved the touch that some of the luthiers like Sergei de Jonge, had used either types of wood which surrounded the area where the artists had worked or wood from trees in their paintings. Jean Larrivee’s piece looked quite plain but when you look carefully th...

Surreal exhibition at Canada House of work by photo-conceptualist artist Vikky Alexander. As far as I could see photo-conceptualism means photo collages used to create a surreal effect. These pictures brought together postcard images of historic sites with superimposed images of real and toy animals. I thought the images were fun but wasn’t quite sure what they were saying, despite the fact the handout said they had a “multiplicity of meanings”! I did like the large triptych of black and white images of the palm houses at Kew which seemed to blend together to create one image. Closes on 19 May 2018  

Varied exhibition at Canada House of work by Rodney Graham. The title described him as an Impressionist but I’m not sure I understand that title. I think it may be ironic. If I was picking a genre I’d have gone for Pop Art. I liked the fun 3D abstract works with colourful pillars of wood coming out of the surface like a 3D version of a Damien Hurst spot picture. “Sunday Sun, 1937” was a fun picture of a man sitting up in bed reading a large comic. It was only after reading the commentary that I realised the hands on each side where from different people. I also like the take on a Duchamp readymade, a tall wooden stool with a hammer in the top, splattered with paint from the studio. Closed on 27 May 2017

Lovely exhibition at Canada House of work by Andrew Salgado from the last ten years. These were wonderful large portraits and self-portraits in fantastic bold colours. They used words and motifs within the picture to express the character and mood of the person. The best example of that is one called “Afterlife/Osiris” where the man has an eye on the back of his hand, a cross and heart on his cheek and words in the border. I loved a smaller picture called “Wisher” of a man holding a rose. At first glance it’s a romantic picture then you notice that the small square of orange on the stem is a 99p price tag implying that the rose is artificial. My favourite was the large red one called “Fin de Siècle” with a figure in a black coat looming from a dark red background with a striking red hand. Closes on 28 February 2017  

Innovative exhibition at Canada House looking at the work of Canadian 2015 Nobel Prize winner in physics Dr Arthur B. McDonald. This was   a great use of the space in this small gallery which usually just hangs pictures around the walls. It explained the work of the Sudbury Neutrino Observation Laboratory built in deep mines in Sudbury in Canada. I’ll admit I didn’t understand most of it but it still felt impressive to learn about this ground breaking work. There were lots of good av installations to explain the subject including a life sized Dr McDonald which talked to you. This was an amazing flat screen shaped like a person with a projection onto the back. It was eerie but effective. Closes on 17 September 2016

Lovely exhibition at Canada House of wonderful large figurative pictures by Marion Wagschal These works had a Paula Rego fell about them. I loved one of a large lady in a Greek style muslin dress called “Caryatid Portrait” she was slumped on a chair with a ghostly city behind her. I’m not sure I understood “Sing for a Dead Coyote” of a woman in evening dress carrying a dead coyote but I did like it! There were also some lovely smaller head studies in more muted colours such as a picture of an old lady asleep. Closed 15 April 2016  

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of photographs by Ian Wallace recording images of tables he has worked at showing the books and sketches on them. According to the commentary, the surface of the table acts as metaphor for the blank space of the picture. He builds his ideas up and therefore the pictures at the table so the books and objects shown record the thought process of his books and illustrations. I liked the way the pictures were presented on large white canvases but with Mondrian like rectangles of colour. The photograph was then superimposed on it. This gave them a dignified quality and elevated them from just being photos of quite messy desks. I loved the idea of recording your thought process via what is on your desk but decided it was best not to do it at work due to the chocolate wrappers, half-drunk cups of coffee and strange assortment of post it notes!  

Small exhibition at Canada House of photographs by Jeff Wall, selected by the artist. . These pictures were shown in a big format which gave them the quality of history paintings. There were just five and they were of very different subjects. One showed a couple of tress on a street whereas another was of a child falling off the roof of a shed. I found myself making up stories about why the people were where they were and what happened next. My favourite was of a woman looking at art catalogues in a rather old fashioned looking room. It had a cropped intensity.

Nice exhibition at Canada House in London focusing on textile art coming out of the inland Inuit community on the shore of Baker Lake where different groups come to meet and trade and which and become a centre for arts and craft. Most of the works were embroidery or applique on blanket. My favourite was one of a couple in an Igloo with friends and animals around the edge by Mary Kuutsiq. I also liked a rather classy one of owls on a navy background. This is a travelling exhibition which has been touring the world since 2002.  

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of contemporary art from the North of Canada and the Inuit populations from the collection of TD Bank Group. I loved the fact that old skills and materials were still used but showed modern subjects for example the lovely sculpture in stone and antler by Samonie Toonoo’s “Hip-hop dancer”. I liked a big picture by Tim Pitsiulak of a whale hunt which was a long portrait style composition with blocks of colour.

A series of small video installations at Canada House by Peter Wilkins   focusing on twelve Canadian writers. Each video was placed in a wooden frame and latest about minutes. He had asked the sitters questions about themselves and then read back their answers to them while filming them. There was no sound, just pictures of people looking thoughtful and reacting to what was being said to them. I found these fascinating. Some of the subjects seem to be trying very hard not to react at all and the women seemed to most expressive. My favourite was Margaret Atwood with was smiley and slightly embarrassed but left me thinking I’d like to have a cup of tea with her.