Lives of the Artists: Remembering Vilmos
I first met Vilmos in January of 1970, in the depths of an Ontario winter, at the London Psychiatric Hospital. I was twenty-two and…
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To Better Days: Optimistic Design for an Uncertain Future
If it’s common knowledge among architects, engineers, and urban planners that design determines quality of life, the Designs for Different Futures exhibition, currently on…
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The Weight of Enduring: Miles Greenberg’s Sanguine Devotion
Weeks before the new year, the artist Miles Greenberg staged a seven-hour performance that saw him standing semi-nude, wearing what looked to be a…
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The Apocalypse is Selective, Not Total: Geoffrey Pugen’s Disanthropic Moment
I clung to my ferocious habits, yet half despised them; I continued my war against civilization, and yet entertained a wish to belong to…
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Detective Stories about Feelings: The Driving Force of Peter Schjeldahl
Most of us have never known an art world without Peter Schjeldahl in it. We count on him being part of New York like…
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An Arch and a Gulf: When Public Art Falls Short of Social Reality
Today, iconic public artworks, both permanent and temporary, are defining visual elements of many urban landscapes – from the LOVE sculpture (1976) in Philadelphia…
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“There is a Tongue for This”: Aurora as Art Writing
The sky is called the firmament because it supposedly stays still. Abruptly, we saw this etymology break down: a thin vaporous green trail, like…
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Open Secrets: Gossip and the Reframing of a Canadian Painting Dynasty
The October 12, 2019, edition of CBC Radio’s “Weekend AM Newfoundland with Heather Barrett” begins with a Thanksgiving-themed story about Newfoundland’s love of the…
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After the Afterparty: Alan Belcher and Friends, in Retrospect
Alan Belcher’s Friends at Downs & Ross is an afterparty. The works in the exhibition are a series of mascot-like plush sculptures sitting in…
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The Art We Deserve: Luc Tuymans’s Exhausted Image
After days of historic high water and watching Venice’s warren of shops and restaurants struggle to survive, it was a relief to enter the…
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