THE GARDEN OF IDEAS

One and Other. 2013

           Printmaker, Atif Khan, is one of six contemporary artists
from Pakistan whose work is on view in the exhibition "Garden

 of Ideas"  until January 18, 2014, at the Aga  Khan Museum.  According to  the excellent notes on this show, in Islamic mythology the rose  formed from a drop of sweat that fell from Mohammed's forehead as

 he strove to attain Paradise.
            Atif  Khan, like the other artists in this show presents us with a paradox: the insects, part of  the lovely garden,  imply  crowding, mortality, destruction. The sensation of ants crawling brings the stylized rose garden intensely to life. Other prints use geometric patterns to organize the insect hordes into mandalas and arabesques. A sculpture in brass and wood is an immense stamp.

      I was able to take these photographs of digital prints of his work because Khan  made a stacked square pile of four images and invited the gallery-goer to take one each. As you can see, I helped myself to more. 

       Aisha Khalid uses traditional Islamic patterns and motifs  to explore female identity and issues facing women in a suite of fifty paintings. Burkas merge with patterned walls, furniture, curtains. Curtains become a recurring and potent motif.

      Imran Qureshi's superb miniatures are not to be missed.I reveled in the exquisite beauty of his landscapes, even as I was confronted with the reality of ecological devastation; the paradox of beauty and destruction again!
        All six artists  work with the traditions of Islamic art to address contemporary issues. This is a must see exhibition

   

 

The Audience by Michael Snow

         Whenever I see Michael Snow’s public sculpture,  “The Audience", over the entrance to the  Rogers Center, home of the local baseball franchise,  I can’t help asking, “ How did he get away with it?” I think of Goya’s “ Portrait  of  Carlos IV and His Family”, wherein  the Spanish artist  reveals the vulgarity, venality and sheer vacuity of his regal sitters. Of course Snow doesn't depict particular individuals.

     Actually, his figures resemble cartoon stereotypes.  Eight of them represent  different  sports  fans.  They are utterly crass, with the possible exception of the Clark Kent type, itself another ludicrous stylization. Yet these grotesques are amusing, too. They simultaneously represent  and observe the fans entering the stadium, using the same gestures  the fans will shortly employ watching the game, and are already  using mentally as they regard the sculpture; a thumbs down, a v for victory, another(me?) taking a photograph, and so on. This is an artwork which evokes sound: hoots, cheers,  groans, etc.

         

  In contrast to the one-dimensional  cartoon personalities, the complex  group has been executed massively in the round. The artist amplified their monumental three-dimensionality  by compressing each form into  a crowded space that represents boxes in the stadium.  They look ready to burst out of their confines but this explosive energy is arrested within the sculpture.The contrast between the our memory of cartoon imagery and the illusion of a deep, crowded space; the difference between our memory of  bronze and coated fiberglass  generate visual interest and tension. 

      

 The figures are unified by a dull gold colour, suggestive  of money;  the vast  sums involved in the sports industry.  I can’t help comparing the staggering amount of money  and support  invested in sports with what’s invested  in  the  visual arts.

  Like Goya, Michael Snow tells it like it is.

Anishnaabe Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Before and After the Horizon: Anishnaabe Artists of the Great Lakes

The AGO is featuring work by modern and contemporary Anishnaabe artists until Nov 24, 2014. After a whirlwind tour I plan to return. A mix of traditional First Nations imagery and media and contemporary explorations of  identity and experience with non-traditional materials, the exhibition celebrates the art of the people of the great lakes regions, and others associated with them.

David P. Bradley, Pow-Wow Princess in the Process of Acculturation, 1990, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36″

A landscape by Arthur Shilling, 1941-1986

While Shilling's painting technique has much in common with the Group of Seven, his focus is on the people,the settlement carved out of the forest rather than  a  romantic  view of wilderness. Yet he expresses the harshness, power and isolation of the northern landscape very beautifully.