PAINTING HAMILTON

 Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario

 Capturing Memories, Manny Trinh Acrylic and Ink on Canvas. 2013 

The Careful Approach, Manny Trinh. Acrylic and Ink on Canvas.  2013   

Escape, Manny Trinh. Acrylic and Ink on Canvas. 2014

 Manny Trinh (b.1974) is a landscape  painter whose work is inspired by memories of Vietnam. He was born in Saigon and came to Canada at the age of eleven. 

Jennifer Carvalho

Stair, Mid-Low, Jennifer Carvalho. Oil on Canvas. 2013

Jennifer Carvalho (b. 1980) creates charged scenes of nondescript suburban locations. She combines familiarity and inscrutablility to dramatic effect.

Path, Detail. Jennifer Carvalho.Oil on canvas 2012

Mathew Schofield (b.1973)

His relatives' photo albums provide the raw data for  Still-Lives of Snapshots, 2013.
Using oil on Mylar on wood, he creates shimmering surfaces for this collection of home-grown moments.

INTRODUCING SUZY LAKE 

 ART GALLERY |OF |ONTARIO

This is a self portrait  Suzy Lake created

 in 2009 by lying on a flatbed scanner

 for ten minutes.  It's a confrontation

 with mortality. It's like confronting

your own mortality. It's sad because 

it makes me think of lost youth.

  It's hard to reconcile myself to age

 and in this image she is uncompromising.

Imitations of  Myself #1   1973

1973! Suzy Lake is a groundbreaking photographer/artist.

Morrice and Lyman in the Company of Matisse

This is  excellent show is  at the McMichael Gallery until. The curator has assembled over 100 paintings by these three artists.James Wilson Morrice became friends with Matisse after leaving Canada for Paris. John Lyman studied with Matisse and subsequently spearheaded the Modernism in Montreal, where he was born. 

Included in the exhibition is Matisse's, "Nude on a Yellow Sofa",1928.  The yellow of the  sofa is the sun itself streaming in from the right. The woman's gaze is directed toward the light which illuminates and models her face with brilliant intensity.  

 A flowered screen behind her is patterned with leaves drawn in with thick lines. these contrast with the delicate contours outlining the model's limbs and torso. It's worth  to driving  to Kleinberg for this painting alone. ( Its usual home is the National Gallery of Canada.) 

The influence of Matisse can be appreciated in the work of his student John Lyman, who, like J.W. Morrice, left Canada to work in Paris and North Africa.

"Indolent youth"by John Lyman. Oil on Canvas.( c.1928)

 I thought Lyman's approach to the  male nude  unusual  and daring for the time. The graphic outline and expressive colours are typical of Lyman's work.

J.W.Morrice, Rainy Evening, Paris. c.1900. Oil on canvas

Unfortunately the restaurant at McMichael has been replaced by a not very efficient cafe. This woman dining there alone is reminiscent of Degas.

          J.W. Morrice is a master of  colour tonalitites. Matisse said of him that "in composition he saw the art of arranging in a complex manner the diverse elements at a painter's command to express his feelings." 

                 MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART RECONCEIVED

          Imagine the Art Gallery as a Trojan horse, moving from site to site around the city, unleashing culture as it moves!  TBD-To Be Destroyed: Responses From a Call For Ideas consists of several parts, one of which is a wall-installation featuring  the results of "a call for architects to destroy existing paradigms about art galleries"(MOCCA). From purely speculative, largely incomprehensible culture-babble to eminently practicable, and clearly articulated, sixty-nine  architects each presents a single page encapsulating their vision for the future. One of the best is one of the simplest : make the gallery more inclusive   by unifying it with its locale. For example, remove the huge  iron fence and  parking lot in front of MOCCA and replace them with a walkway and inviting green space.

Populus

MOCCA, exterior

MOCCA,exterior

Populus, detail.

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is moving from its current site on Queen Street West, so this concept will not be realized there, but it's worth serious consideration whatever form the next incarnation takes.