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Hi, Art!

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Hi, Art!

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Hi, art lovers!

 

The year isn’t over yet, but I think we’ve wrapped our last week of “ordinary” content at CBC Arts. From now until the ball drops, I suspect everyone here will be overthinking the same assignment, namely deciding the one true meaning of 2021. Oh yes. We will be recapping the year’s top trends very soon. And in times of uncertainty, perhaps it’s a comfort to know that some pillars of civilization remain unshaken, even if what counts as tradition is an annual spate of pop culture listicles.

So just out of curiosity, how would you fill in the blank to this question? 2021 was the year of … what exactly?

Last week, CBC Music declared 2021 the year of healing. (They’ve cranked out lists of the year’s best Canadian albums and songs as well.)  

But there are, of course, so many more clickable labels to choose from. Was it the year of the NFT (or just the crypto bros who swindled artists to mint them)? A year when theatre still mattered, lockdown be damned (shout-out to CBC’s 21 Black Futures)? Was it the year of the breakup album? Or just Olivia Rodrigo? (Don’t answer that before watching her new Tiny Desk Concert. You’re welcome.) Was it the year of cheugy, even if you don’t know how to pronounce it? The year of dark academia and the Y2K revival and more documented microesthetics than any previous era? A year of infinite vibes, including one that is, quite fittingly, a carryover from 2020: liminal spaces?

What’s your take? You know how to share it. 

Watch for our year-in-review coverage starting this week.
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Circular painting of a residential laneway on a snowy winter evening. The dusk sky is painted in a psychedelic rainbow gradient.

Wilf Perreault

4:30 p.m. in December vibes. Painting by Wilf Perreault. See more from him at Edmonton’s Peter Robertson Gallery through Dec. 23.

 
Photo of a Ness Lee installation inside a white-walled gallery. Black and white 2-D depictions  of a nude female figure with impossibly long black flowing hair engulf the floor, walls and ceiling.

@nessleee/Instagram

(Literally) big in 2021: art by Ness Lee. Check out this view from her current exhibition (with Florence Yee) at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham. (Catch it until Jan. 2.)
 
Photo collage using cut-outs of textural images to comprise a complex schene involving human lumbs, faces and animal forms.

@david_woodward/Instagram

Collage by David Woodward, a Toronto-based artist whose work will be appearing at the DesignTO festival in the new year. I’m still making my way through their just-announced 2022 schedule. Loads of compelling events as always.
 
Photo of a spread in Hattie Stewart's new book: a vividly coloured cartoon drawing of a still-life. Smiley face daisies in a multicoloured vase placed on a checkerboard tabletop. Psychedelic butterflies fly above. Cartoon flames fall from the sky.

@hattiestewart/Instagram

Fresh off the press and straight to your eyeballs, Toronto’s Colour Code print studio has published a new book from U.K. illustrator Hattie Stewart, From One Universe To Another.  
 
Pencil crayon drawing of abstract forms in dusky blue, beige, magenta.

@rjdodgson/Instagram

Find more oddly pleasant pencil-crayon forms like this on Ryan Dodgson’s Instagram. (He happens to be part of a quirky toy-centric group exhibition at Toronto’s Toutoune Gallery right now.)
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Model with blue arms shot against a pink background. The frame zooms in on her torso. She wears a navy blue T-shirt that reads:
@ambivalentlyyours/Instagram

Gifting artist-made merch this holiday season? It matters to these makers!

 
Whether they make T-shirts or prints or even bespoke wallpaper, these Canadian artists run their own product lines to pay the bills. But there's more to the grind than selling cute swag.
 
Photo of Kenny Omega in the wrestling wring, a white man in his 30s with a blonde curly mullet and close beard, he is shirtless and wears tight patterned pants.
AEW

If wrestling is art, then Kenny Omega is one of Canada’s greatest performing artists

 
The Winnipeg-born wrestler compares his craft to episodic television or a night out at the theatre.
 
Photo of the poet Mahlikah Awe:ri Enml'ga't Saqama'sgw, a young woman of colour. The brown water of the Humber River appears behind her. She glowers at the camera and wears her dark hair long with a thick yellow headband. Text reads:

CBC Arts

 

Don't Speak

Listen to this poem instead. Mahlikah Awe:ri Enml'ga't Saqama'sgw features in the newest episode of Poetic License.
 
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Jeanine Brito

@jeaninebrito
Painting of lithe pale limbs. Arms descend from the top of the composition, pulling black stockings on a lifted leg. A patterned blue, pink and green rug is on the floor. Red curtains descend in the backdrop.

@jeaninebrito/Instagram

The Artist Dressing for Cooler Temperatures, a 2021 painting by Jeanine Brito. (Very relatable content.)
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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