Sunday, January 23, 2022

Hi, art lovers!

For those who’ve exhausted the true crime offerings on their streaming platform of choice, I’ll direct you to this week’s promotional priority, an art-world mystery from CBC Docs that’s now available on CBC Gem. It’s called Portrayal. (Here’s the trailer.) And at the risk of spoiling any tantalizing twists, the following supplementary readings may aid your viewing. Exhibit A: director Billie Mintz on the teensy bit of trickery that earned him access to one of the doc’s key players. Exhibit B: an explainer on how it’s an extremely ordinary thing for an artist to hire assistants. Further to that: “Are fabricators the most important people in the art world?” Don’t answer that question — just watch the doc. Stream it now on CBC Gem.

And because we promised you eye candy ...

@soft_turnip_cake/Instagram

A day passes like a year: Ode to Winter by Shellie Zhang. (Keep your eyes peeled for this one if you’re wandering past Mercer Union in Toronto. They’ve put it up on a billboard outside the gallery.)

Gary Haggquist

Reader Gary Haggquist emailed me last weekend about this painting of his. (Hi, Gary! Thanks, Gary!) It’s called The Call, #3, Deleted Scenes from an Unmade Movie.

@veronikapausova/Instagram

Wading Sun by Veronika Pausova. (The artist just opened an exhibition at Esker Foundation in Calgary.)

Laura Hudspith

Time heals all … even if it takes an entire geological period to feel any progress. Gorgeous stained glass by Toronto’s Laura Hudspith. The title? Wounds are to fissures, an invitation for a joining (Entry Portals).

Shaheer Zazai

This is nice news … which is also kind of funny, but mostly just nice. Microsoft recently acquired a work by Shaheer Zazai, a Toronto-based artist who uses Microsoft Word to weave his images.

You've got to see this

Harper Collins

The book that ‘illuminated my experience with mental illness’

Alicia Elliott on Jordan Tannahill’s The Listeners.

Courtesy of the Design + Technology Lab

How to make art with a giant industrial robot

This interactive window installation launched Friday as part of Toronto’s DesignTO Festival.

New Line Cinema

Watching Poison Ivy for the first time in 30 years

If you grew up in the ‘90s, you probably rented this Drew Barrymore flick from Blockbuster. But all these years later, does the teen thriller hold up?

Follow this artist

Monique Martin

@moniquesart

@moniquesart/Instagram

It’s been a smidge more than a year since I last heard from Monique. Back then, she was planting crops of paper dandelions all over Canada, and it seems they’ve kept spreading across the country and have been joined by a preponderance of handmade butterflies. This is a snapshot from an exhibition she has up now in Okotoks, Alta. Why butterflies, though? Monique sent me this note: “2020/2021/2022 have been [years] of transformation for everyone. We move differently in our world. We think differently about all situations and we have had to adapt to constantly changing information, protocols and restrictions. Like the butterfly, we are having to transform. When COVID ends, we may find that some of the transformations to our way of living will remain and that some of them will make our world a better place.”

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