Best in Miniature premieres tonight.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Hi, Art!

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Hi, art lovers!

 
Still from CBC reality series Best in Miniature. Photo of a dollhouse living room in an Atomic Age style. A human hand reaches through the front door and adjusts a tiny TV on a tiny TV stand.

CBC

 
The second season of Best in Miniature premieres tonight — news I’m sharing because it’s my professional responsibility to push arts-adjacent content, but also because people LOVE miniatures. 

Déjà vu? Yeah, I’ve said it before. But so long as readers keep clicking on stories about teeny-tiny things and the people who make them, I’m standing by it. 

How about you? Are you one of the readers who’s hooked on all things mini? You’re in for a big treat, chum. Best in Miniature is a cosy reality series in the vein of Landscape Artist of the Year Canada and Blown Away, and it’ll introduce you to 10 talented artists from around the world, including Canadians Briar Nielsen, Gabrielle Whiteley and Tracy Ealdama. Showtime is 7 p.m. (7:30 NT) on CBC and CBC Gem. Catch up on Season 1 while you wait.
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Photo of a collage box by David Elliott, a diorama containing 2D cut-outs assembled to suggest an apartment room containing a wooden table and two blue chairs, in front of an open window framed with beige and white curtains. A female figure is seated in the chair at lef with a full black trash bag on the floor beside her. A striped grey cat sits on a cushion under the table. An empty water glass and two books rest on the table. An apple is in the right corner.

David Elliott

Diorama-rama! Designer (Maddy), a 2021 collage box by David Elliott.
 
Surreal watercolour painting suggesting a grotesque portrait of a mutated figure in a ruffled dress holding two smaller grotesque figures in its lap. Palette is in cool colours: blue, purple, light green, pinks.

Beth Frey

I wish I’d thought to include this in last week’s AI-heavy newsletter, but hey, no time like the present! Painting by Beth Frey, a Canadian artist who’s been using AI to sort of inform her work. This watercolour painting (baddie poo and the pom that got everything), for example, got its title from an AI generator. Her very popular Insta of AI-generated nightmares is also worth a follow.
 
Photo of a large inflatable by artist Divya Mehra. Shaped like a white plastic grocery bag, it is printed with red repeating text that reads

Divya Mehra/Night Gallery

Sobey Art Award winner Divya Mehra has this giant inflatable up in L.A. right now for Frieze Los Angeles. Title: A Practical Guide.
 
Photo of an abstract painting hanging on a white wall. Painted in murky shades of green, it suggests wavy ripples, overlapping in different tones.

Gillian Haigh

The Difference is Spreading by Gillian Haigh. (This weekend, Gillian opened a solo exhibition at the MacKenzie Heights location of Mónica Reyes Gallery in Vancouver.)
 
Painting by Alexa Hawksworth. A surreal image suggesting a spinning female body, each degree of movement captured in sequence.

Alexa Hawksworth

Lazy Susan by Montreal’s Alexa Hawksworth.
 
Drawing of a Winter Stations installation shaped like a raccoon, installed on a snowy plain. A person in a blue parka and red hat, sits on the raccoon's tail, giving a sense of its grand scale.

Novak Djogo and Daniel Joshua Vanderhorst

In 2015, the people of Toronto paid tribute to a dead raccoon dubbed Conrad. Now, there’s a tribute to that tribute … because this city lives for weird stuff about trash pandas. Look for the installation at the Winter Stations festival. It’s happening Feb. 20 to April 3 at Woodbine Beach.
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Medium close-up of the artist Meryl McMaster, photographed on a grassy plain at twilight. She faces the camera but looks away from the viewer. A red line is painted down the middle of her face. She holds an old diary with a family snapshot bound to its cover. She wears a brown hat adorned with moths and butterflies and vials filled with the skeletons of small creatures.
Meryl McMaster

Can you ever truly know what your ancestors were like?

 
When Meryl McMaster discovered her great-grandmother’s diary, she was inspired to create a stunning new body of work. Those new films and photographs are now appearing as part of Bloodline, a survey exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. It begins touring the country later this year.
 
Cast photo from HBO's Girls. Four white women in their 20s lounge on a blue sofa in a blue-walled apartment. A kitchenette can be seen behind them.
HBO

Revisiting Girls as a 30-something millennial

 
As Sarah MacDonald writes, the HBO series feels like a time capsule of youth, failure and grace.
 
Actress Viola Davis, a Black woman wearing a sequined column dress in red, white and blue, stands on stae at the Grammys smiling with her arms outstretched.

Getty Images

 

Viola Davis just got her EGOT. Who's next?

 
From Adele to Trent Reznor, these 15 stars are waiting in the wings.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Tee Fergus

@teefergus
Abstract painting suggesting a human head and shoulders against a yellow and orange background.

Tee Fergus

You might know Tee from Art Hurts, our video series about Canadian tattoo artists, but Tee’s a painter too, and they post plenty of works like this on their Instagram. 
 

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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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