A comedy legend, a soprano who's performed for the Queen and the first rapper to be recognized by the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, June 09, 2024

Hi, Art!

Sunday, June 09, 2024

Hi, art lovers!

 
Photo collage of the 2024 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards laureates for lifetime artistic achievement. Close-up portraits of performers Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, Ronnie Burkett, Diane Juster, Wes (Maestro) Williams and Andrea Martin.

(Mathieu Savidant, Alejandro Santiago, Eric Carrière, Jeff Vespa, Andrew Craft/GGPAA Foundation)

 
Last night at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa celebrated the 2024 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards. A GGPAA is one of the highest honours a Canadian artist can receive, and this year’s recipients for lifetime achievement included comedy legend Andrea Martin; classical vocalist Measha Brueggergosman-Lee; Quebec songwriter and musician Diane Juster; puppeteer and playwright Ronnie Burkett; and a musician who's oft billed as the "Godfather of Canadian hip-hop," Wes (Maestro) Williams. 

We shared interviews with several of the GGPAA honourees last week, but to catch you up, here are the links. Andrea Martin was on CBC’s Metro Morning. (Click to hear why she adopted Canada as her home.) Maestro appeared on the program too — which is how we learned he’s had the same motto since his days as a teenage mall cop. That mantra? “Don’t make records. Make history.” We also unearthed this extremely 1999 interview with Ronnie Burkett from the CBC archives. In it, the artist reflects on his childhood in Medicine Hat, Alta., and reveals the moment that put him on the path to become one of Canada’s foremost puppeteers. And on Q, Measha Brueggergosman-Lee had a story to share about a fellow Governor Generals’ Award winner, Margaret Atwood.

For more on this year’s laureates, the NFB has produced a round of short films that pay tribute to the winners. You can find them on the NFB website and CBC Gem.
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Collage. Cut photos of plants, insects, marine life and fruit that are green and yellow. Forms are assembled against a white backdrop with plenty of whitespace.

Rebecca Clouâtre

Rebecca Clouâtre (seen here) is at Ottawa’s Art in the Park festival today. This is just a little detail from one of the collaged works she’ll be bringing there.
 
Photo of an art installation in a white wall gallery. Alll forms are made of screen prints of rock illustrations. On the wall, cut-outs of rocks form a circular mandela-like pattern. On the floor, piles of cut-out rock prints curve like a flowing creek. To the right of the pattern on the floor are three 3D towers, made of paper rocks.

Mackenzie Browning

Rock. Paper. Not pictured: scissors. This installation of screen prints and cut paper is by Hamilton, Ont., artist Mackenzie Browning.
 
Photo of a sculpture on a white plinth. It is a bust made of white and pastel rock crystals in their natural form.

Adam Archer

I’m going to guess that Adam Archer would choose rock — or crystals, really.
 
Digital illustration in an airbrush style. Abstract and surreal suggestion of wavy green flower stems, red and purple wings and eyes floating in a white mist.

Chloé Biocca

Montreal’s Mural Festival launched Thursday and it’s on in the city through June 16. Chloé Biocca is one of the year’s featured artists. 
 
Installation photo of an art exhibition up at The Reach Gallery. A false wall with a wavy-shaped doorway has been installed in the room, suggesting the entrance to a playhouse. Colourful wonky forms adorm the beige walls and the space is full of paintings and sculptures.

Mitchell Wiebe

What in the name of Pee-wee’s Playhouse is this?! It’s a scene from VampSites, an exhibition from artist Mitchell Wiebe, and it opened at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia this weekend. (This photo from Mitchell’s Instagram was taken in B.C. though. Before coming to Halifax, the show was up at the Reach.)
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
A man and a woman stand underneath the giant, glowing, bubble-like spheres that are stacked above them creating the structure that is Evanescent. They gaze upwards at the bubbles reflecting bright neon shades of orange, pink, purple, and blue that stand out against the dark city sky.
Manuel Freudenmann

These Luminato events are exciting, fun and totally unique

 
Here’s how to pack them all into your schedule.
 
Artist AJA Louden, a Black man with shoulder-length dark dreadlocks, sits at a workdesk in a studio filled with spraypaint art and illustrated tufted rugs. He works on an artwork made of colourful yarn and wears a face mask and ear protection.
AJA Louden Studios

What is solar punk?

 
AJA Louden will show you the answer. The Edmonton artist has a new exhibit, Prairie Star Deck. 
 
Medium closeup of an Asian man wearing a sequinned black corset and black bunny ears. He looks at the viewer with his hands behind his head.

Christopher Sherman/Horny Newsletter

 

Canada’s horniest newsletter (is not the one you are currently reading)

 
Meet a Toronto-based photographer who’s challenging taboos by using the world’s least sexy technology: email.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Natalie King

@natalielauraking
Illustrated version of the CBC Arts logo rendered in a cartoon style with paint, felt marker and digital tools. The background is sky blue. The gem design is covered with swirls of illustrated motifs: ribbons, braids, green sweatgrass, flowers, twinkle stars. Text below the gem reads in script made of black braids: "CBC Arts." At the centre of the gem is a placid-faced cartoon figure with wide doll-like eyes and bee-stung lips.

Natalie King

Natalie designed our logo for Pride and National Indigenous History months, and no matter what she’s working on, she strives to convey an uplifting and transformative message through art. Says Natalie: “I would like people to leave with a sense of world-building, pleasure-centred resistance and joy.” Learn more in this Q&A.
 

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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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