CRAM International

Recent Events at CRAM International

2011-11-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

I am going to Santiago de Cuba for 6 weeks December 1st with the support of an Ontario Arts Council - International Residency Program Grant. The purpose of the grant program is to provide artists with a research and reflection get-away at an important time in their career. This will be my fourth trip to Cuba and during this residency I will visit Havana for the first time.

Before I leave we will have a fundraiser for the Cuban artists featuring DJ Marinko Jareb spinning Latin Jazz tunes at The Office Tap & Grill and a sale at CRAM, just in time for Xmas. The idea is to take funds to the artists and for hard-to-get supplies for their workshop, Taller Cultural "Luis Diaz Oduardo".

In getting ready for the sale I pulled out four silkscreen posters that are a rare commodity from Santiago de Cuba. Produced by a dying generation of artists, these posters are produced in editions of 100 to be posted around the city, and are the only media used to promote events. The are hand-cut paper stencils and incorporate all kinds of pigment from enamels and acrylics to regular printing inks, depending on what is available at the time. Like I said, they are a rare item. The also symbolize the plight of the artists and people of Cuba.

Things are definitely changing in Cuba, slowly. New reforms under Raoul's regime include massive cuts to the government's employment of the population and relaxed rules that permit citizens to create their own businesses, as well as infrastructure improvements. This week it was also announced that travel for Cubans was being relaxed and that citizens could buy or barter houses for the first time since the revolution when the state took possession of everything. The people also have more shops and eateries available to them, but the cost of everything is beyond the average purse and the lost guaranteed wage of $20 a month has always been subsidized by black market activities. But changes are coming.

It will be a while before the U.S. embargo is lifted and it is beyond overdue. The embargo has hurt the people, not those in control, and the fat that trade goes on under the radar speaks volumes. For example: you can buy Coke in Cuba, but it comes from Mexico. Even more bizarre is the fact that most of the produce shipped to Cuba comes from the U.S. It is too early for foreign investments in real estate, but that too is coming, with limitations.

CRAM International is working to promote the work of the artistas in our exchange program, but the current art market isn't exactly ripe for sales, and there are not many dealers who handle contemporary work . Anyone interested in the Cuban artists we represent can see examples of their work at cramart.ca.

Currently at CRAM Gallery is an installation by Deborah Carruthers of Montreal. This chandelier and audio installation of bugs drawn to lights was first shown at The Gladestone Hotel for Nuit Blanche 2011.

Last month was a two person exhibition of etched plates and prints by Penelope Stewart of Toronto and Lise Verzina from Quebec City.

Alan Flint opened the Fall season at CRAM Gallery with large drawings first shown with Harold Klunder at the Grimsby Public Art Gallery, one of Niagara's best venues after CRAM.

2011-10-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Scroll down the page for English Translation

Taller Cultural “Luis Díaz Oduardo”

Centro de Creación y Promoción de las Artes Plásticas.

CONVOCATORIA

El Taller Cultural “Luis Díaz Oduardo” y el Consejo Provincial de las Artes Plásticas de Santiago de Cuba convocan a la

X BIENAL DE PINTURA MURAL

“INTER-NOS” 2012

Este Evento se realiza en coordinación con la Oficina del Conservador de la Ciudad y la Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC)

OBJETIVOS

La ejecución de Murales con altos valores estéticos, culturales y humanos, a la vez que perdurables.

1. Propiciar el intercambio socio - cultural a través de la comunicación artística.

2. Desarrollar la actividad muralística en la ciudad a fin de convertirla en un centro de referencia importante en el género, propiciando interés turístico.

3. Desarrollar la actividad cultural de la ciudad con la colaboración de las instituciones culturales y el trabajo de los artistas.

4. Favorecer las relaciones entre creadores cubanos y artistas de otros países.

Bases

La X Bienal de Pintura Mural “INTER-NOS” se desarrollará en la ciudad de Santiago de Cuba del 5 al 27 de enero del año 2012. La primera semana se dedica a la organización de los equipos de trabajo, la evaluación de los muros preseleccionados, la elaboración de los proyectos murales, y la presentación y aprobación de estos. Las dos restantes semanas se dedican a la ejecución de los murales. El programa del evento, además, contempla un grupo de actividades culturales, sociales y recreativas que permitirá a los visitantes tener una amplia visión de la sociedad cubana.

Se pretende que los murales contribuyan a enriquecer la imagen de la ciudad, sean portadores de altos valores estéticos y culturales; y tengan una incidencia social acorde a los valores de la sociedad cubana actual.

La cuota de inscripción será de 400.00 CUC, incluirá hospedaje, alimentación y transporte, así como los materiales para el trabajo.

La primera edición de la Bienal de Pintura Mural correspondió a 1993. Desde su surgimiento, este evento ha contado con la participación de artistas provenientes de Alemania, Argentina Turquía, Estados Unidos, Francia, Holanda, Haití, México, Canadá, República Dominicana, España e Italia e Inglaterra. Generalmente en cada edición participan entre 25 y 30 artistas.

Las personas o grupos de personas interesados en participar deben hacer su solicitud al Sr. Israel Tamayo antes del 30 de Octubre del año 2011; a la solicitud se adjuntarán datos curriculares del artista y una selección de obras realizadas.

El Comité Organizador enviará una carta de invitación a cada persona o grupos de personas que seleccione para participar en el evento, con el objetivo de facilitar los trámites de viaje a nuestro país.

CALL TO ARTISTS

El Taller Cultural "Luis Diaz Oduardo" and the Provincial Council for the Arts in Santiago de Cuba convene the

MURAL PAINTING BIENNIAL X

"INTER-NOS" 2012

This event is coordinated with the Office of the Curator of the City and the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC)

OBJECTIVES

To create public murals with high aesthetic values, cultural and human, while enduring and to:

1. Promote the exchange socio-cultural communication through art.

2. Develop murals in the city to make it an important focal point in the genre as important attractions.

3. Develop the city's cultural activities in collaboration with cultural institutions and the work of artists.

4. Promote relations between Cuban artists and artists from other countries.

Overview

The X Mural Painting Biennial "INTER-NOS" will be held in the city of Santiago de Cuba from 5 to 27 January 2012. The first week is dedicated to organizing work teams, the evaluation of pre-screened walls, the mural project development, presentation and approval. The remaining two weeks are devoted to the execution of the murals. The event program also includes a group of cultural, social and recreational activities that allow the artists and visitors to take a broad view of Cuban society.

Murals are intended to contribute to enhancing the image of the city, are carriers of high aesthetic and cultural values, and have a social impact in line with the values of Cuban society.

The registration fee of 400.00 CUC includes lodging, meals and transportation, as well as materials for the job.

The first edition of the Bienal de Pintura Mural began in 1993. Since its inception, this event has had the participation of artists from Germany, Argentina, Turkey, United States, France, Holland, Haiti, Mexico, Canada, Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy and England. Every event has involved between 25 and 30 artists.

Applications

Individuals or groups interested in participating must apply to Director Israel Tamayo before 30 October 2011. The application shall be accompanied by the artist curriculum vitae and a selection of works. Note: If applying by email, please keep the size of the email to 450 KB. Send more than one email if necessary because of limitations on downloading capacities.

The Organizing Committee will send a letter of invitation to each person or group of people who choose to participate in the event, with the aim of facilitating travel arrangements to our country.

Taller Cultural

Calle11 # 316 % C. Siboney y Calle 12 Vista Alegre

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Tel: 642384.

Email: tallercult@cultstgo.cult.cu

You can also contact CRAM International for information and assistance:

mailto:info@cramart.ca

905-380-3910

cramart.ca

Penelope Stewart & Lise Verzina @ CRAM

2011-10-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

CRAM International & CRAM Press present

Interlocution

Penelope Stewart & Lise Vézina

October 15 - November 2, 2011

Interlocution, excerpts from Jumelage, a collaboration between Penelope Stewart and Lise Vézina

Interlocution is an exhibition comprising the work of Penelope Stewart and Lise Vézina as part of an exchange between artists working at Open Studio (Ontario) and Engramme (Québec).

The premise of Jumelage, the twins or mirroring became the starting point for the many discussions the artists shared in developing their project. They discovered they had a mutual interest in collections of textiles, architecture, bits of text, old and new photographs, and curiosities. They also loved the intaglio plates used to create paper editions and multiples. With these overlapping and sometimes eclectic interests they decided to explore the metal plate as both sculpture and print matrix. Using the intaglio process, the zinc, metal and stainless steel plates have been acid etched with the impressions of intricate bits of lace, floor plans, architectural structures, text, photographs, keys and traces of the body. The plates have been rusted or are highly polished like mirrors and through the materials and pattern uncanny relationships are made.

Penelope Stewart was born in Montréal, Québec. She received an MFA from SUNY (State University of New York), Buffalo, and in 2009 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 1992 with key exhibitions in Canada, Australia, France, Czech Republic and the US.

Stewart has a multidisciplinary practice that comprises, installation, sculpture, photography and works on paper. She has received numerous grants, prizes and awards from the Ontario, Toronto and Canada Arts Councils and most recently was shortlisted for an Artist in Residence at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. In September 2011 Stewart’s large architectural scale drawings were exhibited at Impact 07 in Melbourne, Australia while she was concurrently Artist in Residence at the Australian National University, in Canberra. Stewart’s site intervention Apian Screen was included in the Beyond /In Western New York Biennale 2010.

CRAM International has recently published Haptic Exchanges, a monograph of Stewart’s beeswax site installations at Musée Barthète, France, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York and Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario. This will be launched in the fall of 2011. Other publications and reviews of Stewart’s projects are found in books, newspapers and periodicals such as Utopic Impulses, Globe & Mail, Canadian Architect, Canadian Art, and World Art. Her work is held in public, corporate and private collections including the Department of Foreign Affairs, Cambridge Galleries, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Securities Commission, Inco, York University, Oxford Properties and the United Church of Canada.

Stewart currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. She is represented by Edward Day Gallery, Toronto.

www.penelopestewart.ca

Lise Vézina was born in Québec City, Québec. Vézina is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on and longstanding commitment to print media. Her work is primarily rooted in printmaking, drawing, sculpture and installation and consistently explores themes relating to female identity. Using found photographs, fragments from an unknown past she weaves together a fictive sense or memory of forgotten faces. Vézina too layers these images with constructed spaces, or architectures and a narrative emerges.

Vézina obtained her MFA at the University of Laval, at Québec City in 2004. Her work has been extensively exhibited throughout Québec in solo exhibitions. Further, her work has been included in group exhibitions across Canada, Europe and the UK. Recently, she participated in an artist in residence project at the Glasgow Print Studio, Scotland. Vézina is part of the Open Studio and Engramme Exchange, a multi-year project which will be exhibited in 2012 in Toronto and Québec City. Interlocution at CRAM will be her first exhibition in Ontario.

Vézina’s work is held in private and public collections such as Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Ottawa, Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales,Québec, Institut Canadien, Québec, Glasgow Print Studio, Scotland, Collections de l’Université Laval, Québec, Collection Loto-Québec.

Lise Vézina is a long-time member of Engramme, Québec and teaches printmaking at the centre.

She currently lives and works in Québec City and is represented by Engramme.

The CRAMplex

24 James Street, 2nd floor

St. Catharines, Ontario
CANADA L2R 4T8

GALLERY HOURS: by appointment & when the sandwich board is out
between The Office Tap & Grill and Christophers Magazine and Cigar Store

CRAM International is a growing concern...

Contact:
Tobey C. Anderson
info@cramart.ca
cramart.ca
905.380.3910

CRAM International is an artist collective operating Canada's smallest alternative multi-purpose art facility. Organized on a benevolent dictatorial management model, CRAM Gallery is funded by collective members, sponsors, patrons, partners, and the director. Since 2006, CRAM has encouraged and promoted local investment in original art and advocated for local contemporary artists. Since 2007 CRAM International has been in a unique and growing relationship of cultural exchange with the artists of Taller Cultural "Luis Diaz Oduardo" in Santiago de Cuba that has artists from both counties participating in exhibitions, mural and print projects, and residencies. CRAM International is the sole Canadian representative of the artists in the Cuban Artist Exchange and maintains a selection of original prints and paintings. Initiated in 2009, CRAM Press is Niagara's only professional print workshop. CRAM Press works with artists to publish Original Print Editions and Original Limited Edition Artist Bookworks.

The Disco Gallery is Niagara's underground art boutique and micro gallery with a focus on emerging artists, unorthodox mediums, and inspired events since December 2009. We are located in the CRAMplex at 24 James Street and are partners in crime with Cram International. Please feel free to circulate this information widely. For further info, interviews, or photos, please reply via email or call Marinko at (905) 937-3021.

The Lion and The Lamb / El Lion y el Cordero - Exhibition - Carolyn Wren - Tobey C. Anderson - Santiago de Cuba

2011-03-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

The Lion and The Lamb / El Lion y el Cordero
Tobey C. Anderson & Carolyn Wren
March 18 - April 30, 2011
Galeria Universal • Santiago de Cuba

Queenston, Galeria Universal installation, Santiago de Cuba, india ink on dress pattern paper, March 2011

   The most recent project of the CRAM-Cuba Exchange project is The Lion and the Lamb, a two person exhibition of paintings, drawings, and video by Canadian artists Tobey C. Anderson and Carolyn Wren, opened March 18th at the Universal Gallery in Santiago de Cuba. In the show Wren has presented and 8 large scale ink drawings and a relief print of landscapes appropriated from old etchings of St. Catharines and Niagara region. Anderson has created four new large format paintings and selected drawings from The New American Century Project: DU Babies and Scratching the Surface / Media Wars.

Essay by Crolyn Wren

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6

The Lion and the Lamb, ferocity and meekness, such opposites have long been used to illustrate the dichotomy of life on earth, people’s perceptions of heaven and hell. This biblical metaphor promising peace out of chaos informed the works of Tobey C. Anderson and Carolyn Wren. Both artists examine the humanity and inhumanity of the shared space we occupy.

Anderson’s large format paintings, Meditations on the Apocalypse, meld contemporary apocalyptic scenes with medieval images of the horrors of the end times, deliberately evoking the ferocity of the lion. As in the biblical metaphors that warn of horrendous consequences of human vices, Anderson’s deft touch captures flashes of familiar yet disturbing scenes with the burning oil fields, swarms of rats, dead terrorists, and ravaging earthquake. Each modern day image is paired with art historical references of visions in Revelations. Anderson’s painting technique casts a tension in itself; the graphic style of crisp lines and painterly strokes emote an anxiety through their difference. Yet Anderson leads the viewer in and bridges the gap between these oppositions. In the burning oil field painting, the tail of the seven-headed beast from a medieval painted manuscript merge into the billowing black smoke. The graphic scales of the beast mimic the curved lines in the swells of the toxic fire. These paintings resonate in their beauty. The silence they command is a reverence for all things powerful and beyond our control. The viewer holds his or her breath so as not to disturb the sleep of death in the evil portrayed. Yet, as the medieval apocalyptic beasts stare out, the viewer timidly and helplessly looks back. There is a submission to the iconographic power of such historical images and an acquiescence to the powers of evil. The surrender to the course of destruction results in apathy. As it understands the providence of sin, the docile lamb waits breathlessly for the annihilation to unfold. In T.S. Elliot’s final stanza of The Hollow Men, he writes:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Reminiscent of the children’s rhyme, “here we go round the mulberry bush . . . we all fall down,” this haunting chant about the death toll from the plague underscores a sadness, a sickening sense of loss of which both Eliot and Anderson are aware. Sensitively attuned to the destruction and loss evident in war, Anderson, in his DU Babies (Depleted Uranium), brings the precious and the profane to the adjoining small gallery walls. In this suite of five mixed media drawings, he exposes and explores the effects that Depleted Uranium has on the developing fetus of the children born of Iraqis who have been exposed to the radiation of high tech warfare. Used to harden the tips of high calibre munitions and smart bombs, Depleted Uranium is pulverized on impact, contaminating the air and area around the sites where exploded.
DU Babies #1, mixed media on paper, 56cm x 81cm, 2007

Upon entering the gallery, the viewer’s eyes take in the radiating glow. Like the stained glass windows of a cathedral, these images carry the strangeness of the sacred places from which they are so far removed. Anderson’s paintings create the illusion of light emanating from the pieces themselves. George Rouault’s work comes to mind; his five year apprenticeship as a stained glass painter had a tremendous effect on his later oil and gouache paintings, where he used heavy black contours, simplified imagery, and gem-like colours that seem illuminated with his rich layering of paint. Rouault’s subject matter of abused prostitutes, distressed clowns, and the suffering Christ are not far removed from Anderson’s DU babies. Infants, often symbols of hope and potential, here become reminders of the innocent and sacrificial lamb devoured by the wrath of the lion.

However, these images draw on the melancholic destructive iconography to create a profound reverence for art and the viciousness of war. Like Rouault, Anderson marries the burden of the severe black line with the colours’ luminosity to create lugubrious work. Rouault was “always concerned with man’s plight, torn between hope of heaven and the torments of the flesh” (Janson p191). The hellish imagery in Anderson’s work is an affront to our sense of decorum and decency. Yet it is a sign of the things to come. Unflinchingly responsive to the issues that challenge our psyche, Anderson’s art avoids sentimentality and directly expresses his outrage over the loss of humanity in the end times.

In one of the adjoining rooms, Using an old print transfer method of drawing, Anderson uses scratchboards to expose the underlying truth of images from television and computer screens. Since 911 the visual manipulations by the media have bombarded us with frightening images of men with great powers to accelerate the reign of imminent destruction of humanity. In his suite of drawings, Media Wars: Scratching the surface, Anderson scratched, chipped, and scraped the black surface of the paper to create meticulously executed apocalyptic pictures that penetrate our psyche.

The first time Cuban national poet Jose Maria Heredia beheld Niagara Falls, he wrote:

Tremendous torrent! for an instant hush
The terrors of thy voice and cast aside
Those wide involving shadows, that my eyes
May see the fearful beauty of thy face!
I am not all unworthy of thy sight,
For from my very boyhood have I loved,
Shunning the meaner track of common minds,
To look on nature in her loftier moods.

Such powers of attraction and fear in nature are also evident in Carolyn Wren’s large drawings and prints. Niagara Falls, depicted in a ten foot relief print, majestically cascades to the floor of the gallery. The flutter of the thin parchment paper simulates the sensation of falling water. The roar of the landscape in its awesome splendor and strength is heard and felt in this melodrama. Wren alludes to Edmund Burke’s ideas of the sublime –the power to be thunderstruck by the magnitude of creation. Like the lamb, she lures the viewer into the landscape to be seduced by the beauty of nature.

Montreal’s Mount St. Hilaire, like any mountain, “fills the mind with an agreeable kind of horror” in the words of Joseph Addison (1699 Remarks on Several Parts of Italy). It commands majesty in the greatness of its size - both in Wren’s print and the real mountain. The viewer is dwarfed by the work’s magnitude as it recreates the landscape’s throttlehold on emotion. The mass of the mountain is positioned before the viewer and detached from any visible connection to the ground. This purposeful denial of conventional devices of linear perspective enables Wren to obscure the viewer’s prospect of the horizon. Usually the romantic traveler contemplates the distant horizon, but Mount St. Hilaire is suddenly upon us. The mystery through this willful obscurity is Wren’s twist on the sublime.

Wren plays with the ideas of veneration of the landscape and art itself. Like all museum experiences, the viewer enters and is hushed by the reverence and reverie of art. Similarly, the same charged visual sensation is felt when looking at a luminous vista. A conflation of landscape, art, and spirituality is not new; it is borrowed from philosophers and artists who have been studying this phenomenon for centuries. Yet Wren adds a new dimension to the mix. She subtly introduces the human element through her choice of material. The pattern pieces used for sewing are the base on which she draws and prints. The landscape, at first glance, appears to be untouched; nature stands alone, wild, and untamed in all its glory. Upon closer observation, the trace of the body is revealed, folded into the landscape through the use of the contour lines in the pattern pieces. In the sublime, humanity stands in the centre of the landscape to observe nature’s beauty and horror. Without the body (and its brain), there would be nature; the sublime exists only in the observer. In Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment of 1790, he states, “when we speak of the sublime in nature we speak improperly; properly speaking, sublimity can be attributed merely to our way of thinking…”

Wren’s theme of the sublime culminates in one of the adjoining rooms to Sala Two. Longing is a video installation that is projected on a wall of the gallery. In an open window, a diaphanous drape dances slowly with the undulating breeze. The curtain lets in light and it opens the viewer to glimpse into the promise of a sublime world. The gentle wind of the late summer afternoon mingles with the breath of the house and highlights the comings and goings of the outside into the hushed cradle of the home. Yet, like the dance of veils, the fabric teases and seduces us to desire more of what is beyond its space. This intimate moment at the window quietly brings the viewer to a meditative and somewhat melancholic state. A reflection of how space is experienced, the video raises questions in the viewer of the place beyond the familiarity of the room he or she occupies.

Through the omission of the figure, Wren underscores the power of the landscape in all its beauty and terror. In some of her pieces, the viewer responds by yearning for days gone or by hoping for a better future – actions of the past or future. Conversely, it is ironic that Anderson’s paintings and drawings focus on an absence of humanity while depicting the ravages of humans on the earth. His work exposes how the twisted world developed after losing track of life’s majesty. In the genesis of creation, before human intervention, the idyllic landscape existed. The figure imposed the promise of perfection on to the sublime and with that, loss can only be impending.

Historically, how have humans affected the magnificence of nature? The carbon footprint is a popular topic of discussion with environmentalist and conscious thinkers. In the end times, the wage of sin plays out. Standing near the precipice, feeling awestruck, we are precarious in knowing that one slip and humanity can go over the edge of time. The contrast of the sublimity of nature and its ferocity is depicted. Anderson and Wren highlight this dichotomy. Both artists deal with the opposing phenomenon of heaven and hell, beauty and horror, the lion and the lamb.

bill bissett, Google Rankings, Algorithms and the Signs of Change in Regional Art Practice

2011-02-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

bill bissett paintings at CRAM Gallery Opens May 4th

myspace.com/billbissettmusic
paintbyumber.com
www.billbissett.com

Lesson #1 says that web pages should be titled descriptively to draw the attention of search engines. The same goes for image, video, and audio files - anything in a webpage that can be labelled. I guess the same practices that porn sites use draw attention can be adapted for CRAM International.

I am on a learning curve to improve my algorithms so Google will rank cram higher in the search engine rankings. Progress is slow. It is the same old story of how we are never able catch up with computer-based knowledge and skills. With that said and as cryptic as it may be, I can move on to bill bissett's painting exhibition at CRAM Gallery.

Bissett has been shaping his word craft for years. A contemporary of other better known canadian poets and writers, bill remains under the radar. I'm not sure when he came to this planet, but he began publishing before I graduated from university. I first ran across bissett when he toured artist-run centres in the mid 1970's and stopped off in Kingston, Ontario at what used to be KAAI and is now known as Modern Fuel Gallery.

awake in th red desert (with 12" LP)       1969                          Talonbooks
lost angel mining company                 1969                blewointmentpress
sunday work (?)                                  1969                            blewointmentpress
OF TH LAND/DIVINE SERVICE         1968                            weed/flower press
wher is miss florence riddle                1967                            luv press
lebanon voices                                    1967                            weed/flower press
(Th) Gossamer bed pan                             1967             blewointmentpress ( 2eds)

the circus in the boy's eye                       1966           very stone house w jim brown

fires in th tempul OR th jinx shipn othr trips   1966    very stone house / blewointment

we sleep inside each othr all 1965 ganglia

His painting and mixed media artwork goes back to when he was 10 years old and he does get his work around and recently he has shown in a number of galleries in Vancouver, Washington, Toronto, and now CRAM.

cowichan valley art center duncan BC             nov 09
rob shoutan gallery whitby island washington nov 09
upstairs gallery church st Toronto       07 and 08
vancouvr ironworks galleree           may 06
toronto ths aint th rosedale libraree galleree Jan - maro6
anacortes wa rock grill galleree June 2004
toronto pteros art galleree wun prson show april 2003
Toronto nepotism ths aint th rosedale galleree 2003
toronto pteros galleree group show        Jan 2002
n kontinuing display uv lunaria art book hand dun from granary books vancouvr                ironworks                     aug 2003
vancouvr                 pendulum galleree         dec 2000

His written word is hard to follow at times, his phonetics and nuances collide and meld in a stream of consciousness that rappers and dub poets should hold in some kind of reverence. for me, having sipped hot cider while wearing shades and puffing on reefers in a basement beat club; listening to beatniks snapping fingers, if you can dig it; bill bissett wreaks of great poetry and art. You must see and hear what he has to say, and to offer a critique puts me at a disadvantage. Would I be critical of Margaret Atwood, fuck no. She is her own critic and the same goes for bissett. I'd like to see him on the Canada Reads Book List.

There are things about bissett that I've recognized in other artists who range around in the zones between disciplines and art forms: his positive energy, multi-layered thinking and doing, and off-the-wall ideas that cast a cloak of inspiration over anyone who comes into contact with them.
St. Catharines artist Dennis Tourbin was one of those poet-painter-writer-preformance artists I think of in relation to bill bissett.

Here's an excerpt of bill's writing from a recent email that will give you an idea of what his work brings to the reader and viewer, and those who witness his performances…
dere tobey encore cest moi hope yu find th bio skroll way down wow that was onlee 2 dayze ago sumthings goin on with time yes ium off have a great day thanks love bill

An opportunity to see bill bissett? Go to CRAM International in downtown St. Catharines….

The New Cliché

2011-01-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

Artist Christopher Clarke is the brains behind The Littlest Print Exchange, an international miniature print project he initiated a couple of years ago from his headquarters in the Heartland of America, somewhere in rural Illinois. The premise of the exchange is altruistic and Clarke is interested in advancing print community collaboration and dialogue using a miniature format that attracts collaboration on a large scale. He loves the craft of printmaking and his curatorial skills have produced a selection of engaging original prints - the 50 editions are distributed to the selected artists in a boxed portfolio.

This year's theme is The New Cliché. While some of the artists missed the boat thematically, I found the challenge fit perfectly with my current work, specifically my Collateral Damage series. The deaths of civilians in Iraq is too large and random to keep an accurate count, and of course none of the "Coalition of the Willing" governments acknowledge the huge and growing number of casualties that fall under the sanitized collateral damage rubric. While this image is difficult to appreciate, let alone look at, the violence of the image is intended to shake up the complacency and targets our complicity in these atrocities. If there was ever a new cliché, this is a good example if I have to say so myself.

waterless litho, 3 in x 3 in, 2010

José Armando Medina's contribution, 50 Y PA'LANTE?, is another political statement of note. An ex-patriot Cuban, now able to safely criticize the regime from Canada, Medina has appropriated a famous photograph of Fidel and Ché at the moment they are basking in the victory of the Cuban Revolution. He critiques the now hackneyed and ever-present propaganda glorifying the Revolution in this significant anniversary year. By literally turning the number 50 on its ear, scratching the image, rendering the print in pastel colours, and by using polkadots, he "shoots holes" in a faild ideology that has oppressed dissidents, intellectuals, and gays. For Cubans, the embargo is just part of the problem in everyday living.

waterless litho, 3 in x 3 in, 2010

Clarke himself teamed up with Yeabig to produce the only non-traditional multiple, an sophisticated audio in mp3 format.

CAN BE A FLOWER OR CAN BE A BOMB | YEA BIG | ILLINOIS

AUDIO RECORDING (design and printing by CHRISTOPHER CLARK)

mp3 | yeabig.com

In light of the recent headlines and debate in the United States about the mass murder in Arizona by a mentally ill Jared Loughner, the print by German Tine Fetz installed in The New Cliché show at CRAM Gallery this week is so timely that it boggles my mind. As small as it is, this print is monumental...

THIS MACHINE KILLS HATRED | TINE FETZ | GERMANY

LINOCUT

tinefetz.net

Souvenirs / Remembrances

2011-01-14T02:47:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Wren et Tobey C. Anderson
12 janvier - 14 février, 2011
Galerie d'Art du Centre Culturel
Université de Sherbrooke Qc

In this first two-person exhibition together, Curator Suzanne Presse presents monumental installations by Carolyn Wren and Tobey C. Anderson. Both address issues of war - one present and one past.

Carolyn Wren's War Map Dress Trilogy was inspired by a recent acquisition to the permanent collection of the Reichsmuseum in 2004. There she saw a post WWII dress made of silk maps that had been carried by RAF pilots and were recycled at a time when there was a shortage of materials in general, and sik in particular. Wren has created a conflation of the body and mapping by carving maps printed by the Canadian government for families to follow troop movements and printing them on Dupont silk in dress pattern pieces.

To underscore the context behind these larger-than-life figures, Wren has thrown a spotlight on model Spitfires and bombers to cast shadows on the wall. These iconic shapes remind us of pictures of the same silhouettes of Lancaster bombers and Spitfire fighters cast on clouds over targets.

For Wren, the roads and rivers reminded her of veins and arteries, and she positioned the "O" of Holland at the navel. By altering the patterns to create 3 dresses that are 3 metres tall, she alludes to the Phoenix rising out of the ashes and the draws on symbols of regeneration. A tribute, no less, to the industry of women as well as the heroism of the pilots who carried the original maps.

In the adjoining gallery space is Tobey C. Anderson's installation KIA_CA_Afghanistan, 157 portraits of Canadians killed in the present day Afghanistan war. Anderson began his on-going series in 2006 as a reflection on the collective Canadian toll of this new war. It is a quiet creation, but a different quiet than Carolyn's.

By using florescent paints in RGB colours and casting them in black light, Anderson creates a charged and somber atmosphere that mimics the computer and tv screens - our windows into the realities of war, several times removed and filtered by government and the media. Only when the Canadian mission is over and the troops are all home will the work of memorializing the Fallen be finished.

Dave Gordon Print Editions @ CRAM Press

2011-01-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

CRAM Press Editions

4 New Dave Gordon Prints
Chopped and Signed

Artifacts / combination woodblock & waterless litho

Gem / woodblock & chalk pastel combination

Head / waterless litho & woodblock

Caught / woodblock & waterless litho

Terry Pfliger on Civility

2010-12-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

Terry Pfliger, now living and teaching in Michigan, was active in the Kingston, Ontario scene in the 1970's and 80's when an art prof at St. Lawrence College. He was a Founding Member of Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre and actively involved with the artists who were associated with Artspace in Peterborough. His work can be found in collections in Canada and the United States, including Artbank and The Agnes Etherington Art Centre.

Pfliger has always incorporated humour in his mixed media wall art and constructions. He plays with materials and models, making political and social commentaries in his process, most notably dioramas of toy soldiers and models. He loves play. In his current CRAM Gallery show he has produced mixed media drawings on the subject of civility.

Like the Ten Commandments and Twelve Steps to sobriety, the Civility suite offers up 11 rules to live by in an uptight social milieu. His narratives of the rules evoke illuminated manuscripts and his likeness in each of the layered and textured collage drawings is uncanny. He renders himself communicating the "habits of living" with hand gestures, and it is no stretch of the imagination to make the connection with bad hearing. Witty and well crafted, these works will best speak for themselves...

See what I mean about his use of humour - they are a bit silly, but totally resonate with most of North American WASP culture. Here is the rest of the suite...

Writing Grants

2010-12-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

Today many of my visual artist colleagues are either post-marking* their Canada Council for the Visual Arts Individual Project Grants, due today at 5 pm. I am taking a pass this time due to timing and circumstance.

Instead, I am in the studio painting, writing a blog entry, and organizing trips for shows with Carolyn Wren in Québec and Cuba, my two favourite countries other than Italy, Belgium, England and France. And I really want to go to Eastern Europe and Asia before I die, but I digress...

The timing of grant applications is everything and I have found that most deadlines do not coincide with my studio production and exhibition commitments. I am lousy at creating projects to fit the criteria when all the pieces are not there to fall in place.

In most cases there must be a letter confirming an exhibition in a public gallery. The project becomes the work to be created for a show and documenting it. Exhibitions are scheduled 1 - 2 years in advance, and grants take 3 - 4 months to process, so a minimum of a year and a half is necessary for the application. The body of new work is supported by current work, but in many cases new work to be shown 18 months from the due date for a grant hasn't been fully conceived and arguably shouldn't be.

However, successful grants are hard to come by even if all the stars are aligned, especially in national competitions for funds where 60-80%of the artists are rejected. I've been rejected by the Canada Council every time, even when I thought I had a very good project. The Ontario Arts Council has provided me with 3 individual project grants in the last 35 years, which means an individual like me has a .1% chance of getting one in any given year. Small grants for materials are more consistently available, and the $500-1,000 really does help cover expenses.

José Medina and Alan Flint carving a Dave Gordon wood block at CRAM Press

This brings us to my current project, one that doesn't fit a conventional model or established grant criteria: CRAM©International. After 4 years, CRAM (galeria, CRAMplex, CRAM Collective, and CRAM Press) has evolved to become an international art consideration. CRAM has become much more than Canada's smallest art gallery and studio complex. It is still being managed and run on a benevolent dictatorial model, or Czar system, and continues to provide a platform for local artists of merit to expose themselves from outside metro scenes.

The notion of CRAM©International began with Cuban Exchange projects and, coupled with a broad gallery programme and the establishment of CRAMpress, CRAM has definitely become international. CRAM remains rooted in downtown St. Catharines with a regional collective core, but there are visitors from other cultures and locations around the world. This has established an international dialogue around the CRAMplex and stimulates the local scene. The members of CRAM are often the source and inspiration behind innovations, even if I don't acknowledge or listen to the them.

CRAM International began as an 8 x 10 storage room on a whim and has been structured from my 35 years of experience in the artist-run movement in Canada and the States, including an 8 year stint here in St. Catharines as NAC Director. My three failed art and live music club ventures [The Club, The Garage, and Quasi Café], plus years of non-profit activities, led me to adopt the dictatorial approach to the structure and management of the collective.

Unlike a conventional dictatorial management style, the benevolent style considers the artists in the collective to have plenty of energy and commitment for their art and careers, but they don't want to serve on committees, deal with a board of directors, make decisions, or be bothered with day-to-day decisions.
To consider and define CRAM and its activities as such a personal art project it was essential to establish CRAM as a sole proprietorship, which is a dictatorial approach to business, if not occasionally fascist by definition. The arbitrary decision-making, personal slant, selection of art and artists, and ruthless style came naturally. The rest came to me in an unfettered vision.

There have been a few tests to this autocratic style, but they were all rebuked, which is appropriate for the model. New members receive an invitation to become a CRAM Member and so far everyone who's paid up is helping perpetuate the experiment. There is more about the conceptual aspects of CRAM International to come...

Dave Gordon @ CRAM

2010-11-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Dave Gordon is an avid reader of the Globe & Mail, tabloids, and literature, especially biographies. He follows the news and is keen on politics and the politics of war, especially the U.S. brand. And Gordon is a Class B chess player. These compulsions were all folded into his recent show of sketchbook drawings at CRAM Gallery, "Jesse's A Monster!"

The sketches are a diary of sorts and a record of his daily musings. They have his personality embedded in them and are a lyric narrative. Most of these loose pen and coloured ink sketches are as crude as the subject matter, but there is someone for everyone to identify with between the covers of his spiral bound books. He finds many of the stars disgusting and picks his political pictures with wit and ironic humour. Every once in a while there is a drawing with striking beauty where the rhythm of his line captures more than a crude likeness.

R. Crumb and Philip Guston are Gordon art heroes and the inspiration he draws (sic) from their examples reside in his sketchbooks. They make their way into his paintings too, but that is a subject for another blog. Where Gordon differs from these two is in the narrative - his drawings are based in reality rather than fantasy or dreams, and there are no sexual perversions being played out as is the case with Crumb. Gordon's roots in regionalism explain his choice of subject and appropriation of daily news.

There is another element at play in these drawings - the social politics of the art scenes he has been a part of for over 40 years. He started his career in London in the late 1960's when Ontario regionalism took off like a rocket and the local scene was thick with artists, influence, and what became an identifiable Canadian art movement. It doesn't take a leap of faith to see Curnoe and Boyle between his lines, and he kept company with them and others, like Dennis Tourbin, who had popular culture interests. Behind the scenes there were a raft of scandals and relations that fed the rumour and gossip mills of the day. Gordon's drawings are chronicle of notes that belie the importance of his place in contemporary Canadian art.

Family Portrait No. 2

2010-10-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Today I dismantle Family Portrait to make way for WERK, WERK, WERK by Matt Harley. I am compelled to revisit the installation by Charlie, Nick, Alex, and Jeff Bierk, however, before moving on with my stabs at blogging.

My first impression when the work was being unpacked and installed was more than favourable - I was stunned. I had visited their studios in Toronto a couple of times and have been corresponding with them, so I was familiar with their work, but to say I am impressed by these four emerging artists is an understatement. Of course, they had a pretty good teacher and their father's influence permeates the show.

Whether it is the painting application, technique, format, or the execution of the work, David Bierk could be seen in the installation. Rightfully so, too. For anyone to suggest these guys attempt to deny the influence would be just plain wrong, especially at this early stage of their careers. The fact that they have embraced the power of their father and his oeuvre speaks to their intelligence and respect for his legacy.

For CRAM, Alex and Charlie painted their pieces, Nick put together a video assemblage, and Jeff crafted a photo and trophy construction. Nick's piece is a new development and surprisingly accomplished for a first video work. He didn't totally abandon his father or his own independent exploration of painting for the past few years in this switch of mediums; he used his easel with intact and wet traces of oil paint to hold a picture-framed flatscreen. The video loop is an intimate portrait of Heather Dylan Bierk talking with him about family matters during the settlement of the estate that followed his mother's untimely death. The editing by Nick is smart and discreet - it captures a meaningful moment in his relationship with Heather that has far-reaching significance. As a portrait it is brilliant and as video it is smart stuff.

When seeing it through the door of CRAM Gallery for the first time, more than one local CRAM patron commented that they had to approach the painting to check it out closely, in order to determine whether Charlie's contribution was a huge photo or a really good photo realism painting.

Zac is a large scale painting of Charlie's half-brother, the former NHL goalie in the family. A professional star while he was growing up, Zac is appropriately rendered much larger-than-life and with energized strokes. There is not even the thought of airbrush here and Charlie, like Nick, has found himself in new creative territory and all-the-while acknowledging two obvious sources of inspiration. His hand is seen in the gesture of the application of oil paint and anyone who has studied both David Bierk and Chuck Close portraits will see Charlie's emerging identity. His reply to the question of scale was: "I really like the freedom...". Bang!

The twins, Jeff and Alex, are the oldest of the foursome and, because of their age are a few steps ahead of their younger brothers in their career development. Lisa Fragment by Alex is a painting of their oldest half-sibling (it was still totally wet on opening day) and Trophy Brother by Jeff is a slick photo portrait of Sebastian, and everyone on the planet knows Skid Row's Sebastian Bierk.

The small scale of Lisa Fragment belies the inherent statement embodied here, and the fact is that Alex incorporated her part of the story very succinctly. It took me a while to discern the import of this small painting.

Nothing needs to be said, really, about the portrait of Sebastian, except that using his old trophies lends the work bona fide objet d' art status. (This might be an otherwise seemingly remote statement without considering that I recently went to Philadelphia to see Duchamp's Nude N. 2 where I also looked at his other work there up close and personal.)

With that said, each of the Bierks did make their own identifiable statement, for want of a better way of putting it, and their combined efforts infused Family Portrait with the dense multi-layering one would expect of an exhibition about the Bierk family, and by more seasoned artists. This showing was totally "sick".

Did I mention their crazy and precocious energy?

Dennis Tourbin & the FLQ

2010-10-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Fall rains and today's coverage of the anniversary of the FLQ crisis on CBC conjures memories. Most vivid are those of fishing with Dennis Tourbin, and his paintings and performances. As a friend and colleague I followed his career and fished his favourite spots with him around Peterborough for around 30 years. He comes to mind all the time.

The October Crisis loomed large in Tourbin's consciousness and he devoted himself to exploring those historic events in two major bodies of work - he had to take time off to recharge between series. Fast forward to two intertwined elements in his story: 1. his obsession with recording every phone conversation for a year, and 2.) the cancellation of an exhibition of October Crisis paintings in 1995 by Shirley Thomson, then Director of the National Gallery of Canada.

The long and short of this story is that Dennis came home to find a recorded message from Thomson informing him of her decision to cancel his exhibition. When finished delivering the bad news on the speaker phone the connection remained live and recorded on Tourbin's machine. The comment of another person in the room that he leaked became the subject of a national media storm after Dennis went public with the censorship issue and recording of her rude remark. It was a big deal, so much so that it was mentioned in her recent obituary in The Globe and Mail.

The only doubt Thomson herself expressed about her leadership of the NGC, involved her contentious decision to cancel an exhibition of paintings of words and images related to the October Crisis by Ottawa artist Dennis Tourbin. Scheduled for the gallery in 1995, the exhibition was going to open in what turned out to be the run up to the frighteningly close 1995 Quebec referendum.Seven years later, she admitted, in an interview with Paul Gessell of The Ottawa Citizen, that her decision was political rather than artistic. “I will never know if I made the right decision,” she said, indicating that she was still troubled about overriding curatorial privilege and freedom of expression. “That would have been very difficult,” she said, “if the artist’s career had been hampered by a difficult decision I had to make.”

Another Shirley, Shirley Madill, Director of Rodman Hall Art Centre - Brock University is working on Dennis' retrospective for a couple of years from now. Rodman Hall, CRAM Gallery, and Niagara Artists Centre venues will house selected paintings, videos, books, watercolours, prints, drawings from his life's work, but only the tip of the iceberg will be shown, he was that prolific.

His "The October Crisis Revisited" at Niagara Artists' Centre in 1991 was the last time I worked with Dennis on an exhibition of his work. It was a beautiful installation in the space on Bond Street - his colourful canvases were contrasted vibrantly against the industrial brick walls. If he was with us today, no doubt, he would be occupied with a yet another visitation of this monumental work.

"Family Portrait" @ CRAM Gallery

2010-10-04T08:05:00.001-07:00

Alex, Charlie, Jeff, Nick Bierk installation, September 2010

Family Portrait, the first collaboration by these four brothers, closes today at CRAM after a packed opening reception and setting a new all-time website hit record. These guys are not only likeable and popular, but as emerging artists go they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in a few years. They are all talented and exceptionally keen to take a stab at the art world, attributes that were fostered by their late father and mother, David Bierk (2002) and Liz Aimers.

Fast friends with St. Catharines born artist, Dennis Tourbin, I first met David in 1973 when I followed up on his submission for a show in the gallery at St. Lawrence College in Kingston. My friendship and professional association with Bierk grew from our first meeting and soon after I met Tourbin too and never looked back.

Bierk's remarkable career was cut short at a time he had established and was enjoying substantial recognition across North America with gallery representation, publications, and sales. Liz, an amazing administrator and art advocate, is the mother of Alex, Charlie, Nick, and Jeff. She came onto the scene following David's breakup with first wife, Kathleen, who is the mother of three of the four older step-siblings who are the subjects of Family Portrait - Rocker Sebastian, model and actress Heather (Dylan), and NHL goalie Zac. The oldest child, Lisa, came into the picture late in David's life.

Tourbin and Bierk at The Red Dog Tavern, Peterborough circa 1975 • photo by tobeyc

This exhibition, in Canada's smallest gallery, is informed by characters and stories of colossal proportion that would take volumes to tell. The portraits in the show are not regular fare, but for the time being, I'll leave it at this brief blog entry....

Bierk Art at CRAM Gallery

2010-09-30T14:29:00.001-07:00

Family Portrait installation at CRAM, September 2010

photo by Sandy Fairbairn, Official CRAM Photographer

Alex, Nick, Charlie, and Jeff Bierk have presented a personal and poignant installation by using their half-siblings as the subjects of the show Family Portrait. Strains in their family relationships followed the death of their father, David Bierk, and in a short number of months their mother, Liz Aimers Bierk, lost her battle with melanoma. These four were devastated by the loss of their father, as were their older siblings, but to loose your mother too, is a loss of huge proportion.

Let me briefly consider who David and Liz Bierk were...

CRAM Press

2010-09-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

CRAM Press is the newest development at the CRAMplex, along with Marinko Jareb's Disco Gallery, but that is another blog. CRAM Press has come to St. Catharines as a result of a collaboration between Alan Flint, Jose Armando Medina and me. It began last fall when Flint arranged for the small 1890's etching press he had from the estate of artist Harold Town. This fall brought an American French Tool etching press all the way from Newfoundland. First in service at Sword Press in Toronto in the 1970's we think, it's 36" width gives CRAM Press monumental as well as minature capacity.

CRAM Press will have a small membership, but a primary objective is to work with artists and non-artists on print projects. Jose Medina is the CRAM Press Print Master and Alan Flint is Master Plus (Co-Director). I retain my normal role of CRAM Director and Czar.

There are a handful of CRAM artists who form our print collective core at this time: Alan Flint, Jamie Owen, Carolyn Wren, Jose Armando Medina, Penelope Stewart, and the infamous Tobey C. Anderson. Workshops will be offered from time to time...

The print studio is still being developed and, with the expertise of Jeff Ott, Jamie Owen, and Andre Perusse track lights, drawers, and cabinets will be installed over the next few weeks and months. While I am at it, I need to note Pam Maw's monetary contribution to the project.

Jose Medina and I produced 5 and 7 waterless litho editions respectively for our recent CRAM Gallery shows to break in the new facility, and the CRAM Press Archive has prints from our Cuban residency artists Vivian Lozano and Mauricio Reyes, as well as a couple of Big Apple artists. As CRAM is "a growing concern...", we intend to grow the CRAM Press Archive.

A Benevolent Dictatorial Model

2010-09-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

"Family Portrait" cram September 18, 2010

Although I am a benevolent manager, CRAM was founded on a dictatorial model. My experience in the artist-run network since the 1970's informs its development and my decisions. To my surprise, everyone buys into the CRAM model when they are invited into the collective and, like most everywhere else, people move on as their personal aspirations are satisfied and they have gotten what they want out of their involvement.

I learned that decision-making with a non-profit board and committee model is unwieldy and time-consuming, and there are more compromises in administrative and curatorial practices and procedures than by non-participatory, independent means. In the non-profit sector it is commonplace for boards to defer the decision-making to the director or program co-ordinator. Some boards do rule within strict parameters, but their members also come and go, where directors tend to stick around longer. In a business model everything hinges on who your partners are and the strength of your handshake.

The traditional dictatorial model or style assumes that people are fundamentally lazy and unmotivated, and they will only perform at optimum levels if directed and closely monitored by a micro-managing autocrat. The benevolent dictator works on a different set of assumptions and there is a lot of trust involved.

I believe artists are motivated to make their art and are directed by their obsessions and career goals. Most artists want to avoid things like committees and meetings, and they are content to let others do this kind of work. This trait alows them more time for more important matters like making art, thinking about it, or socializing. Although a dream and a bit delusional, professional artists want sympathetic, honest agents to manage their careers, not to be tied up by business decisions, facility maintenance, and programming.

A dictatorial model can use any criteria for the selection of artists, just like art dealers the world over. Instead of calling the group assembled a collective they are referred to as the "stable of artists", like pedigreed horses.

The CRAM Collective is comprised of artists who may or may not be commercially viable, even though one of my goals is to improve local investments in art. Their invitation is based on whether or not I like their artwork, if they have any kind of connection to Niagara, and the simple fact they are nice to me. They also pay a nominal annual membership and their exhibition rental fees to help cover costs. The gallery is an enterprise free of handouts or dependency on grants, despite the fact that I make up the difference when needed - it is a project.

I am also free, as a dictator, to go outside the region for invitees - an infusion of artists adds to the local dialogue and provides depth to the critical mass that is CRAM. Not everyone agrees with my selections or approach, but the beauty of being a dictator is that I don't have to make sense to anyone, things don't have to be rational, and I can change my mind at any time on a whim. I have been learning a great deal about dictators from our Cuban exchange experiences, but that is another matter.

As a result of this strategy, CRAM has been elevated to a project level and can evolve and adapt more readily than other operations. Intuition plays a much larger role in the life of the collective and the work presented in CRAM Gallery, as well as the spin-offs from the collective's energies, like CRAM Press, but that is the subject for another posting, if I get around to it....