Toronto's Art World Needs A Spanking

Well, my past week in Toronto
was a disappointment on many accounts.


It's nothing to do with the art that I've seen,
some of which was really great, but more
to do with the lousy way it's being represented.



Here:

I count 4, or I think it's 5,
galleries that were closed while
I visited, some of which I really
wanted to see. I returned to two
of them 2 days later, and they
were still closed!!!


And I'm not talking of galleries who open
only 1 to 3 days per week (those were open),
but really of galleries which were slated
to be open at the times I visited (mostly
Wednesday and Thursday). Galleries who even
announced themselves in Artforum (the two that announced
themselves in the November Artforum were closed,
and I returned twice to Greener Pastures (the last
time was 2 pm on a Friday)...."Luckily", I was able to "visit"
these two shows by gazing in the windows with
my two hands on the side of my eyes for 15 minutes...
it'd be great if I could get press text or titles on their
websites but to no avail).


And then I come up to another problem
that I encountered with Toronto galleries:
many don't hand out press releases. The attendees
tell you "Oh..it's on our website", but they don't
understand that sometimes visitor travels and won't
access the web til a week later. It's great sometimes
to read about the work while you are actually
looking at it, or in your hotel room the following evening.


Only one gallerist, as an exchange, offered to
simply present the work themselves (trust me
it was necessary as the works were highly conceptual),
but my impression with Toronto, at least during this visit,
was that everyone was so poor that printing paper meant
a huge struggle.


I never meet these problems anywhere else, or
so rarely, but in Toronto I had the impression
that wanting bits of information about the show
you were visiting meant you were gonna have to
fight it out. Not counting fighting for
actually seeing the art, when I had to schedule
a date with a gallerist to make sure when I returned
the gallery would be opened (!!..they always close for
private events, it wasn't the first time with them).



All this said, I've also met charming
and very devoted attendees in some other galleries,
so I could never mean to draw a portrait of the Toronto-an
art community. In fact, I'd say that more than with anywhere else,
you never know what your experience is going to be when entering
a gallery in Toronto.


In New York you can happen to meet stiff employees but
they are generally (or nonetheless) serviable (if you are
polite yourself).


In Toronto, you can meet very concentrated employees
who will cut you very short at the first question you might have
(they replace someone, the "gallery people" aren't present, they're busy
with something (and often the only one in the gallery), etc...), or you can meet smiling people who actually ask you what you think about the art and engage with dialogue. Maybe that just has to do with Toronto people being like the food in that city: you will find every kind you can imagine.



But at any rates, my last frustration with my recent Toronto
visit was a very personal one: the fact that I couldn't
lend the times that some exhibitions were asking. They
were a couple exhibits that sounded fantastic but
included elaboratory works that I couldn't scrutinate as I
wished (or it would have meant sacrificing many other visits).




Examples:

The Database Imaginary exhibit at Blackwood
will ask you a full day if you really want to
experiment with every media work that is displayed there.
I stayed at least 2 hours but that was just the time
needed to grasp what each work were about.


The Andy Fabo retrospective had a video
work (among others) made from an extensive series of paintings
(each becoming a video vignette) that I couldn't have watched in whole, not counting the fact that the Impulse archives room asks for at least an hour of visit if you are going to enjoy it as much as I have.


I am so frustrated to have seen only 30 to 40 minutes
of the 2 hours or so Daniel Olson series of videos
at YYZ, not counting another 20 minutes looking at the
two other artists's works (and the list of things I had to visit
in that building). I'm thinking of going back. Or could it come
to Montreal ? It's not a secret that I love Olson's art much, though
it's not for everyone's taste, trust me. ;-)


I'm used to exhibits at The Metropolitan where each work comes with a full
text of anecdotal information, but somehow I didn't expect Catherine La Grande at Ago
would be like this, so after 2 hours and a half I skipped a couple readings toward
the end. Nothing dramatic, but... I had 15 minutes left to visit Michael Awad and others.


I think that's all, but I could include that I would love to see the Vera Frenkel
exercises (at Interaccess) in its entirity some day, a work that only confirmed
the pre-eminence of this artist. Of course, I'd be pressing the FFWD button at times..(ahem).



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Toronto, by the way, still shows a LOT of painting,
which makes me wonder if it's urging to become
the Boston of Canada, what I wouldn't recommend
(lost of paintings...and bits of technological art).



Trying to vary the types of mediums
I give attention to, they are still
a few painting exhibits that are a must
to visit in TO these days:


- Angela Leach at Doris McCarthy

- Graham Gillmore at Monte Clark Gallery

- Andy Fabo at Mocca

- Ed Pien at Birch Libralato

- Gary Evans's second floor of tiny urban abstractions at Paul Petro.

- Wallworks at Ago


etc...




I still think the major stop in TO these days
is "Bodyworld 2" from Gunther Von Hagens,
simply because it's fascinating to
observe how it's so true that reality surpasses
everything you have seen in horror film
(remember wax museums films?).

As art (yes, yes, as "art"), it's also the equivalent if not
superior to Damien Hirst, which it seems to take from
at times, but without the intellectual apparat.


I think if I'd lend my body to Hagens, I'd say
"could you please make a work of art, and get rid of
all the scientifical bits" ? I can see a John McCracken
cube made out of an entire body.



Macabre's never been so voluntary, and that is all
the fun about it.




And if you forget anything about pain and fear,
some of it is actually quite pretty.



Cheers,


Cedric Caspesyan
centiment@hotmail.com



PS: I will or not return to some of these exhibits later on.
I'm already behind with other stuff.


PS2: By the way they were like 25 trucks for each car while on my way to Toronto (someone else was driving). That's not normal. I think the train got so expensive that every companies opted for trucking. Great for ecology. Where's a decent government?