Tag Archives: Canada

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Reviews

Art Exhibitions: ‘Manabu Ikeda – Flowers From The Wreckage’ (Canada, 2023)

July 22, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Manabu Ikeda:
Flowers from the Wreckage

June 24 – October 9, 2023

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada (July 22, 2023) – Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage features Ikeda’s meticulously detailed pen-and-ink drawings that are filled with astonishing images.

This Japanese artist seeks inspiration from his surroundings to bring attention and awe to viewers, as a way of sending warnings about the painful reality of environmental disasters. Central to his practice are metaphors of grief and the undeniable aspects of life that are often beyond society’s control, including the fundamental forces of Mother Nature. Ikeda’s drawings also reveal human resilience and the ability to rise above devastating situations when it appears impossible.

Curated by Kiriko Watanabe, the Audain Art Museum’s Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, this is Ikeda’s first solo retrospective in North America showcasing over sixty works from national and international collections. Flowers from the Wreckage includes Foretoken (2008), Meltdown (2013) and Rebirth (2013-16), a selection of Ikeda’s large-scale drawings that relate to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake; the most devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power disaster in the country’s recorded history.

Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage will be on display in the AAM’s Tom and Teresa Gautreau Galleries from June 24 to October 9, 2023. A full colour exhibition catalogue featuring essays by Kiriko Watanabe and comments by Manabu Ikeda will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop.

pen and acrylic ink on paper, mounted on board, 17″ x 23″ (Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, courtesy the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, B.C.)

Manabu Ikeda Studio Gallery

A studio has been set up in the Museum’s architecturally stunning Upper Galleries, where visitors have the opportunity to observe the process of Ikeda drawing his latest work and interact with him during open studio hours.

Manabu will be in studio on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, from 3:00pm to 4:30pm until August 30. Museum guests are encouraged to come and witness the Artist’s incredible talent and learn more about his techniques. The studio will be open for viewing Thursday through Monday until September 4.

Architecture, Buildings, Design, Reviews

Architecture & Design: ‘Inuit Heritage Centre’ In Canada By Dorte Mandrup

July 11, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

July 11, 2023: Dorte Mandrup convinced the jury with a beautiful and poetic response, expressing great consideration for the community perspectives on Inuit traditional knowledge and the healing potential for the Inuit Nunavut Heritage Centre. The design of the building is informed by the landscape and the movement of the snow and the wind. Drawing inspiration from the patterns formed in snowdrifts by the prevailing wind, kalutoqaniq, which has long served as a natural wayfinding system for Inuit, the building carves into the rocky hillside overlooking Iqaluit and follows the curves and longitudinal features of the landscape.

dorte mandrup's winning design for inuit heritage center in canada rises from a vast tundra

The Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre will be built in Iqaluit to honour the Canadian Governments commitment to the Nunavut Agreement which identified an urgent need for a territorial heritage facility. The centre will encourage the growth of local heritage and foster a network of cultural centres across the territory where the Inuit can reconnect with their heritage and find a stronger sense of identity and culture.

Adventure, Travel, Videos, Views

Travel: A Tour Of ‘Iceberg Alley’ Off Newfoundland

June 5, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Two men wearing jackets and hats stand at the edge of a boat looking out over the water, where a curvaceous iceberg, about the size of a house, floats in the water. — Guests aboard a tour boat approaching an iceberg near the town of Twillingate, Newfoundland.Credit…Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Where Whales, Puffins and Icebergs Jostle for Your Attention

The New York Times (June 5, 2023) – Each spring, opalescent icebergs from the Greenland ice sheet pass through Iceberg Alley, off the eastern edge of Canada, on a slow-motion journey southward.

An enormous white-and-green iceberg floats off the coastline, its shape defined by jagged peaks. In the foreground is a white-and-brown church that sits close to the coast.

“I never trust the mind of an iceberg,” Cecil Stockley told me. He estimates its length, multiplies by five and keeps his boat at least that distance away.

Dave Boyd said his safety rules depend on which type of iceberg he’s dealing with. “A tabular is generally pretty mellow,” Mr. Boyd explained as we floated off the coast of Newfoundland, referring to icebergs with steep sides and large, flat tops. “But a pinnacle” — a tall iceberg with one or more spires — “can be a real beast.”

Two small buildings — one red, one green with yellow trim — sit among a tangle of wooden piers and catwalks, along with a large bleached-white whale skeleton. — Dave Boyd, who captains tour boats, also runs Prime Berth, a museum and heritage center in Twillingate. Credit…Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Barry Rogers doesn’t just look at an iceberg; he listens to it, as well. When the normal Rice Krispies-like pop of escaping air bubbles gives way to a much louder frying-pan sizzle, the iceberg may be about to roll over or even split apart, he explained.

In 1912, one such iceberg struck the starboard side of the Titanic on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Over the years, plenty of others have done lesser damage to ships, oil rigs and even the occasional unlucky — or foolhardy — kayaker.

Toronto Art: ‘Dominic Besner’ – Galerie LeRoyer

June 3, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Galerie LeRoyer (June 3, 2023) – A corpus called “Migratory Series”. It is an ode to manifest colours, driven by the hot winds of June and the full moon of strawberries. Coming from elsewhere, like the tropical butterfly, their glass hooves fuel the playfulness of our fantasies.

DOMINIC BESNER

“Migratory Series”

JUNE 2023

Dominic Besner’s creative work is based on a mixed technique on canvas. He has a preference for oil sticks and their rich palette of colours as well as acrylic paint, structural mortar, china marker and aerosol paint. In addition to these materials, he uses a technique of application by the fingers and scraping of the canvas.

News, Podcasts, Politics, Stories

News: Canada’s Trudeau In South Korea, Thailand’s ‘Move Forward’ Party Win

Audio May 17, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Globalist, May 17, 2023: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in South Korea for a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Thailand progressive Move Forward party won more votes than any other but faces an uphill struggle to form government.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/73OglPYzAtxC6C2TNPXhm8

Nature, Travel, Videos, Views

Nature: The Changing Seasons At Niagara Falls

April 6, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Nature on PBS (April 6, 2023) – From fall to winter, watch as Niagara Falls transforms with the seasons. “Niagara Falls“ premieres April 19, 2023, at 8|7c on PBS.

America’s oldest state park, open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, brings you closer than you ever thought possible to the grandeur of the Falls. Niagara Falls State Park is always the trip of a lifetime — any time of the year — making it “a park for all seasons.”

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

Audio March 24, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

March 24, 2023: This week: Art Basel Hong Kong bounces back. After cancellations, delays and two years of restricted fairs, the fair has returned to something like pre-Covid normality.

So, as other Asian art centres like Seoul and Singapore become increasingly influential, what is the atmosphere like in Hong Kong? Gareth Harris, chief contributing editor at The Art Newspaper, joins us to discuss the fair, the M+ museum and more. It is becoming increasingly clear that social media corporations have become self-appointed cultural gatekeepers that decide which works of art can freely circulate, be pushed into the digital margins or even banned.

Our live editor, Aimee Dawson, talks to the artist Emma Shapiro and Elizabeth Larison, the Director of the Arts & Culture Advocacy Program at the National Coalition Against Censorship, about the issue and a project to counter this tendency, called Don’t Delete Art. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Naabami (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me), a photographic project by Brenda L. Croft, in which she depicts fellow First Nations women and girls.

The work is part of The National 4: Australian Art Now, a survey across multiple venues in Sydney. One of the show’s curators, Beatrice Gralton, tells us about Croft’s epic series.Art Basel Hong Kong, until 25 March.Visit Don’t Delete Art: dontdelete.artThe National 4: Australian Art Now continues until 23 July.

Travel, Videos, Views

Winter Views: A Tour Of Banff In Alberta, Canada

Video March 19, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Lvfree Adventures (March 19, 2023) – Banff is a resort town in the province of Alberta, located within Banff National Park. The peaks of Mt. Rundle and Mt. Cascade, part of the Rocky Mountains, dominate its skyline. On Banff Avenue, the main thoroughfare, boutiques and restaurants mix with château-style hotels and souvenir shops. The surrounding 6,500 square kilometres of parkland are home to wildlife including elk and grizzly bears.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

Audio March 17, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

March 17, 2023: the extraordinary story behind what Canadian police have called “the biggest art fraud in history”. More than 1,000 fake works purporting to be by the First Nations artist Norval Morrisseau are seized and eight people have been charged.

The Art Newspaper’s Editor, Americas, Ben Sutton, tells the extraordinary story, involving a rock star, a television documentary and alleged forgery rings, and what it tells us about the market for First Nations art in Canada. A report into artists’ pay in the UK has exposed the inordinately low sums paid to artists for their labour by arts organisations.

We talk to the art collective Industria, who wrote the report, and Julie Lomax, the CEO of a-n, The Artists’ Information Company, which has published the study. And this episode’s Work of the Week is An Old Woman (around 1513) by the Northern Renaissance artist Quinten Massys, a painting better known as The Ugly Duchess.

A new exhibition at the National Gallery focuses on this work in its collection, exploring its origins in a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, and the combination of satire, folklore, humanism and misogyny from which it emerged. Emma Capron, the curator of the show, tells us more.A PDF of Industria’s Structurally F–cked report can be found at a-n.co.uk. Industria’s website is we-industria.org.The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance, National Gallery, London, until 11 June.

Cities, Travel, Videos, Views

Canada Views: Christmas Snowfall In Quebec City

December 14, 2022 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AjZJdKbMUc

Christopher Putvinski (December 14, 2022) – Snowfall in Old Québec at around 5 a.m. during the Christmas season. I had included this footage in an edit on Christmas in Québec, but felt it was so nice that it deserved its own edit as well. Song is Provence by GÅEL.