Buying books based on their covers
Art news from me to you
Good morning! Toronto is gearing up for a busy week with Art Toronto opening on October 26th and many great shows to see. I’ll be at the fair throughout the weekend—shoot me a message if you’re around and want to say hi!
I love this Nancy Friedland painting on the cover of The New York Review of Books. It captures such a FEELING. I can hear the radio and smell the wet cement (my favourite scent in the world). I’ve been noticing a trend of more paintings being used for magazine and book covers—a trend I can get behind. I will absolutely buy a book/magazine for its cover.
Speaking of great paintings as book covers, I was pleasantly surprised to spy this Joani Tremblay painting as the cover of C Pam Zhang’s book. Look how many other paintings are used as cover images!
Red frame, yes, please. I’m a big fan of Karice Mitchell’s photographs. They also inspire me to frame my work with pops of colour.
Azadeh Elmizadeh’s paintings have been everywhere lately—and for good reason, they’re breathtaking. Most recently, she had a solo presentation at Frieze 2023 with Franz Kaka. Also, paintings at Sea View in Los Angeles, Tube Culture Hall in Milan, Harkawik in NYC, Europa in NYC, and upcoming at Anat Ebgi. Wow. Longtime readers know I’m a longtime fan.
Last month, the City of Markham cancelled a public artwork installation by Canadian artist Julian Yi-Zhong Hou at the last minute after a year-long curatorial, creation, and production process. The work depicted Vancouver-based artist James Albers as themselves and their drag persona Lady Boi Bangkok. It’s a great piece of public art and a welcome change to the art typically displayed in public (generic, abstract, vague). It’s beyond unfortunate that this work was pulled—the public deserves good art. The worry is that pulling the work was an act of censorship due to the subject matter. There’s a petition asking the City of Markham to reconsider their decision.
Julian Yi-Zhong Hou Thank you for reading and your lovely messages—it means the world. x
