On Canadian Painting in New York
This week, “North by Northeast: Contemporary Canadian Painting,” opened at Kasmin Gallery in New York. Comprised of representational painters who have spent a significant amount of time in Canada, seeing the show was like walking into a room full of old friends.
I’ve had that feeling before—at the Getty Museum in LA. Slightly untethered, I took the day off to roam the gallery atop a hill. I gravitated towards the sister pieces of the AGO—the Degas of a woman being bathed, the Henry Moore sculptures, a Bernini bust. I wasn’t looking for novelty (#NoNewArt), I was looking for something that reminded me of home.
There’s an inclination to seek out art that’s completely new, the experience of gallery going akin to collecting sought-after baseball cards to add to your collection. That’s how I felt in the Prado seeing a surplus of El Greco’s and Goya’s for the first time. I raced around the museum, trying to see as much as I could in a day. But recently I’ve veered towards the familiar, wanting to look at the same painting, again and again, each time as if I was seeing it for the first time. I’d rather walk into a gallery and look at one piece for half and hour than see the whole show. In slowing down, I’m trying to make the unfamiliar familiar.
I’ve been in New York for over a month and have been homesick for half that time. An ailment from when I was a child, after more than two weeks away from home I wake up each day with an ache for a familiar routine, the comfort of my own space. The sincerity of this affliction is unavoidably uncool. So I’m not surprised that I spent most of my time in New York surrounded by Canadian painting—what else could be more sincere?
At Kasmin Gallery, each painting echoed with familiarity. I curated Corri-Lynn Tetz in a show that opened two years ago this month. Seeing them in New York felt like time travelling back to a younger version of myself who had just discovered Tetz’s confident brushstrokes that come together to capture the nuances of femininity (both wild and docile). Stephanie Temma-Hier’s paintings have evolved since the first time I saw them in a magazine in 2017, the ceramic frames have progressed to become the focal point. The sheen of a ceramic knife, the complexity paired with naivety, charms.
It was nice to see some Chloe Wise work in person—paintings I most closely associate with Instagram, and have barely any coverage in Canada. While one of the last shows I saw in Canada prior to the latest lockdown was Manuel Mathieu at the PowerPlant, it was an unexpected pleasure to run into his work again so soon.
Jane Corrigan’s paintings, seen last at Art Toronto two years ago, pack a storybook of narrative in the small canvases. As does Tristan Unrau, on a larger scale. The surrealness of the colours leads to fairytale projections. Just as the air conditioning of the gallery offered a respite from the New York heat, I’m reminded of the ways painting can offer an escape.
The New York art world has a lot more to offer than Canada’s: the attention given to shows, size of the art community, and speed of potential success. But it’s also isolating and vast in a way that Canada’s art scene isn’t. These descriptors can also be used to describe what it feels like to live in each place. The unfamiliar speed of life here makes me ache for slowness—a familiarity that “North by Northeast,” offered, momentarily sedating my homesickness.
More news from Canadians in NYC: Read about Keiran Brennan Hinton’s paintings in Forbes and Sharp Magazine, check out Cindy Ji Hye Kim’s show in LA, Alphabetic Image at Arsenal Contemporary, Fin Simonetti and Ambera Wellmann at Company Gallery, and Eli Bornowsky at King’s Leap.
ICYMI: Our latest video collaboration with Art Plus Public UnLtd. was posted last week. You can watch the interview with Brendan Fernandes here: