CANADIAN ART

Ivan Jurakic Pylon 2012 Installation view / photo K.J. Bedford

TH&B, a collective named after the defunct Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway, mounted its second large group show this spring. As Caitlin Sutherland observes, the exhibition evoked Steeltown’s struggle to redefine itself as a cultural hub. Read more…

Edouard Vuillard, Woman in a Striped Dress from The Album, 1895. Courtesy the National Gallery of Art Washington

A new exhibition of works by turn-of-the-century French painter Edouard Vuillard at New York’s Jewish Museum is at once predictably quiet and unexpectedly thrilling. David Balzer reviews one of Manhattan’s mandatory summer art events. Read more…

Deborah Samuel, Barred Owl.I 2012 © Deborah Samuel, Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum.

Have you ever wished you’d done something other than make art? Maybe done something that could tangibly help other living beings? Janieta Eyre has felt that way, but the ROM’s Deborah Samuel exhibition is reminding her how art itself can be helpful. Read more…

Jeff Thomas, Richard Poafpybitty, Pink Panther, 1982. From the series Strong Hearts: The Powwow Dancers 1981–96

The history of indigenous people performing for colonial audiences inspires “Sovereign Acts,” a current Toronto group show. As Max Mosher writes, the show—featuring Lori Blondeau, Adrian Stimson and others—is both campy and contemplative. Read more…

Luke Painter, The Arch of William Morris. Courtesy LE Gallery and Luke Painter

Melding William Morris–style ornamentation with more contemporary concerns, artist Luke Painter detours around dry academicism for something more vibrant and visceral. Mariam Nader reviews his current Toronto show at LE Gallery, finding depth in decoration. Read more…

Angela Grossmann, The Future Is Female, 2012. Courtesy the artist and Winsor Gallery

When I see an Angela Grossmann collage, I think of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Her figures, like the monster, are constructed in secret, with an ambiguous mix of discarded materials vivisected, beheaded and forged together. Read more…

Doug Cranmer Undersea Kingdom Creature mask 1974 / photo Ken Mayer

A hereditary chief and renowned Kwakwaka’wakw carver, the late Doug Cranmer was a master artist who preferred to refer to himself as a “doodler” and “whittler.” Here, Susan Walker reviews his Vancouver survey “Kesu’,” which means “wealth being carved.” Read more…

Fred Herzog, Crossing Powell, 1984. © Fred Herzog 2012 Courtesy Equinox Gallery

To celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, Vancouver’s Equinox Gallery opened a spectacular 12,000-square-foot project space in an old tractor factory. Here, Nancy Tousley reports on the space and its debut show: a vast Fred Herzog retrospective. Read more…

Tessar Sebastian Lo, After All, Ecstasy, 2012. Courtesy the artist and Cooper Cole Gallery

Currently on at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto is an exhibition that juxtaposes two young Canadian artists of distinctly different practices—one more emotional and illustrative, the other more conceptual and abstract. Mariam Nader reviews. Read more…

O Zhang Salute to the Patriots 2008 © O Zhang Courtesy the artist and CRG Gallery New York

The typical take on translation favours something more lost than found. But as Tess Edmonson reports, the Deutsche Guggenheim’s recent show on translation showed it to be productive and positive for culture and language. Read more…