Howdy!

It is Sunday. It is raining. I am waiting for people to come to the kids vernie and/or the pets vernie. So what better way to while away the time than by pointing you in some very specific ways towards all the various reviews of Art here in town. This week, I am doing them in a very specific order.

First off, The Globe and Mail not only had a special section designed to separate art galleries from their money, but in the regular part of the paper, RM Vaughan quotes yours truly! Woo-Hoo! (or should that be "tee-hee?") Due to potential conflicts of interest, I will refrain from saying anything about the particular article, other than the Globe & Mail is a wonderful paper, RM Vaughan is the bestest writer in the entire known universe, and if you've had difficulty in finding a copy of yesterday's paper it is probably because I have bought up every last copy in existence in order to save for my archives and give away to friends and family.

Now on to our regularly scheduled program. In the special Visual Arts section (which is just chock full o' ads, good call by the advertising department). There's a whole mess o' stuff about Toronto art, New York art, and then on the 6th page (of an 8 page section) is this article by Bryne McLaughlin about art in Montréal. 1,321 words where he basically synopsizes the recent Canadian Art Magazine issue about Art in Montreal. In that issue they talked about Caroline Andrieux as one of the "new rising art stars" in Montreal. The first two paragraphs of this article are about the current exhibition at her gallery. In passing Mr. McLaughlin mentions Nicolas Baier, Karilee Fuglem, Emmanuelle Leonard and Pascal Grandmaison, all of whom were highlighted in said issue (ok, I'm not certain about Ms. Leonard, but you get the idea). He then goes on to talk about Pierre-Francois Ouellette, and Galerie Clark. My main complaint is that he gives lip service to the vast majority of art and galleries in town. While stating that there are twenty artist run centers here, he neglects to mention that Quartier Ephemere is one of them. He does not mention any of the fourteen Maisons de la Culture at all, nor the twenty-two other places that exhibit art supported by the city. Beyond PFO, he slights all the other commercial galleries by writing "But it's been tough on commercial galleries, which have struggled to find the support of a buying public for contemporary art." If that is the case why are they popping up like zits on a 14-year old, and moving into bigger spaces like nobody's business? But enough slagging of the Globe & Mail, I already said it was a wonderful newspaper.