Archives: art galleries

It’s no coincidence that Steve’s latest art show is called Nesting. Possible inspiration from his real life? He sure did a lot of nesting during the last few months. Before Omi’s arrival Steve threw himself into multiple reno projects building the appropriate cozy “nest” and home for us and the little guy.

I won’t talk too much about Steve’s work for the show because you should go check it out yourself. It does however involve a whole ton of pool noodles, a little bit of skipping rope and plywood.

The show is at Hamilton Artists Inc. in the member’s gallery. Steve’s work will be showing along side artist Teal Booth. In the main gallery you should also check out the exhibit Story Bones by established Canadian artist Jack Butler.

The opening is on Thursday, January 10th from 7-9pm and the exhibit will run until February 3rd. You can also check out more of Steve’s work here on his artist website: stevenewberry.com

*Hamilton Artists Inc. 155 James St. North

Bestiary: A compendium of curious creatures, alive; dead & in-between, portrayed in paint to captivate & cultivate.

If you’re free tonight you should come on down to Jacqui Oakley‘s art opening at Defacto Mulberry (193 James St. North). The opening starts at 7pm and goes until 11.

There’ll be a whole body of Jacqui’s beautiful art work on display including giclée prints that will be for sale (perfect holiday gifts y’all!). Check’em out in the photo below.

photo courtesy of Jacqui Oakley. Check out her blog here.

 

Jacqui’s show will be up from December 13th and throughout the month of January.

 

There’s something quite humorous about wielding a hammer in “The Hammer”.

I recently renewed my annual membership at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and couldn’t help but notice this great installation by Hamilton artist Simon Frank.

The hammer, with an embossed pine tree, is hung on the large wall of the front entrance of the AGH.  You can swing it as you like into the drywall.  The overall effect is the creation of a forest of hammered out pine trees, or as the title of the work states View (from the escarpment). I love it!

 

October’s art crawl has come and gone but it just might have been my favourite one of the year.  With all the hoopla of the Supercrawl over it was nice to see this art crawl so chill and low-key.  It always seems like in the fall and winter the crawl crowd seems to mellow out, which I secretly kinda love.

During last week’s crawl I stumbled upon three new gallery spaces, one of which has become my new favourite Hamilton gallery.

Located at 27 John Street North, the Nathaniel Hughson Gallery just recently opened in the space that Wishart advertising agency formerly occupied.  It’s a great addition to the expanding Hamilton art and gallery scene.  It keeps me optimistic when galleries start reaching beyond James North especially onto this particular stretch of John (between King William and King Streets). I have big hopes for this little drag on John North -so much potential!

David Hind‘s metal work above the door of Nathaniel Hughson’s Art Gallery.

Another piece by David Hind inside the gallery.  I’m a really big fan of his work and of his collaborative projects with the collective the Aluminum Quilting Society.

There were many other fantastic pieces of artwork in the gallery from several established Ontario artist including local Hamilton artist Christina Sealey.  The works of art exhibited ranged from painting to sculpture, including functional pieces of furniture. It is definitely worth a visit, so add this to the list of galleries to check out at your next art crawl, or better yet take a looksy if you’re in the neighbourhood.

Next we popped into Manta Contemporary at 51 King William, which is another new gallery slightly off the beaten James North track.  I loved the playful exhibit From Cardboard that they had in perfect time for Halloween.

The exhibit consisted of wonderfully crafted masks made from none other than cardboard.  The idea behind the exhibit is to sell the pieces (masks, costumes and props) -for Halloween of course! The works that sell will be replaced regularly by new pieces that are being created on an on-going basis until October 31st.  Super fun! If you need a unique costume now you know where to go.

As we continued on King William I noticed this subtle installation projected onto Delta Bingo Hall‘s wall from Baltimore Café.  It was like a giant old full moon all soft-lit and glowy. Loved these surprise discoveries during this art crawl.

My big fav of the night was a 5 piece blues band (out front of Christ Church Cathedral) consisting primarily of elderly gents.  Their aged voices were just as fun and sassy as they needed to be to draw a crowd.

The last gallery discovery of the night was another newish space that we were lead to by a series of arrows chalked, taped and painted on the sidewalk leading off of James and onto Barton. I don’t remember the name of the gallery but it was quite non-descript with a fairly young crowd checking out the artwork. There was some electronic music and sound equipment set up, which implied that there’d likely have been a show, however we didn’t stick around for very long. I’m not 100% certain but I believe this space is called HAVN -”a multi-modal node for the development, exhibition, documentation, and dispersal of sound, images, and ideas” -sounds interesting.

Great to see the continued development and expansion of the art scene in Hamilton!

So much to do! So much going on!

I love summer! I also love that I have the summer off this year, and that there is so much to do locally in the city to fill up my days.

Just this week I sat on the rooftop of Jackson square and ate my schnitzel sandwich from the market; in the breeze, with the sun, and the beautiful sound of Terra Lightfoot‘s voice singing CCR and Fleetwood Mac covers carrying through the open air. Sigh.

The next day I headed to Gore Park for their grand opening of the new designated pedestrian area and their Summer Promenade’s first of several weekly events. So nice to see pedestrians taking over that space and seeing crowds of people gathering and hanging out at Gore Park.  The Gore Park Promenade event with vendors, and live music runs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 11am-5:30pm until September 15th.

Last night I joined the Stinson neighbourhood in Bishop’s Park for their weekly Thursday evening concerts: Songs From the Bishop, running from July 5th to August 23rd. It was such a nice and laid back community event, it just made me love where we live more than ever.

I feel like I say this every month… but tonight’s art crawl is going to be an awesome one! There’s a craft show being put on by the newly open Mint Studio in the Sonic Unyon building (3rd floor).

Blush’s pink trailer coming all the way from Guelph selling gorgeous and delicate women’s clothing in partnership with Beaux Mondes.

The Sweet Ice Snow Cone ladies will be out selling their refreshing treats.  Check out their promo video it is so adorably sweet!

The AGH’s new Design Annex will be open for its very first art crawl.

Dr. Disc will be celebrating its 21st birthday with bands like The Rest, New Hands, The Dirty Nil, and Greg Preston & The Great Machine playing on their rooftop. Plus after Dr. Disc’s Raise the Roof event there’s an after party at The Casbah.  That’s a super packed crawl!

On Saturday there’s also the Farm Crawl!

It seems like everyday there’s something to do, and some place to check out.

This month’s artcrawl is going to be a good one!  SO many things going on;  Steve and our talented friend Jamie Lawson both have their solo openings tomorrow night, there’ll be the super-fabulous vintage dress sale that White Elephant is hosting, and CBC Hamilton will finally have their official doors open for the crawl too (yay)!

Some sneak peaks…

Steve’s show is called Straits, and is amazing!  It features new 2D and 3D works using mixed media, metal, and routered wood.  His show will be up at b contemporary gallery at 226 James St. North until June 2nd.

Up on the 3rd floor of 126 James St.  North, be sure to check out Jamie Lawson’s exhibit Albedo in Sylvia Nickerson’s Open Studio.  His work is looking fab, and he will also have some prints for sale to adorn your lovely walls.

To get your one of a kind 1940′s-60′s vintage dress you must check out White Elephant’s Dreaming of Dresses -vintage dress sale!  They’ve got the combined super-power forces of Ottawa’s Victoire, Hamilton’s Peacock Chic, and Toronto’s Love in the Afternoon to put on the best vintage dress sale you’ve ever seen!

With the quickly warming weather this art crawl is sure to be a busy one.  I heard that last month the count was 6000 people!  Well done.  If you do plan to stop by the crawl it runs form 7-11pm and please remember to bring a non perishable good to Cannon & James North (specifically baby formula and baby food)!  Help your community!

 

The AGH held its annual Spring Art Sale from May 3rd to May 6th.  The sale featured work from 50 artists (local Hamilton artists and artists from the surrounding GTA) exhibiting artwork varying from painting to pottery, jewelry and ceramics. I went and checked it out over the weekend for Doors Open Hamilton.

Of all the amazing art on display I was immediately attracted to a ceramic piece by artist Lana Filippone.  I adored her dainty and sweet creations and wanted to take each one of them home with me!

This work is from her series “Dwelling on a Whim” -playing off the theme of “childhood daydreams”.  The artist describes her work as having it all: “bunnies with tree houses on their backs, to grumpy birthday party guests-of-honour”.  Adorable!!

I see these pieces going perfectly along side high-tea, and crumpets.

 

 

 

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of finally checking out 270 Sherman – the old Imperial Cotton Mill in the north-east end of town – which has been transformed into artist’s studios and other creative spaces. The area has a real historic industrial Hamilton feel and I was intrigued by the neighbouring buildings.

I wondered a little about how 270 Sherman came to be what it is today and had heard a rumour once that someone from the Zeidler family may have bought the building.  FYI – the Ziedler family own both 401 Richmond and The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.  The transformation of 270 Sherman into a creative space would then all make sense, knowing that 401 Richmond is a transformed industrial space that is now home to artist’s studios and galleries, as well as various other creative workspaces.  And The Gladstone is a refurbished boutique hotel that supports the Queen West art scene with gallery exhibitions, Come Up to My Room, and numerous other artistic events.  Hmmm… I wonder.  The rumour was recently dispelled as I learnt from a reader and staff member from 270 Sherman that in fact the building is locally developed and managed by The Crerar Group from right here in Hamilton. Sorry for any perpetuating of false rumours!

In any case I loved the 1900′s turn of the century factory -what a fabulous space!  According to its history Hamilton was apparently not just a steel town but also a garment and textile town too with a multitude of textile factories spattered throughout the city.  In the building there were still remnants of the former factory: old worker’s lockers, patches on the hardwood floor where the workers and factory machines treaded, and the steel plates on each of the steps leading up to the factory floor boldly embossed with Imperial Cotton Co. Ltd. 1900.

I was also really excited to check out the TH&B (2) exhibit that was being put on in the old factory space of 270 Sherman.  I wasn’t living in Hamilton for the first TH&B but had read about it, and so I was super excited to kill two birds with one stone by seeing the building space and opening night of TH&B2 all in one go!  The opening was amazing!  A great show of support for the arts from local Hamiltonians.  A bus load of folks from Toronto’s OCAD even came for the opening night.  It felt so good to be a part of something like this, and to know that there ARE great artistic things happening in this city.

I enjoyed the exhibit and the building so much that I wanted to check it out again in the day light for Doors Open Hamilton.  Here are some of the day-time photos of the exhibit and the building.

The night of the opening behind David Hind and the Aluminum Quilting Society’s piece there was some live aluminum quilting going on.  The artwork above is actually the front of a mini enclosed workspace, where artists were working to etch and engrave steel plates live!  It was pretty cool. Throughout the gallery space and the opening you could hear the industrious muted sound of metal being ground and worked.

The TH&B2 exhibit is on until May 12th.

 

*270 Sherman Ave. North, 905.547.8256

One of the perks of getting back into the teaching profession is March Break holidays and trips!

Steve and I headed down to New York City over March break to visit some friends, explore more of Brooklyn and indulge in some NYC art and food.

On a visit to the big apple last year, we checked out Chelsea and decided that we really wanted to go back to do some more exploring (I really did want to go to Chelsea!).  We actually ended up spending a few days hanging around there.  We walked the High Line, which was in glorious spring form.

The High Line is a 2.5 km park that winds around Chelsea.  It’s actually an old raised rail line that has been transformed into a pedestrian walkway with natural vegetation, flowers, wild grasses, urban landscaping, and amazing city views.

On this particular day the sun was shining, and all the early spring foliage was already budding and blooming.

We also checked out the contingency of contemporary art galleries that are concentrated in Chelsea -nearly a whole 5 city blocks worth!  The galleries are privately owned but occupy huge industrial spaces, representing some major players in art like Georg Baselitz and Roy Lichtenstein.

In terms of art we arrived in perfect timing to catch the last day of  The Armory Show.  It is one of the largest international art show and sales in the world and is only open to the public for four days.  We concentrated mostly on the contemporary art section that took nearly 3 hours to walk through.  It was a lot to take in visually all in one go and I left with my head in a bit of an art spin.

Once the art fix was satisfied it was on to the food! That’ll be my next post.

October’s art crawl is on tonight from 7-10pm!

I wanted to share some photos of the last art crawl before the Supercrawl, which was a busy one too.

The Friendship building was a buzz with the Beehive Craft Collective’s Craft Fair, and the galleries were packed and filled with hot summer air,  the streets were full and everyone was enjoying a gorgeous summer night.  It seems so long ago, now that the weather has really turned to fall.