Visual Arts News’ research intern Chris Shapones 

Hi! My name is Chris. I’m the new student research intern at VANS. I’m going to be looking back at the archives of Visual Arts News and any other publications, galleries, organizations around Nova Scotia for the next few months. I’m also excited to talk to lots of people who were involve with starting, running and keeping VANS growing for the past 40 years.

A bit about me — I’m a queer, white, settler cis woman from Ontario. I moved to Halifax with my wife, Susie, and daughter, our cat Bart, last year to finally finish my interdisciplinary BFA at NSCAD (better late than never). I earned my diploma 10 years ago at Sheridan College in the glass department and since then have also become a bicycle mechanic and community organizer at the DIY Bike repair space, Bike Pirates, in Toronto and continue to volunteer every week at Bike Again here in Halifax. I consider myself a multidisciplinary designer and arts workers. Most recently I have been making short animated films with Susie. To our delight, last year we won the Halifax Smartphone Film Festival with a short animation Hide and Squeak.

I’m going to be posting here regularly for the next few months on things I find interesting from the past 40 years of Visual Arts News. If you have anything to share or add to the story please contact me at vanews@visualarts.ns.ca.

Cheers,

Chris Shapones

Andrea Ward, Hairstories (detail) 1989-94
hair, printed text and mixed media, Plexiglas, mahogany frames, Plexiglas shelves (8 panels from suite of 41). 35 x 35 cm. On view at MSVU Art Gallery

HAPPENINGS:

• Mireille Bourgeois’s IOTA Gallery, a project that “investigates the alternative presentation and production platform, supporting writing, curatorial research, and cross-disciplinary artworks spanning new media, the web, visual, interactive and performance art” has a pop up event in Halifax June 6.
• Check out two short films by artist Lisa Lipton, screening during HIFF 2015 on June 13.
• At An Intimate Distance, an exhibition focusing on feminist works by Andrea Ward, Glynis Humphrey and Suzanne Swannie opens this week at Halifax’s MSVU Art Gallery.
• Featuring artists ranging from Brendan Fernandes to Brian Jungen, PEI’s Confederation Centre Art Gallery explores the theme of masks in their current exhibition Looking back at You: Masks by Artists.
• Have an itch to travel? Check out Christopher Pratt’s latest exhibition inspired by his extensive travels across Newfoundland at The Rooms Art Gallery, and take their “Travel Journal Writing and Sketching” workshop June 13.

NEWS

• New Brunswick’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery recently revealed their expansion plans, which include new amenities such as artist studios.
• The shortlist for the Sobey Art Award was just announced.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT/FUN:

• Our featured cover artist for the Summer 2015 issue is Kay Burns. Spend some time exploring her amusing and thought provoking project, The Flat Earth Society.
• Canadian Art’s Associate Editor David Balzer chats with BBC about “curationism,” or the current move towards a society where everyone wants to be a curator.
• Can’t get to Venice? Learn more about Canadian representatives BGL, whose playful installation is on view at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Via Canadian Art.
• One of my favorite comic book heroines, Wendy, “a young woman living in an urban centre, whose dreams of contemporary art stardom are perpetually derailed by the temptations of punk music, drugs, alcohol, parties, and boys,” got some big media attention this season. Check out the feature on Wendy in Canadian Art  and see her on the cover of Broken Pencil Magazine
• Critic Jonathan Jones complains that fashion houses are “the new patrons of art” and they have boring tastes.
• The debate about ownership and images in the digital age rages on—Richard Prince’s “victims” speak out.
• Out writer Daniel Higham reviews John Greer’s exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in his latest Akimblog.