Catch this while you can

Howdy!

I don't know how long the Globe & Mail allows people to read its articles, but there's an article up now about Pascal Grandmaison written by Sarah Milroy. Simple enough as a piece of the hype machine (see the picture below of the actual page)



What I'm not happy with is how Ms. Milroy flips in the middle of the article from listing how well M. Grandmaison's career is doing and a profile-like piece, to some sort of analytic review of the meaning of his work. Can we get one of the other, please? And as it's in a daily newspaper, I'd sorta be keen on seeing the profile instead of the analytic review. Why Susan Sontag's ideas about photography need to be referenced in an article that also includes details about M. Grandmaison's tenants, I don't understand.

The second thing about the article (although in fairness it isn't about the writing, which overall is good) that annoyed me was that M. Grandmaison is being touted at the beginning as being the latest and greatest Canadian Artist, much in demand and upon who's shoulders we should assume the future of Canadian art will be carried. One problem, the lengthy list of things he's doing includes the following exhibits:

Galerie René Blouin - now
Dazibao - now
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal - next week
Jessica Bradley Art & Projects - May
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art - June
Jack Shainman Gallery - the future
Prague Biennial - June
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal - 2006

Eight shows in a year is obviously nothing to sneeze at, but look at the list. There are only two shows which happen outside of Canada. The Jack Shainman Gallery is known for African photographers., The Prague Biennial is going to be the second one held there. And while for M. Grandmaison both should not be sneezed at, and are obviously great opportunities - but to tout him as the latest and greatest because of all of this action in Canada and "outside" of Canada is ridiculous ("It's not often that an artist makes a flawless entrance into the art world," "Pascal Grandmaison, 29, is one of the favoured few," "This is poignant stuff" are but a few of the purple phrases that Ms. Milroy uses in her article). If Ms. Milroy wants kick ass Canadian photographers, who are likely to change the world, where's her article about Sarah Ann Johnson? Ms. Johnson got rave reviews in both the New York Times and the Village Voice, yet is nowhere to be seen in the pages of the Globe & Mail. Or in a nutshell, hoarding artists on this side of the border, and then thinking that they're going to change the world doesn't quite make sense in my book.