Interesting choice by the Globe & Mail

Howdy!

The front page of today's review section, is filled with reproductions of Richard Rhodes' paintings.



Sarah Milroy describes them this way:

The most surprising things in the show may well be the series of small sky paintings by Richard Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art magazine. Rhodes also works as a freelance curator, and has taught photography at Ryerson University for several years.

This exhibition, however, marks his unveiling as a painter of great ability. Exhibited in clusters, the paintings record his experience of the skies above Toronto from the vantage point of his home in the city's semi-industrial west end.

Rhodes has christened the paintings with titles like Available Skies (Galleria Mall, 2005) or Available Sky (Winter Dawn, St. Clarens, 2005), but only the titles hint at the bleaker ground-level urban landscape evaded through his upward gazing. Instead, he lifts our attention into the blue (or the peach, or the grey, or the mauve) in paintings that are both serene and yet scrupulously observed. Finding epiphany is all about what you choose to look at.

On the Oakville Galleries website, they only use one image to represent the show (a photograph by Seifollah Samadian) and going over to the Ottawa Art Gallery's website (where the exhibit started) they choose five images, again, none by Mr. Rhodes.

While I respect Ms. Milroy's opinion, and recognize that mine and hers do not always align up like the stars, when the gallery's exhibiting the art choose to highlight something different on their websites, I gotta ask "why?" As Mr. Rhodes is a rather influential person on the Canadian Art scene, the responses that come to mind are all based around that influence. As Ms. Milroy puts it "finding epiphany is all about what you choose to look at." I'd give my eye teeth to get more details about her epiphany. Especially since I didn't have a choice of what to look at in the Globe and Mail.