For the longest time, I’ve been encouraging Vinod and co. to emphasize art at HUB Ottawa. Little did I know they had a major piece of art in the works for the past year. The piece, created by Professor Manuel Báez, is set to be installed this summer at the Hub. I met with Manuel to discuss his passion for art, architecture and the inspiration he takes from natural phenomena. Architecture and art intertwine seamlessly in Manual Báez’s life. From a young age he knew he wanted to become an... | Continue reading article

On May 30, the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) is hosting their annual fundraiser, Le pARTy, and we have a set of tickets to give away! The event is a great way to support the gallery, meet and connect with local artists and take home an original piece of art. With over 60 participating artists, the selection and range of work is sure to be diverse – there is something for everyone. Some of the artists include Bear Witness, Pat Durr, Tony Fouhse, Jonathan Hobin, Manon Labrosse, Penny McCann, Ron Noganosh, Andrew and Deborah... | Continue reading article

The National Capital Region is blessed with fantastic photographers.  On my personal blog alone, I have linked to more than a 100 local photo-blogs, and am confident that there are many more sites, (perhaps even hundreds), that I have not seen yet.  To showcase some of this great visual talent, we are posting a two-part series on photo-blogs.  Part one begins today by looking at three local photographers, while part two will be published next Saturday. Scott H. Wilson It has been said that photography is a picture painted by the... | Continue reading article

The National Capital Region has numerous talented artists.  To showcase this artistic cornucopia, today we begin a new feature called Studio Visits, where we profile local artists inside their work spaces.  We begin our tour with local painter Manon Labrosse. On the second floor of her home, in a room filled with guitars, books and walls smeared with colourful brushstrokes, Manon Labrosse creates her intriguing abstract paintings. For several years, her practice combined abstract forms with images of telephone poles or power lines, such as the painting below (one of... | Continue reading article

Disclosure:  Author Sharif Virani is the co-organizer of CreativeMornings, a monthly speaker series and morning gathering of creative types. What does that mean? Who is this prodigal son of Oakville? Why is he known as Mr. Sign? Well, for those of you that have been either living under a rock or captivated by this past season of The Vampire Diaries (I’m not judging… and I’m a season behind so no spoilers please), Dave Arnold is Montreal-based visual artist best known for his unique Pop-Art. His aesthetic combines a modern sensibility with a penchant for... | Continue reading article

For the people who comprise his community of supporters – friends, fans, peers, patrons – the question has lingered whether local artist Claude Marquis would ever paint again. His star had been on the rise from the mid-90s to the early ‘00s, so it came as a surprise when sometime after his critically-acclaimed “Nature Boy” show at Galerie Montcalm in 2003, he stopped. The artist swapped his brushes for recording software and went about breathing life into a catalogue of some 100+ original songs that he’d quietly amassed since youth.... | Continue reading article

Looking for something to do tonight? As a part of the launch of Northern Scene, a handful of galleries in Ottawa and Gatineau will be hosting events, exhibition openings and performances by some of the best talent coming from the North. Billed as “the largest gathering of artists from Yukon, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut”, the festival will showcase more than 250 artists over ten days. SWARM starts with a gallery crawl at 6pm — to get around the city you can walk, bike or take a ride... | Continue reading article

Ottawa is blessed with several excellent blogs that cover the local music scene.  In the near future, I hope to publish a story on the numerous musical bloggers in town, who cover everything from metal to classical to blues to Irish folk songs.  For this week’s column, however, I want to focus on two local photographers who are doing a fantastic job in documenting the music scene in the National Capital Region. Let’s begin with Andrew Carver, who has been photographing Ottawa musicians for years.  Since starting his blog National... | Continue reading article

The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) will open four concurrent exhibitions this afternoon, celebrating the culmination of the eighth year the school has been open. Exhibition No. 8, the annual portfolio survey, showcases the work of twelve senior students who have recently completed their second year of study: Sarah Anderson, Dante Penman, Matthew Bula, Reena Kokotailo, Angela Walker, Treawna Harvey, Jessie Park-Wheeler, Stephanie Masters, Valérie Mercier, Zachary Pantalone,  Blair Smith and Jenifer Szadkowski. Ranging both in process (from traditional silver prints, alternative printing techniques and for the first time digital SLR video work) and in... | Continue reading article

Quick — how many paintings are there in the image above? At first glance you may see four, or is it five, if you include the canvas that encompasses the four “inner” works of art?  Look closer, however, and you will realize that the number is higher still, as there are paintings within paintings, where artists draw other artists making art. Welcome to Metapainting, the current exhibit by artist Phil Delisle that runs until May 19 at the ByWard Market Gallery of the Ottawa School of Art. A graduate of... | Continue reading article