First Edition: Another Year of Art

January Newsletter

New year, new me — as a mom! Last month I welcomed a little lady into the world, which has been insanely fun so far. We’ve already visited our first museum exhibition and the visit came pretty naturally for her. I credit this to the fact that while I was pregnant, I was lucky enough to see A LOT of art around the world. (I was thinking of it as pre-conditioning for all the art this little gal will have to see as she grows up.)

As January comes to a close and 2024 is officially in full swing, I wanted to provide a little round-up of the visual highlights from a great year of art.

🌊 Deep Dive: 2023 in (Mostly) Paintings

January | Savannah, Georgia

Michael Ezzell at SCAD Museum of Art,

I love visiting SCAD’s museum in Savannah when visiting my parents over the holidays. There are always a few intimate presentations of familar favorites (they had a nice little Kara Walker cut-out and a show of Roxy Paine’s work on at the time) but a highlight is always the alumni exhibition space right at the entrance. I was instantly drawn to these little graphic-still-life meets antiquities paintings by Michael Ezzell.

February | Mexico City & Los Angeles

February was an incredible month for art in Mexico City and L.A. so it was next to impossible to choose a single highlight so I compromised and picked a few…

Bosco Sodi’s Studio, Mexico City

Bosco Sodi’s studio and exhibition space blew my mind. Highly recommend going out of your way to make an appointment and visit this serene space.

Honourable mention to curated “gift shop” at Jo-Hs gallery. The little Anico Mostert works on paper from her time spent in the space were to die for.

Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles

Keiran Brennan Hinton’s intimate paintings from the time he spent living and working in Marcel Breuer’s historic Stillman House in Litchfield were a highlight of Felix Art Fair, my favorite fair of the year. I obsess over an art-within-art moment which many of these works delivered (spot the Calder mural 👀).

Honorable mention to Night Gallery’s exhibition of Shannonn Cartier Lucy and Hayley Barker. Beyond… reminds me why I love paintings.

March | Toronto

Holly Coulis at Cooper Cole… because who doesn’t need vibrant colors and fruit to pick you up during a dreary spring.

April | Montreal

My first time visiting Montreal for Plural Art Fair (formerly Papier) — I wrote a bit about it here! Stopped by Bradley Ertaskiran’s great space and loved Nicolas Grenier’s gradients.

May | Paris

Maurizio Cattelan’s Others (2011), an installation of pigeons tucked into the third floor balcony of the Bourse de Commerce, was a major treat. It is always fun to stumble upon an unassuming Cattelan sculpture and in this case, the contrast of unexpected contemporary sculpture with an incredibly traditional mural and architectural setting works perfectly.

June | Basel

Sophie Varin’s teeny tiny works in the monumental setting of Art Basel Social Club, the newest fair taking place in the traditional Art Basel week, hosted in a former mayonnaise factory (that could pass for a bunker of some sort).

July | New York

KARMA Gallery is always worth visiting and I loved this summer show of Jonas Wood drawings from the early days to present.

August | Saint John

Spent most of the month outside gallery walls, but loved running into this funky mural by Uber 5000 in St John, New Brunswick, where the artist is from. The muralist has a few pieces near our spot in Toronto as well.

September | Toronto

A bit of dejav with the large installation at the Power Plant by Ron Terada who was also featured at this year’s Art Basel Unlimited. The piece plays with the idea of trust in the age of online information by placing headlines from less credible sources in the iconic New York Times font.

October | Toronto

At Art Toronto, Towards Gallery presented the below work by Kareem-Anthony Ferreira, which plays with concepts of memory, nostalgia and portraiture.

Karyn Lyons at The Journal Gallery as part of their window exhibition.

November | New York

My final visit to New York of the year was filled with great art but I particularly loved the unexpected palette in Nicole Wittenberg’s wooded landscapes make me quite happy.

December | Toronto

Keith Haring the Art Gallery of Ontario — I thought the exhibition was a nice little selection spanning his multifaceted career (my favorite section was the day-glow installation below), however, Effie slept through it so unsure if she agreed.

And that’s a wrap! While this year may look a little different in terms of traveling for art, I’m excited to be following along virtually (and hopefully squeezing in some more in-person visits soon) so stay tuned.

🔥 Trending

• The list of artists participating in the Whitney Biennial has been announced — the exhibition, opening in March, is always a highlight for me. Even if I don’t personally love all the work each time, it provides a great visual representation of what is happening across the United States at this moment in time.

• More soup on paintings - the Mona Lisa is this week’s target. 🥫

💸 Advisory Picks

• Mexico City is hosting ZONAMACO and an overall great week of art in mid-February. My first visit to the fairs in the city was last year and I highly recommend attending if you are interested!

• Los Angeles also has some amazing shows on right now ahead of their art week towards the end of the month. I’m living for Night Gallery’s Wanda Koop’s show and Karyn Lyons at Anat Ebgi.

👋 Parting Words…

I’d love to hear from you — what art did you love this year, what are you keen to see in 2024? Send me a note! Until next time…

XX, B