On this otherwise bland Monday morning, your intrepid #artcriticfromhell reminds you that THREE of the finest visual artists in Niagara have their artworks on display at Mahtay Café & Lounge in Downtown St. Catharines.
L to R : Jonathan Shaw, June-Etta Chenard and Geoff Farnsworth
#artcriticfromhell has started writing again, after a period of apathy, angst and agitation.
Gird your loins, my pretties.
#SocialMediaBreathalyzer
Eric Stefanski
To be clear, no, #artcriticfromhell does not forgive you.
“Some people collect stamps, or bookmatch covers,” she once said, “but with you, my darling, it’s grievances.”
-- Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version
Byron in Venice, n.d., Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 - 1900)
#artcriticfromhell has previously declared that no one paints Venice quite like a Russian; "And nobody loves poetry like a Russian." (Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago)
Look, for once in my life, can #artcriticfromhell get what I want?
Lord knows it would be the first time.
Pshaw. Today has been a good day and I'm confronted by the unexpected truth that this year might be ending well, and early 2026 will be good, too
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3qP...
#artcriticfromhell is looking forward to that Wisconsin Death Trip.
I offer some thoughts on this fine book (and my future, ahem, according to this horror scope) here : curatednow.ca/wisconsin-de...
Stalin and Spiderman, Alexander Kosolapov, 1986
....I don't remember #SpiderStalin from the movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse but #artcriticfromhell may have been laughing too hard at the mockery of Jeff Koons.....
A lovely image of your intrepid #artcriticfromhell as captured by the fine photographer Darren Creighton.
You can see more of his work here : www.darrencreightonphotography.com
#artcriticfromhell is clearly 6 (or maybe 8), as without pockets I must brandish my weapons accordingly, ahem, without guile but with gusto.
...a throwback to five years ago, #artcriticfromhell moonlighting as a liquor store parking lot gigolo.
THIS will be the image I use from now on, for any project that requires a bio and picture, ahem.
It is known.
The Critic, 2016, Malaika Charbonneau
Today is Malaika's birthday : and this is one of my favourite portraits of #artcriticfromhell that she painted almost a decade ago.
A good friend, a fine artist and one of the few people I miss from Saskatoon.....
Your intrepid #artcriticfromhell wearing (under mild protest) the mandated clown nose while standing in front of one of Evergon's fine artworks currently on view in Welland.
Though the clown is often deadpan, he is a connoisseur of laughter.
-- Mel Gussow
#SovietPhotoFace #TheComedian #Pagliacci
Johan Deckmann
#artcriticfromhell reminds you that the show must go on, the show must go on, even if inside my heart is breaking and my make-up may be flaking, ahem. #Queen
#artcriticfromhell could say that I never expected the last chapter of my life to happen in such horrid times but as I'm Gen X, that would be a lie, ahem.
Oh well, whatever, never mind.
A #throwback to that time 3 years ago when your intrepid #artcriticfromhell took you on a WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP......
You can read that here : curatednow.ca/wisconsin-de...
'Pause now. Draw back from it. There will be time again to experience and remember.'
Another fine and educational post from the IG of @medievalistmatt
For the record, and in the spirit of clarity, #artcriticfromhell is clearly among the Imps. This does, in fact, fit with the history of art historians, ahem.
...anyone surprised? Anyone? Right.
As your intrepid #artcriticfromhell prepares for the indignity of my birthday tomorrow (with more than half a century behind me), I shall be re reading Anna Akhmatova's words.
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV, 1970, Barnett Newman
#artcriticfromhell has a soft spot for what I call 'high Modernism' as it was so hopeful and sure and yet anyone with a sense of history knew it was doomed to failure, in a beautifully monumental manner.....
More fine advice from Martin Herbert on IG : he is, perhaps, my favourite art critic - after myself #artcriticfromhell, of course, cough cough.
Naples, 1900, Vasily Surikov
#artcriticfromhell reminds you that nobody paints Naples (or Venice) like a Russian.
From the fine art historical feed on IG of @medievalistmatt.
#artcriticfromhell is between 5 and 6 : slow fat chickens, ahem. It is known.
#artcriticfromhell WILL make that exhibition of a selection of my abandoned shopping carts happen - The discarded | dis [carted] project, ahem - either before this year is done or all set in place to happen in 2026.
I offer a throwback to 2018 as a teaser.
Names all start as jokes or insults, before we own them.
-- Natalie Zina Walschots, from the book Hench
#artcriticfromhell endorses this, from my own experience of turning an insult into a sobriquet.
A throwback to 2022 : a fine shot with Sylvester aka Froggy, who was quite sure #artcriticfromhell is a new servant.
Sunset Sky, Tom Thomson, 1915
#artcriticfromhell stands by my theory that Thomson faked his death and later became a member of the Painters Eleven.
I have not yet discerned which one he was, ahem.
Trust me. I'm an art historian.
This could be us, but #artcriticfromhell knows you just playin'.
And frankly your poor aim was just embarrassing : no wonder my daughters always miss me when they throw things at me, ahem.
From the glorious IG feed of @medievalistmatt.
This morning your intrepid #artcriticfromhell is between 5 and 9.
It is known.
