Snapshots of the art work – up until the 30th
(going to the show? email me at artlistpro@gmail.com and I will be happy to appear in person and talk about the art. You may consider that as both a threat and a promise)
Art Listings Professional Group Exhibit #1 @ culturshoc, 1205 queen street west
- Sean Hadley
- Marinko Jareb
- Charles Hackbarth
- Andreanne Hudon
- Ryan Rader
- Trevor Laalo
Photo pictures and moving pictures of ALP exhibit, performance art
Without further adieu, collected media from the big exhibit and web launch party on the 7th. Thanks Joanne and Lauren for the photos and movies. Thanks to the visual and spoken word artists – we are inspired to do this all again.
Exhibit continues at Culturshoc until the 30th.
1205 queen street west. Featuring visual work by Charles Hackbarth, Sean Hadley, Andreanne Le Hudon, Marinko Jareb, Trevor Laalo and Ryan Rader.
Okay, there was a bit more adieu.

The Art Listings Professional website launch party, group exhibit and performance art incident at CulturShoc Jan 7 2010. Exhibit continues until Jan 30.
Jan 7th ALP exhibit – debriefed!
First of all, I received my art school education in Montreal and used a variety of French words to describe many normal activities in the art process – such as “vernissage”. Vernissage is a much sexier and elegant way to describe an opening reception than, well, “opening reception”. The word literally translates to “varnishing day” and harkens back to the practice of oil painting; it would take many months for the linseed oil in the paint to dry enough to be able to apply a final coat of varnish on a painting that probably took many months, if not years, to complete. So when it was time, it was kind of a big deal so you would invite your friends, frenemies, supporters and critics over for some drinks, music and a good time would be had by all as you applied the final coat of varnish.
Now that I am based here in Toronto and organizing my first exhibit, I could not help but notice that this word “vernissage” caused much puzzlement amongst many of the locals. So I used plainer language but to me “opening reception” is more formal and quiet, which is cool, and “vernissage” is more of a party and an event.

A lively party full of hipsters at a varnishing day ( via http://www.nationalacademy.org )
The Art Listing Professional opening reception was an awesome vernissage. Over one hundred and fifty people in total stopped by CulturShoc in Toronto’s gallery district of Queen W and Dufferin and I was super-pleased that I did not even recognize half of these fine folks – a testament to the potential of social media for arts and culture events.
You see, the big thing with this event was that I had managed to slip into a spot at a downtown gallery that became available only a month before. Plus, I have no budget but my time and expertise and knowing how to say “pretty please” in a pretty and pleasing manner. Add to this the holidays being right in the middle and I was presented with a interesting set of challenges to organize and market this event. So the buzz and invites were 100% digital, and 100% social media distributed. I know that a print component would increase the numbers, but in a professional interest I wanted to study just how well a social media campaign would work. Fairly well, but there is much work left to be done in marketing for the rest of the exhibit run – my thinking on this is a series of posts with each individual work and bio of the artist and see how that works. Tomorrow, I post pictures and videos from the event. A bit late, as it should be posted a few days afterwards in good “after-event marketing” practice but of course I got a cold flu right afterwards as tends to happen.
So in lieu of a budget, I have many thanks to make. Thanks Dana and Val for all the hard work, the bricks and mortar, the opportunity and taking care of the bar. Glad I managed to introduce many new people to your great store and space. Thanks Tony and Cristina (of Guerilla Magazine fame) for driving down from Ottawa. Thank you Trevor and Lauren for coming down from the valley as well (for those of you in Europe, this is actually a really long five-hour drive). Andreanne and Fabien traveled from Montreal and Paris – thank you.
Thanks Jen and Casey and Casey’s Mom for making and bringing food. Thanks to Charles for his interest in Art List Professional and contributing his work. Thanks to Sean for walking his large in, thanks Marinko for finding the time to participate and thanks Ryan for keeping it surreal, and thanks of course to Casey for her half of the exhibit and all the ooo’s and ahhh’s provoked.
Big thanks to Rob O’Flanagan and Trevor Laalo for the spoken word performances – simply brilliant and there is still quite a buzz about it now. More when i post images and video from their performances.
Performance artists announced for art blog launch party and exhibit
Performance art, group exhibit and Art Listing Professional website launch party on Thursday, January 7th @ culturshoc gallery, 7-11pm, 1205 queen street west. The ALP Exhibition continues until Saturday, January 30th. Admission is free.
647 347 4586
www.culturshoc.com
Contemporary art trends over the next decade
Identifying recent art trends is tough enough – we can’t see the forest for the trees, so to speak. Everything around us is so different and madly off in all directions, but art trends emerge clearly upon retrospect over time with the comforting tilt-shift vision of art history. Though I can see trends in current art making, I accept the fact I cannot perceive some (if not most) of the important developments in contemporary work around me.
In a sense a collector is investing in a perceived future trend when he or she buys a work – an inherent hope that you are planting your flag into the tip of an iceberg. Rooted in the practice of the present, we attempt to interpret current art with an informed art history eye as well as an abstract projection of various departure points for this work, this artist.
So with the recent slew of art-in-the-last-ten-years reviews, this blog has decided to boldly scrutinize the last tens years in an attempt to divine the next ten years in contemporary art.
Being an artist who writes, I am perfectly allowed to attempt such leaps of bold lateral logic.
Top 10 art trends over the next ten years (they are all erringly connected):
A glib list of the top 10 major art trends over the last ten years:
(Some obvious trends (to me anyways) I am saving the future Top 10 of the next ten years list coming out in about an hour)
1. Net and Digital Artists.
2. A return to the popularity of figurative work.
3. The attempted murder of ceramics and printmaking.
4. Hordes of photographers making art.
5. Design programs as the economic engine of art colleges.
6. Studio artists attempting to “learn HTML” in an unprecedented self-marketing movement rooted in technology.
7. Animation = video games industry.
8. Intellectual Property and Copyright bru-ha-ha and general absurdity.
9. Inter-disciplinary approach as standard rather than specialty.
10. Flash mobs in social, political and professional cultural circumstances.









