40 - Wednesday, March 20, 1991 —- North Shore News

Inside the south side

Compelling works of a Chicago childhood

A Review:

West Georgia) and the Cardinal (1500 West Georgia) Monday-Saturday 10-6, Sunday 12-6.

International group shows at Harrington Galleries (1455 1-28.

March

EST VANCOUVER’S Ken Swaisland, director and

owner of Harrington Galleries on West Georgia,

promises a year of impressive international shows of what he calls “high-end” or “‘up-scale” works of es- tablished masters and contemporary stars. Additionally, at the Cardinal, his brand new gallery across the street, he

plans exhibitions of “low-end,”

commercial pieces,

without the “intimidating atmosphere” of the art museum.

If the first show of the Cardinal defines the mandate of the gallery, we should take Ken Swaisland at his word: This is more of a showroom for merchandising art rather than contemplating it.

tdo not mean that it wholly fails to showcase good work. But overall, the Cardinal exhibit is an unrestrained potpourri that does not function well as an esthetically coherent show.

Hanging alongside some detfightfully playful and profoundly childlike original prints by 20th- century giant, Juan Miro, and a few exquisitely designed and remarkably elegant abstracts by a Japanese woman, Toko Shinoda, are a series of glittering, neo- Warholian, pop-art mug-shots of past Hollywood stars like Judy Garland and James Dean.

The current feature at Harr- ington’s is a far more substantive and effective art exhibit, mainly because the backbone of the show is a representative body of work of

Archie Graham ARTS REVIEW

a robust new black-American ar- tist, Joseph Norman, in Canada for the first time.

Norman was born and raised in the ghettos of Chicago’s South Side, and his work is characterized by a kind of ironic nostalgia for his childhood. The artist is not eagerly recalling his past because it was the happiest time of his life, but compulsively recording it, perhaps, because it was profound- ly inhibiting.

Like one of his mentors, Henri Matisse, he often uses the window

WV student wins scholarship

EDUCATION MINISTER Stan Hagen has granted a 1991 Pacific Rim Scholarship to West Van- couver resident and Handsworth Grade 12 student Sarah Gardiner.

“To have won this award in the face of very stiff competition indicates a high level of academic achievement and personal ac- complishments,”’ said Hagen.

The Pacific Rim Scholarship was established by the provincial gov- ernment to “foster a better un- derstanding of the history, culture, economics, geography and lan- guages of Asia Pacific countries

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and of Canada’s relations with these countries.”

Although the major criterion for this $20,000 scholarship is aca- demic excellence in ail subject areas, the selection board, con- sisting of representitives of the education ministry, universities, colleges, schools and the business community, looks for a strong in- terest in Pacific Rim studies, Jead- ership and communications skills as well as a demonstrated ability to community services.

Gardiner plans to pursue a one-year program in Osaka, Japan.

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frame as an emblematic outline tor his world-view. But he does not share with Matisse the latter’s ex- ultation in the sensual pleasures of color and pattern for their own sake.

His interest lies more in the symbolic implications of the carefully managed clutter of im- ages from his urban environment. Sections of ornamental grillwork and wooden fence, fragments of telephone pole and archaic balustrade are all rendered in bold lines and dark tones, which con- trast with the bright, alluring spaces in the background.

The viewer has the impression of looking out from a dreary, inner- city prison cell onto a landscape of light and the faint suggestion of escape.

Some of the best Norman paint- ings are compromised by the fact that they can only be satisfactorily viewed at considerable risk from the middle of West Georgia Street. This may be the unhappy result of the curator trying too hard to grab the attention of passers by.

The strong exhibition is addi- tionally undercut by the tempta- tion to show off thematically unrelated works of famous people alongside the relatively unknown Norman.

While we can weil understand such a temptation when the works in question are excellent pieces by the likes of Robert Motherwell and Withelm de Kooning, we are frustrated, in the end, that there is not enough to sink our teeth into,

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HARRINGTON GALLERIES is exhibiting the work of Chicago- born artist Joseph Norman through the end of the month.

and we are distracted from the main event.

We should be more than grate- ful to Ken Swaisland for bringing ast of such superb international calibre to Vancouver on a regular basis, but hopeful that future

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Spacat- Marc, “Mar 1am Ten on

shows, at least at the Harrington, will be mounted in such a way that they do not put enthusiastic art patrons in danger of becoming hap'css traffic victims.

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