Cluster (03) - Gallery Artists | July 10 - August 15, 2003

Good, bad and marginal under the summer sun
The Toronto Star | July 24, 2003
Peter Goddard

Way back when, summer was the time when the record business often trotted out its Greatest Hits compilations for a variety of reasons ranging from "hey, baby, it's party time" to "we've got nothing else to." In recent years, the art business has evolved its own version of this don't-sweat-it kind of marketing. Galleries, big or small, air-conditioned or not are featuring the summer Greatest Hits packages better known as group shows. There's an upside and a downside to this. The downside is that you don't always get much of a bang for your buck even if the admission is free. An intriguing piece of work - the kind of thing that leaves you wanting to see more from a particular artist - can very well likely be shown next to something you'd put at the bottom of your cat's litter box. The upside is what these shows reveal of the galleries strengths and weakness over the long haul. With that in mind, here's a brief guide of a few combo efforts, and the warnings that should accompany each:

Worth The Time: "Cluster (03)" at Peak Gallery, 23 Morrow Ave., is an incredibly busy affair with all sorts of different vibes, signs and signals coming at you from all sort of angles. It's nearly impossible to figure out where to go next with several dozen pieces in such a small space. You practically bump into In-Sun Kim's Untitled (2003), a haunting mini-house in a box, made out of newsprint and white glue - sort of the ultimate cut-and-paste job - on the way to John Heward's grandly glowering Untitled (Self-Portrait) (1995-2003). But some neat finds can be made starting with Che (2003) and Cha Cha Cha (2003), a small pair of mixed-media pieces by Raffael A. Iglesias. The show ends Saturday.

Avoid At All Costs: "Cuban Cantos," a three-artist show at Prince Arthur Fine Arts, 33 Prince Arthur Ave., arrived in town with lots of hoopla, starting with faxes from ardent supporters of Cuban art to a call from the gallery itself noting the July 10 opening party. I'm sorry I missed the party, which could have been a lot more memorable than this kitschy exhibition. "Cuban Cantos" is on to Aug. 2 before moving to Montreal.

Maybe For A Few Minutes: The two-parter at the Drabinsky Gallery closing Saturday is the right amount of salt and way too much sugar. "Salt Harvest," by environmental photographer Jim Panou, manages to make the expanding salt fields of Vietnaam look as if they're on Mars. He's caught an industry in the raw. The workers look like aliens with their masks hiding their faces and gloves over their hands. Downstairs in the gallery at 122 Scollard St. is Celia Neubauer's "Continental Drift," an exhibition of delicate acrylics on linen with lots of Oriental imagery filtering through the mist. It'd be terrific as wallpaper.

Maybe For A Few Really Short Minutes: Even as mixed-bag collections go, the group photo exhibit at Christopher Cutts Gallery, 21 Morrow Ave., doesn't hang together. There are some pleasant moments, many of them to be found in front of Becky Singleton's Talking Ball Series. But the moments are disjointed and sometimes jarringly dissonant, like an electronica act opening for Merle Haggard. "Summer 2003 Photo Based Works" continues to August 16.