Well, the opening (VAM35 @ AGM;
see this article) is over, and it was really well attended. In fact it was a crush of the kind where inching sideways was necessary to navigate at times. Surprising as Mississauga is not known as a cultural hot spot and it was also pretty cold (-9C) and snowing last night.
I took my SLR but didn't really bother with it. It seemed more of an enjoy-the-moment kind of evening to me. Met some friends, drank some wine, and snacked on a couple of veggie spring rolls. Wondered how on earth a few of the works ever got selected, but on the whole quite enjoyed the show.
This was the first year (of 35) that photography was included with traditional fine art media, so I was proud to have been selected and to represent the photographic intruders. I printed my shot at 30 by 20 inches on gallery-wrapped canvas, which I thought was plenty large enough, but it was dwarfed by the paintings, some of which were enormous. I'd say the size of the average work in this show is 3x4 feet -- clearly Big Art is In.
But interestingly the show's First Prize winner was a conceptual piece made up of a collage of photos. Not strictly
Photography per se as it's documentation of the work which is really an installation, or a series of smaller installations.
I didn't win anything, except for a warm buzz of participation -- or from the wine; unsure which.
