The Arts Junkie

Visual Archive for the Canadian Art Junkie site - curating visual arts online since 2011

[theartsjunkie]

Astro: Funk, style and monsters Funk, style and monsters are the focus for Astro, a Montréal graffiti artist who started painting in the mid-1990s....

Astro: Funk, style and monsters

[theartsjunkie]

Irene Suputra’s embroidery sketchbook Artist sketchbooks are forever in use as portable, pressure-free spaces to brainstorm, plan compostions and record research....

Irene Suputra's embroidery sketchbook

[theartsjunkie]

Chip Stands: Canada’s iconic road markers Now that road trip season is upon us, this new book about Canada's roadside food stands is getting lots of play....

Chip Stands: Canada's iconic road markers

[theartsjunkie]

Brian Barrer’s Whimsical Hitching a Ride Series Artist Brian Barrer uses mixed media and photographic assemblage to express an ever evolving imagination. These often take the form of vibrant aesthetic experiences that fuse playful abstractions with the intensified realism of captured images - artist statement…...

Brian Barrer's Whimsical Hitching a Ride Series

[theartsjunkie]

Anna Rastorgueva’s inspired mini sketchbooks This is the re-launch of Sketchbook Saturday, with a visit to one of the series' favourite artists....

Anna Rastorgueva's inspired mini sketchbooks

[theartsjunkie]

80/150: Peter Doig’s ‘Nostalgia for Canada’ Peter Doig (b: 1959) is one of the most respected figurative painters of our time — and it's his depictions of Canada, where he grew up, that have become the most famous and financially successful....

80/150: Peter Doig's 'Nostalgia for Canada'

[theartsjunkie]

Sean William Randall’s ‘Brash Confidence’ A brilliant colour sensibility coupled with subtle surrealism are the hallmarks of Sean William Randall's work. …...

Sean William Randall's 'Brash Confidence'

[theartsjunkie]

Curtain Call: A Sculptural Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

This installation by sculptor and industrial designer Lilly Otasevic draws inspiration from the indigenous Wampum belt. Titled Curtain Call, on the wall of the Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines, Ontario, it is also a reference to the wavy curtain of a theatre. Built of marine-grade aluminum and finished with metallic car paint, the installation is 45 feet long, 13.5 fee high and 6 feet in…

Curtain Call: A Sculptural Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

[theartsjunkie]

The Tear-Jerking Animated Canadian Film Winning Hearts at Cannes

The audience in Cannes was in tears at the premiere of Tangles, the animated film which triggered a 7-minute standing ovation at the 2026 festival. Tangles is an acclaimed adult-animated biographical drama directed by Vancouver’s Leah Nelson and adapted from Canadian Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir about the Alzehimer’s journey of her mother, from the diagnosis of the disease in her doctor’s…

The Tear-Jerking Animated Canadian Film Winning Hearts at Cannes

[theartsjunkie]

Sonny Assu is increasingly recognized as one of Canada's pre-eminent contemporary artists.

79/150: The Multi-Faceted Art of Sonny Assu

[theartsjunkie]

Pop Art Sculptor Anchorball Debuts in Canada

The Canadian premiere of ANCHORBALL: A Curious Art Journey happens this summer at the Royal Botanical Gardens, a massive exhibition featuring 18 large-scale Pop Art sculptures. Anchorball is the internationally known professional nickname of Ken Kelleher, an American contemporary sculptor and artist known for creating monumental public art, installations, and digital art (Tommy Toucan, above, in…

Pop Art Sculptor Anchorball Debuts in Canada

[theartsjunkie]

78/150: Celebrating A Century of Takao Tanake

78/150: Celebrating A Century of Takao Tanake

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Kit Li's Places & Spaces

Kit Li's Places & Spaces

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Michel de Broin's Triste Entropique

The public works of Michel de Broin are well known in Montreal, but his newest work, on solo exhibition in Toronto, are a revealing look at how he interprets today’s exhausting world. These human like figure entwined with industrial elements are from the exhibition Triste Entropique, de Broin’s series of new sculptures and image-based works that “stand as monuments to a dissipated world. Idols…

Michel de Broin's Triste Entropique

[theartsjunkie]

Diana Creasy-Funk - From Simple to Stunning

Diana Creasy-Funk - From Simple to Stunning

[theartsjunkie]

Phil Carriere is Inspired by Music

Stronly inspired by music, Montreal artist Phil Carriere uses a unique printing technology to bring his photographs to life. Inspired by the iconic album cover of Led Zeppelin’s *Physical Graffiti* (below), I have a special appreciation for building facades; they narrate their own tales – Phil Carriere Carriere’s large-format photographic works use a complex and unique printing/framing…

Phil Carriere is Inspired by Music

[theartsjunkie]

The 'Mother Canada' Memorial Controversy

Here is the story of a ‘Mother Canada’ sculpture controversy 10 years on: Originally envisaged for Cape Breton on the Atlantic coast as a tribute to members of the military, the project has long been shelved. But proponents are still pushing for it and there’s also a lawsuit. The statue of Mother Canada, a cloaked female figure with her arms stretched to the east, was proposed as a…

The 'Mother Canada' Memorial Controversy