The annual Queen West Art Crawl has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2003; the three-day event now stretches from Trinity Bellwoods Woods Park – scene of a mammoth outdoor art exhibition — well past the Drake and Gladstone hotels and deep into Parkdale. Artists throw open the doors of their studios, neighbourhood galleries pull out the stops and Art Spin is leading what promises to be a head-turning bicycle tour through all of the above on Saturday from 4 – 6 pm.
The Gladstone Hotel is the place to be tomorrow night (September 17) for a no-holds-barred, kick-off event where individual artists have turned guest suites into mini-galleries and where Director of Exhibitions Britt Welter-Nolan has curated an Art Fair spanning the second floor public space. A major highlight takes place in the Gladstone Ballroom where artist and organizer Chris Pemberton hosts Art Battle, above, a rowdy session of live, competitive painting.
Pre-selected artists go head-to-head in 20-minute contests painting as fast and as well as they can in order to win spots in successive bouts. Typical Art Battles feature parallel rounds where known artists compete against one another while wannabe painters are drawn from a hat to take each other on. In the final round, the newbie faces-off against the pro. There will be blood!
In fact, there was blood in Art Battle 7 where newcomer Marco Bertuzzo, above, fought his way to the end and actually took the crown. Marco secured a second round victory against Jennifer Singh (top pic) with the nose bleed painting above.
“The look on his face when his name was announced as the winner was worth all the work I’ve put into this in the last year,” says Pemberton, left. “It was a look of shocked euphoria that I just can’t describe, his expression was amazing.”
Whether or not the works produced in an Art Battle are great paintings, the concept seems tailor-made for an era in which reality TV contests run 24/7.
Pemberton, who conceived of Art Battle with creative partner Simon Plashkes, concedes that the concept veers into novelty but he’s just as adamant that the performances genuinely inspire would-be artists to pick up brushes and give painting a try.
“The demonstration of the creation process inspires people to take part and get involved themselves,” he says. “Seeing art be created is quite novel because painting is typically done in a very solitary way. The audience is seeing a painting made from beginning to end in 20 minutes.
“We actually had a contestant, John Clark, who started painting because of Art Battle,” marvels Pemberton. “He came to each event since the first one in October 2009 and then got the courage to put his name in the hat and for Art Battle 5 his name was drawn. He had never painted a stroke before he came to the first Art Battle.”
The Gladstone event on Friday will have a slightly different format with three former Art Battle champions (including Marco Bertuzzo) going up against three painters who are in the Queen West Art Crawl; the works produced in the final round will be auctioned off at the QWAC booth in Trinity Bellwoods with 50 per cent of the proceeds going to the artists and the rest going to an art-focused charity.
If you can’t make it to the Gladstone tomorrow, Art Battle is a staging a special lunch-hour performance in Queen’s Park next Wednesday (September 22) and Art Battle 8 is confirmed for October 8 at The Great Hall (1087 Queen Street West). Chris Pemberton and Simon Plashkes join musician/producer Daniel Lanois at Nuit Blanche, October 2, for Later That Night At The Drive-In taking place in Nathan Phillips Square.
Photos courtesy of Art Battle, except portrait of Chris Pemberton by Christopher Jones
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Great article, Chris! Congrats on a job well done! Keep it up!
Art battle was such an incredible experience and i’m really just happy that i was able to paint once, let alone win anything!