A friend of mine just got back from a trip to Vancouver, where her gallery tour included a stop at the Diane Farris for the new exhibition by Chris Woods. The series of paintings in his show in called Dreamland, and are inspired by the bombastic world of advertising. Woods has already received some acclaim for his work in Naomi Klein's book, No Logo, and has been featured in Adbusters magazine as well.

The Gap, Calvin Klein and Absolut Vodka are among the targets into which he has submerged his witty critiques. My pal says Woods' work is a big hit in Vancouver, in large part because he suffuses his work with images from the city itself — making a personal imprint on these global logos.

One of the highlights of the show is a Vanity Fair magazine cover, in which the artist has replaced Leonardo DiCaprio's face with a self-portrait. This led The Globe and Mail to a very clever headline, calling Woods "The Leonardo of Logos." The show itself is very clever, and much of the work is thumbnailed on the Farris Gallery website. And if you're in Vancouver, stop by to see the real thing, on display until July 1.

Link:
Paintings by Chris Woods

Canadian Dances to Save the Day
William Marrié, from the National Ballet of Canada, appeared on stage at the American Ballet Theatre's production of Taming of the Shrew late last week. Maxim Belotserkovsky injured himself and was unable to perform. Marrie stepped in to partner with Irina Dvorovenko.

Here's one of the rave reviews: "Mr. Marrié, who had never danced with Ballet Theater or Ms. Dvorovenko before, found an intense, mutual rapport with his ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera House ... Mr. Marrié turned a cardboard role into a major one; his Petruchio was complex, with stretched-out phrases of movement that suddenly changed direction or tempo, the equivalent of asides to the audience. This was great dance acting that had a rarely seen maturity. His technique, if initially soft, exploded into speed and bravura by the end. It was a triumph for both principals." I just read about this in The New York Times. It seems that our Mr. Marrie is the toast of New York City. What a Cinderella story. Well done.

Fine Tuning
Composer adds to the scenery: Do you remember a 1996 sci-fi film called Starlight? Hope not. The lone user comment on the Internet Movie Database is: "The scenery is lovely, but that's not enough." This was a made-in-Vancouver movie by new age director Jonathon Kay, a man with the best of intentions but the worst of directions. It starred Rae Dawn Chong and Willie Nelson, and I doubt if you'd even be able to find a VHS copy at Blockbuster. What really makes this film interesting is the fact that it features the music of well-known Vancouver musician Michael Conway Baker. Baker is one of Canada's best modern composers, and the real treat tonight is not the movie itself, but a concert film: A Dream Come True is a 30-minute film of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performing some of the classical score from the movie. Now that's entertainment! Bravo at 5:30 pm.

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