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Andrea Carson Barker

Writer, curator, consultant

Andrea Carson Barker writes on contemporary art, architecture and design.

She returned to Toronto in 2003 after having spent six years in London where she managed several art galleries and received her Masters degree in Art Criticism from City University (UK). Carson has curated a number of projects, including Revealed: New Canadian Video, a screening at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London (2003) and Four Directions, in collaboration with No. 9: Contemporary Art & the Environment at Toronto’s Brickworks (2010). Her broad range of interests includes video and feminist artwork, new and social media, design, architecture, cultural administration and most of all, promoting Canadian contemporary art.

Her writing has appeared in exhibition catalogues and on Artnet.com, in Azure, ARTnews, Art Review, Border Crossings, Canadian Art, CV Photo, DesignLines, the Globe and Mail, Monocle, Quill & Quire, Toronto Life and other publications.

She works part-time with Profis Communications and consults on art and architecture. She sits on the board of ArtsScene, Toronto and on the City of Toronto Public Art Committee.
A New Take on the Group of Huffington Post

A New Take on the Group of Seven

I went up to the opening of a new exhibition at Toronto's McMichael Gallery today. The exhibition was called You are here: Kim Dorland and the Return to Painting and it's on until January 5th, 2014. I...
11/11/2013 04:35 EST
Canadian Program Launches Hot New Creative

Canadian Program Launches Hot New Creative Startups

A hugely innovative project of the CFC's MediaLab, ideaBOOST is billed as "a business and creative development lab" designed to help small companies navigate the entertainment and technology startup market by mentoring them with industry leaders across North America.
03/22/2013 05:28 EDT
The Canadian Program Giving Creative Startups a Alamy

The Canadian Program Giving Creative Startups a Boost

Last week, the Canadian Film Centre's CFC Media Lab launched a fantastic new program called ideaBOOST, designed to assist artists and companies exploring the frontier in digital entertainment. IdeaBOOST brings industry into the equation, and I think that's what makes it such an impressive concept. Here are several that sounded particularly exciting.
11/09/2012 12:10 EST
Marina Abramovic: Being an Artist Means BFA

Marina Abramovic: Being an Artist Means "Lots of Lonely Hotel Rooms"

So what makes a great artist? That you have a fever, that you are obsessed. And it's just total commitment. And lots of lonely hotel rooms. You know it's kind of a lonely life. This is why I couldn't have children, this is why I couldn't be married, I could not. It's like being a soldier.
03/10/2012 12:14 EST
Necropolis: The Rebirth of Video Vimeo

Necropolis: The Rebirth of Video Art

Richardson uses an editing whose name is taken from scavenging characters in Star Wars, who, according to Richardson "lived by stealing and rewiring old technology for personal use and for profit."
02/24/2012 03:05 EST
Hits and Misses at Maurizio Cattelan's NYC

Hits and Misses at Maurizio Cattelan's NYC Show

I found it brave of Cattelan to risk his work being seen as junk. But as Schejdahl points out, many of the pieces depend on proper curating to give them their strength. Some of his works are truly unforgettable. But not here. The art is actually rather forgettable here.
01/26/2012 11:53 EST
Hunter & Cook: The Hub of Toronto's Art

Hunter & Cook: The Hub of Toronto's Art Scene

With all the condo development going on in downtown Toronto recently -- the good, the bad and the embarrassingly ugly (Hello there, Bohemian Embassy -- what is with that sign?!) has come a smart new w...
09/09/2011 10:03 EDT
Visit to Canoe Lake: Tom Thomson's Andrea Carson

Visit to Canoe Lake: Tom Thomson's Grave

Tom Thomson had worked as a guide and fire ranger in Algonquin Park, so the fact that his death was declared an accidental drowning on what was a apparently a clear and normal day seems unusual. Even at the time, people couldn't believe it and rumours swirled about suicide and murder.
08/31/2011 12:07 EDT
Government Art Grants: Preaching to the

Government Art Grants: Preaching to the Choir?

Who benefits from the granting system? The system supports artists, but artists come into public view only when their work is exhibited, by a museum, a commercial gallery or within the arts community itself.
08/24/2011 12:30 EDT
Haute Culture: General Idea at the

Haute Culture: General Idea at the AGO

General Idea, a Canadian art collective, are famous for employing a range of materials, like work in plaster, taxidermy and fluorescent tube. There is even straw on the floor of one fantastic installation. In it, the poodles (the artists) are contemplating the Canis Major constellation. It's quite funny.
07/28/2011 02:33 EDT
What Makes Public Art Andrea Carson

What Makes Public Art Good?

If audiences for art are passing through museums without stopping to consider the art, then putting art -- at an enormous scale -- on the ceiling of a restaurant, or in the middle of a public space or on the edge of a waterfront view would seems like a good idea.
07/25/2011 12:09 EDT
Canada at the Venice

Canada at the Venice Biennale

It's better late than never for some highlights from this year's Venice Biennale. Flying into Venice. All photos: VoCA Having been to several Venice Biennales in my life, I almost always prefer the...
07/06/2011 10:58 EDT