Launching the CSg Blog - Note from Craig Scott

My gallery, Craig Scott Gallery (or, CSg), had its first show in April 2006 and is thus now just over two years old. The gallery arrived on the Toronto art scene "out of nowhere" (as one of Toronto's leading auctioneers put it recently) and have already carved a respected niche for ourselves as one of Toronto's most exciting galleries. Of course it is near-impossible to prove this claim, but we are of course happy to believe the dozens of clients and other observers who tell us this. In any case, people who regularly visit our website and receive our 'literature' on shows and artists have commented now and then that they like the way the gallery writes about our artists, their work, and art generally. For some time, some have been encouraging us to start blogging, including podcasting, to let more people know about us -- or, more accurately, about our artists -- and more generally to share snippets on the art world that others might be interested in. Some friends of the gallery also say that they would like to know about new works as they arrive and are posted on the Craig Scott Gallery website, but that, when one goes to the gallery website, it is not easy to know whether one has seen works that are new since the last visit -- especially since new works may often be posted at the end of the existing images for a given artist.

So, now that we have turned two, the time seems right to add this blog to our current Internet presence. While we do already have a News section on our website, it isn't really designed for frequent, informal posting of information and thoughts on the gallery -- let alone my random thoughts on art and the art world. That said, I may indeed link to News posts on the gallery website, where there may be fuller information. I am very much looking forward to the flexibility and freedom of the blog format.

Note that, through the months of July and August 2008, we will mix three kinds of posts: 'backfills' that refer back to recent or otherwise significant past news about artists or the gallery (this, we hope, will be of special interest to those who do not yet know about the gallery); current news and announcements as they occur; and random thoughts about art-related things.

By the way, for those of you who have yet to hear about, let alone visit, the gallery, it is located in downtown eastside Toronto. More specifically, it is part of the East King East district known for its design-furniture stores, and is three blocks north of the Distillery. Canadian Stage (a great theatre) is south of us on Berkeley and the Church on Berkeley (one of the great music events halls in Toronto) just north.

Just a couple more overview things to finish off this first post. The aim of my gallery is to introduce exceptional artists from around the world to North America and, at the same time, to represent emerging and under-recognized Canadian artists with great potential to generate excitement beyond Canada’s borders. We have a regular schedule of exhibitions of eight to ten solo or two-person shows per year. Works in a broad range of media and styles are exhibited.

As for me, Craig Scott, the gallery is, to use a cliché, a labour of love. It has to be, as I am also kept pretty busy on other fronts, notably as Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. Here is my faculty profile page at Osgoode.