Koffler Arts

Arcade

An ongoing inquiry into the art and ideas of our time.
Published by Koffler Arts.

Recommended reads

All Caught Up in the Infinite Middle

Tia Glista unravels the Möbius strip of narrative in Catherine Lacey’s latest book—a hybrid of memoir and fiction, about a recent break-up and an earlier loss of faith—and reflects on her own break with God, and what faith means in the first place.
by Tia Glista /

The Boring Kind of Heartbreak

In No Fault, Haley Mlotek searches for the language of love’s quiet undoing—from grief to the unexpected grace that comes with choosing to leave a marriage. Patrick Pittman traces what happens when cultural expectations, legal reform, and literary form converge in the finality of divorce.
by Patrick Pittman /

The Art of Quitting

Maybe true artistic freedom isn’t about about perseverance, but knowing exactly when to stop. Jowita Bydlowska reflects on the decision by her mentor and friend Barbara Gowdy to quit writing.
by Jowita Bydlowska /

Form is Always Full of Meaning

In conjunction with her career retrospective now at Koffler Arts, Elana Herzog speaks with curator and longtime friend Jessica Stockholder about 1970s New York, the misunderstandings of formalism, and the evolution of a practice decades in the making.
by Arcade /
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Recent Posts

Theatre as Necessity in Disempowering Times

Theatre as Necessity in Disempowering Times

Actor, director, and playwright Christopher Morris on the intensive research and moral questioning behind his play The Runner, opening this week in a new production presented by Koffler Arts.
by Jonathan Garfinkel /
Smoke, Mirrors, Ennui: How To Sensationalize Strangeness

Smoke, Mirrors, Ennui: How To Sensationalize Strangeness

The images of British photographer Nadia Lee Cohen are by now widely recognizable—for their mannered artifice and cosplaying celebrity subjects. But are they saying anything more than "Look at me"?
by Terry Nguyen /
What If My Body is a Beacon for the World: Sensing with Neurodiversity

What If My Body is a Beacon for the World: Sensing with Neurodiversity

Adam Wolfond and his collaborators at Dis Assembly invite us to perceive and feel beyond the limits of the neurotypical “normal".
by Estée Klar /

A Perception of Misbehaviour—the Legacy of Op Art

The survey exhibition Electric Op, now at the Buffalo AKG, reconsiders the short-lived and oft-derided Op art movement within a sixty-year trajectory of digital and new media art making.
by Patrick Pittman /

To Talk Without Speaking, To Love Without Knowing

On the strained, surreal intimacies of Luca Guadagnino’s new adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Queer.
by Tia Glista /

The Erotic Landscape of the Bedroom Floor

Linda Besner considers the tangled intimacies laying about in Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie’s The Use of Photography.
by Linda Besner /
Arcade 11 — September 2024

When a Garden Leans into Complexity

As with the field of botany, the idea of the botanic garden in the West is deeply rooted in the history of European imperialism and extractivism. Led by London's iconic Kew, botanic gardens around the world are now attempting to untangle the legacies of empire.
by Patrick Pittman /

Til Freedom Do Us Part

When it comes to 20th century intellectual power-couples, no two represented more disparate ideas about marriage and freedom than the chain-smoking liberationists Sartre and de Beauvoir on the one hand, and the neoliberal economists Milton and Rose Friedman on the other.
by Linda Besner /
Arcade 10 — August 2024

Tearing Up the Script

As he approaches the first anniversary of his joining Koffler Arts as its new general director, Arcade spoke with Matthew Jocelyn about the tenuous position of Canadian arts organizations, and his vision for Koffler going forward.
by Arcade /
Arcade 09 — June 2024

Every Weed Is a Rebellious Being

Though the original names of many native plants in Canada were lost to colonialism, with the garden he has designed in dialogue with the exhibition Botannica Tirannica, Isaac Crosby aims to show the resilience of both Indigenous knowledge and the plants themselves.
by Arcade /
Arcade 08 — April 2024
Arcade 07 — March 2024
Arcade 06 — February 2024

Good Things to Come

Sometimes, it's worth taking a moment to look forward, at all the good things in our future. A selection of picks for the art worth looking forward to in 2024.
by Arcade /
Arcade 05 — December 2023
Arcade 04 — November 2023
Arcade 03 — October 2023
Arcade 02 — September 2023
Arcade 01 — August 2023