I haven't picked up an issue of this since the mid-nineties, when It was my favourite art magazine, featuring a good cross-section of painting sculpture, film and dance, without too much impenetrable theory or pretension. As my regular exposure to dance and art galleries and the like has dropped off, I've stopped picking it up.

As soon as I opened the issue and saw the image above advertising a show at the Zieher Smith Gallery, I knew immediately that I wanted to buy this issue, but shouldn't- we've been tight for money since we bought our house in the spring, and this was probably another extravagance I could avoid, especially considering that the only reason I would already be paying $4.50 plus tax for the New Yorker was to read a three page (and not too terrific) Aline an R. Crumb strip. I wandered off trying to get it out of my mind, but I couldn't stop think of the drawings, and kept going back to look more. It turns out the drawings were by Vancouver artist Jeff Ladouceur whose powerful mix of pencil and delicate pen hatching work, are similiar in sensibility to Chester Brown or Sammy Harkham. Just by looking at the work of these artists you can tell that they take great joy in the act of drawing itself, and the simple compositions are the key to their wierd, allegorical power. As the author of the piece Lee Henderson points out (and he's good writer too, check out his website): "The same concentration necessary for channellng, is also necessary for his own work, and each of his drawings is like a 'little lozenge brought back from the world that's always there'" You can see more of his work here at Vancouver's Other Gallerywebsite, and he currently has a show at the Atelier Gallery on Granville Street.

He also has a new book come out from Quebec publisher L'Oie de Cravan \, who also published his 2001 book Ebola, as well as art books by Simon Bosse and Julie Doucet

So, I gave in a bought the magazine, and I think that it's an impressively strong issue, introducing me to a lot of new artists whose work I really enjoyed, and will be looking out for in the future. There's an article on the Winnipeg Art Collective 2-6, a bunch of recently art shool grads, many of whom started off as graffitti artists, and have an obvious debt to that other Winnipeg art collective The Royal Art Lodge (Aside: Comic artist Jason Turner turned me on to their drawings, and they have a comprehensive 300 piece show going on at the MOCA Pacific Design Center in Hollywood, CA at the moment) But 2-6's work is also really good in its own right.

I was also really struck by a series of photos of tree planting by Sarah Anne Johnson (couldn't find any links to her work unfortunately) There's a mixture of documentary 'real' photos, and photographs of powerfully meticulous dioramic recreations of her memories of tree planting. The paintings of Dana Shutz are great also.(more here, here,and here.)

Overall, I'd say it was a $9.95 well spent, and I definately be picking up Border Crossings again in the future.