Hi Catherine,

Here's a new shotgun review, in which I interview myself on my
current exhibition;


Mikidot
____________________________

Mikidot; Miklos, Your painting exhibition "Dreaming Tokyo
Vertical", is at Loop Gallery, 1174 Queen west, until July. Tell us
about the show.

Miklos; The work is fascinating; a crowd formed outside even while
we were hanging it. For a "dead" medium such as painting that's not
bad. I'm pointing out an obvious next step for media in a kind of a
"Komar & Melamid" study; a social and cultural location for
contemporary painting, photo, and digital media as an historic
development, a linear progression. I made a body of work located at
the intersection of where these media would be next year if our
cultural paradigm follows a linear progression. One goal was to
subvert stereotypical expectations of painting while remaining within
the "purist" ballpark. The work's success reflects a mastery of
technique and a series of surprising conceptual premises based in art
history and in psychology such as subliminal layering of content.

Mikidot; Aren't these rather arrogant words? You seem to be
claiming a position described by Robert C. Morgan as "disturbatory."

Miklos; I've met highly intelligent people and do not count myself
among that elite, though I had enough brains and persistence to get a
few degrees. What I possess is a gift for seeing and describing
rather obvious conclusions to current ways of thinking and behavior
which are not yet visible to most people.

Mikidot; Although you've grown up and been educated in the art
world, you've seen yourself as an outsider artist. Can you explain
that?

Miklos; Most fine arts producers, including our local curators and
critics, graduate from similar schools and share similar values,
which are reflected in their association, their production, and the
systems created thereby. A cultural blindness results from such group
judgements. I found too many artists, dealers, critics and curators
praising themselves and each other while restricting their vision to
a narrow category of safe artists and works approved through a
self-perpetuating system. The artists themselves already know well
enough to load their work with semiotic markers indicating membership
in the club, while restricting the scope of their work to what's
understood. These restrictions contradict the intellectual freedom
we expect from informed professionals. And yet some compromises have
to be made. My work is getting recognition in Germany and the
States, and I'll be using this international podium to upset the fine
arts applecart as much as I can.

+
+The internet can change everything.
__________________________

Miklos Legrady
studio-416-603-2635
__cell-647-292-1846
310a Bathurst
(Coachhouse)
Toronto, Ont.
M5T 2S3
website;
http://www.mikidot.com
archived work;
http://www.ccca.ca/artists/legrady.html