#jamesstreetnorth

[designwallah]

Leon Furs James Street North, Hamilton

[niniannebastdesigns]

Can’t wait until I can vend locally again! I miss the interaction with my customers face to face! #smallbusiness #ontariosmallbusiness #localmarkets #vendor #niniannebastdesigns #missmycustomers #supercrawlfashion #thecottonfactory #popculturemarkethamilton #thisainthollywoodhamilton #jamesstreetnorth #jamesstreetartcrawl https://www.instagram.com/p/CQgi8elHSFs/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jennasdoodles]

Hamilton Canada Day 🎉 🇨🇦 Jenna’s Doodles will be down at Hamilton’s Bayfront Pier 4 set up as a craft vendor from 12pm-8pm. Come find me for all of your print, card, button and magnet needs. Slide to see the special Canada Day buttons! A fun filled day with live entertainment including Wolf Saga, Dear Rouge and more, food vendors, family zone, craft vendors and a finale fireworks show!!! #canadaday #hamont #hamilton #hamiltonbayfront #jamesstreetnorth #harbourfront #dearrouge #wolfsaga #supportlocal #supporthearts #localartist #hamontarts #hamiltonartist #fireworks #canadadayfireworks #canadaday2018 (at Pier 4 Park)

[jasonparis]

Taken the morning after my first Hamilton Supercrawl. In fact, it was only the second year that the James North monthly art crawl went “super” every September. (Sept. 25, 2010) • • • #igershamilton #hamiltonontario #hamont #ontario #gtha #construction #HFG #immigrationsquare #jamesstreetnorth #jamesville #urbanphotography #jamesnorthartcrawl #supercrawl2010 (at James Street North Art Crawl) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK2rtrVANR7/?igshid=awqdx1twiojm

[professorchrishall]

WALKIN FLASH DAY TOMORROW FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED Lots of great flash and designs to choose from. Flat cash rates. $20 from each tattoo will be donated towards getting an Xmas for a grade 7 student who just lost his last remaining parent. Donations of small gist cards gladly accepted. @cottage13tattoo #hamiltontattoos #hamiltontattoo #hamiltonink #6ixtattoos #ontariotattoos #torontotattoos #cottage13 #hamont #jamesstreetnorth #oakvilletattoos #burlingtontattoos  #niagaratattoos #torontotattoo #ontariotattoo (at Cottage 13)

[astrodon]

More shots from #Supercrawl this weekend on James St N in Hamilton. Big line up at #OLG. Streets are closed off so very safe for everyone walking. All of the studios are open as well. @Supercrawl #hamont #discoverhamilton #artcrawl #artwork #arthamilton #jamesstreetnorth #jamesstreetnorthartcrawl Don't forget more bands and fashion shows coming up tonight and Sunday. (at Hamilton Supercrawl)

[xraiink]

Our second year in a row, @effy.artistry and I will have our @_.hartridge._ booth set up at this years @supercrawl ! Joining us this year once again will be @karafloart and @slothmachine . New this year as well will be @spookysstitchcraft , who joined us last weekend for @prettyheroes ! Join us in September for Super Crawl! More updates to come soon! . . . #localart #supercrawl #artcrawl #jamesstreetnorth #hamont #hamontart #collective #collab #hamiltonon #canadian #buylocal #prints #artwork #festival #originals (at James Street North Art Crawl) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0UB8XWH8RX/?igshid=u1yxdk6qu16g

[ladybirdanimalsanctuary]

Hey friends! Swing by Art Crawl tomorrow evening and visit us for all your Ladybird swag needs. We’ll be set up at @makersmarkethamont from 7pm to 10pm and will have some fresh new items on hand! As always, all proceeds from sales will help animals in need. See you there! #artcrawl #makersmarket #hamont #hamilton #lookwhatlovecando #shoplocal #ladybirdanimalsanctuary #fundraise #charity #buylocal #jamesnorth #jamesstreetnorth #artcrawl #animalrescue https://www.instagram.com/p/BzxzzuVHRCJ/?igshid=6h7sjocpmnrq

[getbackupdude]

@kneadonjames on James.. . . . . . . . #snackinthehammer #hamont #thehammer #pizzapie #pizza #hamilton #bartonstreet #jamesstreetnorth #hangry #latenightpizza #nightcrawler (at Hamilton, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwGN3K1hh50/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=155t1cvwrsje6

[criticalsuperbeast-blog]

Keep on Keeping On: Artists heat up Hot Properties

The Hamilton Biennale, April 21-23, 2017, Casino Artspace, Hamilton, Ontario

By Melissa Bennett

Kyle Stewart, We Buy House$ Fa$t, 2017, mixed media on wood panel.

Hundred Dollar Gallery was founded in 2015 by Hamilton artists Stephen Altena and Andrew McPhail. As a tiny commercial art gallery with a penchant for irony in its mixed media programming and thoughtful performance art, it had a knack for delivering the critical aspects of its project in a discreet way. The gallery's strengths were often in the concepts behind the shows. It was open for a full year as a gallery space on Cannon Street at James Street North, and now exists nomadically. This week Hundred Dollar Gallery will manifest within Casino Artspace, a sprawling artist-studios building in downtown Hamilton, for the second Hamilton Biennale.

I loved Hundred Dollar Gallery for its simplicity and its rogue approach. The artists shown there worked to high professional standards, yet all works exhibited were for sale for $100. This was in part an effort to increase art collecting in Hamilton, but it also seemed to me an interestingly critical approach to commercialism. It seemed to poke fun at exorbitant international art prices, a market often so ridiculous and inflated that it could easily be compared to the current local real estate market. But even though the gallery's works were cheap, Altena and McPhail encouraged risk-taking. There was no need to curate safe exhibitions with works that were guaranteed to sell. The gallerists were artists and the gallery was a project and art piece in itself — it had goals beyond minimum monthly sales targets. I also loved the seeming ease with which programming came together. It wasn't necessary to schedule exhibitions two years (and more) in advance, like most galleries that receive public funding. The gallerists could act on a whim, and have fun while doing so. The ease of execution and the uncomplicated way in which projects were presented was, in short, admirable. Altena and McPhail really seemed to be doing whatever they wanted. And isn't that what we all want?

In 2015 when the Hundred Dollar Gallery was founded, I had been listening in on stilted conversations in Toronto about producing an international biennial or triennial for that city. The topic was so bogged down: which art-world players would run it? (Some wanted it for reasons of ego; others were already too overcommitted). Who would pay for it? (Applications to the few funding bodies would surely be drawing from the same limited pool of funds that are already in use). Then the first Hamilton Biennale, produced by Hundred Dollar Gallery at their Cannon Street space, wafted in on a fresh breeze. It was organized in a matter of months by Altena and McPhail, two artists acting as curators, who didn't have to answer to anyone and who were unconcerned with funding. Unfortunately, this meant that artists were not going to be paid artist fees, but they would receive revenue from any sales.

This week Altena and McPhail will be opening the second edition of the Biennale, titled Hot Properties (ha!, a timely theme in the demented Hamilton real estate market). If you are not familiar with many Hamilton artists, go there to see works by about 25 of them (plus a few more from other places in the GT(H!)A. Each was invited to respond to the theme of the Biennale, however he or she wished to interpret it. There are works in all media looking at the theme of rapid development in Hamilton: gentrification, environmental issues and land use, and the socio-political repercussions of the explosive changes in the city. It's a topic that everyone talks about, and that many artists can't get away from. Artists are often the first ones in and the first ones out of gentrifying neighbourhoods; as visionaries in general, they often establish properties as desirable because they naturally create exciting happenings and inventively shape their spaces. By the time everyone else catches on, they get pushed elsewhere because they can no longer afford to stay. But the Hot Properties theme also seems to objectify the included artists as properties themselves, which we all know is wrong, except when you're as witty as Altena and McPhail and you have experienced your share of art world politics, enough to know that in the upper echelons of the commercial art world, artists are often appraised and traded by galleries (commercial and non-) in the same way that baseball players are. Altena and McPhail play with that idea as well, but they leave this point for viewers to surmise, a gesture which I respect.

Earlier this week, Altena and McPhail were kind enough to let me preview some of the works as they were being installed. Not all were delivered yet, and some were still wrapped, but I got a sense of the show. The Biennale has a good range of artists this year, including new players on the Hamilton scene, which is great. There are some usual suspects too. Not all works in Hot Properties are going to challenge you on the issues at hand; and not all works are going to blow your mind, aesthetically speaking. It's possible that the suggestion of a $100 price tag limited the submissions — there are lots of small scale pieces that you would expect for that price point, which works well for some pieces, but in other cases I wonder if the price point was too much a deciding factor for the contribution. Personally, I’d like to see commercial prices waived altogether for the Biennale, despite it being enshrined in the name of Hundred Dollar Gallery, but that's me speaking as a public gallery curator. And Altena and McPhail did lose the price tags for their final exhibition at Hundred Dollar Gallery in September 2016, which had the hilarious title Priceless: art you can't afford. Alternatively, the concept could be extended and taken up further by the participating artists—how could the $100 price be activated as an argument that points to the complexity (moral or not) of participating in, and propelling, any market, whether art or real estate. I'm hoping to see some of that point raised when I see the show in full. But broadly speaking, at the Biennale, there is comfort in the large gathering of works made by artists who keep on keeping on despite challenging times in Hamilton and beyond.

The Hamilton Biennale takes place April 21-23, 2017. The opening reception is April 21st, 7 p.m. onward, at Casino Artspace, 176 Mary Street in Hamilton.

Melissa Bennett is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, currently on maternity leave. She typed this essay in many different attempts around a child and a baby talking and crying and jumping and falling and eating and bathing and then they slept for a bit. Partner to Marco D'Andrea, supportive husband and father (and full disclosure: he is part of the artist's collective at Casino Artspace and is in a band that will perform at the opening of the Hamilton Biennale. But that's kind of how it is in Hamilton).

[createwithkiely]

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Brushes in the Hammer is all set up and ready to go. Open till 8pm tonight and from11am to 10pm Friday. Come check out the artwork from the seven hwcdsb high schools! #highschool #hwcdsb #hamiltonontario #hamilton #hamiltonart #jamesstreet #jamesstreetnorth #artdisplay #artcrawl #artexhibition #artworks #artclass #marysnation #teacher

[designwallah]

The Federal Building 72-76 James Street North, Hamilton Built in 1856. www.pressreader.com/canada/the-hamilton-spectator/2019012...

[niniannebastdesigns]

Bernie waits for Artcrawl to reopen. #hamontmakers #hamontmarket #hamontartists #hamontsmallbusiness #berniesits #berniesanders #jamesstreetnorth #artcrawlhamont #hamiltonontariocanada #niniannebastdesigns https://www.instagram.com/p/CKWjdSQF17v/?igshid=8ru7xaokaqov

[jennasdoodles]

Woohoo 🎉 🇨🇦 Jenna’s Doodles will be celebrating Canada Day down at Hamilton’s Bayfront set up as a craft vendor from 12pm-8pm. Come find me for all of your print, card, button and magnet needs. Slide to see the map with vendor locations. A fun filled day with live entertainment including Wolf Saga, Dear Rouge and more, food vendors, family zone, craft vendors and a finale fireworks show!!! #canadaday #hamont #hamilton #hamiltonbayfront #jamesstreetnorth #harbourfront #dearrouge #wolfsaga #supportlocal #supporthearts #localartist #hamontarts #hamiltonartist #fireworks #canadadayfireworks (at Hamilton, Ontario)

[trueresident-blog]

James Street North has gone through a lot of changes in the past few decades. Learn about the history.

[professorchrishall]

All these paintings from my show are still available for purchase! #hamiltontattoos #hamont #jamesstreetnorth #artcrawlhamilton #artistsonig #gothic #macabre #observance (at Cottage 13)