Show reflects Hamilton’s shifting culture
Artists express concerns on canvas as real estate boom paints a worrisome picture
From behind his store counter on James St. North, art supply shop coowner Dave Kuruc, since opening the star 12 years ago, has had a frontline view of Hamilton’s profound changes. When Mixed Media moved in, he and his wife had their pick of empty storefronts.
Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find an opening, he says, as properties that go to market fetch record prices while nearby, condo construction is underway.
Enmeshed in the neighbourhood, Kuruc has developed an acute sense for real-estate speak. He pays close attention to listings, and his central location makes him privy to all sorts of conversation.
He’s overheard snippets like “all the bad things are moving east” and “too expensive for the riff-raff.” He mentions the words “bedroom community” as if they were a pox. These excerpts and eavesdroppings have become the basis for a new painting.
Kuruc is one of 30 artists and artist teams invited to exhibit their work at the 2017 Hamilton Biennale, presented by DIY art collective comrades Hundred Dollar Gallery and Casino Artspace. It runs on until Sunday at the latter’s 176 Mary St. headquarters. The theme for this edition is Hot Properties.
The discussion is ubiquitous right now, Stephen Altena, co-founder of both Hundred Dollar Gallery and the bienniale, says.
Speaking with gallery visitors, the conversation inevitably turns to real estate: “What neighbourhood are you looking at?” “How much?”
Altena and co-curator Andrew McPhail wanted to provide a stage for that discourse, asking artists to reflect, as the invitation instructs, on the “current transitional climate of the city’s culture, economy and geography, and the changes, both sad and terrific, that are taking place.”
Skewering art-world decadence, while also making collecting an accessible act (as has always been HDG’s shtick), most of the work included will be available for purchase for $100. New arrivals might be keen to find such bargains where they can — Hamilton is, right now, one of the hottest real-estate markets in the country.
For the first two months of 2017, sale prices were up 22.6 per cent from a year prior.
The boom is largely hitched to Toronto’s own scalding market and the exodus of buyers and renters, heading an hour down the highway for some relief and some extra square footage.
With the influx, however, the promised “affordable spaces” are becoming elusive. And the creative community that helped establish Hamilton’s newish lustre is starting to feel the forces of later-stage gentrification push them from the same streets they revitalized.
“I’m always afraid that the Hamilton we’re all fighting for, will one day only be there in a book. Our biggest challenge in the next 10 years is going to be making sure we have a place for everyone.” DAVE KURUC ARTIST AND STORE CO-OWNER
Two weeks ago, Hamilton’s Arts Advisory Commission held a public forum, titled The Big Picture, exploring how a hot real-estate market is affecting local artists.
Petra Matar — a panel speaker at the event who is both an artist and intern-architect — floated through the roundtable discussions and says the most commonly shared concern was “getting priced out.”
The forum then discussed solutions — municipal grants, incentives for landlords renting art and artists’ spaces, directing developers’ fees to affordable housing, for example — imagining how the city might sustain and nurture its creative communities through what feels to some like seismic changes.
David Trautrimas, another of the Biennale artists, moved to Hamilton from Toronto in 2015 when rising rents had whittled his studio space to a computer desk stuck into the corner beside his bed.
In Steeltown, by comparison, he could instead afford a three-bedroom in Barton Village with a dedicated workspace and a basement for storage.
He’s presenting four laser-cut acrylic panels that illustrate the changes he’s noticed even in his short time. In one, an ominous and anonymous glass cube sits perched above a small slice of grass — that’s the fear, he says, that what’s happening on James St. is what already happened on Queen St. West or Ossington Ave.
“I’m always afraid,” Kuruc says, “that the Hamilton we’re all fighting for, will one day only be there in a book. Our biggest challenge in the next 10 years is going to be making sure we have a place for everyone.”
The biennale will close Sunday with a performance — somewhat fittingly — by a Toronto artist.
Carrie Perreault will deconstruct a reclaimed brick wall at the centre of the space, displacing and dispersing and relocating the material. Then, once the wall has been dismantled and rebuilt anew, she’ll pack it all into her car and head elsewhere.
Some would say the city should take heed.