Media Response

Articles and Interviews

excerpted from Oct. 10, 2002 broadcast

Tonight, at 7o’clock, in Toronto you can catch the opening of a new show of paintings by JG Freedman called “Gauguin Again”… They’re funny things – they are wonderful things… They’re contemporized Gauguin paintings: Taking the old, classic paintings that you know and have seen a thousand times of Gauguin and moving them into contemporary Tahiti. They’re very good… these ring very true… At the Peterson Fine Art Gallery in Yorkville.
… And later this month, October the 25th, here in Vancouver, at the Ballard Lederer Gallery there is a show of his magic realism paintings. So, things to look forward to: The works of JG Freedman.
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Queue Magazine, The Vancouver Sun, Oct 24-31, 2002
Full-colour picture of "Love Story". Lead-off to Arts section with this caption:

Local artist J.G. Freedman cites as influences “Gordon Smith, for showing me that art is about giving and generosity of spirit, and Alex Colville, who showed me what a painting could achieve.” Freedmans exhibition opens at the Ballard Lederer Gallery tonight.

The Georgia Strait, STRAIGHTCHOICES Oct. 24, 2002

… Vancouver artist J.G. Freedman’s images are like fever dreams filtered through Alex Colville’s hyper-realism… One piece in the new solo show … at the Ballard Lederer Gallery, Love Story, is a painting of a house…On closer inspection, you notice a clown suit hanging from the clothesline outside under the moonlight – a sure sign of the sense of humour that lurks beneath the darker themes of his fascinating canvases.”

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ARTIST JG Freedman’s wife, Jessie award-winning actor Marilyn Norry, is the model for the figure in his painting California Dreaming.

JG Freedman plays with comedy and menace, North Shore News, Nov. 8, 2002

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“… Bright, fresh and humourous is how art dealer Ted Lederer describes the work of Greg Freedman… Freedman’s paintings are full of comedy and menace, private jokes and hidden messages… in the tradition of Canada’s foremost magic realist, Alex Colville. “When I first saw Horse and Train I was stopped dead in my tracks,” says Freedman of one of Colville’s best known works. The image is of a horse galloping down the tracks towards an oncoming train. The viewer is a helpless witness to imminent disaster as the painting forces the question: Can destiny be altered?
Freedman’s painting The Safeway provokes similar fears and anxieties. The image of a rhinoceros looming over a child crawling along the pavement of a Safeway parking lot. The message: Don’t let your fears stop your progress; they’re not real; just keep going.
… “These are modern masterpieces,” [Lederer] enthuses, describing the large canvases that are currently hanging in the Ballard Lederer Gallery…

Serious? Not JG… , The Vancouver Courier, Nov. 1, 2002
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… Influenced by Maxwell Bates and Alex Colville and mentored by Gordon Smith, painter JG Freedman has been praised over the decades for his ‘personal expression’ depicted in the magic realism of his work, which is on display at the Ballard Lederer Gallery.
“He doesn’t copy anybody… That’s very special in Canadian art today,” says Smith… ”

TALKS ABOUT
JG FREEDMAN

excerpted from Oct. 30, 2002 broadcast
SUSAN WESTMORLAND: Paul Grant is here with today’s Arts Report and a profile of a Vancouver artist who is in the unusual position of having consecutive shows in Toronto and Vancouver in the same month.
PAUL GRANT: Hello… This guy’s name is JG Freedman… he’s just wrapped up a major show [at the Peterson Fine Art Gallery] in Toronto called Gauguin Again in which he places Gauguin’s female figures in modern day Honolulu settings… His current show [at Vancouver’s Ballard Lederer Gallery] has no such themes. The paintings are almost photographic… They’re very real looking but the colours are heightened and dreamlike and that, combined with the juxtaposition of images, reminded me of Alex Colville.

{ INTERVIEW WITH JG FREEDMAN }
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SUSAN: Really accessible work… the kind of art that you feel relaxed with.
PAUL: Refreshingly open and honest.

	Serious? Not JG… , The Vancouver Courier, Nov. 1, 2002 email artist for entire text of this article
	… Influenced by Maxwell Bates and Alex Colville and mentored by Gordon Smith, painter JG Freedman has been praised over the decades for his ‘personal expression’ depicted in the magic realism of his work, which is on display at the Ballard Lederer Gallery. “He doesn’t copy anybody… That’s very special in Canadian art today,” says Smith… ”