It’s pretty unusual (or as some might say, terrible) for a critic to wish that an art show had opened earlier to coincide with movie premieres and celebrity sightings.

Nevertheless, I can’t help thinking that Lois Andison’s current exhibition, which features a compelling video of women on roller skates, could have benefited from launching with Whip It at this year’s TIFF – if only to make a couple of sales to Barrymore, et al., and benefit from associated word of mouth.

Andison’s work is certainly strong enough to deserve a wider audience, be it in Hollywood or elsewhere.

Her roller skating video – which is presented in three segments, each unfurling on separate sides of a flat-screen-TV triangle – is a prime example. Each segment shows a different woman gliding across the slick concrete floor of Olga Korper’s gallery, transforming the art space into a different kind of competitive arena.

Skating briskly across this usually staid room, Andison’s women display a mix of confidence and uncertainty that feels very real. As they attempt tricks and close-to-the-wall turns, their expressions contain both guardedness and vulnerability, strength and silliness, fierceness and solemnity.

There’s also a sense of play and risk that comes through in Andison’s architectural substitution – how do you use a gallery to its maximum potential? By covering every inch with activity? By delivering isolated virtuoso displays? By simply exhausting oneself? All of the above?

Another artwork, called Heartbreaking, manipulates similar tensions. In it, a machine displays the letters of the word “heartbreaking” in every possible readable combination, Wheel Of Fortune-style. What comes out is a very particular take on love stories, one that is both romantic and robotic, both suspenseful and certain.

Overall, this show (including, ahem, its timing) isn’t perfect. But it’s good, really very good.

art@nowtoronto.com