Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Oct 6, 2026 · 25 min · 13 segments
U.S. tariffs have thrown the Canadian art market into chaos. Guest host Rad Simponpillai speaks with Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane, and Quebec artist Jennifer Lefort about how Canadian artists…
Well, Josh, let's bring you back into this conversation because, like, you know, it's been less than two months since these new tariffs have kicked in, so obviously we don't have, like, a concrete sense of the numbers, right? It's too soon to the, kinda determine the real economic impact.
But what are you hearing from people in the art world about, uh, you know, how, how, how these tariffs, like a, like in that, like a, how they are taking effect?
So d- d- kind of building off what Jennifer just said is there's a lot of sitting and waiting.
It's that there's kind of a hope that, like, "Oh, maybe this will just be another one of those 30 or 60-day things, and we're gonna go have another back and forth." Because there was a s- a squabble between the two countries, uh, in last spring, in, in roughly around March 2025, about tariffing art.
And people are kind of hoping, like, "Oh, I really, really hope that, you know, I can be able to sell my art, so I'll just hold off and wait and then get things ready to ship when these go away." But we haven't seen these tariffs go away.
And there are some pretty big implications to that, right? Like, you know, I brought up the Armory Show in New York, which happened in mid-September.
There are some galleries that managed to get their wares there across the border very quickly, but if you look at December, there's, you know, it's a massive month for art in Miami.
But the gallerists that I spoke with who wanna be able to sell the work of their artists and to build audiences for their artists, for Canadian art in the United States, are kind of wondering.
They're like, "Okay, at what..." Like, it's kind of like a game of chicken with the tariffs.
It's like, how long can I wait before I actually just figure out if I need to reduce the amount, or if I'm gonna go at all, or if I'm just gonna swallow these costs so that I can just, you know, perhaps continue to build a relationship with these buyers? It's, these are, none of these are easy questions.
Well then, Jennifer, I mean, uh, you know, if the, if the American market isn't viable in the way that Josh is pai- painting at the moment, and there's this waiting game, like, what are you seeing as, as the alternatives for a Canadian artist?
Um, I think there's gonna be more people applying for the very few grants that do exist.
I mean, as a young artist, I hate to say this, but about 25 years ago, uh, the grant amounts were pretty much the exact same as they are right now.
So there's gonna be more people that can't make an income from selling their art that might lean on those grants.
Well, Josh, let's bring you back into this conversation because, like, you know, it's been less than two months since these new tariffs have kicked in, so obviously we don't have, like, a concrete sense of the numbers, right? It's too soon to the, kinda determine the real economic impact.
But what are you hearing from people in the art world about, uh, you know, how, how, how these tariffs, like a, like in that, like a, how they are taking effect?
So d- d- kind of building off what Jennifer just said is there's a lot of sitting and waiting.
It's that there's kind of a hope that, like, "Oh, maybe this will just be another one of those 30 or 60-day things, and we're gonna go have another back and forth." Because there was a s- a squabble between the two countries, uh, in last spring, in, in roughly around March 2025, about tariffing art.
And people are kind of hoping, like, "Oh, I really, really hope that, you know, I can be able to sell my art, so I'll just hold off and wait and then get things ready to ship when these go away." But we haven't seen these tariffs go away.
And there are some pretty big implications to that, right? Like, you know, I brought up the Armory Show in New York, which happened in mid-September.
There are some galleries that managed to get their wares there across the border very quickly, but if you look at December, there's, you know, it's a massive month for art in Miami.
But the gallerists that I spoke with who wanna be able to sell the work of their artists and to build audiences for their artists, for Canadian art in the United States, are kind of wondering.
They're like, "Okay, at what..." Like, it's kind of like a game of chicken with the tariffs.
It's like, how long can I wait before I actually just figure out if I need to reduce the amount, or if I'm gonna go at all, or if I'm just gonna swallow these costs so that I can just, you know, perhaps continue to build a relationship with these buyers? It's, these are, none of these are easy questions.
Well then, Jennifer, I mean, uh, you know, if the, if the American market isn't viable in the way that Josh is pai- painting at the moment, and there's this waiting game, like, what are you seeing as, as the alternatives for a Canadian artist?
Um, I think there's gonna be more people applying for the very few grants that do exist.
I mean, as a young artist, I hate to say this, but about 25 years ago, uh, the grant amounts were pretty much the exact same as they are right now.
So there's gonna be more people that can't make an income from selling their art that might lean on those grants.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.