It’s Artscape’s first condominium development, which meant a big learning curve for the not-for-profit organization. We spoke to president Tim Jones about the experience of operating within this new realm. “We had to learn the condo business inside and out. We kind of went to condo school over the last couple of years, and what we’ve learned is that it’s a very, very complicated thing—the layers and layers and layers of legal agreements that need to be put together.”
What Artscape does know, however, is artist spaces, which is why the units in the Triangle Lofts have attributes like opening windows (a surprisingly rare find on many new developments), higher ceilings, unit-controlled mechanical ventilation, and almost no interior walls. “The big lesson that we’ve learned in having talked with various people and built a number of projects over the years is flexibility. We basically are providing a shell of a unit … making it very much up to the tenant what they want to do with the space.”

The Triangle Lofts passed on the big-ticket amenities that the West Side Lofts will have, such as the pool and the security guards. Keeping condo fees to a minimum will likely prove as important to the residents as the design considerations. The sale prices were kept to a minimum as well. Accepted buyers paid seventy-five percent of market value for the units, and the units that were kept as rentals are also offered at discounted rates. To qualify to become a resident of the lofts, potential buyers had to be deemed a professional artist by a peer review panel using the Draft Canadian Artist Code.
According to Jones, it was important to conceive of the Artscape Triangle Lofts as a distinct and separate entity, rather than integrating the units throughout the West Side development. “Part of what attracts creative people to cluster together is because they want to be able to share ideas, work on projects together, be inspired by each other, and that is part of the function of this project,” remarked Jones.

This new community of artists began moving into their homes in September, and when Torontoist visited the lofts earlier this week, we were invited into the unit of designer and photographer Joe Calleja (shown above). While he had clearly settled into his space, Artscape were racing to get other elements finished in time for today’s opening. The event is being held in the Artscape Triangle Gallery, a rental art gallery and event venue on the main floor of the building that should help add a permeability to the walls separating the development from non-residents.

Despite the completion of this undertaking, Artscape’s work in the area continues with their ongoing intervention at the Shaw Street School a few blocks to the east, which will offer work-only spaces (rather than live/work). The success of such projects that convene, preserve, and support an important community are worthy of a moment of recognition.
The Artscape Triangle Gallery opens to the public on Friday, November 19, with an exhibition titled “This Must be the Place,” featuring nine of the residents of the Artscape Triangle Lofts.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.

The exhibition features nine of these bottle-cap wall sculptures, and close investigation reveals an incredibly painstaking process, as the caps are woven together with twisted copper wire. Standing back, however, is to suspend disbelief of their modest materials. They hover somewhere in between a waterfall and a rock face. Sometimes monumental in scale, their rippling surfaces suggest topographic maps and mountain ranges seen from afar. Their fragmented golds and silvers are like sunlight reflecting off water.
The show also features floor sculptures, wood pieces, drawings, and paintings which help round out the portrait of an artist with a love of patterns, repetition, and a vivid colour sensibility.
Anatsui delights in the act of exhibiting his works. Peak Project is made from the lids of Peak brand milk cans which are connected by wire to create two-by-four-foot squares. The exhibition’s installer gets to decide how to arrange and display them. At the ROM, they have gone with Anatsui’s preferred composition—a series of small pointed mounts that playfully reference the brand name of the milk. In this installation, however, the piece reveals itself to be much more than wordplay. The shining gold disks are piled atop a dark green-blue base, and it has the feeling of pirate’s treasure seen through the distortion of deep water…elusive and ancient.
Also unique to each exhibition are the placement, size, and shape of the folds of Anatsui’s wall sculptures. An arrangement that best suits the exhibition space is decided during the installation by the artist in collaboration with the installers. This spatial responsiveness creates a dialogue between the gallery and the artworks, and contributes to their stunning impact.
In conjunction with El Anatsui’s exhibition, the ICC also presents Walls and Barriers: A Collaborative Project, a community engagement initiative that involves over five-hundred youth from across the GTA. Anatsui’s work sometimes deals with the notion of impassable structures or walls. In the artist’s words, “walls are opaque to the eyes but transparent to the imagination.” Each participant was given ten-by-twelve-inch sheets of clear acrylic, and asked to make artworks inspired by the barriers that they face in their own lives. Hung in grids in the ROM’s Canada Court, the panels become walls themselves.
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa opens tomorrow, October 2, and runs until January 2, 2011. The exhibition is part of the ROM’s Nuit Blanche offerings, and can be seen free of charge during the event.
Walls and Barriers is currently on display, and runs until October 23, 2010.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.

The first formal exhibition of Will’s artwork since his death, it would be easy to assume that the show would take the form of a retrospective—an attempt to create a comprehensive or at least cross-section look at his visual arts practice. The modest size of this gallery space, however, would never have allowed for it, and the show’s organizers wisely chose a tightly curated approach. Michelle Jacques, the AGO’s associate curator of contemporary art, and the curator of Total Eclipse, explained that this exhibition “focuses on the work that Will made based on the celebrities that were iconic figures in his life—Klaus Nomi, and also David Bowie, Leigh Bowery, The Runaways, Darby Crash of The Germs…”
In the show, album covers reproduced in fabric, a portrait of Leigh Bowery made of hand-stitched underwear, and a Klaus Nomi vest made out of paper, tape, and acrylic show Will’s affection for the intersection of not only music and visual art, but textile and art. These pieces suggest the idea of being able to cover and surround yourself with your musical influences. They embody Will’s habitation of the intersection between many things.
“Will was a complex person, with many interests and passions” says Jacques. “With his work—and I don’t just mean the objects that he made, since Will considered deejaying, organizing parties, running a restaurant, being an activist, etc., to be as much a part of his creative practice as producing visual art—he created a space and a community in which he felt comfortable, and which could support all of his interests and passions.”

There’s also a collection of ephemera, including silkscreened event posters and punk patches that speak more intimately of the day-to-day (albeit rather extraordinary) life of Will Munro. These objects are instantly humanizing, even for those who never met him, and as such, they are tinged with a layer of sadness.
This is not, however, an exhibition of loss, and works like Black Fag (Henry Rollins vs. Vaginal Crème Davis) will simply not allow you to become too serious or sombre. There is also a media kiosk where you can sit and watch selected YouTube videos of performances and performers that influenced Will’s artistic work. Jacques’ favourite clip from the kiosk is a dance piece with choreography by Michael Clark and costumes by Leigh Bowery.
“It makes me wish it was the ’80s again,” Jacques says. “It’s really great to sit in the space and look at this footage in proximity to Will’s work and start to get a sense of how he was inspired and how he transformed his references into something totally unique.”

The show’s title comes from a piece of the same name in the exhibition—a portrait of singer and performance artist Klaus Nomi who sang a song of the same name. According to Jacques, “the song’s lyrics are pretty wacky—almost nonsensical—but the implications of the total eclipse—the idea of an astronomical event that is celestial, rare, and awe-inspiring—seemed like a fitting title for an exhibition that celebrates Will.”
While this may be an exhibition of pop icons by an icon, the work never feels distant or static. There is energy and passion and life in the room, which may be due in large part to the people who continue to gather around something worth celebrating.
Will Munro: Total Eclipse is on display until September 26. Admission to the Young Gallery, the AGO’s street-front contemporary art space (located adjacent to FRANK restaurant), is free.
The family of Will Munro is hoping to compile a list of all the works Will has made, and is requesting that anyone in possession of a Munro work send an email to publicrelations@ago.net so that it can be added to the database.
Photos by Susan Kordalewski/Torontoist.

CORRECTION: AUGUST 13, 2010 Total Eclipse is the third, not (as this article originally mistakenly said) the second, exhibition in the Young Gallery’s Toronto Now Series.

Artscape’s president and CEO, Tim Jones, talked to us about the process of securing this massive location. “It’s been a long time in the works. We’ve been working on it for at least four years, and we’ve had our eye on the place for many more years than that.” The urban development organization isn’t the only group who had their sights on the space. In an interview with the Star, Ward 10 Trustee Chris Bolton stated that, at one point, a condo developer had put forth an offer to buy the building.
It’s easy to understand why the building has captured the imagination of many. The large three-storey stone structure is in the heart of the West Queen West neighbourhood, just one street away from Trinity Bellwoods Park, covered in large windows, and gathering an ever-increasing air of mystery due to the simple fact that you can’t get in.

Light streams into the hallway of the Shaw Street School.

Torontoist was lucky enough to be granted a private tour, and the interior does not disappoint. The scale of the rooms is enough to make you want to stow away in a cupboard and hope that no one remembers you were part of the tour. It’s seventy-thousand square feet of well-proportioned opportunity. (We’ll have more exclusive photos to share soon in an upcoming feature about this amazing building.)
Despite its allure, the site does come with its own set of unique challenges: it not only shares property with, but is currently physically attached to, the adjacent Givins Shaw Public School. While the two buildings will be severed before the Shaw Street Centre opens, there are considerations to address when operating so close to an active public school. As a result of an extensive feasibility study, which looked at ways to tailor the centre to the site, Artscape plans to put an emphasis on programs and organizations that focus on serving youth. “We know that there’s interest in this out there,” says Jones. “We’re hoping that, in response to the Request for Expressions of Interest, there’s interest that comes forward in that regard.”

Artscape has been securing the survival of Queen West’s artistic vitality since 1995, when they opened the city’s first legal live/work studios for artists just around the corner at 900 Queen West. Their recent coup in acquiring the Artscape Triangle Lofts—seventy residential units for artists and arts workers in the future West Side Gallery Lofts—is demonstration not only of commitment, but of straight-up savvy. Says Jones: “The Triangle as a project, and now the Shaw Street project, really allow us to respond to the changing conditions of the area with a significant amount of space, and in a way that will really help to ensure that these hot beds of creativity continue to thrive.”
While it will be an estimated two years before the doors officially open on the Artscape Shaw Street Centre, the proverbial door is now ever-so-slightly ajar. As of today, you can consider your possible involvement in the project, and community meetings will be held during the process to keep the dialogue open. Jones is optimistic about the centre’s reception. “In putting this project together we’ve met many of the neighbours, and it’s really a dynamic, interesting, and creative neighbourhood. We’ve found that people there are really open and enthusiastic about getting involved in helping to make this thing work.”
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.

Come Up To My Room is considered to be the “wildly alternative sister” to the Interior Design Show, which also runs until Sunday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In fact, it’s one event in the absolute flurry of activity that has become unofficially known as Toronto’s “Design Week.” The spring issue of Design Lines comes out, MADE (the intrepid Dundas Street West design store) puts on their annual industrial design show “Radiant Dark,” and even the Royal Ontario Museum is getting in on the action with a brief exhibition called “Cut/Paste: Creative Reuse in Canadian Design.” This year, in an attempt to make things a bit more official, a new entity has emerged to collect all of these events under one conceptual roof, the Toronto International Design Festival.

Details from Naomi Yasui, Jennifer Sciarrino, and Jacob Whibley’s Slap Dash Depository in room 210.

Whatever you want to call this week of all things design, Come Up To My Room continues to be one of the most surprising and inspiring collections of design ideas. This is partly due to the supportive but hands-off curatorial approach, in which the curators are not allowed into the exhibition rooms during the installation process. Jeremy Vandermeij, one of the show’s four co-curators, explained their role to Torontoist. “Once we select all of the participants from the large pool of applications, the curators are responsible for communicating the artists’ needs to the Gladstone, music, entertainment, graphics, collection of information, and generally providing all the necessary support for the artists a gallery/curator would normal provide. We plan and manage the Design Talks and any other unique events, and we manage and recruit the volunteers. Finally, we host the event and provide curatorial tours to press, students, and interested guests.”
This emphasis on selection and facilitation—and the feeling of freedom and play that it creates—is evident across the installations. The show feels experimental, ephemeral, and curious. Here are some of Torontoist’s favourites.

Public Spaces

Vancouver-based lighting, furniture, and exhibition design studio Propellor Design created a series of hanging lights that were inspired by a found walnut log brought into their studio. Referencing fractal patterns and based in natural materials, they create an awning of abstracted branches and soft points of light.

Propellor Design’s Mycologic.

Propellor has previously participated as an exhibitor at the Interior Design Show (and currently has a mesmerizing light installation that looks like a tiny snow-covered mountain range in “Radiant Dark”). We spoke to Propellor’s Toby Barratt about the difference between the two experiences from the perspective of a contributor. He told us that Come Up To My Room and the Interior Design Show are “two different creatures. IDS was a bigger production for us, building a booth and exhibiting numerous designs. Come Up To My Room has given us an opportunity to concentrate on creating a single, completely new design.” They became involved with the Gladstone’s event through MADE, and were “immediately excited to be involved in Come Up To My Room. Being from Vancouver, we haven’t had a chance to see the show in past years but we have seen much of the work online and in magazines and we have been impressed by the huge outpouring of creativity that Come Up To My Room elicits from the Art and Design community.”
The contribution of Toronto’s Science and Sons (the moniker of industrial designer and OCAD graduate Tristan Zimmermann) is true to the thoughtful irreverence of his wildly inventive body of work. In his 2007 Nuit Blanche project Play by Hear, the artist invited the audience to place their personal audio devices into a massive communal sound-amplifying machine made of a clever tangle of wind instruments. For Come Up To My Room, he displays two giant clocks that softly expose the intricate mechanics that usually operate invisibly behind their faces. By connecting the hour, minute, and second hands with jointed wooden bars, Science and Sons creates a constantly changing sculpture, responding gracefully to the constant passage of time.

Room 204

Detail from Julia Hepburn’s bird dream vignettes in room 204.

This room hosts the other-worldy imagination of Julia Hepburn. Typically working in miniatures and dioramas, Hepburn has embraced the opportunity to work on a much larger scale. She presents the embodied dreams of a black bird who is fast asleep in a large nest bed. Once you come to terms with the absolute charm of a tiny bird tucked safely under the covers, it’s time to investigate each one of the mysterious and haunting miniature scenes installed within metal lanterns hanging from the tree-top canopy of the bed. Not wanting to explain too much, Hepburn allows you to craft your own possible narratives to explain the dream scenes.

Room 207

Paolo Ferrari and Richard Unterthiner collaborate in room 207 to take you through the looking glass. Entering their space requires an initial act of commitment, as you are asked to take off your shoes and set off into a mirrored maze tunnel. Fully disoriented by the reflections and trompe l’oeil of navigating the mirrors, you arrive in a soft, light, white, and equally disorienting space. Cradled on a soft and springy bed, white words float above you on the subject of sleep. The words and phrases were collected from a blog established by the artists called Bed Memory, which invited visitors to leave anonymous recollections relating to beds.
Ferrari and Unterthiner’s room is an encapsulation of what makes Come Up To My Room so different. The participants don’t walk the line between art and design, as they simply don’t see a line of separation. Mixing highly aesthetic considerations with deeply conceptual ideas, Come Up To My Room gives design the chance to branch out from the world of form and stake a firm claim in the realm of cultural significance.
Come up to my Room runs Friday, January 22, 12–8 p.m.; 
Saturday, January 23, 12–10 p.m.; and Sunday, January 24, 12–5 p.m. Admission is $8, with the exception of the “Thrive Design for 100%” talks on Saturday in the ballroom, and the Opening Love Party on Saturday night, which offer free admission.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.

Detail from Jannick Deslauriers’s What is Left installation in the “Emergence Exhibition Series (Part 2).”

While this may be a move of maturity for this labour-of-love gallery, it will be a noticeable artistic loss for the neighbourhood. The current show, part two of their “Emergence Exhibition Series,” is an unexpected spatial experience that exemplifies Whippersnapper’s full curatorial potential. The next five months are your last chance to visit or exhibit in the space. They are accepting applications for rental exhibitions and events to run before June, and February’s “Art for Chilled Hearts” group show is accepting submissions this month.
We spoke to Luke Correia-Damude, one of the co-founders and the director of the gallery, about the changes ahead.
Torontoist: Whippersnapper is looking to move towards an artist-run centre model. How will this affect the type of exhibitions and programming at Whippersnapper?

Luke Correia-Damude: The artist-run centre is our projected goal; it has not been secured. There are other directions we are also considering but artist-run centre seems to be at the top of our list. If this status was secured Whippersnapper’s programming and exhibitions will be elevated to an enriched and exciting new level. Having operations funding will allow us to focus on finding and presenting a diverse range of emerging artists. As an organization we will be able to spend the much-needed time on showcasing the best of what emerging art has to offer. At the moment much of our time is divided between administration as a rental gallery, programming our own shows, and working outside jobs so we can all pay our rent. Eliminating the rental gallery facet of Whippersnapper will funnel more time into creative and artistic programming. Operational funding will allow us to have at least one dedicated employee, which will make a world of difference.
If we do not become an artist-run centre, we will follow the pop-up model and organize a few month-long exhibitions and events throughout the year in different locations.

Amanda Nedham’s Generals Always Die in Bed with Jannick Deslauriers’s What is Left.

Is there a neighbourhood or area that you are considering (or see as an ideal location) for the new incarnation?
We are more focused on the task at hand, which is working out our game plan for the future. I do feel that a special space is more important than a location.
What has been the highlight of Whippersnapper’s time on College Street?

The major highlight for me has been meeting and working with so many incredible artists. Every month we get to see so much new and exciting work. I have had the privilege to be involved in some really amazing shows and even meet some of my favourite musicians. A constant rush for me is reflecting on Whippersnapper’s conception and seeing where we stand today. What was originally a pet project has blossomed into something very special. I am so happy to have embarked on this project; everything from tearing down walls to installing art shows has been formative for me. It has been one of the largest learning experiences of my life. At the end of the day the biggest highlight is realizing that we actually built something from nothing, that “We did it!” kind of feeling.
Do you have an estimate of the duration of the “down time” between the current physical gallery space and the new model/venue?
By next summer we should have a finite idea of where the gallery is headed. One thing we know for sure is that we are excited for the new platform.
Whippersnapper’s current exhibition, “Emergence Exhibition Series (Part 2),” runs until January 22.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.

Passersby couldn’t help but stop and have a look, possibly due to the irresistible draw of free stuff, and possibly due to simple curiosity. The shop has been locked up and in stasis for months while legal proceedings decided on the fate of the building, its contents, and the thousands of bicycles found in his possession last summer. Looking over the bins of bike parts, crates of classical records, and old furniture was like getting a first-hand peek at the stage dressings of an infamous local legend.

It’s certainly not an adequate gesture, but a fitting one at least, that the contents of this grubby establishment should be offered up to the neighbourhood that Kenk stole from. Firm believers in poetic irony, Torontoist decided to claim an old bike lock that had likely failed its owner at one time.

There was no clear indication of who was responsible for the clear-out of Kenk’s old shop, but the civic settlement reached earlier this month may explain the timing. We can only hope that this is the first step in reclaiming a storefront that has sat for too long as a reminder of one man’s bad deeds.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.