Today marks the opening of the Ontario College of Art and Design’s Professional Gallery and sparks the art college’s new residency program with international art star and OCAD alumnus, Rirkrit Tiravanija. The son of Thai diplomats, now based equally in New York, Berlin, and Bangkok, Tiravanija epitomizes the “Nomadic Resident” the series aims to represent. Tiravanija’s unique and experimental practice has most famously involved cooking and serving Pad Thai in the gallery, but has also... [continue]

Though you’ll have to hold your herrerasaurs for the long-awaited (and belated) revamping of the Royal Ontario Museum, this weekend the ROM opened a new exhibition on the ancient Peruvian Sicán culture. Ancient Peru Unearthed: Golden Treasures of a Lost Civilization explores the lesser known pre-Incan society via artefacts from a recent major dig at the Batán Grande archaeological site. The items in this show are visually stunning, largely because (as the title implies)... [continue]

David Altmejd’s art looks good on paper. First off, it’s about werewolves, and who can resist the cuddly therianthropes? From folklore to B-movies, the werewolf maintains a lasting hold on the popular imagination. However, Altmejd’s work is neither folksy nor campy. In the Montreal-born, New York-based sculptor’s elaborate installations, he starts off with the (usually fragmented, decaying) figure of the werewolf, and embellishes it with everything from crystals and jewellery, to S&M paraphernalia, to... [continue]

Along with a multi-image magnet set ($16.95), an Indian Church nightlight ($34.95), and a package deal with the Fairmont Royal York titled “Painted Wilderness in the City” ($269.00+), the AGO’s latest exhibition offers demystification of one of Canada’s most famous artists. Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, a traveling show co-organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada, aims to reassess the heavily mythologized life and work of... [continue]

Hardly a small victory, half of the fourteen artists featured in this weekend’s Reel Artists Film Festival are women. And of these, the five solo artists highlighted in the festival’s documentaries demonstrate distinct feminist elements in their work. Reel Artists is produced annually by the Canadian Art Foundation, publisher of Canadian Art Magazine, and showcases Canadian and international artists working in a variety of media. Organizer Ann Webb says, "Our festival programme seeks to... [continue]

It’s the International Year of Polytheism! At least it is according to the Austrian artists collective, monochrom. And to kick off the occasion, the self-proclaimed "art-philosophy-technology group" wants to bury you alive. On February 7 at the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, participants will have the chance to be laid to rest – in a wooden coffin, dirt and all – for up to fifteen minutes. Titled Premature Burial as a Field Trial... [continue]

Tonight marks the first installment of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School at the Cameron House. The event provides a night of drawing from the live model with a series of cheeky twists. Firstly, the model is not some random naked person, but rather a cabaret star dressed in appropriately Vaudevillian costume. And at this life drawing session, the art-making is accompanied by alcoholic beverages and groovy tunes, not to mention kooky contests (best incorporation of a... [continue]

“Desire” is the unifying theme behind most of the ten art and craft exhibitions currently on view at the York Quay Centre down at Harbourfront. In The Object(s) of Longing various artists present items that suggest nostalgia and yearning – Andrea Vander Kooij transforms an everyday fire extinguisher and hose into a uniquely appealing object by rendering it in plush fabric. Another group show lining the walls, Re-Collect showcases artists’ groupings of the collected objects... [continue]

Sorry, this user has not written about anything.