The Young Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario’s little-known free section, was the site of the jam-packed, January 20 opening of NOW, a collaborative installation by Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette—part of the AGO’s Toronto Now Series. Both artists are typically known for their street art—Martindale, for his urban interventions (such as pocket planters made [...]

For Toronto’s Starving Artists Collective, Monday was truly a red-letter day. The rainy afternoon marked the third installment of their weekly free lunch series, The Artists’ Soup Kitchen, which includes a themed meal and performance. This week’s theme, chosen by artist Tobaron Waxman, was “red,” resulting in an array of crimson culinary delights at the [...]

The municipal, provincial, and national archives are stocked with tens of thousands of photographs of Toronto and environs by one father-and-son team. Collectively, the works of John Boyd and John H. Boyd (or Boyd Jr.) span from the mid-1880s to the mid-1960s. While the elder Boyd was a prolific amateur photographer, the son turned his [...]

FUNDRAISER: “We built this party!” Such is the tune Twitter is singing with the return of HoHoTO, an event that originated in a single tweet. This holiday fundraiser supports the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank and has set a goal this year of $35,000. Besides raising money for a great cause, there will be DJs, [...]

Touched by Fire Coopers Fine Art Gallery (111 Bathurst Street) Thursday December 8, 5 p.m.–9p.m. $10/free for people of low income As a child growing up in the Niagara region, Lorette C. Luzajic had designs on becoming a writer. Today, at 39, she is the author of eight books: an eclectic mixture of volumes of [...]

The romance of the rails may be a relic of the past, but graff writers continue to carry a torch for freight-train graffiti. Trackside throughout North America, a dangerous liaison is occurring between spray can and steel. For these writers, in place of walls and rooftops, the preferred canvases are the flanks of boxcars, hoppers, [...]

George Feyer was stuffing feathers into quilts for $18 a week in 1949 when he sold his cartoon in Canada. It was, by all accounts, a rather subdued gag about a man being fitted for glasses. It was only after its publication that the editors were informed by other immigrants that Feyer’s cartoon contained a [...]

BY: Unknown LOCATION: The Gallery District’s graffiti alley PHOTO BY: Sally Hunter FIELD NOTES: Most street art, it would seem, is about making a strong visual impression. It’s nice to be reminded that other forms of creative expression can make just as significant an impact. This particular writer has left his or her thoughts on [...]

By his own admission, Tapr is not the best graff artist around. Not to put too fine a point on it, but compared to other accomplished graff writers, he doesn’t possess the skill required to create those inspiring, knockout pieces. Tapr just isn’t in that league. However, he does bring to graffiti an equally admirable [...]

As far as visual art forms go, graffiti is the new kid on the block. Excluding pictographs, cave drawings, and the ubiquitous Kilroy was here tag, the graffiti we love, or love to hate, has really only been around for little more than a generation. Since its modern inception in the 1970s, the graffiti era [...]

BY: Unknown LOCATION: Unknown PHOTO BY: Bella Manu FIELD NOTES: Toronto, there is a thief among us! Someone has replaced enriching street art with a boring blank wall! What fiend would commit such a heinous crime? Hopefully art will find its way back to the wall and we can live in peace once more. Once [...]

You’ve heard the old adage about what it takes for a struggling musician to get to Carnegie Hall, right? According to Toronto graff artist, Sohoe, the same applies to mastering the art of graffiti. Before gaining the respect of fellow graff writers, not to mention a dope reputation from here to Montreal, Sohoe followed the [...]