Doors Open Toronto, today and tomorrow

Today and tomorrow, lots of great places around Toronto are open to the public, to explore, learn, and discover with Doors Open Toronto.

New this year on the Doors Open Toronto tour, Corkin Gallery and Liss Gallery, two of the more prominent commercial galleries in Toronto. While Liss is open both today and tomorrow, Corkin is only open Sunday.

Returning sites with art include the Todmorden Mills Heritage Site, Design Exchange, the Japan Foundation, Gardiner Museum, with a selection of Lady Diana's dresses, and Market Gallery at the St. Lawrence Market, which will be featuring dance photographs and artifacts.

Beyond art, there's tons of great sites, from the majestic Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre, the iconic Flatiron building, Le Meridian King Edward, MaRS Discovery District, and today only, the Portlands Energy Centre, among 150 total attractions.

Tons of art in Hamilton this week, at Doors Open

Door Open Hamilton is on this coming weekend, May 1 and 2. There's quite a variety of sites on the tour, all free to the public.

• Fieldcote Memorial Park & Museum: This site includes an art gallery. Last year, it featured works by local youth. This year?  Guennadi Kalinine, a landscape artist.
• Carnegie Gallery: Once a Carnegie Library, just like what we have in Brampton, it's now the Dundas Art and Craft Association's gallery and shop. Currently on display is their 30th anniversary show, plus work by local two high schools.
• Rock Chapel United Church: Some art will be on display at the church.
• Art Gallery of Hamilton: Current shows on the first floor are Posing Beauty in African American Culture, Ritual Evidence: Tim Whiten, Arctic Passion: The Inuit Art Collection, End of the American Road: Terence Byrnes, and david merritt: sham. On the second floor, Max Streicher: Architecture of Cloud, Robert Mason, Shaped By Light, and Kim Adams' Bruegel-Bosch Bus. Various art talks happen throughout the weekend, plus an art sale.
• Lincoln Alexander Centre: A former movie theatre, now an entertainment hall, an art show is on display.
• The Studios at Hotel Hamilton: Tenants of the building are putting on an art show.
• Workers Arts and Heritage Centre: The only national labour history museum, it also includes an art gallery. On display are gold paper cutouts, inspired by Chinese wallpaper, works by labour union members, and vintage songbook covers.
• McMaster Museum of Art: McMaster graduating students and selections from the permanent collection are on display.
• Engineering Technology Building, McMaster University: Inside are various permanent artworks. The new building opened in 2009.

Beyond all of the attractions directly related to art, there's tons of interesting places, from a nuclear reactor to a planetarium, Dundurn National Historic Site to a waterworks (where they film the exteriors of Murdoch Mysteries, if I'm not mistaken).

Out and About: Wyn Geleynse at the PHC

Brampton artist Bob Posliff just alerted us to the fact Wyn Geleynse's site-specific video work can now been seen on YouTube.

Part of his exhibit "Day In And Day Out With Minor Tragedies", at the Peel Heritage Complex/Art Gallery of Peel, "his latest installation consists of two moving images of eyes on the building’s upper windows. The looped segments were filmed independently and the eyes reversed from their natural placement on the face, resulting in an unsettling dislocation."

Geleynse is considered one of Canada's leading installation artists; a good bio is available through Quartier éphémère.

Check out the press release for more info on times and dates of the projection.

Danby first show at “Art Gallery at the Rose Theatre Brampton”

The Rose Theatre lobby is now going to house art exhibits. First off in the space, called Art Gallery at the Rose Theatre Brampton, will be The Life Works of Ken Danby. The exhibit will run from June 1 to September 1, 2009, and be free during theatre hours.

Seventeen of the works on displays will be either serigraphs (with up to 29 colours) or lithographs, ranging from 1965 to 2004. The show will also include two original watercolours, “The Old Mill” (1965) and “March Break” (1987).

For more information, visit the Rose Theatre website.

Out and about: Doors Open Fergus-Elora, Saturday, June 20

On Saturday, June 20 from 10 am to 4 pm, Fergus and Elora will be hosting a Doors Open event in their towns. On the tour are stops including the Wellington County Museum & Archives, various historic homes and buildings, gardens, and a modern horse breeding facility.

There's two spots of interest to artists and art-lovers... Fergus Business Improvement Area 2009 Art Walk, on St. Andrew's Street, between Tower and St. David streets, is expecting to welcome 70 artists and artisans. The Elora Centre for the Arts (75 Melville St.) is set in a school building from 1856. Opened in 2003, the Centre includes the Minarovich Gallery, classrooms, studio and performance space, a Centre for Environmental Excellence, a Montessori school, dance academy, and a photography studio.

For more information, visit www.elorafergus.travel

Out and About: 36th Annual Juried Show of Fine Art at the AGP

Back on April 8, I had the pleasure of attending the opening for the 36th Annual Juried Show of Fine Art at the Art Gallery of Peel.

Having participated in and viewed the show regularly for many years, the selection in this year's show is, in my estimation, the nicest cross-section yet. At the opening, I didn't vote for the People's Choice Award, simply because there was so many great works. I overheard multiple people vocalize how impressed with the quality level of the work on display. Artist Lyn Carter and George Wale, Burlington Art Centre's Director of Programs, were the ones adjudicating the show.

A congratulations goes out to Lynne Schumacher, a regular at our Wednesday portrait sessions. Lynne's oil on canvas First Light won the Colony Ford-Lincoln Award. In total, 366 artists submitted works, and 61 pieces are on display; 20 are from Peel.

The show continues until May 17.

For more information, visit the press release.

Out and About: Etobicoke Civic Centre, Art Gallery of Mississauga

Saturday, we visited two area galleries. First off was the Willowdale Group of Artists' Juried Exhibition at the Etobicoke Civic Centre Gallery. Over 70 pieces were on display, with an interesting cross-section.

The next exhibit looks intriguing as well, an exhibit of batiks by youth from the Jamestown and Jane and Finch neighbourhoods.

(The listing of shows on the gallery's site ended in June last year. For more information on the gallery, apparently the phone number is 416-394-8390.)

Next up was the Art Gallery of Mississauga's Visual Arts Mississauga Juried Art Show. We were delighted to discover Visual Arts Brampton member and Don Mills resident Mary Chorniuk was accepted in the show. Her oil landscape "Carmino de Santiago, Galicia, Spain" is at the entrance to the largest room of the gallery. Wendy Vervoovt, Cathy Griggs, and Steve Volpe took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the show. Honourable mentions go to Margaret Squire, Susan Dawn, and Z. Q. Lon.

An extra treat at the Mississauga City Hall was an exhibit of Japanese dolls, presented by The Japan Foundation. Their quite well-designed, and apparently the Bradley Museum and Mississauga Library Central Branch have other artifacts on display.

Out and About: Joe Fafard

Joe Fafard Retrospective work in now on display at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and it's certainly worth the visit.

Pictured is Mon père (1972), one of the many works on display at the exhibit.

A show description from Fafard's website:

For the first time, viewers will be able to see the full scope of this remarkable Saskatchewan artist. From his early caricatures, intimate portraits of friends and family members, and sculptures of cows and horses, to his large bronze commissions for private and public spaces, Fafard has steadily and rapidly developed the range and variety of his social and artistic concerns. The exhibition will feature about 70 sculptures with loans from the artist and from institutional and private collections across Canada.

Organized and circulated by the MacKenzie Art Gallery of Regina in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada.

The exhibit runs until September 14, 2008; it will be moving on to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Glenbow Museum, and Winnipeg Art Gallery through the rest of this year, as well as 2009.

Out and About: AKASA Gallery, York University

Luscious is an art exhibition by fifth-year York visual arts & kinesiology student Sarah Chomko, and will be held at the AKASA Gallery the first week of March. The exhibition is based on three definitions of the word "luscious": Sweet and pleasant to taste or smell Having strong sensual or sexual appeal; seductive Richly appealing to the senses or the mind.

An opening reception Monday, March 3, from 7 to 10pm, will provide an opportunity to fully explore the theme: combining luscious food with luscious art. The gallery is located in the Student Centre, at the east end of the food court.

Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 11am to 5pm.

Out and About: Peel Heritage Complex

There was a strong turnout for the interesting retrospective of Huibert Sabelis' works at the Art Gallery of Peel. As described by the Peel Heritage Complex's newsletter, "Sabelis' rich visual language draws on his experiences in Indonesia as well as his native Holland and adopted homeland, Canada. This exhibition surveys his work in various media including painting, printmaking and tapestry."

Both the Hugh Van Melle Trio, which provided music throughout the night, and the Balinese dance performance, which was a finale to the speeches by dignitaries, were very entertaining.

Visit Sabelis' website.

This is our first Visual Arts Brampton video blog; it's only 14 seconds long, but it's a glimpse of what's on.


We will have an exhibition catalog available for in-studio viewing; ask Keith or Nick.

Vaughan Juried Exhibition

There's a Vaughan Juried Art Exhibition that we just discovered a pamphlet for. Open to anyone in the GTA, the deadline is March 14, 2008. The exhibit will be at the City Playhouse Theatre Lobby in Thornhill. Art is to be submitted as a JPEG on CD, and there's a $20 entry fee.

The pamphlet says that the City of Vaughan is starting a municipal art collection, and is using the show to scout out purchases.

There is a webpage about the exhibit, but you can also visit the studio to take a look at the pamphlet.

Tonight, at the Peel Heritage Complex

The opening reception for "Huibert Sabelis: A Retrospective" is tonight, from 7 to 9 pm, at the Art Gallery of Peel, part of the Peel Heritage Complex. According to Strata, the member newsletter, "Sabelis' rich visual language draws on his experiences in Indonesia as well as his native Holland and adopted homeland, Canada. This exhibition surveys his work in various media including painting, printmaking and tapestry."

The reception, hosted by assistant curator Judy Daley, will feature a Balinese dance performance and music by the Hugh Van Melle Trio.

Attending the opening are Mr. Bambang C. Gunawan (Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia) Mr. Johan S. Kramer (Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands), and
MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo, Elizabeth Witmer (former Deputy Premier of Ontario).

Out and about 1: Mississauga

Every so often, we'll try and bring you non-VAB art-related content, from around the province, or further. Here's our first report, based on a visit just down Hurontario, to the Living Arts Centre and Art Gallery of Mississauga.

At the Living Arts Centre's Laidlaw Gallery right now is an exhibit of works (mostly watercolours and acrylics) by the Springbank Group, a Mississauga collective. Among their works is a painting of Femi, who posed multiple time a few years ago, for the portrait bunch. He was posing at Neilsen Park Creative Centre in the picture.

Across the road at the Art Gallery of Mississauga is Visual Arts Misssissauga's 30th Annual Juried Exhibition of Fine Arts. The exhibit is entered into by hundreds of artists across the province. Among the works in the show are pieces by member Lynne Schumacher, former members Kim Lee Kho and Kal Honey both won prizes.

An interesting concept at the gallery is their Gallery On Call. If you have a cell phone, you can dial a number shown in the entrance way, and hear a five minute curator's talk or artist notes, depending on the exhibit. The service apparently can also be found at the Blackwood Gallery, and either is or will be available in multiple languages.

AGM gallery hours are weekdays 9 am to 5 pm, and weekends 12 pm to 4 pm. Both galleries are free, by the way.