Gardiner Museum: RETAIL EXHIBITION: THE ARTFUL TEAPOT (April 19 – May 15, 2013)

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The Gardiner Museum is an inviting destination that inspires and connects people, art and ideas through clay, one of the world’s oldest art forms. Year‐round the Museum mounts special exhibitions, events, lectures and clay classes to complement its permanent collection.

Being a huge tea fan I decided to check out The Gardiner Shop’s ‘THE ARTFUL TEAPOT’ retail exhibition of teapots, teacups and tea sets made by over 25 Canadian ceramic artists.  I was informed by the shopkeeper I was a few days late hence some of the teapots and accessories had already been sold.  But what I did see was just as magical of a collection as I thought it would be.  The ornate artisanship of the teapots and accessories are worthy of drinking up before it ends on May 15, 2013.

These teapots are true works of art.  Imagine yourself sipping your tea and dwelling upon these beautiful clay pieces.

Some pieces are pricey.  Indeed – but I guarantee these teapots will never be found in Winners or your local vintage shop.  They are meant to be enjoyed in the moment and possibly handed down to the next generation in your family.  Heirlooms that will always be modern with a dash of whimsy and a unique story attached.  Priceless.

http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/event/retail-exhibition-the-artful-teapot

Hot Docs Film Festival: ‘Pussy Riot—A Punk Prayer’ at the Scotiabank Theatre

Meet Pussy Riot, the feminist punk collective that’s openly challenging the Russian Orthodox Church and President Vladimir Putin. They became infamous for invading the altar of St. Christ Church in Moscow and shocking worshippers with a raunchy song about a sexual coupling between Putin and the church. The state’s response was swift and brutal. Three members of the collective were sentenced to three years in a penal colony. Such harsh punishment for a little disorderly conduct served as a clear demonstration of the church’s influence on the state and the state’s influence on the judiciary and brought Pussy Riot global attention. Filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s documentary goes deep into Pussy Riot’s guiding principles and comes up with a perfect marriage of content and style. The film received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance.

Review:  I caught the last sold out screening of ‘Pussy Riot—A Punk Prayer’ at the Scotiabank Theatre last week.  The ‘Rush’ line weaved around the block in anticipation for some good doc viewing.  It was dead exciting.

This film was very high on my list of doc’s to catch during Hot Docs.  Why?  Mainly because I didn’t know enough about what the girl’s agenda was about.  I couldn’t wait to absorb the intimate interviews, video clips of the group’s hit-and-run performances, their individual biographies that conditioned them to the cause, supportive parents with insight on their mission and most of all the amazing trial footage that the film makers were able to procure from the Russian government themselves.   If the Russian government only knew where that footage would end up. 

The film starts off by showing us the viewer the girl’s prep work in staging a demonstration inside the Russian Orthodox Church.  Controversial?  Sure.  It was extremely provocative to watch masked raging women in colourful ski maps, matronly dresses with leggings, combat boots – rocking out to song lyrics that state ‘Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away, Black robe, golden epaulettes, All parishioners crawl to bow, The phantom of liberty is in heaven, Gay-pride sent to Siberia in chains.  In order not to offend His Holiness, Women must give birth and love.’

Directors, Maxim Pozdorovkin and Mike Lerner began covering the band just before the radical guerrilla artists went on trial for playing God’s Shit in the church, but the women themselves had been taping every performance – testimony to their sense that what they were doing was important.

Charismatic arrestees Masha (Maria Alyokhina), Katia (Yekaterina Samutsevich) and especially Nadia (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) and coverage of the trial and demonstrations both for and against Pussy Riot give this doc electrifying energy.

Most of the revealing moments during the doc come from the girl’s candid conversations as prisoners behind the glass of the court’s media scrum. Like caged animals they used the court to further their impromptu performance art.

The court scene was a farce and hysterical – this was a true testament to how lucky we are here in the west.  We are a privileged fatted bunch who are able to protest peacefully (ahem) for our headaches.  Never would we be exposed to a ridiculous court room saga that borders on an art installation and a Shriner’s circus act gone horribly wrong.  That would just never happen.

Was the film shocking?  Sure.  I guess it would depend who you asked.  I saw a handful of seniors walk out of the packed theatre when the conceptual art sex scene demonstration that Nadia (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) participated in early on in her activist career.  That was nothing.

Behind the mask the girls are indeed militant, full of pouty lips, sexy girly sassiness with dollops of political anarchy.  Malcolm McLaren would be proud.

http://www.hotdocs.ca//film/title/pussy_riot_a_punk_prayer

Patti Smith: ‘Camera Solo’ at the Art Gallery of Ontario (February 9, 2013 – May 19, 2013)

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It’s exciting to see that the AGO is trying its best to encourage a younger crowd into its space while also ensuring their more dedicated members are just as welcome.  With the success of 1st Thursday’s (an event night featuring art, artists, live music, food, drinks and you on the first Thursday of each month) – the AGO certainly has their finger on the pulse of hipsterdom while generating a buzz towards a new generation of gallery goers. 

Enter Patti Smith.  The 66 year old Queen of poetry, spoken word, punk rock, antiestablishment by way of Chicago.  A perfect match of the vintage vs. au courant.

This winter the AGO offers a glimpse into the world of legendary musician and artist Patti Smith through an intimate exhibition featuring photographs, personal objects, and a short film. Patti Smith: Camera Solo provides a rare opportunity to experience a different side of this rock icon – best known for her profound influence on the nascent punk rock scene in the late 1970s and 80s – through her poetic expression in the visual arts.

A first for a gallery in Canada, this exhibition highlights the continual connections between Smith’s photography and her interest in poetry and literature.  The ghost of Walt Whitman, Frida Kahlo and Robert Mapplethorpe’s haunt this exhibit.  For more than four decades, she has documented sights and spaces infused with personal significance.   One cannot help but get lost in the beauty of each image and marvel how at times bleak images are married together in its solitude. 

The 75 works, a number of its 70 photographs from local collectors include of vintage Polaroid camera, presented as gelatin silver prints, alongside personal objects.  They are dreamy, hypnotic and chock full of emotion.  At times I felt like I was wafting through a My Bloody Valentine vs. Mazzy Star musical loop.  The images are stopped in time in places such as Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris in 2008, Europe and the United States.

The AGO is also speaking ‘the kids’ language by popping up a toll-free telephone in front of every installation that you can dial to hear a brief synopsis of each piece.  This plays into a nice juxtaposition to Smith’s use of a vintage Polaroid Land 250 and Gelatin Silver Print processing tools used to fashion her art. 

The exhibition also features Equation Daumal, a film directed by Patti Smith and shot by Jem Cohen on 16mm and super 8 film.  You can watch the film in church pews that were assembled to give a place of worship or pay respect as one would during a funeral.

A quote in Patti’s word on an installation wall read “I get pleasure out of having their things and sometimes photographing them. I’ve been like this since I was young. It’s part of who I am.”  For Patti it’s about paying these pieces gratitude and bringing significance to her daily life.  For you and I – perhaps the same motif.  Do we not dwell on the same album covers, books, jewellery pieces or even mementos from past loves and family for moments of pleasure and joy? 

Smith and her band are to perform two shows, called An Evening of Words and Song with Patti Smith, in the AGO’s Walker Court on March 7, 2013  as part of the March lineup for the AGO’s 1st Thursdays.  Which as you can imagine sold out immediately.  Looking at the Facebook and Twitter fury of the unavailability of tickets selling out in a matter of minutes, the AGO’s website allegedly being ill-equipped to handle the pandemonium of interest – the feedback was intense and was not only voiced by ‘Just Kids’.  Since it is now too late to catch  her performances at the AGO – this exhibit is a perfect way to enjoy a winter day inside with Patti.

This exhibition was organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut.

http://www.ago.net/patti-smith-camera-solo

Let’s Get Physical

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Today I left the house at 1 p.m. after a leisurely morning at home.  My plan was to start at Spadina and College in Toronto and then west walk across town to Lansdowne whilst stopping at some key places that I have been meaning to check out for some time.  Today was a food day as you will soon see.  I need to do more of these days.  It’s a great way to learn about neighbourhoods and have chats with the locals.  Some locals were um, kinda not nice.  Whereas others it was chatty Cathy time.  Nevertheless it was a great day to sink into my adidas, wrap a scarf around my neck, put my hair in a high bun, sip tea and just walk for 2 hours.  It’s a good life.

Review: The Art Gallery of Ontario presents ‘Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting’ (Oct 20, 2012 – Jan 20, 2013)

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For the past few years, the ghost of Frida Kahlo has been haunting me whenever I have checked out galleries overseas and in the States.  She is there with her steely but gorgeously ornate demeanor staring back at me in moments of sadness or pure joy.  Almost like she had a secret she wanted to let me in on – but cheekingly it was mine to figure out in her brush strokes.

Another sign popped up yesterday.  She’s in Toronto!

The Art Gallery of Ontario is hosting an exhibition from Oct 20, 2012 – Jan 20, 2013 entitled Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting featuring more than 80 works on paper and paintings and more than 60 photographs of the couple from the 1920s and 1930s.  The works are assembled from three distinguished Mexican private collections on Mexican art, the Museo Dolores Olmedo, Colección Gelman, and Galería Arvil and covers 17,000 square feet at the AGO.

The exhibition provides the opportunity to view almost one quarter of Kahlo’s entire body of work and a range of Rivera’s painting styles from his early cubist period and studies for his Mexican murals to his portraits and landscapes. Photographs by Nickolas Muray, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Bernard Silberstein and others help tell the story of one of the most prolific and politically charged couples of the 20th century.

The exhibition was emotionally overwhelming in its exquisite curation.  The works are powerful and raw.  I loved being able to take quiet moments off by myself in nooks to inhale the love affair of Frida and Diego, their politics, their obsession, the pride in their Mexican heritage and the pure talent that was beaming from the paint, photographs, film footage and sculptural pieces in the space.

Perhaps all those years of her wooing me were finally coming together in this moment as I sat in a chair glimpsing around as other media stood in their own moments of awe.  If Frida really does follow me around in galleries – I felt her presence today in her paint colours.

I didn’t know that beginning in 1944, Kahlo kept a journal that she filled with watercolours, poems, dreams and thoughts, including the symbolic meanings she attached to various colours.

Green: good warm light

Magenta: blood of the old prickly pear cactus

Brown: colour of molé (bitter chocolate sauce used in Mexican cuisine), fading leaves, earth

Yellow: madness, sickness, fear, sun, happiness

Cobalt Blue: electricity and purity, love

Black: nothing is black, really nothing

Green: leaves, sadness, science

Greenish Yellow: more madness and mystery

Dark Green: colour of bad news and good business

Navy Blue: distance, tenderness

Kahlo’s distinctive style was intimately related to the popular folk art tradition of retablos or ex-votos. These small votive paintings on tin were made by anonymous artists to ask for divine intervention.  In the Henry Ford Hospital, Kahlo employed the retablo style by placing objects in the picture relating to a tragedy—in this case, her miscarriage in Detroit in 1931. Other paintings document anguished moments in her relationship with Rivera.

Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits were tied to her dual European and Indigenous heritage. In addition to depicting autobiographical aspects of her life, they also reflected Mexico’s rich culture and traditions through references to folk art, traditional jewellery and indigenous clothing. Kahlo frequently depicted herself in traditional Tehuana attire (for example, Self-Portrait as a Tehuana, Diego on My Mind 1943), an act of solidarity with the Zapotec women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Her secret?  I’m still processing what I experienced yesterday.  What I know for sure is, her art can not help but touch you, trigger you and remind you to truly ‘live the life’ you want to live not what you are supposed to live.  That includes embracing the beauty in life’s grotesque revelations and appreciating its impact on your life in the moment.

If you are visiting Toronto I suggest putting the AGO on top of your list for a visit to see Frida and Diego at their best.  If you live in Toronto – take a break from the holiday push and make time.  This exhibit will be gone before you know it.  If you’re not as lucky as me to have Frida haunting you  – it’s time to say a proper ‘hola!’.

Admission:  Adult $25.00 (Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting (Includes General Admission) or $19.50 (General Admission Only).  Admission is FREE for AGO Members and for children ages 5 and under. Tickets can be booked by visiting ago.net/frida-diego-passionpolitics-and-painting

Art Gallery of Ontario  317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4

Phone:  (416) 979-6648

www.ago.net/

Hours:

Sun, Tue, Thu-Sat 10am-5:30pm

Mon Closed

Wed 10am-8:30pm

Topshop Invades The Bay (Toronto): Bay & Queen Street Review

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Exactly a year ago I did a piece on my blog on Topshop and Topman’s Pop Up Shop in The Bay at 176 Yonge Street Toronto ((416) 861-9111).  It was quite the popular hit on my blog.  I loved touching the goods from overseas finally on my home turf.  Voila http://thirtyfourflavours.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/topshop-comes-to-the-bay-toronto-yonge-queen-and-yorkdale-mall-review/

At the time, I thought the pieces were very European.  Chic and Sexy!  I felt the more quality goods had been left behind in a chest in the UK – whereas we Canadians were left with the cheap and cheerful items to make up for the duty charges incurred sending the pieces overseas.

I kept an open mind upon popping into Topshop’s (19,000 square feet of space) Grand Opening at The Bay on Queen this past Thursday October 4, 2012.  My mate and I arrived around 5 p.m. during our dinner break and the floor was heaving.  There were young ladies queued up with armfuls of clothing, light appetizers were being passed around by dreamy boys laden with Topshop branded uniforms and cups overflowing with chips and pop.  There were girls trying on makeup, stepping into new flats and heels and friendly staff who were helpful without the ‘push’.

The Bay is really bringing their game with this stylish addition of Topshop and Topman’s brand into their retail space.  The shiny metal awnings, peacock blue walls, plaid tops and bottoms, flirty cargo prints, miniskirts for miles, fluorescent denim, styling and profiling bags and a shoe wall that will make any shoeaholic crumble at the seams.  The overall space felt very Cavalli.

I appreciated the floor’s British explosion meets Canuck traditional feel and the sporadically laid out clothing and accessories.  There is a lot of space to move on the floor unlike Topshop in the UK where the floor is simply jammed with product.

The pricing is another issue.  Topshop and Topman clothing is pricey.  I thought that would have changed a tad from last year.  I had my eye on a few bags, accessories, a pea coat – I’m not sure I’d pay full price for some of these pieces.  But a lot of people in the Queen Street store were buying product.  It felt very cultish.  I wanted to buy something but the frugal fashionista in me kept my purse firmly in my bag.  When I lived in the UK, I’d wait for Topshop sales days. I’m wondering what the sales will look like in the store after the grand opening week has passed.  I’m going to need a reason to check in on Topshop.

I also found the pieces were pretty ordinary to what is currently selling at Forever 21 and H&M down the road.  Hmmm…does Topshop think us Canadians won’t go for the daring pieces they brought over last year?  Did those pieces sell well?

The quality of some of the bags were not as stellar as the leather good bags found in Topshop UK.  Looking at the layout of bags on a hanging shelf on the floor – it felt like the more economically priced pieces were sent over for sale with a lot less va va voom.  Purses ranged from $64 to $150.  Some of these bags could not be found online on the Topshop link on The Bay’s website when I returned back to the office.  I really wanted to be able to take advantage of their Thanksgiving weekend online sale offers – BOO!

That said, the holidays are upon us and Topshop already had some cute cocktail dresses, fitted tuxedo jackets, multicolored tights and brassy jewellery up for offer.  It may be worth a looksy when you need a few options as we slide into Holiday Season dressing.

Nevertheless, it’s neat having the Topshop brand in Toronto settling in for a long term relationship with Canadians.  It’s nice to know we have some English options in hipsterdom available to us to add a more polished and refined look to our existing wardrobes.  The times are a changing in Canada’s retail landscape – make sure your pocket books are ready.

Check out Topshop and Topman’s online store at The Bay here:

http://www.thebay.com/eng/brands/search/womens-thebay/18833

‘Wall and Piece’ by Banksy

I was listening to Massive Attack over the weekend and it reminded me of the time when they played Toronto 2 years ago that Banksy’s street art just happened to appear near their Sound Academy venue days before their show.

Fans of the Wild Bunch years and of Banksy’s art were brimming with excitement that perhaps Banksy was in the city in commemoration of MA’s first North American date of their ‘Heligoland’ tour to support his mates.  As quickly as his art popped up it disappeared with city officials painting over the piece.

The Queen from Banksy

Banksy, Britain’s now-legendary “guerilla” street artist, has painted the walls, streets, and bridges of towns and cities throughout the world. Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of  New York City’s major art museums, he’s also “hung” his work at London’s Tate Gallery and adorned Israel’s West Bank barrier with satirical images.  His work is unmistakable—with prints selling for as much as $45,000.

On a trip to London’s Tate Gallery in 2010 I picked up a paperback of his work simply titled ‘Wall and Piece’.  I t contains neat photographs of his work and small anecdotes of how he works stealth like under the cover of night, exquisite  stories of his identity nearly being blown, challenging political agendas in the UK and always pushing the is it graffiti vs. is it art? envelope.

Sure it maybe a big year for the UK coming off the Queen’s Jubilee and just recently the Olympics –these big events must have certainly rattled Banksy’s anti-establishment tail.

‘Throughout this period Banksy remained steadfast in pointing out that this ‘Cool Britannia’ thing was all shit. He was the little boy who said that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. His campaign was massive and sustained like a well-planned military action. He seemed to be everywhere you looked. He reminded us all that we are the rats.

But Banksy’s rats celebrated a tough survival instinct too. He made them inventive and cunning – qualities you need in the ruthless culture of today. Not only did Banksy’s street work remind you that power does exist and it works against you, but also that power is not terribly efficient. It can be and should be deceived.’ (from Huffingtonpost.com article titled ‘Banksy Graffiti: A Book About The Thinking Street Artist’).

In celebration of the UK in pure Banksy style – I’m giving away a copy of ‘Wall and Piece’.  Thank you Chapters Indigo!  If you would like a copy, please subscribe to my blog by Sept 15, 2012.  If you have already subscribed consider yourself already entered into the draw.  Happy week!

Wall and Piece from Banksy

Buy it here:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Wall-and-Piece-Banksy/9781844137879-item.html?ikwid=wall+and+piece&ikwsec=Home

Why I love Jonathan Adler…

Johnathan Adler – Chicago, Ill.

This summer I realized I had never been to the lovely Jonathan Adler shop on 676 N. Wabash Avenue.  I was dertemined to get there on this trip and I did.

The shop is located on a quiet lil street off Michigan Avenue and filled with the most magical, pretty and colorful furniture and pieces to adorn your living and working space.  Pricey – of course.  But you don’t look at price tags in this shop.  It’s all about the love.

I couldn’t name one thing I loved more than another in the shop – from the cool Britannia pillows, luscious candles, fluffy pillows and devil’s heads…there is so much tongue and cheek a girl like me can’t help but feel giddy.

Thank you Dwight for letting me photograph your lovingly laid out shop.  It made my Thursday afternoon in Chicago shine a lil brighter.

Jonathan Adler

676 North Wabash Avenue  Chicago, IL 60611, United States
(312) 274-9920

Store Hours:

Mon – Sat 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Sun 12 p.m. – 5p.m.

Transit: Chicago-Red

Strong Man 2012 Lollapalooza Poster

Strong Man 2012 Lollapalooza Poster

Delicious Design League designed Lollapalooza 2012 poster.  Every year it’s a great way to get pumped for the event.  We leave next week.  Can we wait?  Hell no!   

But where is Black Sabbath???????????????  Apparently they didn’t want their name listed..something about copyright?  *rolling eyes*.  Sharon must be all over that.

The poster this year depicts a rotund strong man whom hefts the complete band lineup while dancing hotdogs soft-shoe beside him. This modern design is rendered in a nostalgic style reminiscent of ye olde tyme midway banners.

Beyond Pop Art: Tom Wesselmann at the Jean – Noel Desmarais Pavilion (Museum of Fine Arts Montreal)

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Beyond Pop Art:

Tom Wesselmann

Jean – Noel Desmarais Pavilion (Museum of Fine Arts Montreal):  Montreal, Quebec Canada

May 19 – October 7, 2012

When we were on Montreal we checked out the Beyond Pop Art:  Tom Wesselmann exhibit at the Jean – Noel Desmarais Pavilion which is part of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/).  I was excited to see his work as he was part of the same group that worked alongside Andy Warhol during the Pop Art scene in the 60’s.  A lil confession, I love Andy Warhol.  He is one of my favourite artists.

Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) was one of the greatest American artists associated with the Pop Art movement. Famous from the early 1960s for his Great American Nudes and Still Life’s, he is nonetheless the only one of his contemporaries associated with that seminal twentieth-century art movement who has not yet had a major exhibition in North America. Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, this exhibition will be presented in a Canadian exclusive in Montreal, then at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, in the fall of 2013. It will show the evolution in the work of this artist, whose passion for style casts him as an heir to such great French masters as Ingres and Matisse. His interpretation of the history of art and the definition of genres led him, along with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, to invent a “Pop” aesthetic. Most people are aware of Tom Wesselmann’s brilliant career as a painter. However, amongst many other things, he was also a devoted fan of country music and a prolific songwriter in that musical genre. Given the place that music now occupies at the Museum, some of Tom Wesselmann’s musical works is also showcased in the exhibition.

My favourite pieces were at the exhibit Still Life No. 60 Oil on Canvas (1973) – it consisted of 6 sections, 5 freestanding.  309.8 x 845.8 x 218.4 cm.

Still Life No. 60 Oil on Canvas (1973) – it consisted of 6 sections, 5 freestanding. 309.8 x 845.8 x 218.4 cm.

It was grandiose, intricately designed but also gobsmacking lovely.  He created small scales models which then he would interpret into a larger scale piece using a mathematical algorithm that goes over my head.  The piece had its own room and let me tell you – you really needed a moment or two with it.

Another favourite which also reminded me so much of a Andy Warhol piece was Still Life with Liz Screen-print (1993) – h: 59 x w: 57 in / h: 149.9 x w: 144.8 cm.

Still Life with Liz Screen-print (1993) – h: 59 x w: 57 in / h: 149.9 x w: 144.8 cm.

The exhibit runs until October 7, 2012 so if you find yourself in Montreal this summer – definitely check it out.  The cost of admission guarantees you a wonderful experience at the Museum of Fine Arts at the Tom Wesselmann exhibit.  Ensure you take a take in all of the MOFA’s other fine works whilst you are there too.

Merci Catherine for your assistance in helping me create this post! 

Voila for the Museum’s website http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/

Museum Opening Hours

Monday  Closed

Tuesday  11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Wednesday   11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Thursday, Friday  11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday  10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is half price on Wednesday nights, from 5 to 8 p.m. for adults.

Admission Prices

Age 26 to 64 $15 for the Temporary Exhibition

Age 65 and over $12 for the Temporary Exhibition

Age 13 to 25 $9 for the Temporary Exhibition

Age 0 to 12 Free for the Temporary Exhibition

Age 26 to 64 $7.50  on a Wedesnday Night

Age 65 and over $7.50 on a Wednesday Night

Age 13 to 25 $7.50 on a Wednesday Night

Yours in travel,

Mel xo