Toronto Tourism Magazine 2009 - (Page 47) L ooking is free and the sights are rich and varied in Toronto, a city that boasts more than 40 serious commercial galleries and well in excess of 60 full-service galleries catering to all interests, niche markets and budgets. For newcomer Benjamin Diaz, an established contemporary dealer from Mexico City who moved his gallery to Toronto in 2005, Toronto’s abundance of adventurous artist-run centres is exceptional. Says Diaz: “Toronto has many more artist-run centres than Mexico City, even though Mexico City is larger.” And the artists are equally abundant. Toronto is home to thousands of painters and sculptors, a number of whom came to study or teach at the Ontario College of Art and Design (whose recent “tabletop on stilts” addition by British architect Will Alsop is arguably the mostphotographed new building in the city). A significant number of them are able to live and work in downtown Toronto thanks to Artscape, a non-profit organization that secures long-term studio and living spaces for artists in all disciplines. Invariably, wherever there is an Artscape building, there is a healthy art enclave in its immediate vicinity; these hot spots include sites in Liberty Village, on Queen West at Shaw, in Parkdale, on Toronto Island, and in the Distillery District. In November 2008, a new Artscape-funded arts and environmental centre, the Artscape Wychwood Barns, was opened in the St. Clair and Bathurst area in a former streetcar repair barn. Artists require not only accommodations but also spaces to hang out and hang up their works. Such spaces are provided by several hip boutique hotels on Queen Street West, where the Drake and the Gladstone hotels host music, dance, ad hoc exhibitions, spoken word and book events, film festivals, foodie fests and much more. Both hotels employ in-house art curators and showcase temporary art exhibitions, as well as their own permanent art collections. Christina Zeidler, president of the Gladstone Hotel, herself a video and performance artist, understands the art community very well: “The Gladstone was designed to be a home away from home for artists and those who love them.” The same can now be said for Toronto as a whole. Betty Ann Jordan is a Toronto-based art writer and founder of Art InSite tours. Gallery Guide Want to see some great art? Here’s a handy neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood breakdown of the best Toronto has to offer. Toronto is a magnet for art buyers, whatever the budget. Starting at the higher end, the gallery and museum district in the Yorkville area is a concentrated, highly walkable destination: of considerable cultural as well as artistic import, Feheley Fine Art offers first-rate historic and contemporary Inuit art from the Arctic, while primarily established artists are represented in solo shows at Mira Godard Gallery (dealer for Alex Colville and Christopher Pratt), Beckett Gallery, Kinsman Robinson, Gallery Gevik, Loch Gallery and Odon Wagner’s pair of historic and contemporary galleries, with more unconventional offerings at Ingram and Drabinsky. Edgier, more off-the-wall works can be found in scores of galleries in the Queen West gallery district, especially in the multi-block strip between Bathurst and Dufferin streets. Leading the pack is the publicly funded Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art; among the commercial galleries are Stephen Bulger (specializing in historic and contemporary photography), Edward Day, Birch-Libralato, Susan Hobbs, Diaz Contemporary, Paul Petro, Clint Roenisch, Angell, Katherine Mulherin, Lee, Ka-sing and Greener Pastures with intriguing newcomer MKG127. In the central fashion district encompassing Spadina Avenue, Richmond West and King Street West, there’s a concentration of experimental artist-run exhibition spaces, primarily in the block-long 401 Richmond arts building: they include A Space, Red Head, Women’s Art Resource Centre, YYZ, Prefix and Open Studio; anchoring the building is the excellent Wynick/ Tuck commercial gallery. At 80 Spadina, arts building dealers include Leo Kamen and Ron Moore, while on King West, there’s Nicholas Metivier gallery (whose star artists are Ed Burtynksy and Michael Awad). The Distillery District is the newest art destination in Toronto, an irony given that the formerly off-limits industrial enclave is a national historic site with buildings dating from the 1850s. In lower town, the Distillery boasts dramatically retrofitted galleries and arts spaces, including the not-to-be-missed Sandra Ainsley gallery of contemporary glass art, along with sophisticated art offerings at Corkin Gallery, Monte Clark, Artcore, Gibsone Jessop, Thompson Landry, and just up the street, the Craig Scott Gallery, a fast-rising newcomer. On the waterfront, for the latest in challenging contemporary art and spectacle, especially video and installation art, visit the Power Plant gallery (an exhibition space with a small admission fee). Local, regional and community art, craft studios and architecture are featured in a series of free public galleries at Harbourfront Centre. In the Terminal Building on Queen’s Quay West, head for the lovely and educational new privately operated Museum of Inuit Art (with a modest admission fee) featuring stellar works on loan from private collectors; if you like what you see, strong art by talented living Northern artists are for sale in the adjoining Inuit Art Gallery. It’s worth venturing slightly farther afield, to Kleinburg, Ont., to the 100-percent-made-in-Canada McMichael Art Collection, whose permanent exhibit boasts almost 6,000 works by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, as well as an impressive array of First Nations and Inuit art. TORONTO 2009 | 47 Toronto International Art Fair 2008. Photos: (opposite page) top: Irina Farb, bottom: kevinlloydphotography.com; (this page) Christian Lambert http://www.kevinlloydphotography.com
Contributors
Welcome
Cityscapes
Toast of the Town
In the Night Garden
Gooooal!
Take a Moment
Faces of Toronto
Red Rocket
Past Perfection
Water Lust
The Artist’s City
Living the Green Dream
York Region and North Toronto
Mississauga Marvels
Vine Country
Discovery Walks
Neighbourhoods of Greater Toronto
Listings
Visitor Resources
2009 Event Calendar
Parting Shot
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