Art : Hito Steyerl “This is the Future” at the AGO – Fall 2019 Winter 2020
The very old and the very new come together nicely at the AGO right now, with the two special shows they currently have on : the "Early Rubens" exhibition features pieces painted over four centuries ago, and the one I write about today includes artworks created within the past 15 years, some as recently as 2016. Here's to travelling 400 years by simply moving between floors of the same building!
"This is the Future" by acclaimed German artist, filmmaker, writer and cultural critic, Hito Steyerl, will be on display until February 23, 2020.
Seasonal Crochet : Halloween Wreaths
Hello fellow crocheters and/or lovers of yarn! Here are a couple of Halloween wreaths I made, following this pattern.
The pattern was first shown at Christmastime, using bulky yarns, large sized hooks and a 12-inch metal ring. These two are that one's little cousins, made with finer yarns, smaller hooks and a 7 1/4 inch metal ring.
The golden hued one was made with some vintage pure wool I was given a few years ago, which I was saving for just the right project. The black one was made with two different thicker yarns I found at the thrift store. One is a wool blend and the other a wool mohair blend. I used about 30 grams of each of the four yarns.
Since these were made with thinner yarn the the original one, even though the rings are smaller, there are more scallops going around. The number of scallops is based on how many stitches you begin with, enough to completely cover and hide the metal ring, and that is dependent upon the thickness of the yarn and the appropriate hook size. So, while the technique for making these wreaths is exactly the same, they will come up differently depending on your yarn, hook and ring size. Yours will be completely unique!
All Night Art : Nuit Blanche Toronto 2019
Uncharacteristically, we went to bed at 9pm on Saturday night a week ago, not because we were tired, but because we had a much anticipated art experience coming up first thing in the morning. When I say "first thing in the morning" I mean 2am, when the alarm went off and we got up and dressed and ventured out into the dark of night.
It was Nuit Blanche, Toronto's all night art show. This year 300 artists present 90 projects in 9 different neighbourhoods throughout the city, from 7pm on Saturday until 7am on Sunday.
We stayed close to home, checking out the Fort York neighbourhood, where we saw 12 installations. A particularly interesting element was that we got to enter a few places that the public normally never gets to see. The theme of this group of pieces was "Creation : Destruction"
At the Gallery : “Early Rubens” Exhibition at the AGO
Follow Up : The “Early Rubens” exhibition has been quite popular so the AGO has extended their hours between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and, while they will be closed on Christmas Day, they’ve added an extra day by opening on Monday, December 30th. See the holiday schedule on their website, linked below.
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Greetings Art Lovers in Toronto -- That includes residents and visitors alike, as, I think you'll all want to see the very special exhibition on at the AGO! "Early Rubens" opens to the public this Saturday and will run until January 5th, 2020.
Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577 and lived for 62 years, until 1640. (Given that the average lifespan in Europe at that time was 35 years, his longevity was remarkable in itself.)
He was classically educated, ran his own studio, became an active diplomat, and city-builder and was even knighted. He was also one of most the renowned painters in Western art – widely recognized for his dramatic, evocative, style.
Containing 30 paintings and about 20 illustrations and etchings, "Early Rubens" is a revealing exhibition of works produced between 1609 and 1621, a crucial time that marks Rubens’ rise to prominence on the world stage. Some of Rubens’ most remarkable, ambitious and large-scale oil paintings and works on paper are included.
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and comes to us after a period in that city. The works were generously loaned by museums and organizations from around the world and include many pieces that have never been seen before in North America. And, based on the challenge and risk of moving such important and fragile artworks, many will likely never be seen here again, at least not for a very long time.
So, seeing "Early Rubens" at the AGO this autumn is a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Comedy : Canada’s Top Comic Finale
We were happy to be invited to the "SiriusXm's Canadawide Top Comic Seach Finale" on Thursday evening. It was part of Toronto's 10 day long "Just For Laughs Comedy Festival", where, not only did we get to see the top ten finalists perform, we also enjoyed a set by last year's winner, Chanty Morostica. The evening was hosted by Ben Miner. (We also went last year, when Chanty won -- you can click here if you'd like to that in action.)
