Black History in Focus
February is Black History Month and to get the party started TD Bank hosted a launch event at the Royal York Hotel’s Imperial Room Monday evening to unveil this year’s BHM poster by photographer Michael Chambers, above.
It also so happens that Chambers has curated an exhibition of posters celebrating black dance in Canada, which opens today at BAND Gallery (823A Bloor Street West). The BAND show is called Motion and the opening kicks off the 24th Annual International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) Conference and Festival hosted by Dance Immersion and running all weekend at Toronto’s Sheraton Centre and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
The Mayor of Photo City
If Toronto isn’t the world capital of photoblogging, it’s certainly near the top of the heap. In last week’s Photoblog Awards — handed out each year by CoolPhotoblogs.com – Toronto photographers captured four of the top 12 spots in the Best American Blog category. Sam Javanrouh, above, the shooter behind daily dose of imagery, was a finalist in three categories (Most Popular Photoblog, Best American Photoblog and Best Street Photography) and beat all comers to take the Most Popular crown.
Javanrouh is happy to add the accolade to his long list of recognitions. He’s been blogging since 2003 when hardly anyone had heard of a photoblog. His goal then, as now, was simply to capture and portray his adopted city – Javanrouh emigrated from Tehran in 1999 – in an effort to show his friends and family back home how his new life was unfolding.
Snow Storms New York
Last weekend, New Yorkers enjoyed a unique meteorological phenomenon! As temperatures rose on Saturday (January 7) to a balmy 16 degrees Celsius, the city was none-the-less hit by some serious snow, artist Michael Snow, that is!
The Canadian icon (above left in plaid) — a prolific visual artist, filmmaker and musician — opened his latest solo exhibition, entitled In the Way, at the venerable Jack Shainman Gallery. Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood became a temporary embassy outpost as Toronto Arts Council, in partnership with Canada Council for the Arts and Government of Canada in New York, hosted a special exhibition preview.
Creating Memory with Public Art
Several years ago, retired York University Professor John Warkentin found himself in Paris with a few days to kill so he set about leisurely walking the city and enjoying the abundance of public sculpture, which he discovered told the story and history of the City of Light.
Warkentin, a life-long geographer, wondered whether a similar chronicle could be made of his adopted home of Toronto and so he began compiling Creating Memory, an “incidental” dossier of more than 600 public sculptures, artworks and memorials that enliven the city.” READ MORE
Toronto Art in Your Inbox
After a couple of false starts and some good media buzz, Toronto’s ArtBomb is now dropping into electronic in-boxes near and far.
Launched by artrepreneurs Carrie Shibinksy, Jim Shedden (both AGO alums) and View on Canadian Art’s Andrea Carson Barker, ArtBomb is a daily art auction featuring work by local artists. Today’s offering is Jen Mann’s “For Eyes” (2010, oil on canvas, 24″ x 30″), which carries an opening bid of $400. Each weekday morning a new work is offered to ArtBomb subscribers who can bid on the piece from 6 am until 11 pm; the winning bidder is notified the following day with free delivery of the work within the Toronto area.
“The Toronto art market is not strong,” says Carson Barker, “even though there is world-class work being produced here. ArtBomb is a way to bring the art world to people who wouldn’t necessarily spend their Saturdays going around to the galleries but who may very well want to have contemporary art on their walls.
“We’re focusing on high quality, contemporary work that’s not very expensive,” she adds. “It’s by emerging and established artists and generally speaking we expect the works to start in the $500 – $600 range and we’ll see how the prices go as ArtBomb gets up and running.”
Sign up for ArtBomb here.
