Observer les changements du même : la triennale GTA21 du MOCA Toronto

Sur les marches du Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) trône un grand jeu de société en bois. À sa surface sont disposées plus de cent toupies peintes en noir que les visiteurs peuvent s’essayer à faire tourner. Une fois qu’elles sont en action, il devient vite évident que la [...]

Observing the Changing Same: MOCA Toronto’s GTA21 Triennial

At the steps of the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto entrance sits a large wooden game board. On its surface are more than a hundred black painted wooden tops that visitors are invited to try their hand at spinning. Upon closer observation and once they are in play, it becomes [...]

Becoming Better Future Ancestors: The BAU’s “Functioning Circuits” at Mercer Union

Rejecting the Modernist ideal of separating art and life, Pop artists of the 1960s looked to advertisements and other forms of popular culture for inspiration. Among their source materials was the billboard, a medium with the power to transform the landscape and influence its audience. In the view of art [...]

“Well Now WTF?”

Although operating entirely online has been novel for some during the COVID-19 pandemic, for others it has long been the preferred way of being. This is the case for Silicon Valet, a virtual gallery that has fostered a space for digital art and expanded practices since 2018. The gallery’s latest [...]

Sandra Brewster: “Blur”

When the Art Gallery of Ontario reopened to the public in July, following the closure related to COVID-19, I was fortunate enough to see Sandra Brewster’s solo exhibition Blur. Brewster was born in Toronto to Guyanese immigrants; her work, informed by diasporic Caribbean narratives, centres Black presence in Canada.1 The [...]

Life in the Cloud: The Self as Archive in the Digital Age

An archive can be defined as “a collection of records that contain information and provide evidence of some or other action.”1 In the digital era, technology increasingly captures information about our daily activities. Advances in computing power and data storage over the last fifty years have enabled us to gather and [...]

Resilience in the Toronto Art Community: Six Alternative Art Spaces to Know

Like any big city, Toronto has an urban fabric characterized by the fluctuation of permanence and impermanence. The artist-run centres and other alternative art spaces have followed suit. With urban gentrification on overdrive, it seems as though the life expectancy of these spaces has steadily declined. There are concerns for the [...]