The Best New Art Galleries in Toronto, 2012

Posted by Kate Fane  

The best new art galleries in Toronto for 2012 reflect how the traditional boundaries for the city's art scene were almost completely redrawn. Following the mass exodus of galleries from rapidly-gentrifying West Queen West and Lower Ossington to the burgeoning areas of Dundas West and Bloordale, even the New York Times took note of this dramatic shift of an entire community. Thus, over a third of the list of the year's best new galleries are the new locations from among the many that were forced out of their original spaces, or else offshoots of preexisting galleries.

In addition to these familiar names, several exciting new projects were launched this year, ranging from the world-class facilities of the Ryerson Image Centre to scrappy live/work space for some more experimental galleries. Or one can compare the politically incendiary street art on display at Don't Tell Mama with the crowd-pleasing painting and illustration favoured by the Hashtag Gallery. One thing's for sure, wherever its located, the diversity of art production and appreciation in Toronto is at an all-time high.

Here are Toronto's best new galleries of 2012.

Ryerson Image Centre

Combine a $70.95 million dollar budget with a priceless collection of 20th century photojournalism, and you've got a clear winner for the title of any city's best new gallery. And by launching innovative and compelling shows that explore the possibilities of the still and moving image, the RIC has ensured its place as an international hub for photography, rather than just a staid archive of its past. More »

Don't Tell Mama Gallery

Riding high on the anti-Rob Ford fever that swept much of the city this year, Don't Tell Mama's two major shows featured the work of local graffiti artists-cum-political protestors SPUD and Deadboy, all the while reigniting the debate surrounding graffiti's newfound place on the walls of commercial galleries. More »

Videofag

Partners Jordan Tannahill and William Ellis have created something truly special in Kensington Market. This storefront cinema and performance space (as well as home for Tannahill and Ellis) focuses on video and performance art, as well as the work of local and Canadian queer artists operating through a variety of mediums. More »

Art Metropole

Originally founded by the influential collective General Idea in 1974, this artist-run centre and distributor of unique books, clothing, magazines, recordings, and multiples left its King Street home this summer for a beautiful new space on Dundas West. With its world-class collection and storefront installations, Art Metropole remains one of the best ways to drain an afternoon (and your bank account) in the city. More »

A Nerd's World

Ok, so it isn't really a gallery. But the eye-catching work of husband and wife photography team Chris and Grace Hughes made their stylish Bathurst storefront a major draw. More »

Jessica Bradley Annex

As a member of the Toronto art community's old guard, Jessica Bradley has represented some of the city's most renowned artists, as well as almost single-handedly pioneered the gallery boom on Dundas West. With the Annex, a more spacious offshoot of her flagship location, Bradley will surely have the same effect on the decidedly un-gentrified Keele and Dupont area. More »

MKG127

It was one of the first galleries to arrive on the Ossington strip way back in 2007, but MKG127 is now just the next in line to leave it. Forced out by spiraling rents, the innovative gallery with a focus on conceptual art has now set up shop along Dundas West, joining many other previous Ossington denizens. More »

Hashtag Gallery

With its Twitter-referencing name, late-night hours, and frequent drop-in community events, Hashtag Gallery set itself apart with its focus on making local art accessible (and affordable) to the average passerby. Only open since April, the space already has had plenty of successful group shows under its belt. Expect more great things in the coming year. More »

Walnut Contemporary

Walnut Studios has been one of city's most feel-good stories in the art scene, with a vibrant artistic community and studio space forming out of a scrapped condo development. Now with its own commercial gallery, the Walnut empire seeks to promote local and international artists from outside its studio walls. More »

Rilla Alexander: Without the Doing, Dreaming is Useless

<p>Rilla Alexander: Without the Doing, Dreaming is Useless from 99U on Vimeo.</p>

The Lists, To-dos and Illustrated Inventories of Great Artists

by Maria Popova

What a 21-point scale of self-confidence has to do with Adolf Konrad’s carry-on and Picasso’s favorite artists.

 

We’ve previously taken a voyeuristic look inside the notebooks and sketchbooks of great creators and, today, we turn to an even more private facet of the creative self: the list. Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Collections of the Smithsonian Museum offers a surprisingly intriguing glimpse of some of the 20th century’s most remarkable creators — including Pablo Picasso, Joseph Cornell, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Andrew Wyeth and Janice Lowry, among dozens of others — revealing their personal habits, priorities and decision-making schemata through the lens of the seemingly mundane and, in the process, demystifying artmaking and the creative life.

From a list Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen made of his second wife’s positive attributes, to designer Harry Bertoia’s 1932 self-rating chart for a school assignment, rating 21 of his characteristics on a spectrum from Very Poor to Excellent, to Picasso’s recommendations of artists he liked for Walt Kuhn’s 1913 Armory Show, these wonderful and fascinating seventy-or-so artifacts reveal as much about their creators as they do about the values, fixations and points of interest of their respective eras.

 

Eero Saarinen's list of Aline Bernstein's good qualities, ca. 1954. Aline and Eero Saarinen papers, 1857-1972.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art; copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

 

Harry Bertoia's 'My-self Rating Chart' school assignment. Harry Bertoia papers, 1917-1979.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art; copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

 

Pablo Picasso's recommendations for the Armory Show for Walt Kuhn, 1912. Walt Kuhn, Kuhn family papers, and Armory Show Records, 1859-1978.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art; copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

 

Janice Lowry's Journal #98, 2002-2003.

Image courtesy of the Archive of American Art.

 

Franz Kline's receipt from John Heller's Liquor Store, Dec. 31, 1960. Elisabeth Zogbaum papers regarding Franz Kline, 1928-1965.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art; copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

 

Adolf Konrad's graphic packing list, Dec. 16, 1973. Adolf Ferdinand Konrad papers, 1962-2002.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art; copyright F+W Media Inc. 2011.

Lists comes from Princeton Architectural Press, purveyors of the visually compelling and culturally intriguing. Original images from the book are currently on display at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York until October 2, 2011.

via GMSV; images via Imprint

Vintage Film: Watch Henri Matisse Sketch and Make His Famous Cut-Outs (1946)

In April of 1946, a camera crew recorded the scene as the great French artist Henri Matisse sat down at his easel to make a charcoal sketch of his grandson, Gerard, at his his home and studio in Nice. The brief clip above is from a 26-minute film by François Campaux which was commissioned by the French Department of Cultural Relations. Alas, we’ve been unable to find the entire film online, but you can watch a 15-minute German version on YouTube, or you can visit a Web page at the Art Institute of Chicago for a group of higher quality silent excerpts from the film, accompanied by explanatory captions. In the clip above, we hear Matisse speaking in French. Here is a translation:

Me, I believe that painting and drawing are the same thing. Drawing is a painting done in a simpler way [or with "limited/reduced resources"]. On a white surface, a sheet of paper, with a plume [or "pen"] and some ink, one creates a certain contrast with volumes; one can change the quality of the paper given supple surfaces, light [or clear] surfaces, hard surfaces without always adding shadow or light. For me, drawing is a painting with limited means/resources.

For another glimpse of Matisse at work, look below for a rare color clip (from an unknown source) of the artist at work creating one of his distinctive paper cut-outs.