Arts

I’ve been a fan ever since I spotted one of Matt Durant's abstract salvaged wood pieces hung in a furniture store on Queen Street West a few years back and have been following him ever since. I was already intrigued by his use of organic materials splattered with graphic bold pattern, but even more interested when I saw his solo show of new work pop up last month

Calgary-based artist Lisa Brawn has been experimenting with primarily figurative, portrait genre painted woodcut blocks for over twenty years and has a knack for turning alternative venues in the city into gallery and project spaces. She also has a very interesting creative process, as you'll find out in today's profile

The OCAD class of 2013, an eclectic mix of more than 550 graduating students working in 12 undergraduate programs, will present its final thesis work to an audience of more than 26,000 guests betweeb May 2 and 5

We’re so excited that next week is the opening evening and auction for the eagerly anticipated SNAP! Gala, taking place on Thursday, March 7, 2013. Mark your calendars and be sure to come out for an evening of great talent, people and a good cause

For the past few years, visual artist Nathalie Quogliotto (Montreal/Toronto) has curated a mixed selection of artworks to celebrate the event(s). This year, on her 28th birthday, the show was held at one of my favourite local Queen West galleries, gallerywest in Toronto, and focused on artists in the Toronto arts community

Thrush Holmes. What can I say? This self-taught Toronto-based artist has exhibited widely throughout Canada and the US, and has been placed among Canada’s top-selling living artists. His works have been referred to as fresh, raw, showy, vulgar, larger-than-life, and yet, simultaneously delicate, detailed, subtle, and suffused, somehow, with loneliness and yearning

Often, we occupy our time with agendas, meetings, lists of things to do; and then we cross them off. Our mind is set on a fast track, on which we must maintain the pace. As a consequence, we move through our days with blinders, oblivious to the fact that art makes one feel connected, encourages one to believe that there is goodness in life, and allows for the appreciation of quiet moments

From the moment I met Sean Martindale in a street art tour coordinated by through the AGO Next, I knew right away he was doing something thoughtful and thought-provoking in our city. I instantly had a predilection for his plant poster installations that he so patiently and with gentle hands demonstrated for the group of eager art hounds that day, and then realized after perusing his website I had seen so many of his pieces around the city

On Tuesday night, we got the first peak at a new, uplifting exhibit at Toronto’s Design Exchange, The Happy Show. Unlike anything we’d seen, the exhibit is thought-provoking (and appropriate in the dead of winter) in its exploration of what makes us happy