AGO
317 Dundas Street West M5T 1G4 Toronto, ON, Canada

Building with boxes is the best! Boxitects tells the story of a young girl with a vivid imagination and strong work ethic. She loves building extraordinary things out of ordinary cardboard boxes and impressing her classmates with what she creates. Tomorrow, New York Times best-selling illustrator and author Kim Smith will read the story and do some art-making with us! This event is for all ages and especially creatives in pre-school and JK. February 10 at 11am. Presented ...in collaboration with HarperCollins Canada. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/colouring Kim Smith, Boxitects (Cover)

Join Amy Furness, Rosamond Ivey Special Collections Archivist and Head, Library & Archives, as she discusses the AGO’s early editions of Catharine Parr Traill’s Canadian Wild Flowers (1868 and following) illustrated by Agnes Fitzgibbon. We will take a close look at some of the book’s remarkable illustrations and their history of production, and explore what it means to include illustrated books in an art museum collection.

It's a look. If you're into fashion - you won't want to miss André Leon Talley and Diane von Furstenberg, two titans of fashion history, as they chat about the style at Studio 54, via Zoom, on February 9. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/its-look Register here: André Leon Talley & Diane von Furstenberg: Studio 54 and the Art of Fashion... Ron Galella (American, born 1931). Party for Egon von Furstenberg's Book "The Power Look," New York City, Ara Gallant and Diane von Furstenberg, September 25, 1978. Gelatin silver print, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Courtesy of the artist. Ron Galella.

Happy Black History (Futures, Liberation) Month! Since last February, the Black community and the international movement for Black lives have faced a lot. In 2021, this month presents a great opportunity to commemorate the past, acknowledge the present and envision the future. The AGO’s Virtual Schools Program is marking the occasion by celebrating Black creatives. Every Friday in February, students can gain a deeper understanding of art from the AGO Collection created by Black artists. These dynamic school sessions incorporate spoken word poetry and great music. The goal is to support teachers as they engage students in contemporary conversations about Black communities. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/oral-tradition

Make new art connections and spark conversations! If you are an older adult, join us for this month’s Seniors Social, where we combine conversations with art and art making. In this program, we will chat about artwork by Mary Wrinch and explore painting with a limited palette of complementary colours (blue and orange or green and red or yellow and purple), using black and white to create tones in your landscapes. We’d like to extend a thank you to Lead Sponsor Amica Senior Lifestyles for their support of this program. Find the rest of the videos for today’s event here: https://ago.ca/events/seniors-social-painting-tones

We've got your 90s music fix over on our YouTube channel tonight. celebrate the cultural impact of Studio 54 with the help of DJs VNESS and Pammm as they explore the underground legacy of Electric Circus, Toronto's dance party from the 90s. https://youtu.be/54FRvVGcGmU Electric Circus, like Studio 54, was also a place to be seen dancing and looking fashionable. Instead of New York's Lower East Side, it was right in the heart of downtown Toronto at the historic CityTV building. Unlike Studio 54, it was a televised dance party, making it accessible to those watching at home, and those who braved Canadian winters to get their groove on.

Looking back on the past year, we have to mention that 2020 was an exciting year for acquisitions. We added to the AGO's collection with some important works by, among others, Rajni Perera, Luke Parnell and a mystery work called Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom. We also commissioned two works by Haegue Yang, including Woven Currents Confluence of Parallels, a large-scale installation composed of venetian blinds and LED tubes, inspired by the layered architectur...al history of the space where it is suspended - the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Sculpture Atrium. (And yes, you'll be able to see it when it's safe for us to re-open!) #AGO2020 https://ago.ca/exhibitions/haegue-yang-emergence Haegue Yang, Woven Currents Confluence of Parallels, 2020. Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable. Dimensions variable. Purchase, with funds from Eleanor and Francis Shen, the David Yuile and Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Women’s Art Initiative, the Janet and Michael Scott Fund, the Contemporary Circle Fund, the Richard Ivey Foundation Contemporary Art Fund, Sandra and Leo Del Zotto, the Jay Smith and Laura Rapp Fund, and the Molly Gilmour Fund, 2020. 2020/22. Artwork Haegue Yang, Photo Art Gallery of Ontario.

#AGOMakes is back this week join Gillian McIntyre and Melissa Pauw as they share a project inspired by a work of Shuvinai Ashoona, Composition (Cube). We’d love to see how you make this at home, so please share your creations using #AGOmakes. And we’d like to thank Lead Sponsor MadeGood for their support of this program. https://ago.ca/learn/ago-makes/three-dimensional-landscape Shuvinai Ashoona. Composition (Cube), 2009. Coloured pencil, black porous-point pen on paper, Overall: 41.9 x 39.4 x 39.4 cm. Purchased with the assistance of the Joan Chalmers Inuit Art Purchase Fund, 2009. Shuvinai Ashoona / Courtesy of Dorset Fine Arts 2009/92

Last week Wanda Nanibush, AGO Curator, Indigenous Art, spoke with artists Darlene Naponse and Thirza Cuthand here is their conversation.

During Art Toronto, we had an in-depth conversation on the ongoing process of decolonizing collections and shifting institutional space towards greater equity. The discussion was moderated by Wanda Nanibush, Curator of Indigenous Art at the AGO, and featured independent and institutional curators from both Canada and the USA Julie Crooks, Associate Curator, Photography, AGO; Julie Nagam, Canadian Research Chair in Indigenous Arts, Collaboration and Digital Media and Associate Professor, University of Winnipeg; Larry Ossei-Mensah, Independent Curator, and Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Director and CEO, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Presented in Partnership with Art Toronto

Last week Sarah Liss and Luis Jacob spoke about the artist, activist, community builder, and queer party maker Will Munro. Drawing from the the Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives collection of Munro’s posters for events spanning the years 2000-2009, Liss and Jacob reflected on their friend’s work, life, and legacy. Here is their conversation. Thank you to the TD Ready Commitment, our Lead Sponsor of Talks and Performances for generously supporting this talk.

In Pierre Huyghe’s video, a dog named Human guides us through a collision of the natural and man-made. And even though this visitor favourite work is currently unavailable for in-person viewing, luckily, there is another way to experience it. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/seeing-way-untilled Pierre Huyghe. Film still from A Way in Untilled, 2012-2013. HD colour video with sound, Running Time: 14 Minutes. Purchased with the assistance of the David Yuile and Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund and the Richard Ivey Foundation Contemporary Art Fund, 2013. Pierre Huyghe, courtesy of the artist; Marian Goodman, New York; Esther Schipper, Berlin 2013/24

It’s a week of exciting announcements here at the AGO, with the launch of a whole new department the department of Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora. The Department will be led by Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, formerly the AGO’s Associate Curator of Photography. Global Africa and the Diaspora touches on much of what we do at the AGO. The opportunity to work collaboratively and cross-departmentally to explore the tremendous influence o...f African and Black artists and cultures, and to promote and share these histories, is very exciting says Crooks. However, connecting visitors to these histories is essential work that cannot happen without input and support from the community, and I am grateful for the support from co-chairs Dr. Liza Murrell and Liza Mauer, as well as the entire Friends of Global Africa and the Diaspora group. And to celebrate, here is the first acquisition for that department from Art Toronto. A Christ Pantocrator is a Byzantine icon of Christ represented as almighty in his glorious body. This series borrows this representation as a starting point to question such icongraphic Christian representations and their relationship to African masks found in Western art museums. In most African cultures, masks are to be used in sacred rites and ceremonies celebrating birth, death or harvest. When displayed as static objects in museums, they become removed from their contexts of origin. Drawing from various museum collections, Banza paints Pantocrators and replaces the face of Christ with a mask. Through this intervention, the object is sacralized and reactivated to its function: that of being worn. https://ago.ca//art-gallery-ontario-announces-new-departme Moridja Kitenge Banza, Christ Pantocrator No 13, 2020 acrylic and gold leaf on wood 40 x 30 cm Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase, with assistance from the Christian Claude Fund Photo courtesy of Galerie Hugues Charbonneau

Neil Selkirk is the only person ever authorized to make posthumous prints of Diane Arbus’s work. The AGO's Curator of Photography, Sophie Hackett, connected with him for an enlightening conversation. Make sure to see Diane Arbus: Photographs 1956 1971 , before it closes on November 8. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/print-perfection Diane Arbus, Puerto Rican woman with a beauty mark, N.Y.C., 1965. Gelatin silver print; printed later, Sheet: 50.8 40.6 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Phil Lind, 2016. Copyright Estate of Diane Arbus.

Anishinaabe artist Michael Belmore returns to the AGO with two new works in his self-titled exhibition, on now until March 21, 2021. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/belmore-ago Michael Belmore. Édifice, 2019. River boulders, copper, 485.3 kg. Purchase, with funds by exchange from Professor and Mrs. Wm. O. Fennell, Toronto, in memory of J.H. Birkenshaw, and The J.S. McLean Collection, by Canada Packers Inc., 2019. Michael Belmore. Photo by Michael Belmore.

"I want to paint honestly. And if the world is on fire, I think my role is to speak, draw and paint my truth as best as I know how." Toronto-based graffiti writer Moises Frank gets candid about his beloved art form. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/style-luv... Image courtesy of Moises Frank.

It’s always a great day when we get to share the AGO’s new Art Toronto acquisitions! This year twenty-four artworks by seven artists entered the AGO Collection and expanded it in new and exciting ways. For the full selection, head to the #AGOinsider! https://ago.ca/agoinsider/ago-acquires-new-works-art-toronto... Luke Parnell The Legacy, 2014 acrylic on canvas, wall text 91.4 x 91.4 cm Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase, with funds by exchange from the Estate of Jennings David Young, 2020 Shuvinai Ashoona Curiosity, 2020 coloured pencil, graphite, and ink on paper 127.3 x 268 cm Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase, with funds from the Joan Chalmers Inuit Art Fund, 2020 Minna Keene Pomegranates, circa 1910 carbon print mounted to two-ply period board 33.66 x 22.86 cm (print); 41.91 x 34.29 cm (board) Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase, with funds from the Photography Curatorial Committee, 2020 The Estate of Minna Keene / Courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery Julie Voyce Canadian, born 1957 Thank You John, 2012 linocut print on kozuka paper, edition 5/5 24.1 x 40.0 cm Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase with assistance from Nina Josefowitz, K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation, and Christopher Birt & Yeti Agnew, 2020s Jennifer Rose Sciarrino butterfly buffet, 2020 Carved alabaster Large piece: 2 x 17 x 11 inches; Small pieces: variable Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase, with funds from the Dr. Michael Braudo Contemporary Art Fund, 2020 Rae Johnson Night Games at the Paradise, 1984 oil on canvas 213 x 334 cm Art Gallery of Ontario Purchase, with funds from Greg Latremoille, 2020 Photo courtesy of Christopher Cutts Gallery

Activist and artist Syrus Marcus Ware joined the AGO Youth Council for a how-to on all things social justice. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/protest-proteges Photo by Jalani Morgan

Haegue Yang: Emergence, the first North American survey exhibition by the acclaimed South Korean artist, is now open to all! In celebration, the AGO has commissioned two new works by the artist, including Woven Currents Confluence of Parallels, 2020. Find out more about this work in the #AGOinsider. https://ago.ca/agoi/haegue-yang-emergence-opening-october-1 Haegue Yang, Woven Currents Confluence of Parallels, 2020. Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hangi...ng structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable. Dimensions variable. Purchase, with funds from Eleanor and Francis Shen, the David Yuile and Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Women’s Art Initiative, the Janet and Michael Scott Fund, the Contemporary Circle Fund, the Richard Ivey Foundation Contemporary Art Fund, Sandra and Leo Del Zotto, the Jay Smith and Laura Rapp Fund, and the Molly Gilmour Fund, 2020. 2020/22. Photography by Craig Boyko, AGO Image 2020. See more

For this installment of AGO Makes we’re taking inspiration from Annie Pootoogook’s Composition (Drawing of My Grandmother’s Glasses) and we’re making drawings that are larger than life! You probably have everything you need at home to do this activity paper and drawing materialsOh, and something to draw! We’re excited to see what you make, so remember to share your creations with us using #AGOmakes. A larger than life thanks to Lead Sponsor MadeGood for their support of this program.

Ealier this week artist Luke Parnell spoke with Wanda Nanibush, AGO Curator of Indigenous Art about his recent work. Here is their conversation. Luke Parnell is Wilp Laxgiik Nisga’a from Gingolx on his mother’s side and Haida from Massett on his Father’s side. His training has involved a traditional apprenticeship with a Master Northwest Coast Indigenous carver, a BFA from OCAD, and an MAA from ECUAD. His artistic practice explores the relationship between Northwest Coast Ind...igenous oral histories and Northwest Coast Indigenous art, with a focus on transformation narratives. With an understanding of visual language as a material expression related to experience, Parnell’s artworks contain traditional and contemporary symbols, where meaning is related to the materials, methods, forms, and context of the works. Parnell’s work has been exhibited at the MacLaren Art Centre (2011), the National Gallery of Canada (2014), the Biennial of Contemporary Native Art in Montreal (2016), the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (2018), and more. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre and the International Cervantino Festival. Wanda Nanibush is Curator, Indigenous Art at the AGO. Selected AGO exhibitions include Karoo Ashevak (2019), Rebecca Belmore Facing the Monumental (2018), JS McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art (2018), Rita Letendre: Fire & Light (2017), Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971-1989 (2016). Luke Parnell, Arts of the Raven, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36, courtesy of Luke Parnell and MKG127.

Your brain processes the world around you through the senses to help us understand our surroundings. Art galleries and museums have privileged the visual for a very long time, but let's try something different! Come virtually explore the AGO's collection by activating your senses. An Art Educator will provide vivid detailed verbal descriptions, while encouraging participants to experience a selection of artworks through touch, smell, or sound. Helen Galloway McNicoll. Picking... Flowers, c. 1912. Oil on canvas, 94 78.8 cm. Gift of R. Fraser Elliott, Toronto, in memory of Betty Ann Elliott, 1992. Art Gallery of Ontario 92/102 Kazuo Nakamura. Rainstorm, 1960. Ink on paper, 39.2 x 54.1 cm. Gift of Eleanor and Russell Hutchison, 2008. Estate of Kazuo Nakamura 2008/239 Rita Letendre, Daybreak, 1983. Acrylic on canvas, 198 x 365.8 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Dr. Michael J. Sole in honour of Rita Letendre and Kosso Eloul, 2006 Rita Letendre

Slush fund, fudge the numbers, and son of a gun : we often use words and phrases in everyday conversations and may not realize their origin. Gillian McIntyre, Interpretive Planner and Sherry Phillips, Conservator, will engage in a conversation about language inspired by the Thomson Collection of Ship Models at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Studio 54 is coming to the AGO! How does a nightclub, open for less than three years, become the global epicentre of music, fashion and design? Studio 54: Night Magic transports visitors back to 1977 when revolutionary creativity, expressive freedom and sexual liberation transformed a New York City nightclub into a phenomenon. Opening on December 26, 2020, the exhibition will feature hundreds of objects, including photographs, films, sketches and designer fashions, and wi...ll trace the nightclub’s trailblazing aesthetics while situating it within the broader social and historical context of the period. Come beyond the velvet rope and get to know Studio 54! #Studio54AGO https://ago.ca/agoinsider/studio-54-coming-ago Guy Marineau, Pat Cleveland on the dance floor during Halston's disco bash at Studio 54, 1977. Photo: Guy Marineau / WWD / Shutterstock

Part of what makes public art special is its universal appealit’s made for anyone and everyone who strolls by. This fact is not taken lightly by Toronto-based artist-designer Javid Jah, whose large-scale public art pieces are designed to expose the intrinsically cosmic nature of human beings. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/universal-blueprints Javid Jah, The Universe Within. Image by Spring Morris.

Toronto’s own ‘Dress Detective’, Ingrid Mida, returns with a new book that investigates how the body is fashioned in art. Dress and fashion are ever-changing, offering important clues for our understanding of artworks. For aspiring dress detectives everywhere, author and scholar Mida presents Reading Fashion in Art, an essential handbook in the toolkit for art analysis. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/becoming-dress-detective Image courtesy of Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

As we continue to explore street art in Toronto, the #AGOinsider spoke with former AGO Artist-in-Residence Ness Lee about street art and self-exploration. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/public-intimacy Image by Bret Kelly, courtesy of Ness Lee

Great news: Rita Letendre's stunning work, Joy, returns to the TTC’s Glencairn Station. https://ago.ca/agoinsider/spreading-joy Rita Letendre. Image by Adam Lauder.

Erin Stodola, Curatorial Intern, and Renée van der Avoird, Assistant Curator of Canadian Art, discuss historical Canadian artist Mary Wrinch’s miniature watercolours on ivory.

Tomorrow is the day! Haegue Yang Emergence opens to #AGOMembers, and to the public on October 1. A leading artist of her generation, Haegue Yang (b. 1971 Seoul) is celebrated for her prolific and diverse work that evokes historical and contemporary narratives of migration, displacement and cross-cultural translation. For over two decades, Yang has been transforming how we experience everyday domestic materials, turning items such as venetian blinds, light bulbs, drying racks..., knitting yarn and bells into meticulously constructed installations and sculptures. To unleash the historical and emotional resonances of these objects, Yang activates them with sounds, light, air, scents and movement. This is the first North American retrospective survey of Yang’s work to date and is not to be missed. Click the link below to book your tickets to see Haegue Yang Emergence. #HaegueYangAGO Thank you to Presenting Partner Max Mara for their support of this exhibition. https://ago.ca/exhibitions/haegue-yang-emergence Haegue Yang, Woven Currents Confluence of Parallels, 2020. Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable. Dimensions variable. Purchase, with funds from Eleanor and Francis Shen, the David Yuile and Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Women’s Art Initiative, the Janet and Michael Scott Fund, the Contemporary Circle Fund, the Richard Ivey Foundation Contemporary Art Fund, Sandra and Leo Del Zotto, the Jay Smith and Laura Rapp Fund, and the Molly Gilmour Fund, 2020. 2020/22. Photography by Craig Boyko, AGO Image 2020.

A few weeks ago, Deepali Dewan, Dan Mishra Curator of South Asian Art & Culture, Royal Ontario Museum, and Sophie Hackett, AGO Curator, Photography, spoke about photography and collections at the two museums. Here is their conversation. Deepali Dewan is the Dan Mishra Curator of South Asian Art & Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto and is affiliated with the Centre for South As...ian Studies. She is part of the new editorial team, along with Thy Phu and Yi Gu, for Trans Asian Photography Review, an open-access online peer-review journal for the interdisciplinary exploration of photography and Asia. She has curated exhibitions on 19th-century photographer Raja Deen Dayal, Indian painted photographs, and family photography with related publications. Her research spans issues of colonial, modern and contemporary visual culture of South Asia and its Diaspora, including topics such as knowledge production, art education, decorative arts and historiography. Sophie Hackett has been a member of the AGO’s department of photography since 2006. During her tenure she has curated many exhibitions and collection installations, written and contributed to a number of publications, participated on international juries and maintained an active academic profile. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in Ryerson University’s Master’s degree program in Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management, and was a 2017 Fellow with the Center for Curatorial Leadership. Hackett’s areas of specialty include vernacular photographs; photography in relation to queerness; and photography in Canada from the1960s to the 1990s. Hackett’s curatorial projects include Barbara Kruger: Untitled (It) (2010); Max Dean: Album, A Public Project (2012); What It Means To be Seen: Photography and Queer Visibility and Fan the Flames: Queer Positions in Photography (2014); Introducing Suzy Lake (2014); Outsiders: American Photography and Film, 1950s1980s (2016); Anthropocene (2018) and Diane Arbus: Photographs, 19561971 (2020).