Tag Archives: art

Toronto Art Expo 2012

Posted on by
1

With more than 200 Canadian and International artists and galleries in attendance, Toronto Art Expo featured a variety of styles that appealed to a broad spectrum of art collectors.

Dubbed “the affordable art fair,” the expo didn’t live up to its name with the cheapest piece being more than $600.

While most of the artists were more than happy for patrons to snap photos of their works, some artists were hesitant and dare I say paranoid that some devious person will create a poster of a work and make ridiculous profits from it.

I thought exposure was essential for an artist. Wouldn’t someone taking a photo of your work eventually bring exposure? Sure, you don’t see any profit immediately, but the long-term benefit could be enormous.

Despite its conservative exhibitors, Toronto Art Expo is a great opportunity to experience a large collection of different artists, styles and influences in one building. Just don’t forget your checkbook or your bargaining skills.

- Curtis Sindrey, Art Gallery of Mississauga Intern

Coming in March 2012 | Lila Lewis Irving: Con Spirito | A Retrospective

Posted on by
Reply

Teacher… Artist… Mississauga resident… Student of Helen Frankenthaler… The woman whose work is described by art historian Joan Murray as “what Abstraction is, and can be.”

The AGM proudly announces Con Spirito, a retrospective exhibition of Lila Lewis Irving’s 50 year career as an artist. Irving’s incredible passion for life shines through in the energetic brushstrokes barely contained by larger than life canvases.

AGM Curator Stuart Keeler says,

“If Lila were to paint air, she would depict for us what we intuitively feel around us every moment we breathe.”

Irving’s art is intuitive. Much like Rothko’s reds, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the intensity on the canvas, and the scale of this artist’s work.

Lila Lewis Irving, Otello, 1997, acrylic on canvas

Irving is an enormous opera buff. Her brushstrokes mimic the movements of music, and transport viewers much like an operatic aria can.

Lila Lewis Irving, Tristan and Isolde (Diptych)

 Lila Lewis Irving: Con Spirito | A Retrospective
opens at the AGM Thursday, March 1st 6 pm

The artist will be co-producing with the AGM
Appassionata, a 96-page hardcover publication
in conjunction with Con Spirito.
Appassionata will be on-sale at the AGM beginning March 1st.

Situating Art in Culture: The Lords are Coming to the Art Gallery of Mississauga

Posted on by
Reply

 ”Art is inherently social,” Barry Lord and Gail Dexter Lord say in their new book Artists, Patrons and the Public: Why Culture Changes. They argue that art appreciation is necessarily intertwined with an understanding of the culture in which the art was created, and the culture in which it currently interacts.

The Lords are prominent figures in the museum and cultural planning industry, and they draw on their combined years of experience in discussing art patronage and cultural change. The book is littered with anecdotes that illustrate important points. The first chapter cites the example of the Salford cultural centre. The consultant team, which included the Lords, suggested using the cultural centre as the home for Salford’s major collection of paintings and drawings by local artist L. S. Lowry (1887-1976). The most powerful argument for displaying Lowry’s works, the Lords said, is not so much the works’ aesthetic value, but that Lowry’s works have a unique significance for Salford because “Salford provides the context for why they were created. … Whether Tate shows Lowry or not is not nearly as significant as the public dialogue that the people of Salford and their visitors can have with these works that are so much part of the local culture.” (Artists, Patrons and the Public, page 12) By relating the Lords’ experiences as museum and cultural planning consultants, and by explaining the reasoning behind some of their recommendations, this book provides interesting insight into the world of cultural planning and the forces that shape this world.

“We are all participating constantly in cultural change,” the Lords say, and go on to affirm that statement by inviting an online exchange of ideas on cultural change. With all their experience influencing cultural change around the world, I’d say we can trust them on that.

Hear the Lords speak at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, on Wednesday Oct 27, 7 pm. For further reading, you can check out an excerpt of the book on Amazon.