Wangechi Mutu: This You Call Civilization? panel discussion (Audio)
May 17th, 2010
Recorded: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 @ Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario
Duration: 1:29:38
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Join Robert Enright and panelists Allyson Mitchell and Dionne Brand in a lively discussion about the art of Wangechi Mutu. The alluring, stunningly intricate collages of Wangechi Mutu draw the viewer into contemporary and feminist narratives about beauty, consumerism, race, identity, and gender politics. Focused upon imagery of the human body, Mutu’s work offers a radical deconstruction of traditional figuration that bridges her Kenyan upbringing with contemporary American reality.
Robert Enright is the Senior Contributing Editor to Border Crossings magazine and the University research Professor in Art Theory and Criticism at the University of Guelph. Allyson Mitchell is a feminist artist based in Toronto. She is also an Assistant Professor in the School of Women’s Studies at York University. Dionne Brand is the Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto. She is also Professor of English in the School of English and Theatre Studies at The University of Guelph.
Wangechi Mutu, This you call Civilization?, 2008, Mixed media, ink, contact paper on Mylar, 98 x 52 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Photo credit: Bill Orcutt
Meet the Artist: Brian Jungen (Audio)
May 17th, 2010
Internationally renowned Canadian artist Brian Jungen is the recipient of the 2010 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO for his outstanding contribution to visual arts in Canada. The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation and the AGO celebrated the $25,000 prize at a public reception on May 6, and Jungen delivered a talk about his work. The AGO will mount an exhibition of Jungen’s work in the coming year.
Born in 1970 in Fort St. John, British Columbia, to a Swiss father and a Dunne-za mother, Jungen has risen to prominence over the last decade by creating artwork that recasts traditional Indian symbology using ordinary objects such as plastic lawn chairs, golf bags, and Nike Air Jordans. He has exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally in venues including Tate Modern, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which is currently staging a major retrospective of Jungen’s work.
Recorded: Thursday May 6, 2010 @ Baillie Court, Art Gallery of Ontario
Duration: 1:07:41
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Steve Nash and Julian Schnabel (Video)
May 12th, 2010
Canadian basketball superstar Steve Nash has generously lent a painting from his collection to the AGO. Now this just isn’t any old painting, it’s a commissioned portrait of Steve’s twin daughters Bella and Lola. And it (of course), isn’t by just any old artist, but his friend Vito’s father, Julian Schnabel. Check out this video to hear Steve and Julian talk about the day the painting was painted, and what it was like trying to paint 2 very active 3 year olds. It was installed at the AGO in late April, and you can find it in Gallery 123.
Also, since the NBA playoffs are on right now (and the Raptors are out), we’d just like to say – go Suns! Steve is playing amazing basketball right now, don’t you think?
And oh yes, we’re opening a major Julian Schnabel exhibition on September 1, 2010.
Barbara Kruger Installation Video
May 7th, 2010
Hat-tip to AGO-neighbor Jerry Mcintosh for his inspired video of the Barbara Kruger installation, created using his Blackberry and posted on Youtube:
“In partnership with Toronto’s CONTACT Photography Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario commissioned renowned American artist Barbara Kruger to create a large-scale public installation for the AGOs signature glass skirt, which spans an entire city block on the Frank Gehry designed facade. My office is located directly across the street from the AGO and I used my Blackberry to capture these images in a reflection and tribute to Kruger’s work.”
– Jerry Mcintosh
Stephanie Dickey: Rembrandt, Prints, and Portraiture (Audio)
May 5th, 2010
In seventeenth-century Europe, the new and rapidly developing medium of printmaking made it possible for images of prominent citizens to be circulated more widely than ever before. Rembrandt van Rijn, renowned for his painted portraits, brought to this medium his unique blend of innovative skill and penetrating insight. In this talk, Stephanie Dickey, author of Rembrandt: Portraits in Print (2004), explores the significance of the printed portrait for the art of Rembrandt and his time and the contribution of this expressive art form to our enduring fascination with the human face.
Stephanie Dickey (PhD, NYU, 1994) holds the Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art at Queen’s University. She is the author of numerous publications on portraiture and printmaking in the Dutch Golden Age, including the books Rembrandt: Portraits in Print (2004) and Rembrandt Face to Face (2006).
Recorded: April 28, 2010 @ Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario
Duration: 1:04:19
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Alayna Munce on Giuseppe Penone (Audio)
April 30th, 2010
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Giuseppe Penone. Cedro di Versailles, 2002-2003. Cedar wood, 600 x 170 x 170 cm. On Loan from Private Collection
Recorded: September 29, 2009 @ Walker Court, Art Gallery of Ontario
Duration: 15:24
Working from the concept of ekphrasis, one art form paying homage to another, poet Alayna Munce created and presents a new poem in response to a sculpture by Giuseppe Penone.
Gus Casely-Hayford on Matisse and Picasso
April 29th, 2010
Curator and art historian Gus Casely-Hayford reveals the influence African art had on well known European artists such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
Gus Casely-Hayford on African Art (Video)
April 29th, 2010
Curator and art historian Gus Casely-Hayford takes us into the AGO’s African art gallery, featuring the collection of Murray Frum.
Bolaji Campbell on the Body (Video)
April 29th, 2010
Yoruba artist Bolaji Campbell discusses representations of the human body in African art.