Highlights from the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, plus the week's top stories.
CBC

View in browser

Hi, Art!

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Hi, Art!

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Hi, art lovers!

 
Photo of Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square during the 2023 edition of the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. Under blue skies, a crowd of people mills about a concrete square. There are rows of white tents on the square.

(Toronto Outdoor Art Fair)

 
During my Friday lunch break, I attempted a new world record in speed walking, and hustled over to Nathan Phillips Square to take a breezy self-guided tour of the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. More than 350 artists from all over the country have gathered in the city this weekend to show — and sell! — their work. Today’s the last day to make the trip yourself, but before you do, here are a few things I jotted in my Notes app while zigzagging around the fair. 
 

Because we promised you (TOAF) eye candy ...

 
Oil painting with a brass netting hung in front of it. The painting is a portrait of a blonde person with a worried expression seated against a green leafy backdrop. They cross their arms on a wooden surface. One hand points to a stack of gold coins. The other hand, which is the same green as the backdrop, points to the right.

Kale Vandenbroek

This arresting self-portrait by local artist Kale Vandenbroek (The Pursuit of Something Golden) was the first thing to stop me in my tracks.
 
Photo of a ceramic vessel that resembles stacked strips of uncooked bacon. The shape is curved, suggesting a human figure.

Emily Au

This piece, Maple Wood Smoked Bacon Vessel, is as grisly as it is alluring, and Emily Au is showing plenty of meaty ceramics at her booth. I could eat them all up (metaphorically speaking, of course).
 
Painted landscape of a backyard bordered with tall palms.

Keerthana Jhutty

If you’re feeling the “outdoor” vibes of the fair, linger awhile at Keerthana Jhutty’s stall. The Alberta-based artist brought a selection of dreamy landscapes with her, including this oil painting, Games at Twilight.
 
Surreal painting. A human figure in black crouches reaching for the green ground. Above them is a pink cloud-like form with a face and orange stripes.

Alex Marks

Alex Marks is showing landscapes of a way more surreal nature — works I wish I could find images of online. (I guess that’s another reason to visit the fair IRL, though!) Here’s a selection from his Chimera series.
 
Photo collage weaving strips of photographs into a wonky grid. Images are of a flowering tree against a blue sky.

Sylvia Jacobs

If you’re not in the Toronto area, I should mention there’s a section of the fair that’s totally virtual! Sylvia Jacobs is among the artists showing work exclusively online.
 
Surreal painting of a human figure in profile looking at a golden landscape. The figure's silhouette is filled in with a blue landscape scene.

Raoul Olou

Raoul Olou is also part of the online fair. Pictured: On an Island, at 2:28am in the Kitchen. 
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Portrait of artist Alex Janvier, an Indigenous man with short white hair. He wears a rust coloured colllared shirt with a beaded bolo tie and looks at the viewer smiling slightly. An abstract painting of many colours, likely the artist's own, appears behind him.
Jason Franson/The Canadian Press

Remembering Alex Janvier

 
The artist from Cold Lake First Nations in Alberta has died at the age of 89. Considered one of Canada’s greatest painters, his work hangs in public galleries throughout the country, including the Canadian Museum of History. 
 
Photo of the artist Wanda Koop. A white haired woman dress in all black with bold red glasses, she is seated in front of one of her paintings, a pastel landscape.
Lindsey Koepke

Why this artist has spent her life painting the moon

 
Winnipeg’s Wanda Koop speaks with Q’s Tom Power about her latest exhibition.
 
Medium close-up of the author Alice Munro, a white woman with short white hair. She is seated in a black leather chair and wears a white blouse with black checks. She looks away from the viewer, toward the left of the frame.

Peter Muhly/Getty Images

 

How do we talk about Alice Munro?

 
In a recent article, Munro’s daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, revealed she was sexually abused by her mother’s second husband. On Commotion, writers Michelle Cyca, Michelle Dean and Zoe Whittall unpack how the author’s legacy has been tarnished by the news.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Wednesday Kim

@wednesdaykimm
3D digital still. Surreal scene. The sky is a blue-grey thunderstorm, streaked with lightning. The ground is lumpy and fleshy, in shades of brown, beige and yellow. Several humanoid figures, including two with mushroom caps for heads populate the scene alongside crustaceans with tentacles, a flying white bird and a hovering crystalline form.

Wednesday Kim

As we learned last week, Regina’s MacKenzie Art Gallery has launched a digital art show for sleep-deprived new parents. Wednesday is one of the participating artists, and this is a sample of the 3D animation she contributed to the exhibition. Would you hallucinate something like this if you were tending to a shrieking infant for 52 hours straight? Who’s to say — but I’m feeling pretty smug about my child-free lifestyle right now, I can tell you. 
 

Share this newsletter

Facebook Twitter

or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you.

 
 

Got questions? Typo catches? Story ideas?

 

We're just an email away. Send us a note, and we'll do our best to get back to you.

If someone forwarded you this message and you like what you've read, here's where to subscribe for more.

I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
View in browser Preferences Feedback Unsubscribe
CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
250 Front St. W, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3G5
cbc.radio-canada.ca | radio-canada.ca | cbc.ca

 
Get this newsletter delivered to you