The CBC Arts guide to Canada's hidden gems and secret spots.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Hi, Art!

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Hi, art lovers!

 
Digital illustration in a cartoon style. Horizontal canvas filled with a green natural landscape. Winding paths cut through the scene, leading to various small icons including a spraypaint can, high heel shoe, crown, lollipop, glass bottle, snow castle, pyramid and gopher. Titles in large yellow block letters read

(Jill Stanton/CBC Arts)

 
Let’s say you have a friend coming to town. They love art. (I mean, of course they do. No wonder you're pals.) And they also live for novelty and adventure. What would you tell them to check out? Like, what’s the one local arts attraction that’s an absolute must-see, a spot they could never find anywhere else?

Earlier this summer, I started reaching out to artists and curators around the country, and I asked them how they’d answer that question — or a more formal version of it, anyway. And the tips they shared wound up shaping a very special online project that arrived on the site last week.

It’s called Destination: Art. And whether you’re planning a road trip or just feel like taking a virtual vacation, it’s your cross-country guide to Canada’s hidden gems and secret spots.

What would you like to explore? Roadside attractions? Art in surprising locations? Maybe you’re up for an art hike or a journey into the urban unknown? 

You can search 50 incredible attractions by category and location, and in a few cases, CBC Arts got a closer look at what’s happening there. Read feature stories about destinations you can find everywhere from Calgary to Ontario’s cottage country. (More supplemental articles will arrive on the site next week.)

This country is full of remarkable art in unexpected places, and we want our list to keep growing!

Is there a place near you that CBC Arts should know about? Let me know!
 

Because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Photo of mixed media artwork hanging on white wall. It's a painted canvas, a seaside landscape. 3D paper sculptures of a rubber tire, brown suitcase and film camera jump from the surface of the canvas, and appear to have been cut right from the painting and folded into their 3D forms.

Éric Lamontagne

Se transporter ailleurs by Éric Lamontagne.
 
Oil painting in a surreal cartoon style. Depicts an orange cartoon frog driving a chartreuse covertible. Musical notation swirls around the scene.

Nadya Isabella

More road-trip vibes for you. Summer Storm by Nadya Isabella.
 
Abstract painting suggesting 3D tubes in a tangle. Colour palette: orange, blue, royal blue, crimson, forest green.

Nicholas Moenich

Ledge (Graft) by Nicholas Moenich. (The painting is hanging at McBride Contemporain in Montreal as part of its current group show, Vagabond Shoes.)
 
Watercolour sketch of a moustachiod man (all red in a pink shirt) looking through a magnifying glass. He is in an antique market. The scene is red and many objects surround him.

Dylan Glynn

Do any of you carry a sketchbook while travelling? I love the diary entries Dylan Glynn (previously seen here) posts to his Instagram, like this colourful scene from a Mexico City trip.
 
Sci-fi scene painted in shades of blue. Humanoid forms gather around a glowing orb under jagged vine-like arches.

Claire Scherzinger

Travel to another planet entirely … by way of Markham, Ont. This painting by Claire Scherzinger (seen here) is appearing at the Varley Art Gallery’s sci-fi-themed show, To Go Boldly. It’s on until Sept. 2.
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
A man sits on a bench outside near a network of cement sculptures that resembles a rollercoaster track.
Nicholas Tinkl

Destination: Tinkls’ Gallery

 
In Sunderland, Ont., visit a fantasyland made of cement, imagination and time.
 
Straight Flush, a 2009 light installation by James Turrell, can be seen from sidewalk on Toronto's Adelaide St. W. Through windows, five tall rectangular screens are visible. All are beaming blue light.
CBC Arts

Destination: Toronto's secret treasures

 
These incredible works of art are free to see, but you’ve probably never noticed them.
 
Two men walk between a series of large metal columns built in cross shapes, which create a grid-like pattern across the natural landscape with rocks and small plants.

Martin Bond

 

Destination: Reford Gardens

 
Wild art blooms in this playground for architects, designers and artists.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Jill Stanton

@jillvstanton
Photo of a five panel abstract mural. Uninstalled, the panels rest against a wood wall. The mural is an abstracted cartoon landscape. Winding paths loop and intersect, weaving past forms resembling caverns, streams and trees.

Jill Stanton

Way, way back when I first tabled the idea for Destination: Art, I put a photo of Edmonton’s Lowlands Project Space in my pitch deck. Jill is one of the co-founders of Lowlands — and you bet the place made our final list. Plus Jill agreed to do the illustrations for the story! It was a serendipitous dream of a collaboration IMO, and the piece she drew for CBC Arts is packed with pathways for your eyeballs — winding roads that will direct your gaze toward all sorts of Easter eggs. Rad, right? There’s a feeling of fun and exploration in so much of Jill’s work, including this post I grabbed from her Instagram. It’s a detail from a mural she made for the Heritage Valley transit station in Edmonton. (See a picture of the whole thing here.)
 

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

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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