Toronto–August 9, 2022

Art Gallery of Ontario

These pictures start off with a bronze sculpture of an elephant; it looks as if it is made out of old leather couches, but it’s bronze.

Bronze sculpture of elephant balancing on a ball. It looks as if it were made of leather couch material

Large wall painting of a man with a beard, looking somewhat like Vincent Van Gogh.

This one is across the street from the museum.

As is this one.

Entrance to Art Gallery of Ontario, with large purple letters AGO

Panels hanging from ceiling of art gallery

Ken Lum—Furniture and Death

This guy has some really interesting stuff. The last three (about jobs/work) are very powerful.

Large poster in various typefaces summarizing the death of a fictional person who worked in a garment factory

Mirror with photos stuck in corners and sides of the frame

Photo of man with dog. Text: I lost my job. I’m looking for work. If you know of any work. If you know of any work. Any work. I lost my job.

Woman looking at camera; playing with baby in a swing. Text: They have no idea how much I work. They have no idea how hard I work. They have no idea what I do.

Man in red sweatshirt and black face mask. Text: I know I’m lucky. I have a job. I know I’m lucky. I’m so lucky. to have a job. I know I’m lucky. I have a job.

Judy Chicago

These are some plates that she created. They’re really great.

Miscellaneous Artwork

Sculpture made of what appear to be sticks in vaguely letter-like shapes.

Gallery with three sculptures in foreground and two paintings in background.

Metal sculpture that looks somewhat like sheets of paper connected together

Portrait of a man with bulging eyes and a stressed expression; dressed in 1920s garb

Painting of a jar of apricots; the frame is made of ornately carved wood.

The painting is no great shakes, but I liked the frame a lot.

Man with round glasses, long nose, and slightly plump face

No, this is not Ben Franklin. It’s a guy named Jan Kupecky, from around 1725.

Above: painting of boy holding a torch. Below: Girl with head turned toward viewer, playing with a small dog

Three paintings: at left and right are angels facing the middle painting of madonna and child

I don’t usually go for religious art, but this one was rather striking.

This is a full-size chariot made of glass. The artist is Tim Whiten.

One artist had a large collection of a wide variety of objects. He also built very detailed model ships.

Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire
An exhibit of art from the Spanish empire.

Henry Moore

This gallery has, according to Wikipedia, the largest collection of Henry Moore sculptures anywhere. Here are a couple of them.

Et la Lumière Fut (And there was light)

This is a nice modern interpretation of stained glass by Congolese artist Moridja Kitenge Banza.

Yayoi Kusama

This is an installation titled Let’s Survive Forever; you have to reserve an entry time and you get exactly 60 seconds to look around the room before the next group of up to four people enter.

Indigenous Art

The museum has a large collection of art by First Peoples (indigenous natives).

These are by an artist named Bill Nasogaluak

And these by Kananginak Pootoogook

I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces

This exhibit (which closes later this week) is one of those that is really great to look at, but doesn’t make great photos. So only a couple from this one.

OCAD

Next door to the museum is the Ontario College of Art and Design University. I saw people painting some planters outside the building (and yes, I got permission from the people to take their picture).

In the Area

St. Patrick’s church is right across the street from the Art Gallery. It’s run by a group called the Redemptorists. Across the street from the church is the Sin & Redemption Bistro.

An interesting table top at the bistro.

Art Alley

I saw the wall painting in the first picture on a house across from the church, and was going to continue on, but decided to see if there were anything on the other walls. It turns out that almost every house in this alleyway has some fantastic wall art.