Featured on Collection X

Night Views, Opinicon Lake, Ontario

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:13:26 -0500

Night Views, Park Tree

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:06:18 -0500

Hellen's Mountain, Pink

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:00:27 -0500

Portraiture: Representing Identity

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:59:17 -0400

Portraiture has evolved from a static and posed genre to a fluid and interpretive one. Once the preserve of the wealthy and powerful, today’s portraits contest tradition by depicting subjects whose lives and identities are representative of the common rather than the exceptional, and/or that challenge convention. Portraiture echoes the very medium in which this exhibition is presented; Collection X is representative of the democratization of both the web and the space of the museum. By drawing on images from the AGO and from the public, this exhibition highlights changes in portraiture through similar developments in the way that portraits are presented to the public.

Motel 03

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:58:37 -0400

Toronto-based photographer Finn O’Hara was given exclusive access to the now-demolished Hillcrest Motel for its final hours in 2007. Toronto’s Lakeshore motel strip was renowned for illicit encounters and covert activities, the Hillcrest was one of the most notorious motels along the strip, and the last one left standing. O’Hara was given bare notice by the owner of the motel, invited to photograph with just enough hours to bring all of the elements of actors, costumes, props (including authentic Toronto Police gear) together, and the resulting images give us an intimate glance into imagining events that might have occurred. Shot digitally on a bitterly cold winter night, the building and its rooms are the very heart of the motel experience itself and lend themselves seamlessly to O’Hara’s film noir fantasies that shifted and unfolded throughout the night. The motel was demolished the next day, vanished along with all the years of clients and their secrets, held fast in these evocative large-scale photographs.

http://www.finnohara.com

Come Away With Me: Japan, China and Hong Kong, 1890s

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:56:07 -0400

This album includes 75 photographs made by several photographers, mostly unknown, in Japan, China and Hong Kong during the late 1800s. They depict a variety of architecture and landscape views, as well as scenes of people working and performing rituals. In this selection of 20 images from the album, you will encounter a typical travel album of its day, at a particular moment of cultural upheaval and exchange. Japan, China and Hong Kong only became accessible to merchants and travelers from Europe and North America in the late 19th century. With the traders came photographers, who catered to the tourist appetite for souvenir images.

Indian Church

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:31:06 -0400

Indian Church can be read as the rapid encroachment of Western modernity on First Nations: as a formal religious institution unconnected to everyday life; as an instrument of a colonial government’s assimilation efforts; or, as an opposition to nature itself, both architecturally and ideologically. Despite these, First Nations’ actions should not be disregarded or misjudged.

Audio Portraits in the Grange

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:31:47 -0400

These audio portraits were produced in connection with story collection for Arts Access at the AGO and [murmur] in the Grange in the spring of 2009.

Community Podcasts

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:39:03 -0400

These community podcasts were created by students of Pape Avenue School and Withrow Avenue School as a reflection of their communities. The podcasts were facilitated by the Royal Conservatory’s Learning Through the Arts media artist John Scully in partnership with the Toronto District School Board as part of the This is My Neighbourhood project exhibited at the AGO. The Community Podcasting  project involved students in the exploration of their neighbourhood  through images, sound, language and media arts.

Vortex

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:48:25 -0400

Digital photograph

Echoes of Loss Unfurling, work in progress

Fri, 01 May 2009 08:57:47 -0400

Installation by Mosa Neshama McNeilly
Mapping Transformation, culminating exhibition of The Art of Everyday Stories Project, 2007
Photo by Rob Van Vlaenderen

Barbara Astman

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:10:51 -0400

Barbara Astman, artist and OCAD professor, speaks about living in the Grange neighbourhood in the 1970s while an OCA student, and her too-close-for-comfort connection to the controversial demolition of Victorian homes that made room for Village by the Grange.

Street Photography

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:57:35 -0400

An exhibition of photographic images by Rick Bogacz, exploring the juxtapositions of shadow and light.

Community Art

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:52:49 -0400

The term community art can refer to field of community, neighbourhood and public art practices with roots in social justice and popular and informal education methods.

In the art world, community art signifies a particular artmaking practice, emphasizing community involvement and collaboration.

Recently community arts and sustainability work or environmental action have begun to interface, including urban revitalization projects creating artwork at a neighbourhood level.

Git'Ksan BC, 2005

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:46:52 -0400

Arthur Renwick
Canadian, born 1965
Git'ksan BC
2005
archival inkjet print
edition 1/5
Collection of the artist, courtesy of Leo Kamen Gallery
© 2007 Arthur Renwick

Unwrapping the Bundle: Reflecting on community arts, Envisioning a practice

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:14:05 -0400

This exhibition is a culmination of ideas about community arts practice, encapsulating a three-year project called ArtsAccess. It refers to a larger work which I call a Community Arts Vision Bundle, containing the history of ArtsAccess at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

Mosa Neshama McNeilly
Community Artist
April 2009

AGO Exhibitions

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:43:04 -0400

A connection highlighting exhibitions by staff of the Art Gallery of Ontario, featuring works from the Gallery's collection, and offering a look at special projects.

Hear You Are

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:54:12 -0400

[murmur] is a documentary oral history project that records stories and memories told about specific geographic locations. In each of these locations there is a [murmur] sign with a phone number on it that anyone can call to listen to a story while experiencing being right where the story takes place.

The stories are as personal as the relationship people have with the spaces they inhabit. Secret histories are unearthed, private truths unveiled, and tales as diverse as the city itself are discovered and shared.

Thoughts on Online Exhibitions

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:49:02 -0500

What is curating online? Are web-based exhibitions comparable to exhibitions of other, more traditional, forms of art? How does one approach a system that provides re-contextualisation and multi-classification of information? This exhibition attempts to demonstrate the potential for inclusive and progressive models of representation.

From the album Views of Japan, China and Hong Kong, AGO

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:42:34 -0500

Unknown photographer (active China, 1880s)
From the album Views of Japan, China and Hong Kong
1870s–1890s
albumen print
21.6 x 24.6 cm
[2007/275.44]
Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift of Neil B. Cole, 2007
© 2009 Art Gallery of Ontario