Two Photographers. Two Visions. Nov. 18 to Feb. 4 at the AGO

This special exhibition of breathtaking photography featured 120 images produced by Ansel Adams and more than 50 photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Of the two photographers, I found Ansel Adams to be my favourite. Adams, born in San Francisco in 1902, was known for his western landscape photography and his photos of Yosemite. His images are crisp and clear, and he always seemed to find the perfect angle, and the perfect time of day to shoot. Most amazing, was the control of light in his photos. Light is the element that makes his photos so visually stunning, and which has earned him a place as a Master of Photography.

Below is a photo titled "Monolith - Face of Half Dome", a landscape in Yosemite park, included in the exhibition:

Go see this exhibition before it is gone, because it is worthwhile if you have an interest in photography. Its also a good idea to check out, because it can give you some ideas of how to visualize your own art work, and how to plan and wait to get a perfect result.

I'm not the only one who found this exhibit intriguing, It was very busy with tons of other fellow art patrons, also enjoying the brilliance of Ansel Adams and Alfred Eisentaedt.

Capture The Flag - Sept 29, King/Bay District

This is a great public networking event, brought to you by the great people at www.newmindspace.com. Basically, it is what the name says, a giant game of capture the flag, with hundreds of people, and covering huge amounts of downtown public space. It turns the downtown business buildings into a playground.

This was my second time participating in Capture the Flag, and this one was just as good as the first. Last time I learned the hard way that it is way easier to guard a flag then try to find it. When trying to capture the flag, you have to run away from every person you see, and if you get tagged, you have to walk all the way back to your zone, and since it covers the whole downtown core, you are walking a long long way. So I decided to guard the flag, which I found out, was alot more entertaining and fun than capturing. It was fun hiding beside garbage cans, and jumping out to tag unsuspecting people.

However, a word of caution. On my first capture the flag experience, I found that when I was chasing people away from the flag, they did anything to not get tagged. This includes running onto Bloor street without looking. I was a witness to an accident where someone was running away from a tagger, ran onto the street, and was hit by a car. Thankfully, he was not seriously hurt, but he did break his arm. Moral of the story, although reclaiming the streets of Toronto is fun and exciting, it is still dangerous.

Nevertheless, this is a great event and I suggest everyone to try it just once. When else do you get a chance to run around the streets of Toronto with hundreds of people? Its a great way to meet friends and have fun.

Julian Opie, This is Shanoza, 2006, AGO

This collection of Julian Opie vinyl cutouts is on display at the AGO in the Henry Moore Sculpture wing, paired with Moore's praised and treasured sculpture collection.

As a big fan of Julian Opie, I was excited his work was coming to the AGO, and I went to go check it out.

However, reading the comments placed by other patrons, I saw that the consensus thought is that the Opie pieces were inappropriate for the setting. Comment cards exclaimed "Julian Opie is a pervert. The Curator should take this down immediately," and "Trashy strippers should not be placed anywhere near such magnificent sculptures like Moore's."

The Torontoist (www.torontoist.com) exclaims "They are truly a hideous and unnecessary distraction from the Moore pieces and the AGO is in love with the disaster."

Peter Goddard of The Toronto Star comments "The silence of Moore's work is deafening. This may be the work's one unequivocal triumph, at least to me, not being a big fan of the stuff. Had the AGO pumped in some hardcore pole-dancing techno pop to make the Opie-Moore clash even more brazen, Moore's work might be heard in a different way – and the AGO might have even generated a real controversy."

As seperate artists, I really enjoyed Opie's work. It is a great commentary of the depiction of women in art, and for that he should be praised. The work was not originally created for pairing with Henry Moore's sculptures.

I felt that the pairing between Moore and Opie didn't make much sense, or that the reason did not seem immediately obvious, other than the correlation between Moore's reclining nude sculptures and the poses of the women in Opie's series.

The exhibition was missing something. The statement presented by the AGO Curator about the pieces only gave a brief background of who Julian Opie was, and nothing about why it was paired with Henry Moore.

If there was more explanation or hints towards the meaning of the pairing, the exhibition would have been so much more effective.

Thomas Canning, Show Gallery, Nov 20/06

Thomas Canning, describes himself as a "Dream Warrior."

I was introduced to him by a friend of mine who works at the Daily Bread Foodbank. He is a survivor of rape and abuse, and the Daily Bread gave him a room in their basement to use as a studio.

He is a very unique man, and a unique artist. In his artist statement, which is a collection of things he has said about himself since he cannot read or write, "I dont know if I call myself an artist, I'm trying, thats all."

When describing his work, he said "I like to find weird shapes, and trace them into something else." Many of his works were titled "Outside the Box" with a sequential number, and when explaining the titles he says "I'm no good thinking up titles, but this guy said I should call them Thinking Outside the Box #1, #2 , #3 and so on. Sounds cool to me. I dont know. I just like doing it. It makes me happy."

I would describe his work as psychedelic. As artworks, I didnt find his drawings to be incredibly interesting, but they are very creative. Most of his works are done with Crayola Markers, and cutouts from boxes and computer parts. As he develops his craft over time, I think he could create some stunning artworks.

What makes him special as an artist isnt so much his works, as his story. He gave me parts of the story he is writing about his life. Again, he cannot read or write so his stories are recorded by someone else. His life story begins with "My very first memory from my childhood was waking up in my bedroom late at night and someone entering my room and doing something bad to me. It was so bad that I dreamt to escape the pain." His life story is nowhere near completion, however it is hard to read because of all the pain and hardships he has been through. Its amazing that after going through all of these hardships, he has come out such a strong and good person.

Thomas Canning is an inspiration for all artists. He is very humble, but he has had to overcome so much, and I think it is great the Show Gallery has given him a chance to showcase his talents.

Nuite Blanche - Sept 30 to Oct 1, 2006

The city was turned into an artist playground with Toronto hosting its first "Nuit Blanche" event. This included free public art exhibits all around the city, split into three zones, Bloor/Yorkville, McCaul/University, and Queen Street West, and took place all night, from 8 pm September 30, to 8 am October 1.

All night proved to be quite a endeavor, but I ended up exploring until about 4 am, and only accomplishing the Bloor/Yorkville and the McCaul/University zones. There was just so much to take in.I think the highlight of my experience was seeing General Idea's Pharmacopia (2002) (pictured above) in the Bloor/Yorkville zone. It was giant pills that seemed to be floating in space, an image that appears in much of the artists work. I enjoyed seeing this so much because I remember learning in prior art history classes of the work of General Idea, and in particular, their work in respect to AIDS.

The most popular (and most incredibly busy) piece of the night was a fog installation by Fujiko Nakaya titled Fog in Toronto (2006). (pictured above) It was a really neat piece, and a cool idea. The intense thick fog looked beautiful with the lights shining on it. However, the installation was so busy, it took about 20 minutes of lining up just to get in, and once in, it was so crowded, it was difficult to enjoy.

Nuit Blanche was a well organized event, that showcased many great local and Canadian artists, as well as artists from elsewhere. The event was a great success, although very tiring. I cant wait for the next one, when I will try to do an all nighter and try to fit in all three zones.

TIP FOR NEXT NUIT BLANCHE: A metropass is alot easier and quicker than walking.