A flamingo dressed as Yasser Arafat, a tiny naked lady sitting on a shelf and an anteater that’s sucked up some ballet shoes are among the works you'll encounter if you venture to The Artist Project this weekend.
The Project, which opened last night and runs until Sunday at Exhibition Place, showcases the work of 200 independent Canadian artists. Now in its fifth year, the fair brings together art lovers — and the merely curious — with promising emerging artists, most of whom are based in Ontario or Quebec.
At the preview last night, some of the biggest crowds could be found milling around the booths of artists who’d brought their creative process to bear on Toronto’s cityscape.
Leading the charge were Omar Aljebouri and Michael CC Lin, whose Cabinet of Curiosities: Toronto Expedition 001 is a whimsical take on the city’s downtown neighbourhoods. The piece is made up of around two dozen clear plastic boxes, each containing a sculpture that apparently represents one of the city’s areas. In some instances the link between art and area is fairly obvious (foodie-central St. Lawrence is a penguin surrounded by cheeses). For others it’s less so (Niagara is represented by half a pig). And for others still, it’s just a bit baffling — Swansea is symbolized by a cowboy and native American going for a ride on a catfish. Still, it gives you something to talk about.
Urbanists might want to check out Pete Kasprzak’s cityscapes. Toronto-based Kasprzak has made moody nighttime paintings of major North American cities, which look dynamic, yet slightly sinister too. Maple Leaf Gardens in it's pre-Loblaws days gets the Kasprzak treatment in the pic at the top of this article, but it’s his massive painting of the view from behind the Hollywood sign in L.A. that really stands out.
The booth, though, that's most likely to elicit the “Damn, why didn't I think of that?” response is the one where you’ll find photographer Harry Enchin. Enchin, who works in Toronto, is a master of taking a simple idea and doing it brilliantly. In his work, he combines photographs of modern-day Toronto streetscapes with old pics taken from the City of Toronto archive. The result: in one image, the modern-day Dundas streetcar drives down tracks that are being laid by workers in 1923; in another, a man outside the Shoppers Drug Mart at the corner of King and Yonge browses a newspaper stand that’s selling the Toronto Evening Telegram. The most amusing juxtaposition, though, is that between the Allies Second-Hand Clothing Store of 1931 and its surprising new neighbour on Queen West — the condom shack of 2010.
The Artist Project 2012, Queen Elizabeth Bldg., Exhibition Place. To March 4. $14, $10 seniors/students.
