2013 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
I did a quick run through of the visual feast that is the TOAE (Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition) at Nathan Phillips Square on Saturday. Roughly 300 artists participate every year. High profile notables like David Blackwood, Ken Danby, and Joanne Todd all did, back in the day.
The usuals (Rotter, George A. Walker, Debra Tate-Sears, etc) were there, with more good stuff.
The same but different.
If you didn't make it out, here are some highlights (I go so you don't have to!):
Picked up his book Freudoscope, which plops our favourite cigar obsessed psychiatrist into famous paintings, including The Garden of Earthly Delights. Wonderfully rendered, playful illustrations with a mischievous edge. He's best known for his award winning Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrations, published by Tundra Books.
Bizarre collages that merge animals with fashion illustration. Quite
striking visually and full of fun. More of her work can be found at Art Is More.
Reminiscent of Paul Klee
(One of my art heroes), his warped, boisterous abstracts are wildly
free and creative. You'd never know he has no formal art training; his
work is better than many who do. On top of that, he's an airline pilot.
Specializes
in tightly rendered watercolour paintings of houses that use the
surrounding snow to add a bold, abstract quality. Schweet!
On the far side of tightly rendered is Elly Smallwoods. Her tightly
framed portraits are executed with wild, mad brushstrokes that stop you
in your tracks.
Delicate yet bold, Sab's work struck me as highly idiosyncratic and definitely worth a look.
A Spaniard, her work seems to mesh Picasso with children's
illustration. I think I liked her collage the most, but all of it was
distinctive.
This sort of work usually isn't my cup of tea, but Vander Vennen's is so
good it won me over. Reminds me of Native North American art, but set
on clean, antiseptic white.
Flat and graphic yet tightly rendered in minute detail, it reminds me of Alex
Coleville and Christopher Pratt. Only more abstract. As sharply
composed as they are rendered.
