torp3918

The AGO announced today that they're giving Toronto comic books for the holidays: Art Spiegelman's CO-MIX: A Retrospective will run from December 20, 2014 - March 14, 2015. Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the Time's 100 Most Influential People, the Maus cartoonist's work is a thrill to see in person: layers upon layers of drawings go into each panel of a Spiegelman comic, complete with white-out scars and camera-resistant blue pencil sketches - I'm all a flutter just thinking about it.

The AGO exhibit will include rarely seen works from Spiegelman's early career (including his teens); original drawings such as cover art from The New Yorker, 2004's Shadow of No Towers, and Topps Chewing Gum concept sketches, as well as an autobiographical continuous strip called Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@?*!. Art Spiegelman is probably best known for Pulitzer Prize winning Maus, a devastating rendition of Spiegelman's parents' experiences under the Nazis, first in Poland and eventually in Auschwitz.

Art Spiegelman's CO-MIX: A Retrospective will run from December 20, 2014 - March 14, 2015 at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Lead image from Maus

The Love Art Fair debuted in Toronto last night at the Direct Energy Centre, where it will run, tucked away in a bit of a corner, until Sunday, May 11. Launched in London in the 90s by Will Ramsay and known in other cities (Amsterdam, New York City, Milan, Mexico City, Seattle, Hong Kong, and more) as The Affordable Art Fair, the Love Art re-brand was necessary in Toronto due to AAF being a trademark of the tragically underwhelming Toronto Art Expo.

The special name suits the vibe of the fair - to quote one gallerist who I'll leave unnamed (I might have been eavesdropping): "Art Toronto is dry, and this one is really fun." Love Art is similar to the Artist Project in its goals of showing and selling fine work under $10,000 (with many works selling for under $1,000 and tagged as such). Unlike the Artist Project, however, galleries are representing artists instead of the artists themselves, meaning booths are curated and the show is much less a haphazard collection of hotel lobby paintings than a fun place to hang out with contemporary artwork.

Galleries from Toronto including Bau-Xi, p|m, Parts, #Hashtag, and even old school gallery Roberts were on site beside galleries from LA, NYC, Beijing, Paris, Montreal, Uganda, and more. The appearance of online-only Toronto galleries Circuit Gallery and EYE BUY ART was notable - fairs like these are a rare chance for galleries without bricks and mortar locations to be visible IRL. On the other side of the spectrum, Manifold Editions had some Damien Hirst polka-dots on hand which got the fair buzzing, if mostly with audible eye rolls.

Eccentric works in China Print Art Gallery (Beijing) were much more enchanting. If I had the petty cash to take home anything from Love art it would have been Feng Ying's Afternoon, a watercolour of a woman leaning over a table in the company of her cat ($3,850), or (as I think most people at the fair would agree) Thou Shalt Die ($1,695) a cozy sweater from Nebraska gallery Darger HQ. There were also some $5,000 Marcel Dzama's on hand - the mark of a good art fair in my unbiased opinion.

If you're not a fair of Hirst polka-dots, wearable sculpture with vaguely Satanic connotations, or contemporary illustration, the fair still more than enough to offer: while the photography selection was limited, there were paintings for landscape and cityscape lovers, contemporary abstract addicts (I will never understand you), and fans of portraiture, pop art, and sparkles - there are always sparkles at these things. The other mark of success was the apparent lack of bacon themed art, though Toronto's Jay Dart veered a little too close with his extreme beard obsession.

Facial hair overdose aside, the Love Art Fair is a success. The one issue is the fair's set up: though considerable in size with over forty galleries in attendance, it still seems hidden away at Heritage Court in the back of huge Direct Energy Centre. Still, once you're in the maze of booths, it's time well spent, especially if you've got at least a meagre budget to put toward your art collection. If not, there's always the eavesdropping.

Love Art is open at Heritage Court, Direct Energy Centre (100 Princes' Blvd, Exhibition Place) Thursday, May 8 11am - 6pm, Friday, May 9 11am - 7pm (with free Friday hours from 5pm - 7pm only), Saturday, May 10 11am - 7pm, and Sunday, May 11 11am - 6pm. Regular admission is $12.

white0wls:

noodleweight:

catsgomeowalot:

my new favorite gum

what the fuck.

i need this gum

barebackinq:

meladoodle:

this cat literally transforms into a hovercraft

Originally an illustration for the New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1fzxQ4C

My book of cartoons ‘You’re All Just Jealous of my Jetpack’ is available now:
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1770461043
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1770461043
Other stockists and info at www.tomgauld.com

Hypocrisy

The creative team over at London-based DBLG recently released this in-house animation titled Bears on Stairs that involed old school stop motion techniques paired with modern 3D printing. The painstaking process involved printing a sequence of 50 tiny sculptures which had to be photographed one by one over a period of 4 weeks—all for a mere two seconds of animation. I love the texture on the surface created by the printer. See more over at DBLG. (via Visual News)

Rooftops in the Snow

Times Square Lights

7th Ave. Night

Hell’s Kitchen

Manhattan Nights

The City Tempest

The Last Light of San Francisco

The Market Street Steamvent

It’s almost impossible for me to select a favorite piece when looking at paintings by San Francisco painter Jeremy Mann (previously). Each of his works seems so wholly genuine, a mix of mystery and grit that brings a sublime light to iconic cities like New York and San Francisco. Above are a selection of paintings from the last two years or so, and you should also check out his recent Figures series. (via one of my favorite new art Tumblrs, Anita Leocadia)

PQ leader Pauline Marois is looking back on her campaign and says if she could do it again, she would speak less about sovereignty.

huffingtonpost:

'Game of Thrones' characters styled in the 80s/90s era fashion by Mike Wrobel.

ilovecharts:

Stay classy, Fox News

Reminds me of a book I once read: How to Lie with Statistics

Three Spheres II.V

It goes without saying that one of the most ubiquitous sightings on the web are millions upon trillions of pet photos. Cat gifs, funny dog videos, puppy memes, and even an entire currency. But every once in a while an animal (or group of animals), paired with the right photographer, rises above the mammalian fray and enters the realm of art. We’ve seen it here on Colossal with the works of Carli Davidson, Seth Casteel, Theron Humphrey & Maddie, and Sonya Yu & Trotter. Enter the latest contenders: self-taught photographer Elke Vogelsang and her three dogs Noodles, Scout and Loli.

Based in Hildesheim, Germany, Vogelsang is a professional photographer who mostly shoots portraits of people and pets, but in her spare time spends plenty of time with her trio of rescue dogs who frequently find themselves in front of the camera. Two of the dogs are Galgo Español mixes and the youngest, Loli, is a bonafide mut. Regardless of their pedigree, Vogelsang has a knack for capturing the dogs at their most expressive moments, resulting in photos that are equally heartwarming and humorous.

You can follow Vogelsang’s work on Facebook and 500px and she has prints of almost every photo available in her shop. (via Bored Panda)

Update: Vogelsang shares some tips with SLR Lounge on getting the most out of your pet photoshoot.

odditiesoflife:

Mysterious Underwater Circles Created by Puffer Fish

Using underwater cameras, researchers in Japan found that small puffer fish swim through the day and night to create these vast organic sculptures, that look like crop circles, using the movement of a single fin. The team found the circles serve a variety of crucial ecological functions, the most important of which is to attract mates. Apparently the female fish are attracted to the hills and valleys within the sand and traverse them carefully to discover the male fish where the pair eventually lay eggs at the circle’s center, the grooves later acting as a natural buffer to ocean currents that protect the delicate offspring. Scientists also learned that the more ridges contained within the sculpture resulted in a much greater likelihood of the fish pairing. This video shows a puffer fish in the process of making one of the beautiful designs.

sources 1, 2