AGO favourite

MARK PRENT born in Montreal 1947
Titled: Summer of '71, Fishing with Jimmy John and Fraser 1972

This is the most memorable piece at the AGO for me. Its grotesque form stimulates my memories of fishing in the Ontario wilderness a few summers back. It captures and resurrects the tension of hopelessly being attached by mosquitoes (bees in his case). You can't run, or hide.

AGO

This is the second time I've visited AGO (the first was during the construction of the new extension). This time I wasn't able to see all of the galleries due to a lot of time being wasted figuring out the locations. We spent most of our time on the second floor. The flow of the place was confusing, and we had to constantly double back, or walk through the same galleries repeatedly to figure out our own location and where we should head to next. Of the artworks I had seen, I wasn't too impressed, especially the paintings. Most of them were landscapes, and many had large snowscapes with tiny people badly drawing in. The affect was the feeling of stinginess instead of grandeur, especially when the paintings themselves are the size of a small book. Some of the Group of Seven art works where wonderful, however. They featured large landscapes with simple detailings that emphasized the size and gave a feeling of awe. The European art works also were great, they were what was typically seen in their periods, but their weight and mood is no less significant.

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A trip to a re-designed AGO was an amazing experience. I especially like the spiral staircase in the main hall which is a very strong and powerful focal point and to me it seems like almost a divine structure. I can only wonder where it leads. I like the arrangement of gallery spaces because it provides flexibility of taking different paths. The use of materials i think is very strong and at the same time elegant. The wood creates this warm atmosphere that is hard to resist and that main hallway facing Dundas street is a really great space to just move around and observe.

I liked the installation gallery...the piece i was moved by was the video of a first-person view from a train in motion through the winding railway tracks. It had an almost hypnotic power over me and i spent quite a few minutes watching it.

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My favorite section from the AGO would have to be the small room filled with Tom Thomsons’s paintings. The glass roof allowed tons of natural lighting to pour in and really allowed us to see the paintings as they were meant; since he painted his landscapes outdoors. The bright colours are extremely inspirational and instill in me a sense of Canadian pride.

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My favorite piece in AGO is the paintings that did by Lawren Harris, that shows on the second floor. I personally love this style of painting, which is not really realistic, when I look into the painting it gives me a lot of inspiration and new ideas. I am so happy that AGO finally finish renovating even though, some parts are still not open. I am so going to AGO more often then last year! How can I not to there to get more ideas and most importantly its FREE for OCAD student!

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This is my first time going to the AGO. I've passed by the AGO while underconstruction numerous times, so I presumed it was only and explansion on the exterior front that was renovated. Just as I was walking by the front, passing the AGO shop I saw the Frank Gehry Wiggle Chair, I already knew I was in for something. Walking in the first sight of this wiggling pathway leading to the ticket booth already impressed me. As we enter the building instantly greeted by another really aspiring staircase extruding out of the side of the interior wall was absolutely stunning. Entering the back room, I realize there was a lot of incorporation of wooden beams and wooden flooring in the new renovated areas, in fact much of the newly renovated area are incorporated with wood. The wood created a really beautiful, warmth and organic ambient. It definitely suggested the feel of Canada. 

I must admit I was more impressed by the architecture than the actual gallery itself, although the contemporary had some quite interesting things. The warhol stuff looked pretty interesting. There was a massive cube which looked like fur from afar, but until I step closer than I realize they were steel fillings and the cube was a magnet, creating these really interesting organic pattern, which resembled furlike behavior. Another really cool piece was a sculptur of a man's face stretched vertically like how you can distort images in photoshop. The amazing thign was the artist was able to replicate this with extreme detail, and three dimensionally. I could see each strand of hair and each strand of facial hair. The result was visually stunning, I definitely had my jaw dropped.

AGO is made with organic soy beans

This is one of several Drawing Stations at the AGO, one of the brainchilds of the head designer at the gallery. I wish we had 30-50 of these on every floor at OCAD!

As I sat there revelling in the cozy environment of my own private desk (I hid the second chair so I could hog the whole desk), one of the staff walked by and I hailed her. I asked her about these Drawing Stations and she told me that they were a part of the gallery's new mandate (too strong a word, maybe "philosophy" is better) of public engagement. Galleries are trying to offer a more active experience for the visitor.

There are also future plans to web-ify the gallery, to give the art itself a web presence, so people can have a place to leave comments on those pieces online, maybe even discuss them with other people in the community, including the artists themselves.

She also told me that spaces like the Drawing Stations are designed and assembled by the AGO's in-house design and construction team and the components are fabricated from a modular building system called "kit of parts" which sounds something like Lego. Which means they can erect and take down these Drawing Stations very quickly and put something else in its place, which is sad because I want them to be there permanently as my own secret study spaces. Those restaurant rails rule. I hung up my drawings there while I was brainstorming my lathe project for woodshop.

lets go to the A-G-O! YA

My favorite exhibit at the AGO was "The Urban Trailer". As I was walking around with two other classmates, we came upon this piece at the very end of our journey. It had glowing lights, and a very vibrant exterior that intrigued us to discover it. Upon entry of the trailer, they had a few instructions as to how to experience this exhibit. Inside the trailer you were encouraged to play various mini records and watch black white videos.

It was the most interesting exhibit by far, and one that the user could actually create their own experience much like in the class in year 1, experience design.

 

The New AGO

Walking into the AGO for the first time since the renovation, I was really skeptical that the building was even finished. It seemed like just few days before that it looked like there was a whole piece missing out of the side, and scaffolding was everywhere.
I was very pleasantly surprised though by the building, sure there was a few displays and corners that were not remotely set up yet but the building as a whole seemed relatively complete. This aside from the amazing winding staircase in the center which would have been interesting to walk on, but was not finished being constructed.
My favorite part of the new AGO had to be the gallery that was the long hall following the completely windowed side of the gallery, it was the one gallery that made you really feel and see, and know what kind of a building you were in, it also contained a few very interesting pieces using these huge tree trunks.

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Going to the AGO has been a very good experience. The new architecture is really stunning, with all the wood that gives it a softer and smoother look. My favourite gallery/location was the Galleria Italia for the magnificent glass/wooden beams. The structure of the whole room was well thought of. My favourite piece was by Al Anatsui, entitled Zebra Crossing and it was a patchwork of metal pieces sewn together. The intricacy of the work was seen in all the stitching, and the pattern created was visually attractive and pleasing to the eye.

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My favourite artwork in AGO is the Urban Disco Trailer.
It is located on the 2nd floor, where they displayed other 3D works.
The Urban Disco Trailer is actually a car that has been decorated and looked like it is from the 70s or 80s.
Inside the car, there is a black disc player on top of a counter. And on the right hand side, there is a big mess of black discs from 70s-80s(mostly rock music).
There is also a disco ball hanging on the ceiling.
So basically, people can walk into the car, choose their favourite music and play it loud!

The reason why I like this piece is because there is a huge interaction going on, and I think it will be great if it has a dance floor inside the car.

My Exploration of the AGO

Our class had the opportunity to visit the AGO last week and I was quite curious to see what they had done inside. As a 'newbie' to Toronto, this was my first time to see the interior and exhibitions of the AGO. From our classroom, we can see the backside of the AGO and I can't say that I was impressed with how the new building was integrated into the old structures. I kept thinking that they would be peeling off the 'blue film' and revealing some amazing finish but the final finish is the blue finish. Also as a design student, I found that the exterior staircase to be an odd shape and didn't integrate well into the building...it looked like someone just stuck it on the side of the building.

I'm a big fan of contemporary art and have visited many museums in North America and Europe to see many different exhibitions. The AGO has their collection of contemporary art on the 4th and 5th floor. I have to say that the collection was under-whelming. I found the gallery space to be quite small relative to other museums that I've been to.

My favorite piece would have to be the piece by Attila Richard Lukacs who is a Canadian artist and a graduate of Emily Carr. I'm a big fan of his work due to the provocative nature of his works. He first appeared on the art scene with his large scale images of homosexuality and skinheads. The AGO has a policy of no photography and I was unable to 'sneak' an image of the actual work...the security guy kept hovering around me. Instead I've chosen to post another piece of Lukacs work to give everyone an idea as to what his work is like.