58th World Press Photo Contest

Posted: October 3, 2015 in events, galleries
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At Allan Lambert Gallery, Brookfield Place,
winning photos from the 58th World Press Photo Contest

Winning images chosen from 97,912 photographs taken by 5,692 photographers from 131 countries.

Three people are looking at a series of photographs on display. One of the photos is a boat carrying refugees, taken from above, the boat is packed full

below:  Taken by Andy Rocchelli of Italy, part of his series of ‘Russian Interiors’ portraits. There were 10 photographs in the series, three of which are shown here (well, two and a half).  All were of women.

Three pictures on white board on display in the Allan Lambert gallery in Brookfield Place. Behind the board is the stone facade of the old bank building.

below:  One of the multitude of Chinese migrant laborers, a factory worker in in Yiwu China. His job is to coat polystyrene snowflakes with red powder.  There are 600 factories in Yiwu and they produce 60% of the world’s Christmas decorations.  Photo by Ronghui Chen, second prize winner in the Contemporary Issues category.

A picture of a photograph taken in a red room of a young man wearing a Santa Claus hat and a blue jacket.

 

below: The three winning photographs from the Sports (Singles) category.  The predominant photo is the second prize photo; it is a photo of Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one handed touchdown catch, taken by Al Bello.  The winning sports photo is the one on the far left.  It is a photo of Argentine football player Lionel Messi receiving the Golden Ball trophy at the World Cup in Brazil, taken by Bao Tailiang.   In the middle is a picture of Philip Hughes, a cricket batsman who was hit on the head by a ball during a game, taken by Mark Metcalfe.

Picture taken at night. The light source is from lights in the floor. Three photographs are on display, part of a larger exhibit of winning photography from around the world. The three shown here are sports photos. The main one being a football player catching a pass.

people looking at photographs, the winning pictures from the World Press Photo contest, on display at Brookfield Place

people looking at photographs, the winning pictures from the World Press Photo contest, on display at Brookfield Place

people looking at photographs, the winning pictures from the World Press Photo contest, on display at Brookfield Place

World Press Photo contest winners, sign cautioning people that the section they are about to enter has some disturbing images in it.

people looking at photographs, the winning pictures from the World Press Photo contest, on display at Brookfield Place

below: The winning photo, by Danish photographer, Mads Nissen of Jon and Alex, a gay couple, sharing an intimate moment at Alex’s home, a small apartment in St Petersburg, Russia. (It looks better in real life!)

A photo by Mads Nissen, the winning photograph of the 58th World Press Photography Contest, Jon and Alex , two men, one lyng on his back and the other sitting beside him. The greenish curtains in the background dominate the picture.

crushed and bundled

Posted: October 2, 2015 in events, public art
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below: Coke, Dole juice, Diet Coke, Fanta orange, cans, cans, and more cans.

Three women check out bundles of crushed pop cans that are bundled for recycling. They are stacked two bundles high making a low wall beside the sidewalk.

below: Coors beer, Canada Dry, Nestea, more Fanta, more Coke, all crushed and ready to be recycled.

Crushed alumiium cans ready to be recycled

The City of Toronto collected about 200,000 tonnes of blue bin recyclables in 2014.   Since a tonne equals 1,000 kilograms, that’s 200,000,000 kilos of recyclable plastic bottles, pop cans, tin cans etc.

Crushed plastic bottles ready to be recycled

Crushed plastic bottles ready to be recycled

Piles of crushed recyclables collected from Toronto’s blue bins are stacked along Bay Street beside City Hall.  They will be part of an installation entitled ‘There is No Away’ for Nuit Blanche this coming weekend.  This work was sponsored by the city’s Solid Waste Management committee and put together by artist Sean Martindale.    This installation hopes to raise awareness of just how much garbage we produce and throw “away”.

A bundle of old rusty tin cans that have been crushed and pack into large bundles ready to be recycled.

 

 

 

 

 

National Seniors Day

Posted: October 1, 2015 in events
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National Seniors Day, 1st October

Just this week StatsCan announced that the number of Canadians older than 65 was more than the number of Canadians under 15.  There were 5,780,900 Canadians 65 and older (16.1% of the population) compared to 5,749,400 who were under 15 years old (16%).

The results of the last census in 2011 showed that Toronto had a population of 2,615,060, 14.4% of whom were over 65.

There was a CARP Flag Raising ceremony at City Hall today to  celebrate the contributions of older adults across Canada.  CARP, formerly the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization that concerns itself with issues that affect the older members of our communities.  Membership is no longer restricted to those over 50 years old; the societal challenges posed by aging populations are a concern to people of all ages.

below: CARP president Moses Znaimer and a woman (my apologies for not knowing who it is) listen to a speech by Toronto city councillor Pam McConnell prior to raising the flag.

CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) is in the foreground. Pam McConnell, a Toronto City councillor, is giving a speech. To the right of them, the CARP flag is ready to be raised on a flag pole.

The blue flag of CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) flies in front of Toronto city hall during the official flag raising ceremony.

The blue flag of CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) flies in front of Toronto city hall. It has an orange coloured carp fish on it with CARP underneath in block white capital letters. There is a red maple leaf in the center of the A

Population by age group in Canada, as of 1 July 2015.  All numbers from Statscan.
The largest group are those between the ages of 50 and 54

population chart of all age groups in Canada as of July 2015

A full report, prepared by the city, of the population of Toronto in 2011 and how it compares to that of 2006 is also available.

 

30,000 moths

Posted: September 30, 2015 in galleries
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The exhibit is called ‘Black Cloud’ and it consists of thirty thousand black moths, each one individually attached to the walls and ceiling of the clerestory of the The Power Plant Gallery.   Artist Carlos Amorales has reproduced the shapes and sizes of thirty six different species of moth with black paper.  They swarm towards the lights and they congregate in the corners.  It’s a fascinating display both in the overall composition and in the attention to small details.   This installation first appeared at an art gallery in Paris in 2007.

A wall covered with black paper moths, part of an art installation called Black Cloud by Carlos Amorales

A wall covered with black paper moths, part of an art installation called Black Cloud by Carlos Amorales where 30,000 black paper moths are stuck to the walls and ceilings of a hallway - looking up at all the moths on the ceiling

A wall covered with black paper moths, part of an art installation called Black Cloud by Carlos Amorales where 30,000 black paper moths are stuck to the walls and ceilings of a hallway - looking at the corner of the hall, where the wall meets the ceiling

A wall covered with black paper moths, part of an art installation called Black Cloud by Carlos Amorales where 30,000 black paper moths are stuck to the walls and ceilings of a hallway - this picture is a close up of some of the moths

As much as I liked the display, I was glad they weren’t real moths!

A hallway covered with black paper moths, part of an art installation called Black Cloud by Carlos Amorales where 30,000 black paper moths are stuck to the walls and ceilings of a hallway

#PPBlackCloud

Life.Style.Fair

Posted: September 29, 2015 in events
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King East Design District Life.Style.Fair is a festival celebrating contemporary design.
This year’s event was last Saturday and these are some of the things I saw as I walked King Street East that day:

A section of sidewalk. On it is painted the logo for King East Design District. There are also three lovebot stencil shapes spray painted in white on the sidewalk.

below: Frederick Street painting collaboration, organized by George Brown College School of Design students.

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple.

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple. A young girls is using a small roller to paint purple in this picture

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple. A small boy watches while his mother and a girl paint

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple. Looking down the length of the canvas as it nears completion

below: What do you like about Toronto? This man was writing “Rob Ford” as I took the picture.
In hindsight, maybe I should have written something like “is not the mayor” beside it?
Some of the other things people wrote include, coffee shops, bikes, freedom, trees, TTC and lovebot.

A man with spiky black hair is writing on a board covered with different coloured post it notes.

below: The Beauchamp Art Gallery had strips of dried acrylic paint hanging from the ceiling that you could walk through.

Curtains of long strips of dried acrylic paint in many bright colours hang from the ceiling of an art gallery.

below: Also at the Beauchamp Gallery, artist Mike Hammer was creating a colourful painting consisting of blobs of acrylic paint.  The blobs flattened as additional drops of paint were added on top.  The paint flowed over the edge and created stripes.

an artwork in progress, made of many blobs of acrylic paint. The blobs flatten as other blobs are placed on top of them. The artist Mike Hammer is making this piece (although only his hand is in the picture)

below: Cubeworks studio demo.  Yes, she really does hand twist each Rubiks Cube into the colour pattern needed for the artwork.  This particular picture, of a gnome face, requires 500 cubes.  The algorithms for solving the cube are online so you can teach yourself and become a Rubiks Cube artist!

A woman is getting a rubiks cube ready to add to a picture that she is making using 500 rubiks cubes. The picture, about half done, is on an easel in the window of a store.

below: Painting by Jessica Gorlicky.  The easel spins to make the painting easier.

 

In the immediate foreground, but a little out of focus, is the shoulder and arm of a man taking a picture. The subject of his picture, a woman with long blond hair, is painting a picture of a TTC street car and a Toronto street scene. She is in this picture too.

below: Lovebots to colour

A large lovebot on paper is on a table. Black lines on white paper. It is more than a meter high. There are shapes in the middle and it is designed to be coloured. A hand holding a black sharpie is also in the picture, colouring part of the lovebot

below: Pizza carpets outside and pizza making inside, at the corner of King and Parliament.

A man and a woman are crossing the street. They are close to the sidewalk on the other side of the street. On that sidewalk are a number of carpets that look like wedge shaped pepperoni pizza slices. Each carpet is just over a meter long. They are in front of a shop that sells appliances.

below: The store Relative Space displayed three pieces by Stan Olthuis made from flooring materials that they sell.  This one is called ‘Dance Like No One’s Watching’

Part of the store window for the store Relative Space. The word space is seen in this picture. In the window is a design of a woman's silhouette in light yellowish woods inlaid into grey flooring.

below:  Will Graham and the beginnings of his sidewalk dragon.

A man is creating a dragon drawing in chalk on a sidewalk.

below: And last but not least, we can’t forget   – neon signs by Gary Taxali.  This is one of two that were on display at DOM Interiors.

In sursive writing the words Unforget Me in neon tubing to make a sign that is hanging in a store window.

#kedd2015

at Fairbank station

Posted: September 28, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Fairbank station is not really a station, at least not any more; it’s the access point to the York Beltline trail at Fairbank Street.   The York Beltline trail is the western portion of the beltline trail.  It is a few blocks north of Eglinton Avenue and it runs from Times Road (west of Marlee Ave) westward to the railway tracks that run parallel to Caledonia Road.   Up until the 1990s this was a spur rail line used to service industries in the area.  There are still some small industrial buildings close to the Beltline, including some at Fairbank Street which is where I found these:

below:  Three anser faces on the far wall and a whoisrandom James Dean up close with sunglasses.

the sides of a couple of buildings covered with street art including the head and shoulders of James Dean wearing sunglasses with a beachscene, a green animal head and three anser faces.

below: Green fur and sharp teeth, a creature by blackburn

On the side of a building, a large street art painting of the head of a green animal. Open mouth, big fangs. Small ears and eyes. Bear? or maybe large bobcat?

below: by braes, or braesoner

A street art by braes of a boy in a red and white baseball hat and red shirt. The bat signal is beamed onto the wall beside him, black bat symbol in a yellow oval. The boy has a backpack full of tools.

below: by mska (left side) and paula prezende (right side)

two women painted on a purple dumpster. The one on the left is by mska and the woman has a skull mask on. The other is by paula prezende and is a woman with long red hair but with a big hole in her chest.

below: by deadboy (note raccoon on mud flap)

on the back of a truck, two white skulls with wide open mouths in profile, a raccoon and all signed by deadboy.

below: by poser and ABM Crew

Poser bunny in blue on pink and black background, painted on the back of an old truck container. Weeds growing in front and a tree to the left.

below: by Nick Sweetman

What looks to be a multicoloured underside of a very large beetle or similar creature with tiny legs, segmented body and numerous antenae. Painted by Nick Sweetman.

very bright coloured geometric street art on a garage door

graffiti on the side of an old truck container on wheels that is parked where the weeds are growing up around it. There is a large rose painted in grey tones as well as a black and white piece by The Crew
A crocdile swimming in the water with a little orange birdie sitting on his head - a street art painting on the side of concrete block wall. The croc is swimming in the water, with his mouth open wide and showing his teeth

below: By brunosmoky

a street art painting of a makeshift boat with stove pipe smoke stack, painted to look like boat is made of boards haphazardly nailed together. On the the side of a building, but with weeds growing up in front of it.

 

a row of stickers all with faces on them on a vertical pole beside a garage door that has also been painted in many bright colours.

a stenciled sign that says Citied Feed Zombies

random pieces

Posted: September 26, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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This is a collection of things that I’ve seen recently that haven’t fit in with any other blog posts.

below: He hangs out on Queen St. West.

A partial painting of a red head man, life size or close to it, on a white wall that people have added stickers to. The stickers cover all of his torso

below: A legless stikman behind bars on Palmerston

Stickman behind a wrought iron fence. He is missing the lower half of his body

A lovebot sticker, lovebot is holding up a sign that says I am a toy. It is on a sign for a store that says Since 1914

below: Malibu rum and Corona beer exposed by demolition on Peter Street.

A construction site. A wall has been exposed that has two large wall paintings, one is an ad for Malibu rum and the other is an ad for Corona beer.

below: Argh.  He understands our frustration.  The Dufferin bus didn’t stop even though there were two of us waiting here!

On a TTC temporary bus stop sign, someone has put a sticker of a person on it, the sticker fits perfectly into the vertical part of the letter T in S T O P

below: Death is the conduit of rebirth.  Life, death and everything in between.

A street art painting of a large skull with the eyes painted as people's heads. Beside it are the words, Death is the conduit to rebirth

below: False can’t hide behind the pipes, Kensington

Behind two yellow pipes on the exterior of a building, a painting of a person's torso with a large heart painted on his shirt. In it's hands is a white sign with the word false written on it.

below: Love the hearts, especially now that blue crowns have started appearing with them.

a yellow happy face lovey heart on a telephone pole, with a blue crown on top of it as well as a stencilled sign that reads Honesty of the best poetry, Gregory Alan Elliott

below:  Panda with guns.  This image was originally a Banksy and it came with the words ‘Destroy Racism.  Be a panda. He’s black.  He’s white.  He’s Asian. ‘

A painting of a panda standing upright, painted on an old wood fence. The panda has a gun in each hand and they are pointed upwards

below:  Seen on hoardings on Eglinton Avenue near Bathurst.  My apologies to the artist, Alice Choi for accidentally cutting off her name from the bottom when I took the picture.

A painting of a person sitting on a chair with only a red cloth draped over their body. The head is a light bulb. A calculator, smartphone and computer monitor and some fish are floating around the person.

below: This stikman is embedded in the pavement.  He’s been run over many times.

A stikman painted onto the pavement of a street

below: Remnants of people and such

The remains of many black and white stickers or wheatpastes on a wall

A small sticker of a girl with a large head and big eyes

below: There will always be haters I guess.

A sticker with a red heart and the words Love Everyone that someone has scrawled on in black marker, shut up

Harbord at Bathurst

Posted: September 24, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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If you walk along Harbord Street, just east of Bathurst Street, you can’t miss the colourful paintings at the entrance to James Hales Lane.  Most of them were painted by street artists Shalak and Smoky.

large street art painting of a snail with a tiny house on the back of its shell. The piece is signed by Smoky

Looking down along a wall in an alley on which there is a large crocodile and a bear's head painted on the wall. Multicoloured. Bright colours.

Intricate street art painting of a crocodile or alligator on a wall in an alley. Alley animal.

Close up of some new growth, new leaves, on the stump of a small tree. The stump has been covered with spray paint, because it against a wall on which a street art painting was done

below: This bear is painted on the west side of Bampot Bohemian House of Tea & Board Games which explains the floating tea cup above his head.

The face of a bear, perhaps panda bear, but in purples and greens. It is in water up to its nose. A steaming tea cup floats above its head.

below: This peacock is on the other side of the tea house. Signed by MXP, 2004.

street art painting of a peacock. The feathers make a circle shape and are made of houses and trees.

below: This tiger is also on Harbord.  It faces the peacock.  Parts of the picture are washed out because of the angle of the afternoon sun on the day I saw this mural.

A shalak painting of a large tiger head with mouth open and teeth showing. Multicoloured, painted on a wall in an alley. The sun is shining directly on part of it so its a bit washed out in places.

James Hales Lane is short and it is a dead end.  There isn’t much more graffiti or street art in the lane.

A shite garage door in an alley, on the concrete block wall beside the garage door is a line drawing of a rose that is as high as the garage door.

Renfrew Place

Posted: September 23, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Renfrew Place, near Queen Street West and University Avenue.

Another alley, another collection of graffiti and street art.

below: Lovebot strides over speed bump warnings.

A yellow sign warning of speed bumps in the lane has a big lovebot sticker in the middle of it. Buildings in the background.

Street art on an alley garage that covers the whole of the front including garage door and entranceway. On the entrance door is a greenish horned three eyed, big teeth monster

rasr tag on the upper story of a building in an alley . another tag under it that also covers a door.

door in an alley is covered with a street art piece in golds, reds and white

back of a building in an alley, beside a parked car, is covered with swirls of pink, orange and yellow street art. There are a couple of abstract faces in the swirls.

back of a building in an alley is covered with swirls of pink, orange and yellow street art. There are a couple of abstract faces in the swirls.

Two signs on a wall covered in street art in pinks, yellows and oranges. One sign is a Tow Zone sign, i.e. no parking. The other sign has an arrow pointing to Queen mother bar garden.

below: The Korean Grill House restaurant is at the corner of Queen West and McCaul.

The back of the Korean Grill House restaurant, and the alley that its in. There is lots of street art on it. Two red garbage bins are also in the picture and they too have graffiti on them.

below:  This mural by elicsr is on the corner of Renfrew Place and John Street.

a mural by artist elicsr on the side of a convenience store. The side of the building faces an alley. A large man and woman are in the mural and they are wearing red crowns. The woman has a young girl sitting in her arms. There is another man in the mural, he covers the back entrance to the building.

two pictures, both part of a mural by elicsr. On the left is a man in a brown and olive green adidas jacket. He is wearing a brown baseball cap with the letters ELX on it. On the right is a picture of a woman with her arm wrapped around a young girl. She is writing a letter.

A painting of Frida Kahlo on a wall. Larger than life size. She has a purple shawl around her shoulders.

line drawing of a dinosaur on a wall beside a door.

A street art piece in grey tones with some black and white, by gino.graffiti (that is how he has signed it). Done in 2015. In an alley beside a black metal door.

The back of a couple of buildings in an alley, covered with graffit, mostly tags. One says Herbs and another says Near. A beige car is parked there too.

A street art painting is wearing away revealing the red brick underneath. A pink bunny is still partly visible. The word gwap is written above the rabbit's ears.

the demolition of a building has made it easier to see some street art and signs on the upper part of the side of a building. One is the word Alveno (or maybe Alvend) written in large block letters. Another is a colourful geometric design.

Reggae Lane

Posted: September 22, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Toronto’s newest street sign

A blue and white Toronto street sign that says Reggae Lane. Some stores and a tree are in the background.

Reggae Lane is a small lane on the south side of Eglinton West, between Marlee and Oakwood.
It is home to a new mural that celebrates the many reggae musicians from Toronto.

below: A Heritage Toronto plaque marks the spot.  It tells the story of Jamaican immigration and the reggae music they brought to Canada with them.   A transcription of the plaque appears at the bottom of this post.

plaque with the title "Toronto's Reggae Roots" with three photos as well as a story of Jamaican immigrants to Toronto and the story of reggae music in Toronto

 

The mural was painted over the course of three weeks by Adrian Hayles with the help of some young painters.

below:  Appearing in the mural: Reggae musicians from Toronto – Pluggy Satchmo, Bernie Pitters, Leroy Sibbles, Lord Tanamo, Jay Douglas, Stranger Cole, Johnny Osbourne, Jojo Bennett, Nana McLean, Jackie Mittoo, Leroy Brown, Otis Gayle, Joe Isaacs, and Carol Brown.   Bob Marley is also in the mural as are the Skatalites, one of the groups that started it all; they began recording ska music in the mid 1960s.

View of a 1200 square foot mural by Adrian Hayles that depicts many different reggae musicians. This photo was taken from the second floor of the building next door so the camera is looking down across the parking lot towards the mural. Eglinton Avenue is seen behind the mural.

below: “Reggae, The King’s Music” is a reference to Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-1974) who was born Tafari Makonnen.   Before becoming emperor, he was known as Ras Tafari where Ras means Duke or Prince (depending on the translation).  Hence the name Rastafari.   The Rastafari movement began in Jamaica after the coronation of Haile Selassie.  To them, Selassie was not just a black king, he was the messiah.

Part of a very colourful mural depicting various reggae musicians -

Although it didn’t become a musical genre until the 1960s, reggae also has it’s roots in Jamaica. Reggae and Rasta have become closely linked.   Reggae has spread the Rasta message and Rastafari musicians like Bob Marley have popularized reggae music.

below: The radio station CFRB once had a Sunday evening reggae program.

Part of a very colourful mural depicting various reggae musicians - A large hand with a finger pointing to the right with the letters C F R B above it. Two musicians are also in the picture.

below: The Lion of Juda is a Rastafarian symbol.  It comes from the fact that as Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Sealssie’s full title was “King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah”.  The lion also appears in the middle of the Ethiopian flag.

Part of a very colourful mural depicting various reggae musicians - a black man in a green hat, a lion's face and the words, Adrian Hayles production

Part of a very colourful mural depicting various reggae musicians - A man wearing headphones and a baseball cap is playing a guitar.

plaque: “Toronto’s Reggae Roots

In the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated 100,000 Jamaicans immigrated to Canada. Many settled in Toronto on Eglinton Avenue West, between Oakwood Avenue and Allen Road, in “Little Jamaica”, which became the centre of one of the largest Jamaican expatriate communities in the world.
Among these immigrants were popular reggae artists who brought their music to Toronto. Reggae record stores and recording studios began opening up in this neighbourhood. Leroy Sibbles (the influential bass guitar player and lead vocalist of The Heptones), Jackie Mittoo, The Cougars, Ernie Smith, Johnny Osborne, and Stranger Cole all performed and recorded in Toronto during this period. Despite the rich talent in and around Little Jamaica, early Canadian reggae struggled to find mass appeal. However, later generations of Toronto reggae artists achieved mainstream success, including Juno Award winners Lillian Allen, Messenjah, and the Sattalites.”

 

The project was funded by the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto program, with support from Metrolinx, Councillor Josh Colle’s office, the Macaulay Centre for Child and Youth Development, the Toronto Parking Authority and the York-Eglinton BIA.  It was also supported by the STEPS Initiative.

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