Posts Tagged ‘mickey mouse’

KAWS family

Posted: January 29, 2024 in galleries
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At the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) until 31 March 2024 is ‘KAWS Family’, an exhibit of work by Brian Donnelly who is a Brooklyn artist also known as KAWS.  Donnelly started his career in graffiti, especially defacing ads and other illustrations.   He also worked for a while as an illustrator including a stint with Disney.  This exhibition includes sculptures, paintings, and drawings.

This is a sample of what is showing at the AGO

below: Very much resembling Mickey Mouse with his over sized boots and big white hands, is Companion, the central character in this sculpture.  Companion made his debut in 1999 as an 8 inch high plastic toy figure.  He has since appeared in many sizes and situations.  Here he is carrying a limp pink figure in a piece titled “Gone”.  The pink character is based on Sesame Street’s Elmo.

in a gallery, paintings on wall, a person sitting on a bench, and a sculpture by KAWS of a large grey mickey mouse inspired character carrying a limp form of a pink character

below: Space suited Companion.  An Elmo sits in the background.   And yes, Companion has been to space – or at least into the stratosphere, more than 40 km up.

reflective silver colour KAWS family sculpture in the middle of the room in a gallery with far wall painted pink

below: From the back.  A pink Accomplice stands in the background.  Accomplice always has rabbit ears.

art gallery of ontario, rear of silver sculpture with pink wall reflected in the metal, other pink sculpture in the background along with 2 D artwork on the walls of two large red hands

below: A grid of sketches inspired by Snoopy, the lovable beagle created by Charles M. Schulz in his “Peanuts” cartoon.

person on bench in front of artwork at a gallery, snoopy inspired black and white sketches in a grid on the wall. about 50 squares

monotome grey sculpture of character based loosely on mickey mouse, holding a blue elmo from sesame street doll

below: The exhibit is scattered over at least places at the AGO including the Galleria Italia.

larger than life size sculptures in galleria area of art gallery of ontario, a man walks among them,

kaws sculpture of character with hands over eyes, wood, in art gallery of ontario

below: The pink character is Chum which is obviously inspired by the Michelin Man.  Like all of the KAWS figures, it has X’s for eyes and a skull shaped face.  the official mascot of the Michelin tire company.  The Michelin Man, or  his ‘real name’ Bibendum, was introduced in 1894 and is the oldest still active trademark.

art gallery of ontario, kaws family exhibit parts

below: Taking photos (even if it means ignoring the words on the floor!).

two women in an art gallery, one is taking photo of the other who is mimicking pose of sculpture's character, sitting on ground with hands over eyes

below: “Good Intentions”

two monotome grey sculptures of characters based loosely on mickey mouse, a parent and a child clinging to parent's knee, title is Good Intentions

There are many more on his Instagram page – KAWS

the Yorkville-ification of street art

Posted: September 13, 2019 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Over the span of just a few years I have watched as street art went from questionable legality to mainstream; now it’s jumped to very trendy.  From vilified to Yorkvillified?

man working at a table, with reflections of a mural in the window, looking through the window

below: This large mural was created by Kazakhstan born, Montreal-based, Ola Volo.

mural of a woman with long hair, stylized, in red, yellow and black and white

two murals on two different walls of a building

below: Close up of part of the mural by Whatisadam

close up of a mural, a man and a woman are leaning together for a kiss. Woman has bright red lipstick.

below: Mathieu Bories, also known as Mateo, works on the woman’s blue and yellow head scarf.

a man is on a ladder as he paints a mural of a woman with henna coloured stencils all over her face, and a blue and yellow head scarf,

a man, street artist Mateo, spray paints a mural as he stands on a ladder. He's wearing a respirator, painting with blue paint

shoes on a ladder with the eye of a mural looking at them

below: This OK is coming unstuck, peeling off the wall.  This mural was painted by Ben Johnston whose work often features text that looks 3D

on the side of outdoor steps, a blue mural with the word OK in black and white such that it looks like the letters are curling up at the ends, 3 D effect

below: This staircase, with artwork by Getso, is going to turn into a instagram hotspot.   Her shoes may be famous already!  Actually, I took a quick look through a few possible hastags while writing this post but so far there haven’t been too many images of people posing here.

a young woman sits on the railing of an outdoor staircase that has been painted with street art. A man is taking a pictrure with his phone of her feet against the artwork

below: Across the back wall, above the upper level, is a long mural by Mr. Brainwash that is supposed to look like a wall of graffiti

part of a mural made to look like a wall of graffiti including a mona lisa, a man with a camera in triplicate,

mural made to look like a wall of graffiti including a pink marily munroe, a woman in brown and white dress and bonnet, the word i love you written in red,

below: Up on the scaffolding working on Mickey Mouse and his orange ears, is Xray aka Brian Lanier.

a man in an orange vest is up on scaffolding as he paints a mural, two other men are looking at finished murals

a man sits on scaffolding as he paints a mural, LED spotlights are in the foreground

below: I think that it says love, a mural by Peru143

small mural by street artist peru that says love in very stylized and abstract letters

below: The streaks and splotches of colour are part of the wall that was painted by Risk.  It is also the space surrounding the entrance to the Taglialatella Gallery.  It was this gallery, along with INK Entertainment, that brought together the artists to paint the murals and many of them have pieces for sale in the gallery.   I appreciate that the gallery is supporting street art and that artists can make money from their work but there is a heavy presence of commercialism around this enclave of murals that makes me uncomfortable.

window of gallery with the exterior walls painted in pastel colours

a woman in an art gallery, is standing by two pieces that use neon lights. One is large red heart as part of a painting with an image of Charlie Chaplin meant to look like a wall of graffiti, with a yellow neon light in a heart shape

two pictures on a gallery wall, in red, black and white, on wallpaper that is red and beige intricate floral pattern

mural with a pink marilyn munroe, the words i love you in red, mural, Cumberland private wealth

Skey Lane

Posted: September 6, 2018 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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Skey Lane is near Dundas West and Dovercourt.

below: This is the side of a building in the lane.  Around the corner of the building, the horizontal lines continue and the word Bellwoods is incorporated into it.

black and with horizontal lines form the word Skey in large capital letters, on the side of a building in an alley

below: A fence is in the way which makes taking pictures of this mural a bit difficult but here is the north end of it. Mickey Mouse and his big white gloves is punching Bugs Bunny.  This is the work of Los Angeles artist Matt Dondek  (@gondekdraws) who calls himself a deconstructive popartist.

in a popart mural by Matt Gondek and Jackson, in an alley, mickey mouse with his big white gloves is punching bugs bunny whose mouth is wide open and tongue is out

below:  This is recognizable as being about the Simpsons.  It looks like a character from the Simpsons but which one?  Spikey hair like Maggie’s but in Marge’s colour.  A bit of brown hair like who?    Regardless of who he looks like, he surely represents the Simpsons.  He’s got a partially eaten donut in one hand and although you can’t see it in this pic, he’s got a Duff’s beer in the other.  This was a collaboration between Matt Gondek and Paul Jackson.

Simpsons parody mural by Jackson in a lane, man eating a donut and drinking Duffs beer.

below: The next sections of the wall are Calvin Hobbes themed and was painted by Sadar (@blazeworks) and Cepsr.

in a popart mural by Matt Gondek and Jackson, in an alley, calvin from Calvin and Hobbes cartoon

below: Spaceman Spliff

spaceman spliff in a popart mural by Matt Gondek and Jackson, in an alley

below: An angry (or scheming?) Calvin and devious looking Hobbes with Cepsr written large in between them.

in a popart mural by Matt Gondek and Jackson, in an alley, calvin and hobbes and some text in between

in a popart mural by Matt Gondek and Jackson, in an alley, along the wall of one side, mickey mouse, sylvester the cat, spaceman spliff, and calvin and hobbes

close up of the texture and some of the colours in a larger mural, abstract,

two line drawings, one is man's face in profile and the other is a creature with a large head and two legs with word bubble that says I'm human

looking north up Skey Lane to Smoke Signals, a barbecue restaurant on Dundas West, a man is walking by on the sidewalk

graffiti on a garage door, someone has written "pls get better at this" beside the scrawled graffiti

graffiti and paint drips in dark green, a pale pink 4

looking north up Skey lane, text street art on a garage door, a large tree, and shops on Dundas in the distance

standing room only

Posted: February 19, 2017 in locations
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Take one ordinary semi-detached house on an ordinary street in Leslieville…
and add a decoration or two…

the front yard of a semi detached house is full of toys and stuffed animals, signs and flags, and Christmas decorations,

The above photo was taken back in November whereas the one below was taken a couple days ago.  Many, many items are the same.  The biggest change is that there a few more Christmas decorations now large candy canes, another Santa Claus, a couple of angels and an elf or two.

a massive collection of dolls, toys, stuffed animals and decorations fill a front yard of a house

Call it cute. Call it creepy. Call it fun.  Call it fascinating. Call it a mess.

below: Some of the dolls and toys are attached to wooden stakes that stand upright in the yard.

a small smiling doll with her arms up is attached to a wooden stake in the front yard of a house

below: The fence is packed full with toys and dolls and the like, including this creepy clown and ghoulish green faced doll.   The pink Powerpuff girl (Blossom?) looks happy and even Elmo doesn’t seem to mind being behind bars.

peering between the metal bars of a fence is a creepy clown doll and a green faced zombie doll, a string of Christmas lights is across the bottom of the fence

a mickey mouse plastic figure is sitting on a wire fence, his chin is his hand and he's looking upwards, other toys out of focus behind him - circles with happy faces and a couple of frisbees

below: A red candle fence lines the entrance.

frontyard of a house is full of toys and decorations, the front walk is lined by large plastic red candles, the front door is in shadows.

below: The retaining wall is also covered.  Welcome to our Garden, Boston Bruins, more Mickey Mouse, Dora the Explorer, Season Greetings and a frisbee or two or three.

under a metal fence, a retaining wall that is covered with frisbees, plaques with words on them and other plastic bits

I wonder how it all started?  And where is it going?

Shrek is between two snowmen, all plastic toys and decorations, behind the metal bars of a fence, a lot of toys and dolls and stuffed animals behind them.

I wonder what the neighbours think.

a white plastic gnome and a Disney princess are among a large collection of toys in a front yard

a red plastic toy in the foreground, a doll in a purple dress in the background

a plastic Santa Claus, a plastic angel and a pokemon

a stuffed plushie creature is attached to a pole with black electrical tape around his face such that it covers his eyes

a toy flower with a green stem, petals made of pink fabric with white polka dots, red lips and large white and blue sunglasses.

a faded blond doll with blank eyes looks down, she is attached to a wooden stake with black electrical tape