My January agenda; Toronto International Design Festival 2010

Fresh back from the frozen west where I had a birds eye view of Tammara Jowarska's Unity Tapestry in the lobby of the Gulf Canada Square, 401 9th Ave SW in Calgary

and a late night encounter with The Bow an architectural Goliath on the corner of Centre Street and 5th ave NE I have arrived back in Toronto with one thing on my mind. The Toronto International Design Festival

With my new Thinking Cap on, (orange enamel colander for my new Kitchen, the personal does sometime intrude on my blog and this picture taken by a friend on Christmas eve is too funny, yet appropriate)

With my Susanne Harris Design Spats on I am ready for covering the city from the waterfront to the Banking district with a few trips down Queen Street West. Here is the plan.

Body and Object

Jan 5 - 31

Ontario Craft Council 

Opening reception Wednesday, January 20, 5:30 - 8:30 pm

Gallery & Administrative Offices, 990 Queen Street West,Toronto, Ontario, Canada Telephone (416) 925-4222

Body + Object includes the work of Amanda McCavour & Silke Stadtmuller / Andrea Graham / Annie Thompson / Bebhinn Jennings / Dandi Maestre / David Dunkley / Gillian Batcher / Jessica Beauchemin / Karina Bergmans / Lois Schklar / Marina Dempster / Norah Deacon, Adrian Parks & Yvonne Ng / Tanya Lyons / and Tara Bursey.

Amanda McCavour: embroidered flock or birds at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, July 2009

Gallery & Administrative Offices, 990 Queen Street West,Toronto, Ontario, Canada Telephone (416) 925-4222

MADE presents

Radiant Dark 2010- Assets & Values-

an exhibition of modern Canadian Design 

199 Bay street, Commerce Court west Ground floor lobby

opening January 20  7_10 pm rsvp

jan 20-24 

Thursday- Saturday 11am -7pm

Sunday 11 am -6pm 

"Stag" (Wall Hanging) by Grant Heaps, 2,200 1"square pieces of cloth part of Made presents Radiant Dark 09 Elegant Corruptions: an exhibition of modern Canadian Design, February 4 th to 8th, 2009.

 

Dirty Dishes - Influenza, Bev Hisey. 4o" diameter 100% wool. Canvas' Radiant Dark 09 Elegant Corruptions

 soft lighting from MOLO design featured in the first  Radiant Dark in and IDS08  in 2008 

Wednesday January 20 is a busy night with the opening of Radiant Dark at Bay and King and Body and Object opening at the Ontario Craft Council Gallery at Queen st West near Ossington, but not as busy as Thursday January 21. The Best of the TOAE 2009 at the First Canadian Place Gallery opens between 6- 8pm featuring: Amanda McCavour FIBRE - HONOURABLE MENTION, Noelle Hamlyn Snell FIBRE - BEST OF CATEGORY,

then I get a sneak peek at "come up to my room" at the Gladstone and another at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre before the "Ultimate" opening night Party for the IDS10 in their new location

This year at the IDS the Rug Rules: A NEW ERA: EVOLUTION OF RUG ARTISTRY.

ERA will feature the winning designs of the ERA Rug Design Competition held this past fall. Weavers Art and the Interior Design Show accepted hundreds of submissions by interior designers, industrial and graphic designers, architects, and artists to design an 8 ft by 10 ft rug. Never before seen, these designs will be displayed down the centre aisle of IDS 10. A silent auction will begin during the IDS Opening Night Party and continues through the duration of the show. Proceeds are in support of the Rugmark Foundation (to provide education for rug-making communities) and Dare Arts (providing local art-based programs for at-risk children).

The "Provincial Baskets" surrounding this tree are the work of Katherine Morley, as a member of the Lemon Collective she has shown at the Gladstone Hotel a number of times in over the past few years,[this photo is from PieceWork 2008. This year at the Interior Design Show she will one of the 10 rug design winners being unveiled and auctioned of as part of A NEW ERA: EVOLUTION OF RUG ARTISTRY

THE STORY:
The brainchild of Johane Lefrançois-Deignan, ARIDO, Principal designer of JNSQ Design, along with Weavers Art Director of Marketing, Catherine Shea. Catherine agreed that the concept provided an innovative challenge to showcase Canadian talent while raising funds and awareness for local charity (DAREarts) and promoting ethical carpet and rug production (RugMark). Following IDS, Weavers Art, www.weaversart.com, will be hosting an exhibit at their Gallery location in Designers Walk, to showcase the winning ERA designs. Guests will have the opportunity to order limited edition rugs, and a portion of the proceeds will continue to be donated to RugMark and DAREarts.

THE JUDGES: Daniel Faria of Clarke & Faria Gallery, Rachel Gotlieb, design journalist and writer, Nelda Rodger, Editor Azure Magazine and Suzanne Dimma, Editor Canadian House & Home.

“From the originality and freshness of the submissions, it’s clear that the design community is ripe for this kind of creative opportunity. The ten chosen entries make quite a special collection that is uniquely related to the local reality while reflecting a global and contemporary spirit.”…Nelda Rodger

And that is Just the Beginning...

Friday January 22 is the opening of the winter exhibitions at the Harbourfront Centre

 

Rilla Marshall, The Count, 2008 -2009.
198 echo scarves.

“Laborious” is a group show featuring textile artists who work in time-consuming techniques LABOURIOUS Curated by j.Penney Burton, featuring Hélène Brousseau, Joanna Close Margaret Forsey Misha Gingerich Rilla Marshall Dorie Millerson Natasha St. Michael Contemporary textile-based work carries on the labour intensive traditions of central Canada to the eastern provinces. [most of these artist have been profiled or reviewed in the pages of fibreQUARTERLY, I have written about j,Penney Burton's curatorial work in my column in "Needle Pulling Thread"]

Margaret Forsey, Altar for the Magdalene, (detail), 2009.
Mixed media including hooked rug

It’s a Big Deal (work from the craft Studio) Opening Reception: Friday January 22, 2010 from 6-9pm
Runs 23 January – 04 April 10 at Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto, ON. http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/visualarts/yorkquaycentreYQC10_1.cfm#b

Barbara Hulanicki's 1990's design for the clasic Deco refurbishment of Hotel Marlin in Miami Beach

Over the weekend of January 22-24 there are lectures and guide tours happening at these Toronto International  Design Festival events the ones I plan of getting to include the rare opportunity to hear Barbara Hulanicki creator of Biba one of the fashion designs revolutionary of British flower power era at 3:30 on the 23rd at the IDS.Barbara Hulanicki started her career in fashion as a fashion illustrator. She covered all of the important fashion collections in Europe for the major publications of the day, including Women's Wear Daily, British Vogue, the Times, the Observer and the Sunday Times.

Exasperated by the disastrous street fashion in England, her husband Fitz encouraged her to design her own clothing. Biba was born. Decades have past and when she arrived in Miami Beach in the 1990ies she designed interiors for Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones and Chris Blackwell’s Boutique Hotel Group. She is credited with the resurrection of Miami Beach’s crumbling Art Deco district.

Gladstone “Thrive: Design for 100%” design talk will take place in the ballroom on Saturday January 23 from 11 am -2pm. If it is anything like last year be an casual easy to enter and exit early afternoon of interesting presentations by:
Victor Willis – Executive Director PARC, Elizabeth C English, PhD – University of Waterloo, Parimal Gosai & Adam Harris – Public Displays of Affection (PDA) and Sandra Brewster, Jorge Dominguez, Rebecca Houston – SKETCH.

This years curators for Come up to my room are, Designer and busy person this month Katherine Morley (see above), along with Caroline Shaheed, managing editor of CHEEKMagazine.com,  Jeremy Vandermeij, design consultant and a runs the social enterprise called Public Displays Of Affection with his friends and  Deborah Wang working on a Master of Fine Arts degree, juggling the intersections between art, architecture and cuation

Mylene Boisvert, Mobile Aluminum, wool cotton 36” X 32” X 104”

When you are at the Gladstone remeber to go right up to the top floor and make your way down through hardTWIST, their fourth annaual Textile Arts Exhibition.

Images from these events will be posted on facebook and linked to fibreQUARTERLY group(ies)

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FANTASY FASHION SHOW #12
Gallery 1313
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto
January 28th, 2010 8pm Tickets $15 

Gallery 1313’s annual art meets fashion runway show is set to heat things up Jan. 28th 2010
Gallery 1313 , 1313 Queen St. West 416-536-6778  | www.g1313.org

Now in its 12th year the annual fundraiser for Gallery 1313 invites fashion designers & artists to have a push their creative boundaries and present  challenging wearable fashion . Over 10 designers will be featured in this bold runway show of fashion and art.

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