10/30/2019 What To See And Snag At Toronto’s Foremost Art Fair

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1,387 views | Oct 26, 2019, 01:10pm

What To See And Snag At Toronto’sForemost Art Fair

Arts

I write about the crossover between high art and pop culture.

Nadja Sayej Contributor

Art Toronto director Mia Nielsen NADJA SAYEJ

Art Toronto is not your average art fair, now that Mia Nielsen has been appointed as itsnew director. Marking the fair’s 20 anniversary, the fair features over 100 art galleriesand a new section for public artworks, as well. “We believe art should be accessible toall,” said Nielsen. “That’s the beauty in public art, and why we decided to make it animportant and celebrated part of this year’s fair.”

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10/30/2019 What To See And Snag At Toronto’s Foremost Art Fair

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Mathieu Valade, Une heure chromatique / Chromatic hour, 2019, which is one of the public artworks at ... [+] NADJA

SAYEJ

The fair runs until tomorrow at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, featuring afocus this year on art seven art galleries from Portugal, including Walk&Talk from theAzores and Kubik Gallery from Porto. “It’s a nice, different shift from the typicalCanadian market,” said Nielsen. “Conceptual and political artwork that has a nice edgeto it.”

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The sprawling fair also features five large-scale installations in the lobby, which is newto the fair, and 10 more across the show. “One of my focuses as the new director is aninterest in public art,” said Nielsen. “With art fairs, there’s so often this focus on what Ithink is, art in a domestic scale, art for the home. But I want to show people what’spossible with art, get them excited about not only living art, but having art in theirlives.”

Steve Driscoll, As the mist cleared, 2019 ANGELL GALLERY

Landscapes are all the rage at this year’s fair, and one highlight includes the paintingsby Toronto artist Steve Driscoll in the Angell Gallery booth, which depicts rural Canada—including evergreens, lakes and landscapes—all of which are tinged with a florescentelectricity.

Toronto artist Matt Bahen is showing works at the Nicholas Metivier booth, many ofwhich are influenced by literary masters like T.S. Eliot and Joseph Conrad. One of theworks on view is a landscape painting based on the mountains and valleys acrossBritish Columbia, according to the artist.

10/30/2019 What To See And Snag At Toronto’s Foremost Art Fair

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Matt Bahen, Quick Said The Bird, Find Them, Find Them, 2019 COURTESY OF THE NICHOLAS METIVIER GALLERY

Another landscape highlight is Benjamin Klein’s painting Shifter, which the artistexplains as “when reality and unreality are the same thing,” as a landscape that tapsinto the uncanny. Meanwhile, at the Clint Roenisch booth, Sarah Cale builds onmodern art history with contemporary interpretations of flowers in vases, calling tomind the works of Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent Van Gogh.

One major highlight is the booth devoted to artworks by feminist art collective SisterCo-Resister, which is hosted by Toronto’s COOPER COLE gallery, including artworksby Marilyn Fernandes Annie Wong and Pamila Matharu, whose limited-editionartwork “But where are you really from?” is shown alongside her florescent lit piecereading GRRRLS.

Pamila Matharu COOPER COLE

And the Carpe Diem Art & Research from Lisbon is showing a series of prints,including blacked-out magazine covers by Fábio Colaço (including one of Forbes),which is printed on high-gloss paper, “so that you see your own reflection in it,”according to its founder Paulo Reis.

10/30/2019 What To See And Snag At Toronto’s Foremost Art Fair

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Artworks by Fábio Colaço COURTESY OF CARPE DIEM LISBON

“Toronto is an incredible city for art, the galleries here are absolutely extraordinary,”said Nielsen. “Canadians being perhaps, understated, you need to scratch the surface tofind the galleries in certain neighborhoods, and when you find them, you’ll be blownaway because the quality is world class.”

Until next year, here are some photos taken by me at the VIP preview, featuring artists,gallerists and collectors at Art Toronto.

Angela Grossmann NADJA SAYEJ

Toronto art dealer, Daniel Faria NADJA SAYEJ

10/30/2019 What To See And Snag At Toronto’s Foremost Art Fair

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Artist Dean Baldwin NADJA SAYEJ

Artist Benjamin Klein NADJA SAYEJ

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Artist Przemek Pyszczek and gallerist Todd Merrill NADJA SAYEJ

Artist Jason McLean NADJA SAYEJ

Artist Pamila Matharu NADJA SAYEJ

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Artists Steve Driscoll and Matt Bahen NADJA SAYEJ

Toronto gallerist Jamie Angell NADJA SAYEJ

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Nadja Sayej is an arts and culture journalist based in New York City. Originally from Toronto, she has

lived in Paris and Berlin, writing for The Guardian, The Economist... Read More

Eldon Garnet NADJA SAYEJ

Artist Przemek Pyszczek at the Todd Merrill both NADJA SAYEJ

Nadja Sayej