City Best of Fall 2012: ten of the season’s top gallery shows Best of Fall 2012: ten of the season’s top gallery shows By Toronto Life | October 10, 2012By Toronto Life | 10/10/2012 Facebook The art world’s most anticipated shows from upstarts and old masters See all ten shows » SHOW CAPTION RETURN TO ARTICLE Read More 169985 A contemporary of the Group of Seven, David Milne was often overshadowed in his lifetime by the famous septet. In the past few decades, he’s gained a loyal following for his exuberant landscapes that hover on the brink of abstraction. This show tracks the evolution of his work, from early realist paintings to the dreamy watercolours done late in his life while he was in seclusion in a cabin on Baptiste Lake. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Sept. 15 to Oct. 13. Mira Godard Gallery</span> (Image: Courtesy of Mira Godard Gallery) 1 | DAVID MILNE 1 | DAVID MILNE https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-1-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-1.jpg 624 572 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-1/ oct12-bof-top-art-1 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Mira Godard Gallery) 169986 Before traipsing off to represent Canada in the 2013 Venice Bienniale, Boyle will showcase some new, gleefully macabre work. The exhibit comprises her trademark porcelain figurines—which look like your grandmother’s tchotchkes reimagined by the horror novelist Angela Carter—as well as a collection of twisted drawings inspired by a recent residency in Cape Dorset. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Sept. 22 to Nov. 3. Jessica Bradley Gallery</span> (Image: Courtesy of Jessica Bradley Gallery) 2 | SHARY BOYLE 2 | SHARY BOYLE https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-2-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-2.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-2.jpg 624 702 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-2/ oct12-bof-top-art-2 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Jessica Bradley Gallery) 169987 The AGO’s fall showstopper is a huge, nearly all-inclusive exhibition of the works of Frida Kahlo and her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera. Rivera’s overtly political works are worth a look, but this is Kahlo’s show in every way that counts—her famously hypnotic self-portraits (starring a stern-looking Kahlo covered in monkeys, birds, cats and other beasts) have not lost any of their impact through familiarity. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Oct. 20 to Jan. 20. Art Gallery of Ontario</span> (Image: Courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario) 3 | FRIDA AND DIEGO 3 | FRIDA AND DIEGO https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-3-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-3.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-3.jpg 624 702 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-3/ oct12-bof-top-art-3 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario) 169988 The Texas-based photographer takes a pile of old books, distresses the pages and manipulates them into ornate configurations full of filigree curls and rippling movement. The photos recreate the gloriously psychedelic effect of a Victorian kaleidoscope. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Nov. 10 to 24. Bau-Xi Photo</span> (Image: Courtesy of Baux-Xi Photo) 4 | CARA BARER 4 | CARA BARER https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-4-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-4.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-4.jpg 624 600 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-4/ oct12-bof-top-art-4 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Baux-Xi Photo) 169989 The L.A.-based husband-and-wife team of illustrators Dan and Kozue Kitchens have adapted 17th-century Japanese woodcuts for the digital age. In one of their giddier post-modern riffs, they update Hosukai’s iconic <em>Great Wave off Kanagawa</em> by replacing the tips of the waves with jumping bunnies. The perfect remedy for the pre-winter blahs. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Nov. 16 to Dec. 23. Narwhal Art Projects</span> (Image: Courtesy of Narwahl Art Projects) 5 | KOZYNDAN 5 | KOZYNDAN https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-5-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-5.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-5.jpg 624 572 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-5/ oct12-bof-top-art-5 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Narwahl Art Projects) 169990 The mid-century photographer was a member, along with Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon, of the New York School, a coterie of shutterbugs who pioneered street photography. His shots are full of beautifully shadowy silhouettes, fogged-up windows and intriguing washes of muted colour. They feel more like watercolours than photographs. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Sept. 13 to Oct. 6. Nicholas Metivier Gallery</span> (Image: Courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery) 6 | SAUL LEITER 6 | SAUL LEITER https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-6-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-6.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-6.jpg 624 702 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-6/ oct12-bof-top-art-6 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery) 169991 The pioneering Hungarian artist dabbled in nearly every type of photography over his 70-plus-year career—proto-Fellini distended nudes, portraits, Instagram-like Polaroids, photojournalism from Paris and New York, magazine shots for <em>House and Garden</em> (what Kertész called his “lost years”). The Bulger Gallery’s retrospective focuses primarily on his self-portraits, which, like everything he created, demonstrate his wryly poetic eye and his knack for delightfully disorienting perspectives. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Oct. 27 to Nov. 24. Stephen Bulger Gallery</span> (Image: Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery) 7 | ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ 7 | ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-7-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-7.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-7.jpg 624 572 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-7/ oct12-bof-top-art-7 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery) 169992 The fall exhibit at the ROM’s costume gallery is all about excess—a Christian Dior couture dress that took 500 hours to make, a gargantuan 18th-century boot, an enormous mordant-painted Indian cotton wall hanging. Every item in the show, which includes elaborate getups from Alexander McQueen, Martin Margiela and Vivienne Tam, is huge in some way, whether in size or significance. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Nov. 3 to Oct. 2013. Royal Ontario Museum</span> (Image: Courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum) 8 | BIG 8 | BIG https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-8-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-8.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-8.jpg 624 702 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-8/ oct12-bof-top-art-8 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum) 169993 The annual art behemoth turns its attention to Asia and some of the contemporary creators shaking up that continent. Thai video artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook hangs salacious images in Buddhist temples and villages and films audience reactions. Japanese artist Ken Matsubara places photos in front of a two-way mirror, causing the viewer’s own face to appear. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">Oct. 26 to 29. Metro Toronto Convention Centre</span> (Image: Courtesy of Tyler Rollins Fine Art (left); Gao Magee Gallery (right)) 9 | ART TORONTO 9 | ART TORONTO https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-9-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-9.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-9.jpg 624 480 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-9/ oct12-bof-top-art-9 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Tyler Rollins Fine Art (left); Gao Magee Gallery (right)) 169994 The Lebanese-Canadian artist is as comfortable sculpting with ceramics and caribou jawbones as she is making neon-lit installations based on ancient Arabic manuscripts. Her fall show at the MOCCA is a gloriously inclusive retrospective. <br /><span style="color:#ee2e24; font-weight:bold">To Oct. 14. Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art</span> (Image: Courtesy of Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery) 10 | JAMELIE HASSAN 10 | JAMELIE HASSAN https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-10-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-10.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-10.jpg 624 702 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art-10/ oct12-bof-top-art-10 0 0 (Image: Courtesy of Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery) 169995 Best of Fall 2012: Art Best of Fall 2012: Art https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/oct12-bof-top-art.jpg 656 445 [] https://torontolife.com/city/best-of-fall-2012-top-art/slide/oct12-bof-top-art/ oct12-bof-top-art 0 0