Here’s the secret about Art Toronto, this weekend’s massive downtown art fair: most of the serious transactions happen well before the show goes live. Last night’s exclusive pre-sale in benefit of the Art Gallery of Ontariolooked like a regular artsy soirée, but beneath the sea of curious coifs, silk scarves and quirky eyewear, big-game art collectors were stalking their prey. Before the night was through, millions of dollars worth of art had discretely changed hands, with one gallery—the Winnipeg-based Loch Gallery—netting over $3 million in sales. Here, a rundown on the night’s best bargains, biggest flops and most exorbitant deals, plus 16 jaw-dropping photos from the festival opener.
Speediest Sale: 15 Minutes
Within a quarter-hour, Yorkville’s Mira Goddard Gallery had bagged a Lucien Freud etching for $28,000.
Sole Sign of Undercover Transacting: Red Dots
In the art world, pocketbooks rarely make an appearance. Little scarlet stickers stuck to works’ descriptive panels were the only indication that pieces were being snapped up.
Most Meh Installation: All The Artists Are Here
Based on the hype surrounding Thom Sokoloski’s feature commission, we were ready to be wowed. The reality—a wall of portraits of the fair’s exhibiting artists—was somewhat underwhelming (especially compared to Kent Monkman’s The Art Game,the flagship work from 2011).
Biggest Mystery (Literally)
The gallery that sold Monkman’s breathtaking (and enormous) Struggle for Balance From the Urban refused to reveal the closing figure. We imagine it went for a tidy sum.
Fattest Sale (Figuratively)
Mayberry Fine Art sold Tom Thomson’s Winter, Algonquin Park, a panel approximately the size of a toaster, for over $1 million.
Most Noticeable Absence: The BMW Art Car
The festival mainstay, designed in past years by Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, was curiously missing from this year’s event.
Best Bargain: Ross Bonfanti’s Concreatures
The Toronto-born artist’s concrete-filled teddy bears went for $800 a pop, making them some of the more accessible works on display.
Biggest First-World Problem: “But will it match the other one?”
Sigh.
A particularly spiky <strong>Ross Bonfanti</strong> bear, <em>Tough as Nails,</em> from Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London. The bears were one of the more attainable works on display, selling for $800 each
<strong>Dean Baldwin’</strong>s <em>Bar Piano</em> from Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto, came fully stocked with cocktail ingredients
A rep from Pierre-Françoise Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal, discusses <strong>Ed Pein’</strong>s laser-cut <em>Tree of Life.</em> (Eight works from the nine-work edition had sold by the time we came by, for $5,750 each)
At the Pierre-Françoise Ouellette booth, Canadian superstar <strong>Kent Monkman’</strong>s seven-by-ten-foot <em>Struggle for Balance from the Urban</em> attracted both crowds and buyers
This <strong>Damien Hirst</strong> print, <em>For the Love of God—Lenticular,</em> number 21 of 1000 works in the edition, had a $18,200 price tag. (But no red dot at time of closing
<em>Sunday Morning No. 2,</em> shown by Loch Gallery, Toronto, is one of the last major works from Canadian artist <strong>Jack Chambers</strong> that’s still in private hands
American pop artist <strong>Jim Dine’</strong>s bronze <em>Walking to Boräs (Short Steps)</em> at the Galerie de Belleveuille booth, priced at $185,000