-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Categories
Meta
Follow Blog via Email
Category Archives: Current Events
NEW THEATRICALITY—IT’S SO BIG!
Throughout its fairly long history, Toronto has been a beacon to those counting on safe bets. Though not altogether a bad thing, it has, until very recently, played out as altogether a boring thing. Capping off a recent plunge to … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events, Fine Art, Industrial Design
Tagged abstract expressionism, Bilbao, David Mirvish, Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Toronto, urbanity
Leave a comment
MILANO, THE SUPERB CITY
Milano is an ancient centre with an ultra-modern heart. Just as its cathedral is the most stunningly designed instance to be found, its artisans continue to generate all manner of products at a level of instantly recognizable excellence.
OKI SATO—DESIGNS THAT FLY
Toronto-born, now Tokyo-based, designer, Oki Sato describes his life and the priorities of his inventions as “boring;” but don’t believe that for a second. He does indeed love routine, repeated patterns of activity and bare-bones, infrastructural-salient products. But the intensification … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events, Industrial Design
Tagged Interior Design, Japanese sensibility, Oki Sato
Leave a comment
VALENTINES IN VINTAGE GRAPHICS
An old pop song runs, “Love is a many-splendored thing;” and we have the testimony of a vast array of graphic art to establish how varied loving relations can be. One of the more challenging but also. I think, more … Continue reading
STEFAN SAGMEISTER’S DESIGN OVER THE TOP
Rolling into the Design Exchange is the first instalment of a long-overdue revitalization of this Toronto facility. The initiative leads off with New York graphic designer, Stefan Sagmeister, and his take on the heartbeat of design practice, which he calls, … Continue reading
THE SEAGRAM MUSEUM: A SHORT BUT VERY SWEET DREAM
In the early 1980′s the Seagram Corporation developed a beverage museum on the premises of the first Seagram Distillery, in Waterloo, Ontario. This was a cavernous structure for ageing the spirits, replete with barrels in place as they were in … Continue reading
DJANGO UNCHAINED (NOT WHAT YOU THINK)
Is there such a thing as a crazily violent movie that beckons an audience to the farthest reaches of reflection?
DELIGHT IN THE NEW
Here we are, all impressed by the passage of another year and the advent of a world changing fast. We’re not going into the ominous connotations of that sentence—all too pressing for each of us. Instead, let’s delight in fine … Continue reading
TEXTURES IN DAILY LIFE AND ARTWORKS
This being a season of sensual overload, I hope we’re all ready to consider how physical textures speak to us in a language we’re seldom alert to. For instance, the donkey I like very much and visit very often provides … Continue reading
THE SPECIAL CHEER OF CHRISTMAS CARDS
Most of us no longer reach others by way of greeting cards, attached as we are to online communications.