happy mother's day/tcaf!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Just realized that I completely forgot to post about TCAF (Toronto Comics Art Festival)—guess I was too excited—it started yesterday and it will be on again today at the Toronto Reference Library from 11am–5pm (bring your mom!) This is by far one of my favourite events in Toronto, it is such a great opportunity to discover new books and artists... oh and it’s FREE! This year’s lineup is just perfect, most of my favourite artists are here including Nate Powell, Jeff Lemire, and Matt Loux! Please to check out TCAF and go support Independent artists!

beautiful cover art by gregory euclide!

Gregory Euclide, a visual artist I have admired for a long time has created a stunning painting for the cover of the new Bon Iver album, out on June 21 through Jagjaguwar. Go to Euclide’s site for more details detailed shots and some must-see videos of the work!

featured artist: John Lee Birds

(WTF, I haven’t done a ‘featured artist’ post for more than a year!) Everyone should check out John Lee Birds’ work; especially his paintings from the recent exhibition, Before Encore Part 2. The collection includes some really wonderful iconic portraits, there’s even one of Patty Wolf!!!

Go here to visit John Lee Birds' website

did the horrors rip me off?

So the amazing Strange House is finally seeing light in North America on the 15th of May. I came across a link that has a Pre-Order of the CD and you can get a T-shirt with it. It opened the link up and I was in complete shock:

Not only is the idea the same, but the shapes of the bats are exactly identical too!!! Here are pictures of other shirts that I made with the same design… judge for youself.

How about my profile picture... and the old background to this blog...

honey honey food for the bees

Being a graphic designer myself, I am a HUGE fan of packaging and poster arts. Naturally, I am in particular interested in album packagings and concert posters or just music related posters. I was visiting All Things Feist today and there was a link to Simone Goes’s blog – the artist who is responsible for designing Feist’s The Reminder. Be sure to check that out… I especially like the four gorgeous promotional posters!

re-elect jesse ledoux

One of my favorite graphic artists, Jesse LeDoux just released a series of 15 toys called Dr. LeDoux’s Critter Splitter. It is the first fully interchangeable blink box toy from Kidrobot... I can't wait to get my hands on them!!!

Buy individual blind-box here, or buy a full case of critters here.

sad... aka another pointless post

One of my favorite art/design sites is gone.

update

I have never been so busy with school in my life... I think I had about ten hours of sleep in the last four days!!! What have I been working on? Well, I am glad you asked... I created my first "professional looking-ish" book/magazine... it is all about punk posters from the 70s and 80s. Anyways, I took some photos of the thing, if anyone is interested.


Alright, I have to go take a shower and get back to more school-related work now. Hopefully, I will post some music requests up in the near future, and I will also post some new music up too (I’ve been listening to non-stop Girl Talk, Converge, and Senses Fail and lots and lots of classic music in the past few days). Again, this post is pretty pointless... whatever... I just wanted to post something and didn't feel like writing a music review or uploading songs because that would take too long.

Peace,
Jackmannn

nuit blanche

Zone A highlights:

"Pharmacopia" by AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal
Three gigantic pill sculptures hung high in the Cumberland Privae Wealth Management space at Yorkvile Ave.


"Fog in Toronto #71624" by Fujko Nakaya
This was definitely one of my favorites of the night: part of the Philosopher’s Walk was cover by fog created by smoke machines. This space was also accompanied by bright colour lights. The space felt like a warzone or alien invasion… there was a feel of frantic and fear of the unknown among visitors... very cool!!!!


"Counting Sheep" by Michael Snow
A DVD projection of sheep walking about in a field... sounds boring, right? No, not when it was projected onto the dome of the planetarium at the ROM.

"Noche en Havana" by Carlos Garaicoa

There were some incredible photographs and artworks by Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa in that space... I think this exhibit is staying at the ROM for a while; it is definitely worth a visit!


Zone B highlights

"Roy & Silo’s Gay Divorce" by John Greyson and David Wall
This exhibit was held at Harrison Baths and Swimming Pool on Stephanie Street. Videos installations were placed in the locker room, shower area, and the pool area. In addition, the pool was also filled with balloon penguins and people were actually swimming in it... very cool!


Nuit Blanche at 401 Richmond
This old “factory” building featured many galleries... and I mean many... the first floor of the building had at least 10/15 exhibitions… highlights include the Alone exhibit by Jennifer Campbell, Kate Greenslade, Marisa Portolese, and Lori Newdick at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, with photographs by Kate Greenslade being my absolute favorite in that exhibit! There was also this exhibit were Millie and I were given flashlights, and we have to walk through the pure dark galleries with them... that was definitely innovative! …and fun!


Zone C highlights

"Revolutionary Song/Chanon a mourir" by Istvan Kantor

Alright, this was my ultimate favorite thing at Nuit Blanche!!!!!! The performance/installation was located at a huge parking lot at Queen West. There was a giant screen setup with crazy video that the artist made. It depicts the idea of mayhem, destruction, and liberation… or something like that. In addition, performances stood on two giant platforms raving flags and throwing things at a burning fire in the middle of the lot. Finally, the artist himself, Istvan Kantor walks around singing alone to he song featured on the video projection. This was not only very entertaining, but the installation and the short film was extremely well done! Istvan Kantor is brilliant!!


"The Public Sleeping Performance" by Nichola Feldman-Kiss
This was also another performance/installation piece. The title is actually what it was... Nichola Feldman-Kiss, the artist, sleeping in a glass box... that was her piece.


Other highlights include disco dancing inside a tent at Hart House; watching random artists create paintings, etc; "Son(ic)ambulism" at Edward johnson Building at U of T; "Watery Grave" exhibit at University College; "Swing Space: Wallworks" at the AGO; "Electronic Sky" at Trinity Bellwoods Park.

You can see all the pictures from my adventures at Nuit Blanche here.

the greatest night, ever.

It is 7:20 in the morning and I just got back from Nuit Blanche. It was absolutely spectacular... the happiest day of my life!!! As always, I took a crap load of pictures, I will post those as well as a write-up on my sleepless night later today; but for now, I need to go get some breakfast and just relax.

hooray for an all-nighter

Folks, don't forget, Nuit Blanche is TONIGHT... or less than 6 hours!!!!!!!

i think my roommate needs this book

Haha, those who have seen the whiteboard at my place will get this.

hands down, this is the greatest event in toronto’s history

Back in match, I mentioned a Toronto event called Nuit Blanche that will be taking place on this Saturday. Just in case you missed that post, Nuit Blanche is a free all-night contemporary art event that's taken place from 7:01 pm on September 30 and it will last until sunrise the next day. Every single art form will be display in various settings... I am talking about paintings, illustrations, films, performance, installations, etc. are being showcased in regular galleries, museums, parks, universities, streets, sidewalk, churches... basically everywhere! I am planning to spend the entire time exploring the city. I think this is going to be the best thing that will ever happen to the city of Toronto and I seriously cannot wait!!!!!!

For more info, you can check out the Nuit Blanche website here. I got my program/guide from a Starbucks across from my school, so I guess go to your nearest Starbucks and see if those are available.

wow!

Fullbleed season 4 is up... kind of.

someone screwed paris... big time!

Guerrilla artist, Banksy, pulled a prank on a crap load of Paris Hilton albums by modifying the artworks and taking out the actual CDs and replacing them with his version of the disc. You can check out pictures of the tampered album here.

i am sooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!

One more day till Fullbleed season 4!
The launch of Fullbleed season 4 has been delayed for two weeks... I am soooooooo sad!

art is what you can get away with

If you are in Toronto, be sure to check out the new Andy Warhol exhibit Supernova: Stars, Death and Disasters, 1962-1964 at the Art Gallery of Ontario... oh, and it is guest-curated by David Cronenberg! I am not a huge fan of Warhol, but there are two pieces that no art fans should missed. First is "Suicide" or "1964-White"... I actually don’t remember the actual name of this piece. The story: the woman in the photograph committed suicide by jumping off the Empire State Building and landed right on top of a white diplomatic limo, and even after such tragic event, she still looked beautiful and elegant. I find this piece absolutely sad and stunning at the same time, I fell in love with it immediately, I need to find a re-production of this!

xx

The other piece I liked was "Couch", which is a film shot in The Factory. It is just a film which featured Warhol’s friends sitting around, doing nothing, having sex, having orgies, and more sex... it is beyond fascinating. I think that it is kind of crazy that this was made pubic as we get to see some very private activities performed by Warhol’s guests; but ultimately, I think it was meant to be shown to the public from the very beginning, I mean, why else would Warhol made this film.


Andy Warhol, Supernova: Stars, Death and Disasters, 1962-1964 runs from now until October 22 at the AGO. It costs $15 for students... although the exhibit is small, it is worth the money!

who wants to go with me?

If you are in Toronto this weekend, go check out the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, it is happening from July 7 - 9 at Nathan Phillips Square.

i stumbled upon pictures i tried to forget (haha, not really)

For those of you who know me, I am a freak at taking photos... and since I got a camera phone about a month ago, I have been taking a bunch of pointless photos. As a result, I have created a new photo album called "Random Phone Photos". This is where I will put some of those pointless photos... if you are interested, go here to look at the album.

this is for all the art nerds out there

I found two great art related sites today on the interweb:

ArtDorks
We Heart Prints
(since I am moving to a new place downtown... everyone should buy me some prints to fill up the lonely walls!)