FASHION Magazine

See the pictures from Artscape Salon »

Earlier this month, Toronto’s art community hobnobbed at the converted heritage centre Wychwood Barns for Artscape Salon, a speed-dating style dinner that allowed over 200 guests to meet 20 of the city’s creative luminaries as they roved from table to table. During dinner, speakers including artist Gary Taxali, musician Maylee Todd, actor David Sutcliffe (read: Christopher from Gilmore Girls) and painter Amy Shackleton met with guests, switching up conversation as they went. Indeed, the chit chat was anything but boring, with my table erupting in ballet fandom during a meet-cute with National Ballet Principal Dancer Sonia Rodriguez, with talk of the AGO’s upcoming Art Spiegelman retrospective upon visit from CEO and director Matthew Teitelbaum and with a game of temp tattoo with illustrator Alanna Cavanagh, who gifted us drawn lemons, pears and watermelons. The Salon was just the latest in Artscape’s fundraising initiatives, which benefit the organization’s not-for-profit urban developments including affordable live/work studios, schools and theatres at the heart of Toronto’s arts community.

David Bowie is, the widely publicized multi-media exhibit on pop culture icon David Bowie will soon be leaving its current home at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and heading on a much anticipated world tour. First stop, Toronto! That’s right, come September The Art Gallery of Ontario will be welcoming the exhibit complete with its 300 objects from the legendary British artist’s personal archive.

Bowie, who is known for his genre-defying music is one of the industry’s finest performance artists, having experimented with everything from surrealism to mime. The British sensation, dubbed the culture chameleon, maintains a personal archive of more that 75,000 objects. Archivists and curators from the Victoria and Albert Museum were given full access to explore and pick the items for display.

Recognized for his radical fashion sense and powerful influence on art and design, audiences can expect to see some of the most memorable costumes and objects from Bowie’s long career. Fifty stage get-ups, including the celebrated Ziggy Stardust bodysuits, will be combined with a selection of music videos, set designs, photographs (namely by Helmut Newton, Brian Duggy and John Rowlands) and album artwork for the exhibit. The experience promises to expose Bowie’s collaborations in the fields of fashion, sound, theatre, art and film. On a more personal level, the exhibit will also display Bowie’s own handwritten set lists, lyrics, diary entries, instruments and sketches.