Arts and Culture : In The News

Toronto’s Anastasia Lin, an actor who’s outspoken on human rights and who won the Canada Miss World crown in 2015, is attracting global attention as she attempts to attend the pageant's global finals in China. The Los Angeles Times reports that Lin, who has taken parts in film and TV productions that highlight human rights issues, including corruption and persecution, has not received the documentation that’s required to enter China, even as her trip looms. Now, she’s speaking out about her fears that her outspokenness on rights issues has blacklisted her from entering the country. “This is not just about me – it is a matter of principle,” she tells the Times.

Read more here.

This week, the New York Times wrote up the seemingly improbable national support garnered by the much-loved Toronto Blue Jays.

Reporter David Waldstein writes:
The account opens with a scene from St. John's, which the writer aptly points out is closer to Portugal's Azores than it is to Toronto yet still very much Blue Jays country.

Read the whole charming account here.
Source: New York Times.

 

Hip-hop superstar Kanye West is performing at July 26 closing ceremony of the Pan American Games, and some Torontonians are not pleased that a non-Canadian artist was chosen for the headlining honour. The overwhelming patriotism of Canadian music fans in Toronto and beyond has launched a petition to ban West from the performance, which had already garnered over 40,000 signatures by July 17. It's also attracted international media attention and, frankly, bemusement. Our maple leaf-shaped hearts are, apparently, quite cute on our sleeves. 


Read the full story here.
Source: Entertainment Weekly. 

Trailblazing artist David Byrne is bringing his “Contemporary Color” exhibition to Toronto’s Luminato next week. But first, the New York Times reports on the backstory behind the project. 


The Times writes:

For Contemporary Color, the “arena spectacle” combines colour guard teams with live music by artists of Mr. Byrne’s choosing. And it’s a solid lineup: St. Vincent, Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys, Kelis, Nelly Furtado and Devonté Hynes are all on board, each matched with a colour guard team. 


Read the full story here. 
Source: New York Times

Toronto cartoonist Chip Zdarsky (the pseudonym of former National Post illustrator Steve Murray) has been selected to pen the Jughead series in a new Archie Comics revival. 

"We’re dusting off one of the world’s most beloved characters and bringing him into today, with all the great things that people loved intact and a bit more bite,” Archie Comics publisher and CEO Jon Goldwater said in a statement, published by Entertainment Weekly. 

Goldwater added: “Jughead will be a bit more off-the-wall, Betty and Veronica will be more about their friendship and competitiveness, and Kevin will be pushing one of the most beloved and iconic characters introduced in recent memory into new areas and new situations." 


Read the rest here. 
Source: Entertainment Weekly.

Rising Toronto singer-songwriter, Tamara Lindeman (aka The Weather Station) has caught the attention of one of the most widely syndicated public radio music programmes in the US, NPR's World Cafe. 

As the popular programme notes:
Hear a bit of The Weather Station's music here. 
Source: NPR

 

On the eve of a vote on Bill C51, privacy and surveillance are among the moment's top domestic preoccupations. It'a fitting then that an exhibition at Toronto's Stephen Bulger Gallery with the title, "Surveillance," should be making headlines in the New York Times' "Lens" blog. Though, in this context, the breach of privacy was in service of art rather than data collection. 

The exhibition focuses on the work of Hungarian photographer Andre Kertesz, whose postwar photographs often framed vignettes of rooftops and windows – the views from above that are often overlooked. 

The Times reports:

“Surveillance is a technique he used,” said Robert Gurbo, curator of the Estate of Andre Kertesz, who worked with Mr. Bulger on the exhibit. “While the pictures are somewhat voyeuristic, they are really about observing intimacy.”

Read the full article here. 
Source: New York Times. 

Who ever said men shouldn't wear heels?

A forthcoming exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum, "Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in Heels,"  looks at men's footwear from 1800s to now, and will include shoes worn by the likes of both John Lennon and Elton John. 


Read the full story here. 
Source: Washington Post

 

This year, the Toronto International Film Festival will be combatting diminishing crowds with a "Primetime" section that will premiere up to six television programs, to coincide with fall network television premieres. The Los Angeles Times reports: 
Read the full story here. 
Source: Los Angeles Times

Who needs a board of tourism when we have Drake?

The Toronto rapper is a vocal advocate of his hometown (lovingly nicknamed "The 6" for its 416 and 647 area codes), and the popular online music magazine Pitchfork has taken note. The publication went ahead and mapped the Toronto locales named the artist's many, many songs, and contextualized them for a non-Toronto audience. 

The article writes:
 

Toronto cartoonist Kate Beaton is following 2011's “Hark! A Vagrant,” based on her improbably charming web comic, with a similarly wry historical ode, “Step Aside, Pops.”

She told the Los Angeles Times:
Until its release, we eagerly wait.

Read the full story here. 
Source: Los Angeles Times
 

Art Basel Miami Beach kicks off on Thursday through the weekend, but Toronto portrait artist Kris Knight has already gotten his fair share of name-checking in the pre-fest press for his forthcoming solo exhibition, "Smell the Magic." 

The Miami New Times writes:

"The show, based firmly in a contemporary take on classical portraiture, has all of Knight's signatures: young men, dreamy pastels, and oozing sexuality. Knight fully embraces 18th-century aesthetics and applies them to his work. (If Knight had been born in the time of Marie Antoinette, he would most certainly have been the royal portrait painter.)"

The festival is considered one of the world's most influential showcases of international contemporary art. 

Read the full story here. 
Source: Miami New Times
 

The design community can't get enough of Grotto, a unique sauna designed by the small, experimental Toronto firm, Partisans, and perched on water's edge at a private island on the Georgan Bay. The outside is minimalistic and sharp, while the inside curves and winds with an almost otherwordly mien.  

Wallpaper magazine writes: 

The stunning edifice is a sharp compliment to the view it offers, which National Geographic has proclaimed among the world's top sunset vantage points. Not too shabby, indeed. 

Read the full article here. 
Source: Wallpaper Magazine

A Toronto man, Jordan Axani, bought a pair of discounted round-the-world plane tickets with his girlfriend and then they broke up. Now, Axani is looking for a woman – any woman – who shares her name: Elizabeth Gallagher. 

The story made international headlines after Axani crowdsourced for Elizabeth Gallaghers on the popular social messaging board, reddit. 

As quoted, by CNN, from Axani's original post:

"I am not looking for anything in return. I am not looking for companionship, romance, drugs, a trade, or to take selfies with you in front of the Christmas Market in Prague. If you feel compelled to toss me a couple hundred bucks, great. Really the only thing I ask for is that you enjoy this trip and that it bring you happiness."

He has since received thousands of emails from around the world. 


Source: CNN

Travel guide gurus Lonely Planet have anointed Toronto among the world's Top 10 Cities to visit in 2015.

"Two North American metropolises on the well-beaten path bracket Lonely Planet's Top 10 Cities list for 2015, one of an annual variety of best-of and trend-spotting rankings announced this week by the travel publisher, which also compiled them into the Best in 2015 book and travel planner," reports the San Francisco Gate.