fourONEsixSTYLE

I’ve been captivated by woodblock prints for sometime and finally made my way to the ROM Friday night to see their exhibit Drama & Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World. This is the last weekend the exceptional collection is on display. While the pieces are predominantly from the early period, before colour technologies blossomed, it is a great starting point to learn about the art and history of Edo.

Before there was Tokyo, there was Edo, a scintillating place for artists, actors and musicians to celebrate life, sex and nature, oooh, and clothing, beautiful clothing. While in Tokyo I’d once seen a portrait, a slice of Edo, of several women floating around in a boat, drinking sake in lavish kimonos, celebrating the arrival of cherry blossoms and the changing seasons while monkeys performed and musicians played. If only I could be transported back in time to enjoy this rich and poetic culture.

This exhibit showed some screens and scrolls with similar scenes, women in colourful garbs fishing, lounging and smoking, with always a bit of nature peaking out of the background reminding you where the people were; beside each piece, a charming tale to help bring the art to life.

I’ll admit I was a bit dismayed that the ukiyo-e collection at the ROM, on loan from Boston, was missing some of the great masterpieces I’d expected. There were limited pieces from Hiroshige and Hokusai and only one true landscape piece, Hokusai’s Li Bai Admiring A Waterfall. It’s his prints that always strike me the most. While he’s well-known for The Great Wave, it’s his pieces with one solitary individual in the throws of nature that I’m especially drawn to, those that make you reflect on the power within yourself and aware of the delicate balance mankind shares with his surroundings.

centre frame
Originally uploaded by 416style

I’ve been a bit of a flickrite for awhile and been asked by poeple around the world whether my photos can be used in print and online. It’s been exciting. Despite seeing my photo printed in Travel Girl, hearing Marketing Magazine used a shot (without asking I might add) and getting a Green Roof shot into Bruce Mau’s Massive Change exhibit in Chicago, my highlight is having my shot of the Revue hanging in the Intercontinental Hotel’s Signatures Restaurant (220 Bloor Street West).

The resto recently renovated and rebranded. Now it’s filled with a stunning array of images from all our favourite spots in Toronto. I went there with my aunt recently to have a bite, and although it was a quiet Monday night the experience was fantastic. Of course the service was terrific (being that it was so quiet) and I enjoyed our server’s sense of humour (no stiffness here), but it was the food and the little extras that kept popping up on our table that made the night. All the food was native to Ontario, which to me is a another huge plus. I ate the Manitoulin Island trout with soba noodles and broth - delicious - while enjoying a dark red glass of wine and looking out over Proof’s beautiful patio next door. It’s what summer in the city is all about.

Friday night’s Brassaii party kicked off the Contact Photography Festival exhibiting across Toronto until May 31st. Photographers Alex vs Alex set up a photo booth to get stills of the crowd as they entered, setting a bit of a red carpet vibe. Meanwhile Toronto’s most loved photobloggers were in full swing getting their snaps of the jumping crowd inside while others milled though large prints of Toronto strewn across Brassaii’s glossy white walls. CBC’s report on Contact finds fellow blogTO writer Jerrold Litwinenko inside before the show.

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
Originally uploaded by 416style.

Billed as the largest outdoor art exhibition in North America, this weekend’s free exhibit at Nathan Phillips Square is sure to be packed with both novice and professional art collectors finding out what this city has to offer. The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (or TOAE) showcases an impressive variety of media and design by local artists. Those exhibiting may be students or established pros, sculptors, photographers or silversmiths, either way, it’s an excellent chance to see so much in one place and meet the artists themselves. Rarely is there such an opportunity to find original artwork at the prices offered. It’s absolutely worth a look. Starts at 10am Friday, Saturday and Sunday and runs until the early evening.

CSI: Toronto
Originally uploaded by 416style.

There’s a bit of a warm up before entering the main space that is the Body Worlds 2 exhibit, in its last weekend here at the Ontario Science Centre. Bones and other bits and pieces in display cases line the corridor before you see what this exhibition really is all about: real flesh and blood. Using a method called Plastecine, the creator, Gunther von Hagen, has somehow managed to restore and reveal athlete’s and ordinary humans’ anatomy like it’s never been seen before. What you’ll view is truly incredible, if you can handle the weirdness of staring at dead bodies with all its bits entact: eyes (that strangely shine when hit by overhead lights), hair, finger nails, lips, nipples and more, shown sliced, diced, pulled apart and even exploding. The smell too can be a bit much, only when viewed up close, but it was this glimmer in the eye that really disturbed me, and the after-math of visiting. As I sit here typing away I’m keenly aware of how the muscles fibers, bones and joints in my hands must look in movement, underneath the skin. It really is extrordinary, and for all its strangeness is something we must all see and come to terms with.

Get your tickets online a day in advance.