AGO Art Talks and Tours

Christopher Dewdney has been writing art criticism for more than three decades. He is the author of four books of non-fiction as well as eleven books of poetry. His most recent non-fiction title is Soul of the World: Unlocking the Secrets of Time. Dewdney teaches creative writing and poetics at the Glendon Campus of York University in Toronto.

Join philosopher and author Alain de Botton for the next in a series of brown-bag lunch-time talks. Born in Zurich, Switzerland and now living in London, Alain is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as "philosophies of everyday life."

Stephen Shore is an American photographer, known for his pioneering use of colour in art photography. Through examining the trajectory of the development of his work, he will explore a number of essential factors of the medium of photography.

Gerardo Mosquera reflects on his experience as a co-founder of the Havana Biennial and a participant in the curatorial team of the three first editions. Mosquera examines the Havana Biennale’s collective creation of a new internationalism in art in the framework of Cold War’s Cuba and its Third World politics, and the contradictions involved.

Join Dave Jordano, Annette Kelm, Owen Kydd, and Hito Steyerl in conversation with exhibition curator Adelina Vlas about their recent work. The AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize recognizes four artists working in photography whose work has exhibited extraordinary potential over the preceding five years.

Inspired by the questions raised in the exhibition Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic, join Charmaine Nelson, a Canadian scholar of postcolonial and black feminist studies, critical (race) theory, Trans Atlantic Slavery Studies and Black Diaspora Studies; Anishinaabe artist and curator Lisa Myers, whose work takes up notions of lands, region and territory, while considering distinct indigenous perspectives on the history of treaties in the land now referred to as Canada; Governor General Award winning Toronto-based theatre artist Guillermo Verdecchia, whose published work on Latin American memory and performance; and AGO curator Georgiana Uhlyarik for a conversation about land, identity, and representation.

Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York City art world by storm in the early 1980s and gained international recognition for his powerful and expressive works that confronted issues of racism, identity and social tension. On the occasion of the first major retrospective of the artist's work in Canada, we gather artists, writers, historians, and other creative thinkers together to consider the legacy of Basquiat's work, and its continued relevance. How can we extend Basquiat's groundbreaking artistic approach to confront issues of racism, class struggle, social hypocrisy, while challenging perceptions and opening up new dialogues?

Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York City art world by storm in the early 1980s and gained international recognition for his powerful and expressive works that confronted issues of racism, identity and social tension. On the occasion of the first major retrospective of the artist's work in Canada, we gather artists, writers, historians, and other creative thinkers together to consider the legacy of Basquiat's work, and its continued relevance. How can we extend Basquiat's groundbreaking artistic approach to confront issues of racism, class struggle, social hypocrisy, while challenging perceptions and opening up new dialogues?

Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York City art world by storm in the early 1980s and gained international recognition for his powerful and expressive works that confronted issues of racism, identity and social tension. On the occasion of the first major retrospective of the artist's work in Canada, we gather artists, writers, historians, and other creative thinkers together to consider the legacy of Basquiat's work, and its continued relevance. How can we extend Basquiat's groundbreaking artistic approach to confront issues of racism, class struggle, social hypocrisy, while challenging perceptions and opening up new dialogues?

Suzy Lake discusses her work and exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in conversation with exhibition curators Sophie Hackett and Georgiana Uhlyarik.

Los Angeles-based painter Silke Otto-Knapp (German, b. 1970) is known for her complex, delicate paintings based on landscapes, set designs and choreographed movement as well as her unconventional portraits of artists, poets, writers, models and dancers. On the occasion of her exhibition of recent paintings at the AGO, Knapp speaks about her current work.

Inspired by the exhibition Michelangelo: Quest for Genius, artists, architects, writers and other creative thinkers consider the value of failure to the creative process.

Dallas collectors and philanthropists Howard and Cindy Rachofsky join AGO Director Matthew Teitelbaum in conversation in this installment of the Brown Bag Lunch & Talk series. The Rachofsky's are leading Dallas philanthropists, passionate about reinventing their city as a contemporary art and architecture capital.

Join Jolene Rickard, Rick W. Hill Sr., and Greg Staats in a discussion on the power of reflection, Staats' recent visual language, the multiplicity of relationships to trauma and renewal, and life experiences. With introduction by AGO Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, Andrew Hunter.

Michelangelo was one of most admired draftsmen of the Italian Renaissance, yet at the same time he was reluctant to allow other artists to see his drawings and jealously guarded access to them. The lecture explores the private and the public sphere of Michelangelo's activities, and how we can gain an understanding of his working methods and development through the drawings from the Casa Buonarroti.

Join artist, activist, writer, facilitator and educator Kim Crosby Milan for an in-gallery tour of Fan the Flames: Queer Positions in Photography.

Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty co-curator Richard Calvocoressi, Francis Warner and Mary Moore discuss the genesis of the exhibition, the work of Moore and Bacon and the distinctive visual language that each artist developed. While the perspectives of the artists differed - Moore clung to a belief in humanism, while Bacon espoused a post-humanist, nihilistic view of the world - both created unforgettable images of the human figure.

Join artist-in-residence Jim Munroe in conversation with artists Mark Connery, a Toronto-based comic and zine artist, and Jonathan Mak, a Toronto-based game developer, about their work, indie culture and how playfulness factors into their practices.

On the occasion of the AGO exhibition of their collaborative film Modest Livelihood (2012) Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater discuss the film and their recent work. Modest Livelihood is concerned with the use and self-determination of native land. Both its creators are indigenous artists: Jungen, internationally recognized for his sculptures, is DaneZaa, while Linklater, who has been working with moving image and performance to portray Native oral histories and learning methods, is Omaskêko Cree.

A leading authority on modern art, John Elderfield offers us an in-depth and insightful look at Henri Matisse, and his ongoing relevance in contemporary art and culture. Elderfield brings a wealth of knowledge to this talk, as an independent curator and art historian, a consultant to Gagosian Gallery, and as Chief Curator Emeritus of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York where he directed more than 20 exhibitions, including Fauvism and its Affinities (1976), Kurt Schwitters (1985), de Kooning: A Retrospective (2011), and Henri Matisse: A Retrospective (1992).