AGO Art Talks and Tours

Curator Angelika Littlefield talks about the works of her great aunt Angelika Hoerle whose short life blazed across the Cologne arts scene. Angelika shows how the artistic, political and social life in a time of tremendous flux finds its way into Angelika Hoerle's small, intense works. According to Littlefield, "Family stories show new perspectives on Max Ernst and other artists working in Cologne at the time and they tie Angelika Hoerle's works to our society and the arts today." Recorded Wednesday, May 27, 7 p.m.

Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World seeks to explore complex ideas about what it means to be an indigenous artist in the 21st century. The exhibition, featuring the work of 15 artists from across the western hemisphere, explores the very limits of human experience. Provocative Remix artists Franco Mondini-Ruiz and Kent Monkman will discuss their work with exhibition co-curator and AGO Curator of Canadian Art, Gerald McMaster.

What is the role of art in modern society? To entertain us? To teach us? Both? And what of philosophy? What relevance does it have to how we think and live? In Opening Gambits, cultural critic and philosopher Mark Kingwell puts forth an argument for the similarity between art and philosophy as forms of play, working at the margins of meaning and sense.

Surrealism was one of the most influential movements of the twentieth century and had a profound impact on all forms of culture. During the 1930s it escaped the bounds of an avant-garde art movement and transformed the wider worlds of theatre, design, fashion and advertising. This lecture explores how Surrealism evolved from art movement to commercial phenomenon.

Surreal Things offers a new perspective on the surrealists' contentious and ambiguous relationship to the commercial fields of design, fashion, advertising, architecture, film and theatre. An introduction by curator Ghislaine Wood.

Meet artist Kara Walker and enjoy a provocative talk on how her artwork aims to enliven current discussions about notions of difference, community and memory. Recorded March 6, 2009.

Join Brenda Rix, assistant curator of Prints and Drawings at the AGO, for a talk highlighting some of Hunt's marketing strategies to make his images and message accessible to the widest possible audience. Recorded February 25 2009.

Gerald McMaster, AGO curator of Canadian Art, discusses the new approach to the Canadian galleries in the transformed AGO. Recorded February 18, 2009.

This talk by Holman Hunt scholar Carol Jacobi presents the artist's life and inspirations as well as the development of his approach to art. Recorded February 11, 2009.

Join Linda Milrod, Transformation AGO senior project manager and program and installation director, for a talk about the extraordinary process of working with Gehry International to transform the AGO. Recorded January 14 2009.

For this podcast, the AGO invited University of Toronto Professor of Architecture Larry Richards to wander the perimeter of the AGO and muse on the final phases of its Frank Gehry-designed expansion. An architect and dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at U of T from 1997 to 2004, Richards has known Frank Gehry for 20 years and has followed his work closely. Last year, he mounted an exhibition on Gehry's drawings that was shown in Toronto and Los Angeles. He has published more than 60 articles on contemporary architecture and his own architectural design work has been published in international journals. Richards currently has projects in New York and Beijing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and in 2006 received the institute's national Advocacy for Architecture Award for distinguished service to the profession.

Dr. Augustus (Gus) Casely-Hayford has recently been appointed to Arts Council England as Executive Director, Arts Strategy. Casely-Hayford was previously Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA), a London-based arts organization with a particular emphasis on international practice. London is one of the most culturally diverse cities on earth. Its history, buildings and public sculpture are a physical testimony to a history of huge sociological change and continuous immigration. In 2007, Rivington Place, its first publicly funded gallery dedicated to the work of artists from culturally diverse backgrounds will open. The history, the context and ramifications of this development are complex and manifold. Dr. Casely-Hayford will discuss some of the issues connected to delivering culturally diverse art in 21st century London.

Over twenty-five years into the AIDS crisis ... the record is now open.Composed of statements by AIDS activists, organizers, researchers, artists and people living with HIV/AIDS, the SILENT|LISTEN exhibition builds a public record of the AIDS epidemic in North America.

Over twenty-five years into the AIDS crisis ... the record is now open.Composed of statements by AIDS activists, organizers, researchers, artists and people living with HIV/AIDS, the SILENT|LISTEN exhibition builds a public record of the AIDS epidemic in North America.

With a focus on some of the highlights of the renowned Frum Collection of African art, Dr. Constantine Petridis, associate curator of African art at the Cleveland Museum of Art and assistant professor of art history at Case Western Reserve University, discusses the close relationship between art and culture in sub-Saharan Africa. Special attention devoted to issues of governance and leadership as reflected in the royal arts of the Cameroon Grassfields.

Louie Palu, Globe and Mail photojournalist; Rannie Turingan, photo blogger; and John Reeves, renowned Canadian photographer, discussed the exhibition on November 14, 2006, the evolution of photojournalism, the transition of photojournalism into an artform and the potential impact of new technologies in the field.

David Cronenberg discusses insights he gained as guest curator of the exhibition Andy Warhol/Supernova. This podcast is a recording of the question and answer session from the public lecture at the Art Gallery of Ontario on July 7, 2006.

World-renowned architects are helping Toronto continue its unprecedented cultural revival on the once fragile shoulders of culture. In the heat of the transformation, join Michael Awad, Lisa Rochon, Christian Giroux and Daniel Young in a rousing discussion about how spectacular architecture contributes (or not) to the psyche of the city.

Internationally regarded as one of the most accomplished artists to emerge in recent years, Peter Doig embodies a renewed purpose and spirit in figurative painting. Born in Edinburgh and raised in Toronto, he established himself in London in the early 1990s.

An interview by the Toronto Star's architecture columnist Christopher Hume with celebrated architect and Toronto native Frank Gehry, who has designed the current expansion of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The interview took place when Gehry was at the AGO for the media preview of the exhibition Frank Gehry: Art + Architecture.