#2 — ISSUE 11 OF smART MAGAZINE IS HERE!
Discover more from The smARTcircle - Toronto - Visual Arts
#2 — ISSUE 11 OF smART MAGAZINE IS HERE!
PLUS: Part 1 of our History of Disney Series
Welcome back to the smARTcircle Toronto! Of course, what we're most excited about this month is the arrival of our latest issue. Beginning March 10, Issue 11 ─ 1NTERSECT1ONS invites you to join in on exclusive conversations with a selection of global artists whose work traverses various disciplines with conjunctions between music, literature, cinema, installation, and activism. This issue features interviews with Xavier Dolan, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Bryce Dessner, Andy Shauf, Kent Monkman, Le Diamant, Anis Mojgani, and more. Can't wait? Pre-order now and get the digital issue here.
This week, we're also excited to feature another instalment of Richard Ouzounian’s history of Disney Animation Studios to celebrate the Disney Animation: Immersive Experience presented by Lighthouse Immersive (extended by popular demand to July 9th). With so much to see and experience in the city, we hope to see you out there!
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISNEY | PART 1: The Story of Mickey Mouse
by RICHARD OUZOUNIAN
Richard Ouzounian continues his 10-part series for smART extolling the history of Disney's Animation Studios. This excerpt catches Walt Disney at the height of his accomplishments, reflecting on his humble beginnings.
On Oct. 27, 1954, Walt Disney paused in the middle of a television show saluting his soon-to-be-realized dream, Disneyland, to make one unforgettable observation.
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it all started with a mouse.”
Mickey Mouse.
One of the most readily recognized and truly beloved icons of our time, Mickey has remained the enduring and endearing rock on which the greatest entertainment empire of modern times has been based.
A 22-year-old Midwestern man named Walter Elias Disney had a dream of making pictures come to life. He gathered together a group of colleagues in Kansas City, Missouri, and they started with Alice’s Wonderland. It led to an offer for a series of short cartoons and Walt and his team relocated to Los Angeles.
In 1927, they started a new series for Universal called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which became a major success. While nearing completion of 26 animated shorts, Walt hoped to increase the budgets for each short in order to elevate the overall entertainment value. He travelled to New York, where producer Charles Mintz had a pair of unpleasant surprises in store for Walt..
He offered Disney not a raise, but a 20% pay cut. When Walt bridled at this, Mintz informed Walt he had already hired away most of his animation team, except for Walt’s oldest friend and lead draughtsman, Ub Iwerks.
On the desolate train ride home, Walt showed his optimism and personal resilience. He didn’t wallow in defeat, but started creating a new character upon which he could build a new series of animated short films. He quickly settled on a mouse, who he wanted to call Mortimer, but his beloved wife Lillian wisely suggested another name.
Mickey. ── CONTINUE READING.
TOP EXHIBITS AND EVENTS HAPPENING NEAR YOU:
These are the last few weeks to see Her Flesh at The AGO's R. Samuel McLaughlin Gallery. The exhibition presents depictions of feminine bodies from The AGO's collection created by modern and contemporary women artists (including Jess Dobkin, Alma Duncan, Janieta Eyre, Nina Levitt, Francis Loring, Mary Pratt and Florence Wyle). Both a historical corrective and an exploration of the feminine gaze, be sure to catch this survey before it closes. | October 8 2022–March 23, 2023
At the AGYU, Meleko Mokgosi's Canadian debut, Imaging Imaginations, features work from his latest series, Spaces of Subjection. Hyper-realistic and theoretically informed, Mokogosi's multi-panel paintings depict black life on a grand scale. Register for an evening of responsive poetic meditations by Sincerely Shyy, Keosha Love, and SA Smythe, March 15. | January 20–June 10, 2023
Supporting their education and exhibition initiatives, Gallery 44's annual fundraising show, Salon 44 brings together over 60 artists, presenting an exciting array of Canadian contemporary photographers and featuring Open Editions by Othello Grey and Isabel Okoro. Gallery 44's revived publishing program will also feature a publication section by 18 participating artists in support of G44's Writer-In-Residence program. | March 2–March 11, 2023
While you're at Gallery 44, be sure to head down the hall and see Toronto-based painter, Bogdan Luca's The Green Suitcase at Redhead Gallery. The paintings plumb the artists family history via the titular suitcase full of photographs, exploring the parallel life of a grandfather who was both a beloved paternal figure and a counter-intelligence detective in Cold War-Era Romania. | March 1–March 25, 2023
In the last month of THE COUNTER/SELF exhibition at the The Art Museum at the University of Toronto (January 11–March 25 2023), a two-part Artists in Conversation series, The Subversive Power of the Alter-Ego, hosted online and in-person will give a deeper insights into how the artists used refracted personas to critique hegemonic power and presumption. | March 16 & March 18, 2023
It's been fickle, but winter's definitely not over for Toronto. Get hot and immerse yourself in artist-designed spaces at the Harbourfront Centre's Public Sweat experience. Commissioned by Art Spin, artists Simone Jones, SHEEEP Studio, Christie Pearson, and Chris Foster (and more to be announced) have created sweat bathing structures that fuse multiple art forms with bodily fluids. | March 15–April 23
Take a day to head to the west end. Four new exhibits have arrived at MOCA for its Spring Season: Greek/Canadian artist, Athena Papadopoulos' site-specific exhibition, The New Alphabet; Susan For Susan (design team John and Kevin Watts)'s playfully industrial, yet domestic Trade Show; Serkan Özkaya's oracular spectacular ni4ni v.3; and Remediation, the first survey, including five new works, of Canadian/French artist, Kapwani Kiwanga.| February 24—April 30, 2023 deployment of the shade has changed from it's seventeenth-century settler classification to the current day. | January 11–March 25 2023