Jon Sasaki: Things Saved For A Rainy Day Mother Tongue, at Varley Gallery, May 13 to September 4, reception 6-8 pm May 13 (free bus from OCAD 5:15 pm).
Toronto’s Sasaki, known for his wry expressions of futility, responds to the gallery’s archives by repurposing F.H. Varley’s junk drawer items and leaving one of Varley’s unused canvases out in the rain in Mother Tongue, artists including Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Jihee Min and Alize Zorlutuna explore the relationship of language and identity. Hop on a free bus to Unionville for the reception.
(Un)settled, at Guild Park and Gardens, to May 16 and June 5 to 16, artist talk 3 pm May 13.
At mini-residencies in the Scarborough park and former artists’ colony where sculptures from demolished buildings are preserved, artists create interventions on such themes as Indigenous history and immigration. Basil AlZeri’s stint finishes on May 11, Terrance Houle’s on May 13, and Paul Couillard and Ed Johnson’s runs from May 12 to 16. Reserve a spot on a free bus from the AGO to the May 13 talk through bojana.videkanic@uwaterloo.ca.
Jane Mai and An Nguyen: So Pretty / Very Rotten, at Japan Foundation, to May 15, book launch 6-8 pm May 11, panel 2-3:30 pm May 14.
An exhibit and panel discussion, part of the the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, launch Mai and Nguyen’s Koyama Press book of comics and essays on Japan’s Lolita subculture, which is not about emulating the sexually precocious preteen of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, but about dressing up in elaborate, frilly Victorian outfits.
My Faraway One: The Letters Of Georgia O’Keeffe And Alfred Stieglitz, at Art Gallery of Ontario, 7 pm May 17($10-$17).
Sarah Greenough, senior photography curator at the U.S. National Gallery of Art in DC and the editor of a volume of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz’s letters, gives a talk on the painter and photographer’s aesthetic and romantic partnership, in conjunction with the AGO’s O’Keeffe exhibit and the Contact Photography Festival.
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