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HSG Critic’s Picks Art

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An Andy Warhol show runs at Oakville Galleries (120 Navy and 1306 Lakeshore East, 905-844-4402) from June 23 to August 27, featuring over 50 works from the collection of Salah J. Bachir . They range from the artist’s most iconic silk-screened portraits – Jacqueline Kennedy III and Mao – to his Ladies And Gentlemen, Ten Jews Of The 20th Century and the essential Death And Disaster series.

But it’s the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Warhol show that everybody’s talking about. Canadian master of skewed cinema David Cronenberg is its exclusive guest curator, pairing more than 20 of Warhol’s trademark celebrity silkscreens with his more disturbing disaster imagery, including his famously gruesome crash series and electric chair prints. The gallery screens some of Warhol’s lesser-known films. $18. 317 Dundas West, 416-979-6648. July 8 to October 22.

Dark stars

The dark night that often precedes transcendence is the subject of Darkness Ascends , at MOCCA from June 9 to August 12. Installations by a roster of local and internationally recognized artists including David Altmejd , Shary Boyle , Robert Boyd , Fiona Smyth , Seth Scriver , Sherri Hay and Brad Phillips in a variety of media range from the sickening to the sublime. Soundtrack by doom rockers Sunn O))) . Rue Morgue magazine hosts Midnight Mass on June 17, also the official party of this year’s eighth annual Northern Ink Xposure tattoo and body art convention (at the Holiday Inn, June 16 to 18). It promises to be one of the year’s wildest, darkest art parties. 952 Queen West, 416-395-0067.

Knight moves

Recipient of the OCAD’s presidential medal for drawing and painting, Kris Knight has been a rising art star since graduating in 2003. Inspired by the kitsch of found second-hand painting, his works display a precocious command of technique and visual tension that strikes a delicate balance between the real, the surreal and the conceptual. Here Knight’s trademark faces all wear different versions of the pompadour, a delicate hairdo all the rage in pre-Revolutionary France. The portraits balance androgynous caginess with alarming contemporary excess. Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, 1086 Queen West, 416-537-8827. July 6 to 29.

Switzer’s mix

Toronto-based video artist Sharon Switzer uses combinations of video and text to play with notions of expectation and disappointment. Technically formidable and sometimes achingly clean, but with just the right touch of lo-fi noise, her video backgrounds frame the pithy and occasionally wonky humour of her texts. Corkin Shopland Gallery, 55 Mill, building 61, 416-979-1980. To June 25.

Marriott checks in

Easy To Assemble , internationally exhibited sculptor John Marriott ‘s brightly coloured and deconstructed shed, adds some whimsy to the summer landscape on King West while raising issues about perception. Depending on where you’re standing, the sculpture looks drastically different. Its kinetic angles and colour give it a pleasant dynamism that make it appear as if it might be folding or unfolding – into what is entirely up to you. Toronto Sculpture Garden, 115 King East, www.torontosculpturegarden. com. To September 15.

Group of Seven nudes?

A latecomer to the group of seven, Edwin Holgate has often been neglected or marginalized. A retrospective at Montreal’s Musée des Beaux-Arts last summer aimed to change all that, revealing him as a highly accomplished and productive artist who broadened the Group of Seven’s landscape-centred focus. The McMichael Canadian Art Collection plans to do the same with its own major retrospective of paintings, drawings and book illustrations spanning Holgate’s entire career. His portraits and nudes – set unselfconsciously against the great Canadian outdoors – are among the first notable nudes in Canadian painting. $15, stu/srs $12. 10365 Islington, Kleinburg, 905-893-1121. June 24 to September 17.

Prepare for Predators

A new exhibit organized by Ydessa Hendeles , one of the world’s most demanding and eclectic curators, is always a major event. Her new show places photography, contemporary art, antique collectibles and personal artifacts in configurations designed to trigger disconcerting and complex free associations. Included in her new show, Predators & Prey , are a tea service from the doomed Hindenburg airship, an antique vampire-killing kit, André Kertész ‘s photographs of life in a Trappist monastery and Hendeles’s own golden Gucci high heels. All summer, Saturdays only. $5. Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, 778 King West, 416-413-9400.

Lewis and Clark

Known for his rolls of 35mm film devoted to landscapes, Mark Lewis has more recently been applying the painterly tradition, especially Renaissance portraiture, to film. In this show, rear projections set the film actor Molly Parker against the quiet and majestic vastness of Algonquin Park. Monte Clark Gallery, 55 Mill, building 2, 416-703-1700. June 2 to July 23.

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