Art

For the past six months, Dale Chihuly, a venerable giant in the art of glass sculpture, has held court at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Visiting the ROM and experiencing his masterful and extraordinary glass ceilings, chandeliers, baskets and personal collections, has been the perfect way to end 2016. The exhibit closes January 8, 2017, but if you miss it, Chihuly’s public installations and gallery collections can be found around the globe.

The ROM, Canada’s largest museum, is internationally renowned for its research and collection of art, world culture and natural history. As one of my favourite places to visit in Toronto, I’ve watched the ROM grow and expand. In 2002, work began on a major expansion project, Renaissance ROM. The most intriguing, and contentious, project at that time was the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a Deconstructivist crystalline structure created by architect Daniel Libeskind. [1] The Crystal expansion brought the natural history and dinosaur exhibits out of the dark and into a light-filled backdrop, giving old bones new life with a larger sense of scale and majesty.

“The museum contains notable collections of dinosaurs, minerals and meteorites, Near Eastern and African art, Art of East Asia, European history, and Canadian history. It houses the world’s largest collection of fossils.” [2]

Speaking of light, it seems as if Chihuly’s exhibit exchanged places with the dinosaurs, as it is located in the darkroom-like basement of the Crystal. As you enter the exhibit, you are lead through eleven installations set against black plexiglass and dark walls, soft spotlights and blue neon – all of which leaves you feeling like you’re Alice in Wonderland, walking through another world.

Chihuly, an American sculptor and entrepreneur, expanded his journey in glassblowing through interior design, weaving, and sculpture. With glass as his canvas and muse, Chihuly may be part scientist and part magician, but he is fully artistic and poetic. His approach to glass sculpting is team-based, which he learned as he worked with traditional glassblowers in Murano, Italy.

“Working with a team of master glassblowers and assistants has enabled him to produce architectural glass art of a scale and quantity unimaginable working alone or with only one assistant.” [3]

At the ROM, his intimate and immersive exhibit spans over 40 years of work. Here are my highlights:

Ikebana Boat

Laguna Torcello

Laguna Torcello

Jerusalem Cylinders

Fire Orange Baskets

Sapphire Neon Tumbleweeds

Persian Ceiling

Northwest Room, Chihuly’s Personal Collection

Watch Chihuly’s Mille Fiori and learn about his process

By Jessica Donne

November 1, 2016

Toronto is a walking city.

As a bona fide downtown flaneur, jaywalker, occasional jogger and pack-mule, I walk everywhere. My mother says I never sat still for long and was always exploring for inspiration and ideas. Cities have that effect. They draw people into their vibrant noise and creativity. Cities are a reflection of the mega-talented hit-makers, the stealth street artists, the anarchist experimenters.

Standing in line is not my thing, but in Toronto, I tend to meet the most interesting people. I prefer to move and if I can see some art along the way, even better.

Here’s a easy walking tour of Toronto’s indoor and outdoor art scene that can be done in a loop, and started from any point. Don’t worry, there are plenty of places to sit and take in some interesting people watching. Toronto has the best of both.