Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Denyse is coming home to the AGO this fall   By Stephen Weir Early in October the Art Gallery of Ontario is presenting the first major retrospective exhibition of the late Trinidadian-Canadian artist  Denyse Thomasos.  She is considered one the finest painters to emerge in the 1990s. The exhibition is entitled  Denyse Thomasos: just beyond  and is co-organized by the AGO and the Remai Modern art gallery in Saskatoon.  “Thomasos had a singular style that employed abstraction as a means to explore contemporary issues of race, the architecture of confinement and our complex relationships to space and place, and the environment” said the AGO in a recent release about the coming show.   Denyse Thomasos: just beyond  is co-organized by the AGO and Saskatoon’s Remai Modern contemporary art gallery. Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Thomasos was raised in Toronto and spent most of her professional career in Philadelphia and New York City. Thomasos ear...

. Handcuffs led to marriage and a strange encounter with Canada's grand master of photography: Thaddeus Holownia. Why it is worth checking out the Jane Corkin Gallery's launch of a new Thaddeus show this  Saturday in Toronto.  . Huffington Post Blog  by Stephen Weir  Hollownia Flickr photo by Christopher Mackay Back story: It was the fall of 1969. Somehow at the age of 16 I got accepted at the new Windsor University and I left my Renfrew home, pretty well for good.  It was me and a huge number of Americans  avoiding the draft and Vietnam who enrolled in an advanced style of Grade 13 - Windsor's Q-Year. IT was mandatory to live in residence if you made it into Q-year.  Most days were spent in the residence lounge since it was the one room on campus with a working stereo record player. I was listening to Jimi Hendrix for the very first time when a beautiful girl I'd never seen  on campus sat next to me waiting her turn to put on an LP....

MZTV Museum of Television Loans Marilyn Monroe’s Personal TV plus Exclusive Videos of Monroe’s Rare TV Appearances to McMichael Blockbuster Exhibition Precious 1957 Magnavox on view until May 15, 2011 only!   Until May 15, visitors to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection can view Marilyn Monroe’s personal and portable 1957 Magnavox black-and-white television.  The set is on loan to the McMichael from Toronto’s MZTV Museum of Television & Archive. Purchased at a Christie’s auction in 1999, the precious set – displaying the inevitable wear and tear from Monroe’s frequent travels – was in her Brentwood, California home the night she died in August 1962.   In addition, the MZTV Museum of Television & Archive has loaned its exclusive video collection of Monroe’s three rare TV appearances.  Visitors can watch Monroe’s purring delivery in a commercial for Royal Triton Gasoline, her deft comic appearance as the stereotypical “dumb blonde” on CBS’ “The Jack B...