Links we’re loving

It may be freezing cold outside, but these links are hot off the presses! We’ve gathered some of the quirkiest, most interesting arts and culture news making the rounds online. Get the inside scoop and check out what our team at the AGO is loving this week.    

There was big news from the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) last week. Alexandra (Sasha) Suda, currently the AGO’s Curator of European Art and the R. Fraser Elliott Chair of Prints and Drawings, has been appointed as the NGC’s new Director and CEO. Although we’ll miss her, we’re excited to see her take on this exciting post in Ottawa.   

There was an unlikely Toronto connection in The New York Times this week. Ai Weiwei, whose exhibition opens at the Gardiner Museum at the end of the month, sat down for an interview with none other than Frank Gehry, architect and designer of the most recent expansion to the AGO.

In a her-story making move, photographs by Mickalene Thomas will be featured on the cover of the March issue of Out Magazine. Traditionally a publication featuring gay men, this issue is the first to feature stories of women and non-binary femmes. Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires is on view now at the AGO.   

In other buzzworthy news: Quartz is reporting that scientists in Australia successfully taught bees how to differentiate between different styles of art.

Was Da Vinci a secret sculptor? Reigniting a century old debate, a Neapolitan scholar re-attributed the sculpture The Virgin with the Laughing Child to the Italian master. If he’s correct, this would be Da Vinci’s only known sculptural work.

Does the surrealist work of Salvador Dali leave you guessing at the artist’s meaning? Maybe a chat with Dali himself would help. This April, The Dali Museum in Tampa, Florida will launch a new artificial intelligence (AI) installation called Dali Lives, in which hewill share insights into his work, and even comment on current affairs.

Is Instagram killing abstract art? With the help of advanced algorithms, researchers have determined the top 10 works of art “grammed” during the 2018 Miami Art Week. See the results, reported by Artsy.

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