Will Munro: Total Eclipse

WILL MUNRO (1975–2010)

It would be a challenge to find someone else who inhabited this city as fully as Will Munro. He was an artist, organizer, activist, deejay, promoter and restaurant owner, and he made no distinction between these roles. They were all creative functions through which he made important contributions to the cultural life of Toronto.

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

The artworks gathered here demonstrate Munro’s passion for music and performance; they also reveal his interest in do-it-yourself techniques and popular culture. By using hand-stitching and silk-screening to interpret celebrity portraits and band symbols, Munro created personalized tributes to his heroes, whether they were icons of the punk, disco, new wave or underground performance scenes. In his visual artwork, as in all of his other activities, Munro brought together seemingly disparate individuals in a unified expression of creativity and community.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Will Munro was born in 1975, and spent his childhood and teenage years in Mississauga. He attended the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he studied sculpture and installation. In 1999, he founded Vazaleen, a now legendary series of dance parties. In 2006, he and Lynn MacNeil purchased the Beaver Café, a hub of artistic, musical and social activity at Queen Street West and Gladstone Avenue in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood. Munro’s visual artwork has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at numerous venues including Art in General, New York; Mercer Union, Toronto; Art Gallery of York University, Toronto; and Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto.