We came, we saw, we bought art! Art Toronto’s Opening Night is a great mix of amazing contemporary art, artists and art lovers. For the past 19 years, it’s also an important evening for AGO curators to view great new art and add to the AGO Collection. Party guests are the first to find out (and check out) what the AGO has acquired. This year was no exception.

Through funds raised at the event held on October 25, along with AGO acquisition funds, our curatorial team acquired two exciting new works. One by Ligwilda'xw Kwakwaka'wakw artist Sonny Assu from Vancouver’s Equinox Gallery and the other from Toronto-based artist Ken Nicol from Olga Korper Gallery.

Sonny Assu’s vivid Re-Invaders: Digital Intervention on an Emily Carr Painting (Indian Church, 1929) overlays an iconic Emily Carr painting of the church at Yuquot village from 1929 with neon pink 3-D Indigenous design elements. Now living in Ligwilda'xw Territory of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations, Assu was unaware of his Indigenous roots until he was eight years old. This is the first work by the artist to be added to the AGO Collection.

Nicol’s field II, June 27 –Sept. 7, 2017, is a large-scale detailed ink on paper with hand-drawn tally marks. This piece is the second in a pair of works by Nicol, similarly timed and composed, but made 15 years apart. The work is striking and exquisite in its simplicity and builds on recurring themes in Nicol’s practice such as repetitive detail, order and actions. This is the first work by Nicol to enter the AGO Collection.

Stay tuned to find out when you’ll see these works on display at the AGO!

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