VISUAL ARTS
FEMME FUTURE: WRESTLING W RESIDENCY Femme Future turns the Art Hut into a multi-media imagining of a feminist wrestling utopia. A circular, hand-built ring in the centre of the room acts as a wrestling platform and stage, where performers throughout the city will be invited to make use of the space. The installation also features video from a yearlong documentation process by league member, Amy Siegel. Gladstone Art Hut (1181 Queen St. W., 647-7937026). Until April 9.
FRANCIS ALYS: A STORY OF NEGOTIATION Creating art that is equal parts poetic, political, beautiful and absurd, Francis Alys (Belgian, born 1959) engages directly with urgent social issues, from the war in Afghanistan to border politics around the world. Organized in conjunction with the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and making its only Canadian stop in Toronto, this exhibition surveys some of Alys’s most significant projects of the last two decades. Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. W., 416-979-6648). Until Sunday.
JANET MACPHERSON: A CANADIAN BESTIARY is an unprecedented group of installations where the artist uses her unique visual language to convey a very personal view of Canada. Through four immersive installations that include sound design by Justin Haynes and Janet Macpherson, with video projections by Renée Lear, Macpherson revisits moments in Canadian history and questions commonly held conceptions about the North, identity and our relationship to landscape. This exhibition was commissioned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Gardiner Museum (111 Queen’s Park, 416-586-8080). Until May 21.
KATHERINE KNIGHT: PORTRAITS AND COLLECTIONS This Toronto artist’s multi-dimensional documentation of Jane Webster’s highly personal textile collection and its rural Nova Scotian setting examines the idiosyncrasies of a handcraft craze that was all the rage in Canada 150 years ago. Through her meticulously conceived inventory of 173 stitched decorative mottos, Knight introduces a nuanced reading of the persistence of memory, tradition and narrative. She responds to the allure of this singular collection through photography, video and audio recordings, revealing how the meaning of an object can shift as it passes from hand to hand. Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre Ave., 416-599-5321). Until June 25.
THE ONE WHO KEEPS ON GIVING — MARIA HUPFIELD This exhibit gathers around an object: an oil painting of a seascape by the artist’s late mother who painted it as a young woman and signed it as Peggy Miller. It is this personal narrative that informs a performance, which took place in Parry Sound, Ontario on Georgian Bay — the setting that is also depicted on the canvas. Hupfield invited her siblings to contribute to this performance, which surrounds the memory evoked by the painting. To ground the filmed performance and to accompany the painting in the exhibition context, the contributors re-enacted the performance within the gallery space. Power Plant (231 Queens Quay W., 416-973-4949). Until May 14.
OUT OF THE DEPTHS: THE BLUE WHALE STORY retells the tragic story of 2014 and the unprecedented opportunity for research and conservation that resulted. Come face to face with the enormous 25-metre skeleton of Blue and discover the mind-blowing biology of blue whales; the humongous size of their heart, their unusual feeding behaviour, how they communicate and their evolution from land to sea. Find out how the ROM is studying their DNA to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding these large but elusive creatures and gain insight into the global decline of the blue whale population and what is being done to protect the world’s largest animal... ever. Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queen’s Park, 416-586-8000). Until Sept. 4.