Graffiti Art and Happenstance

Some of you might already be familiar with this infamous Graffiti artist's work. The angular female face with heavy eyelids is littered across alley ways, garage doors, and building walls small and wide in downtown Toronto's commercial settings, residential neighbourhoods, you name it. A series of events transpired since I first fell in love with this face in October, 2008, which led me to come very close to meeting the mysterious Graffiti artist, purchasing their artwork and discovering a hip new art gallery along the way.



I had seen this face (or according to 416streets.com, more commonly known in flickr/blog discussions as the painted lady) in passing, but the first time I actively recognized it was when I was heading Southbound on the Spadina streetcar near College Street. It was love at first site. I was dumbfounded, completely drawn to its heavy Modigliani-inspired almond eyes. I was reminded of Francesco Clemente's portraits that I came across as a youth, the signature detail being disproportionately large eyes.

In December as I was browsing through photographs at a Christmas craft sale at the Tranzac in the Annex, much to my delight I stumbled across a photograph of the familiar black and white painted lady (see above). I immediately forked out $20 to purchase it. When inquiring about the location of the image and the artist's information, the vendor informed me that the photograph was taken outside of a Second Cup on Yonge Street, south of Bloor, but that since then, this image has been painted over. They had no idea who the artist was, but had also been drawn to these faces that peak out of Toronto streetscapes. Graffiti art is pretty unstable; transient, fleeting. One minute it's there, the next an establishment, the City of Toronto, or some official authority paints over it. I guess this is when we're grateful for photographs. I have this piece of artwork captured in a photograph, yet the original no longer exists. Do people remember it? Does anyone else have it?

Well, yes, someone else does. So in January, I was supposed to play pool at the Raq N Waq on Queen West, but the fancy clothes and loud music were a major deterrent, and since on our way over there we had seen an empty dive bar with pool tables, we moved our party over to this other place (the name will not be revealed, as we're claiming it for our own). Late into the night, a group of young guys came in and when my friend spent her last two quarters on Warren G's Regulate on the jukebox, there must have been some serious appreciation because one of them handed me a card with.... a colour version of the my beloved painted lady. I was truly taken aback. The card (see above) they handed to me was promoting a show at their art gallery which was called "A Mysterious Date with Anser". Anser, at least now I had a tag name for this Graffiti artist. They even said that I may get to meet the artist.... Well as my schedule would have it, that Thursday I was at a spoken word event at the Toronto Women's Bookstore, and did not make it to the gallery. But, fueled by my desire to know and see more of this artist, I ended up making my way over weeks later.

And let me tell you, the artwork is stunning. At Funktion Gallery, there are wall-sized portraits on canvases, pieces on wood, and numerous prints, sketches, photographs and more. A Toronto street art blog covers the opening in one of their posts and you gotta read it: http://www.416streets.com/2009/02/anser/09/02/anser/ . The gallery seems pretty new, only about a month old, and run by that group of young peeps we met, who look like they're in their 20s, so I was pretty impressed. When asked about how they ran across this artist, they said that his (yes it's a male artist) manager approached them and asked them to put on the show. An interview with the artist from the Torontoist tells me otherwise; they're just buddies. However, they weren't allowed to disclose any more information regarding his identity, as Graffiti is illegal and all, and this talented artist wants to remain anonymous. In any case I bought numerous prints. The photographs (first graphic above) are by the artist himself taking pictures of his own graffiti. I also got a very fun hoodie with a portrait silk-screened on it. If you like this hoodie and have also been curious about the painted lady, I would highly recommend that you walk over to Bloordale Village (opposite the House of Lancaster between Dufferin & Landsdowne) to check out and support these young curators' space and take a peak at some of Anser's artwork. The show has been extended until March 14th, so you're in luck!

Since we're on the topic of Graffiti art, this might be the coolest video ever of Graffiti art (in motion!): http://www.vimeo.com/993998 ! Enjoy.

S.