The Artfag is the enfant maudit of Toronto art criticism (although, in Toronto, everyone loves an enfant maudit). He is the Masked Avenger in pink sunglasses and an Hermes scarf. He is the sole author of ARTFAG: A Cahier of Criticism and Witticism, an independently published and distributed 'zine and www.artfag.ca, a charming little archival website. He prefers writing in the first person plural to the third person.
We have never been terribly superstitious, but the Grand Unveiling of the newly renovated and open-for-business Gladstone Hotel was preceded by some fairly amusing, and somewhat portentous omens.
Memo to the Art Gallery of Ontario: fire your marketing staff. Initially, we welcomed the news that the AGO would be hosting an Andy Warhol show. Until, that is, we saw the ads. Far from being clever and savvy, these ads actually raise the not-entirely-unrealistic prospect that the AGO had never ever heard of Warhol, nor had they any clue what he had ever done.
full story
printer version
