Nuit Blanche, an annual autumn event held in downtown Toronto, originally began in Paris, France during the year of 2002. This exhibit was developed in order to bring contemporary art to publicized ample spaces. Nuit Blanche annually brings over one million people to this event in the streets of Paris. In 2005, the Parisian organizers of the event contacted Toronto and a number of European countries hoping to expand this successful event. They effectively expanded into Toronto, Brussels, Rome, Bucharest, Riga, Madrid, La Valette, Portugal, Tokyo, Montreal, and Leeds – each city presenting their own all-night art exhibit.
Pierrick Sorin – Building Artist in Paris, France
For one single night only during each year, hundreds of artists and hundreds of thousands art-lovers come together to experience the heart of downtown Toronto being transformed into a sunset-to-sunrise celebration of modern art. Everywhere you look there is a different piece of art. From the subway and storefronts, to churches and parks, you are able to create your own path to view the many different pieces of contemporary art. Whether the individual piece of art takes up an entire building, or just a small portion of the middle of the street, it is all bound to wow you with pure creativity.
In art classes, we draw something on canvas from 3D to 2D. But Alexa Meade, 24-year-old artist, paints portraits reversely. This installation artist applies acrylic paints directly on her subjects, mostly real standing people, and makes the scene look a part of the 2D painting. An art technique Trompe L’Oeilmeans ‘deceive the eye’ which involve exceedingly realistic effort to create the optical illusion; for instance, some pictures from Kyle’s street art are good examples of Trompe L’Oeil.
Trompe L'Oeil
Escaping Criticism-by Pere Borrell del Caso
Paris Eiffel Tower and a gap by Julian Beever
So, back to the discussion about Alexa Meade, her artworks are considered reverse Trompe L’Oeil. When we look at the photo, it seems as if the objects are optically compressed into two dimensional planes.
Alexa Meade has her B.A in political science from Vassar College, NY (2009).Yet she has never attended art school. In 2008, she started experimental art painting on people.
It was very difficult for me to choose just one subject to talk about art. Thinking what would be the most interesting to share about, I came across the idea of optical illusion. And I had to admit that the entire transformation of Meade’s process is remarkably impressing. In fact, Tromp L’Oeil technique is quite closely connected to our real life. (I guess at least one people from our class has seen a white t-shirt with a tie print.) Not only the images are quizzical and exciting, they are worthwhile producing if you are the one who likes to deceive the audience’s eyes like myself. For my fellow grade twelve art students, playing with art shouldn’t be remote within traditional framed styles.
Frida Kahlo was born in Coyoacan, on July 6th 1907- July 13th 1954. Kahlo was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother with a Spanish and Mexican Indian descent. She was best known for her incredible self-portraits. All her portraits are known for there “pain and passion” along with vibrant colors. Her work has sometimes been characterized as “Naïve art” or “Folk art”. Frida, as a teenager suffered from problems that later turned into lifelong health problems. Kahlo said, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best. “
What I really like about Kahlo’s portraits is that she expresses her emotions throughout each one. She used painting as a form of self-therapy. In Kahlo’s portrait “The Broken Column”, she shows the viewers that once again she’s all alone. Unlike in most of her other portraits she has either some sort of animal or an interesting background filled with leaves and plants. The reason why she has all these straps holding her up is because she feels she has no one to help her therefore she has to do it alone, once again. This portrait is representing all the awful physical problems she’s had in the past, like when she was 18 and was seriously injured in a bus accident, leaving her with a fractured spine, collarbone and ribs, a shattered pelvis and a shoulder and foot injury.
Overall, I really enjoy all her pieces and find them very interesting. Over her life time she’s created around 200 paintings and drawing relating to her life experiences. She’s done 55 self-portraits, that all tell interesting stories about her physical and emotional pain. When asked why she had painted so many self-portraits, she once again replied with “because I am so often alone…because I am the subject I know best.
