Evening Hymns

Featured in Episode 6

Watch his rooftop performance

Watch his full live set

Evening Hymns is the project of Jonas Bonetta, a musician/artist/lawyer who grew up in the countryside not too far from Orono, Ontario, but currently calls Toronto home. In 2007 he released the album Farewell to Harmony under his own name and the Let’s All Get Happy Together EP under the Evening Hymns moniker. His newest album is Out of the Sparkand was released in November.

Alistair Newton

Featured in Episode 6

Watch his full interview

Alistair Newton is a playwright and director originally from Victoria, BC. He relocated to Toronto after graduating from the University of Victoria. He also founded and runs his own theater company called Ecce Homo. One of his most recent works premiered at Summerworks this past August, entitled The Ecstasy of Mother Teresa or Agnes Bojaxhui Superstar. His work aims to merge the visual, emotional and political, and his most recent work The Pastor Phelps Project: A Fundamentalist cabaret looks at the Westboro Baptist Church. FROM THE PASTOR PHELPS PROJECT PROGRAM: “Warning! Bible preaching ahead! Pastor Fred Phelps and the good people of the Westboro Baptist Church are here to explain why God hates fags and America is doomed. It’s homophobia versus burlesque in a musical cabaret showdown. Stare into the abyss of fundamentalism; sexy political satire with razor wire barbs.”

Laurie Kang

Featured in Episode 6

Watch her full interview

Laurie Kang is a recent graduate from Concordia University with a BFA in Photography. She currently lives and works out of Toronto. Her photographic work explores the construction and staging of environments, changing the ordinary into the fantastic. She has previously exhibited her work in both Montreal and Toronto.

Amanda Nedham

Featured in Episode 6

Watch her full interview

Amanda Nedham has a degree in printmaking from OCAD. She creates large scale intricate drawings around sometimes dark subject matter; her most recent exhibition at LE Gallery in Toronto featured intricately drawn torture machines and mummies. Amanda acts as both an artist and anthropologist, guiding the viewer through detailed artistic work that explores heavily researched historical events.

Megan Bradley

Featured in Episode 6

Watch her full interview

Megan Bradley is the director and founder of Galerie PUSH. As an emerging gallerist in the city of Montreal, Megan focuses on promoting new contemporary art from primarily emerging artists working in various mediums. Seeking to push the market in Montreal and Canada, Megan pulls from her previous experience as a coordinator for Montreal’s Expo Art Montreal festival, her work in event coordination and public relations, and her experience with various curatorial projects. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Concordia University. As the founder of Galerie PUSH, she has created a space for artists who are in the initial stages of their artistic careers to expose and sell their work in a highly visible location that is focused on encouraging new and existing collectors to expand the market for new contemporary art in Canada.

Sean Galbraith

Featured in Episode 5

A member of the DK photogroup, an urban explorer and a photographer, Sean Galbraith takes LNB inside the ruin of a condemned pork processing plant in Toronto’s west end and waxes philosophical about our interactions with space, structures and the histories they leave behind. Catch the DK team as they head out on a European roadtrip exploring decaying buildings for a new television show on BRAVO called PhotoXplorers. But watch this first.

Gravity Wave

Featured in Episode 5

Part performance, part musical act, part amazing, Gravity Wave is the band that leaves you wanting more. They appeared on LNB days before the release of their new album and tour. We also sat down with Kenneth Farrell who leads the group and talked about physics, growing up and what it is he’s up to on stage.

Nik Dudukovic

Featured in Episode 5

We caught up with Nik at the opening of his solo exhibition, The Secret Museum of Mankind, and spoke with him about his work, drawing and history at large. Between his meticulous draftsmanship and imaginative takes on fantastical histories, Nik’s work draws us into other worlds. Check out more of his work here.

The Boys Who Say No – Music Video – “No I Won’t”

Featured in Episode 5

We were lucky enough to have Boys Who Say No as our featured musical guest on our first episode and now it is our great pleasure to debut their first music video for “No I Won’t”. The video was beautifully shot by two of our own, Istoica.

Not just pretty faces, the indie-pop quartet Boys Who Say No – featuring the gifted Toronto natives Luke Correia-Damude (vocals/guitar/banjo), Frank Cox-O’Connell (drums/banjo), David Stein (bass), and Mike Lobel (synths/ukelele/percussion) – also provide their audience with a hefty dose of talent. Famous for their magnetic stage presence and contagious melodies, the men of Boys Who Say No are in increasingly high demand and are rapidly expanding their fan base. Currently, they are splitting their time between recording their LP and preparing for upcoming shows across Canada. Tour dates and more information can be found here.

Devon Ostrom

Featured in Episode 4

Devon is a Toronto based curator and artist whose craft work and organizing skills are the driving force behind many of the projects that we are currently excited about in Toronto. Some of his efforts include  the Manifesto Festival, H.Y.P.E at the AGO, which featured emerging graffiti artists, and the Beautiful City Billboard Fee (BCBF) campaign.  “The Beautiful City Billboard Fee proposes that the companies investing in billboard advertising be held fully accountable to the public for their access to, and impact on, public space. This initiative requires that an annual permit fee be paid by the operators of third party outdoor advertising that is over one hundred square feet. Proceeds are to be used for commissioning public art to benefit and beautify local communities.” Visit Devon’s personal website to find out more and support the Beautiful City campaign online.

Katie Bethune-Leamen

Featured in Episode 4

Toronto-based visual artist, curator and writer Katie Bethune-Leamen creates personal and fantastical tableaux using her own unique language of visual metaphors. Her works often evoke a sense of nostalgia and verge on the surreal and absurd. For Nuit Blanche 2009, Bethune-Leamen orchestrated a chorus of singers draped in luminescent fabric called Ghost Chorus: Dirge for Dead Slang, which brought back into parlance, at least for one night, forgotten slang words. Left-click here to see more magic on Katie’s website.

Finger in the Dyke Productions

Featured in Episode 4

Winnipeg-based Finger in the Dyke Productions, a two person collective comprised of multi-disciplinary artists Shawna Dempsey and Lori Millan, are famous for their provocative, politically-conscious performances and their acerbic wit . Working in the mediums of video, performance, and installation, the duo tackle notions of gender, sexuality, and social politics, often creating characters through which to express their concerns. Internationally acclaimed, with works housed in the collections of many institutions across North America, Finger in the Dyke Productions’ comprehensive catalogue raisonné can be viewed online at www.fingerinthedyke.ca.

Alpha Bot

Featured in Episode 4

Jake Roels, aka Aphabot, conducts an orchestra of synths, keyboards, and string instruments into his crazy collection of loop pedals. The result is a surreal rhythmic wave of electronic melodies which are accompanied by his eclectic vocals.  While he is sometimes backed by a band, he performed solo for Late Night in the Bedroom. Check out his music at www.myspace.com/jakeroels.

Elicser

Featured in Episode 3

Jabari “Elicser” Elliot is man of many talents. Around the city of Toronto, where he grew up, he is most famous as a graffiti artist. His cast of cartoon characters walk with us along the walls and through the alleyways, and people physically interact with his art when embracing the Hug Tree, which he painted, on Queen Street West. For Manifesto, Elicser created a wall piece, but he is also works as an illustrator and is an avid bike enthusiast, with a small two-wheeled army painted and cared for with the same attention as the distorted figures he has painted across the city. To see more of Elicser’s work, check out www.elicser.com.

Well and Good

Featured in Episode 3

Steve Ferrara and Lisa Martin head art organization Well and Good, and were instrumental in bringing together the artists who created the mind blowing Paint Your Faith Mural at the Metropolitan United Church, located at Church and Shuter. To watch a documentary made about the project, and to find out about other Well and Good projects, visit www.wellandgood.ca.

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Piotr Adas

Featured in Episode 3

This week’s episode was filmed in an installation titled Almost Inside Out, which Piotr worked on in collaboration with Adrian Dilena and Joshua Barndt. Born in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Piotr moved to Toronto to work as an artist in 2000. Inspirated by graffiti, stenciling, poster art, urban movements, and the classical European technique, Piotr’s work deals with issues in contemporary society. He has worked on murals throughout Toronto commissioned by the city, and has painted the portraits of many prominent hip-hop musicians. Most recently, Piotr has been working with a flower series in exploring the myriad ways that art can interact with the landscape. To see more of his work, visit www.adas.ca.

Roadsworth

Featured in Episode 3

Montreal-based street artist Peter “Roadsworth” Gibson has been manipulating the omnipresent street markings and signage that direct city traffic since 2001. It all began as a protest against inequality: bicycles are not allotted nearly as much space as gas-guzzling automobiles, but morphed to become a more innocuous form of urban intervention, with the artist adding onto already existing markings to create an amusing image, such as a pedestrian crossing extended to look like a giant footprint. Using his signature stencil technique, Roadsworth has expanded upon his methods. For Manifesto, for example, he created a pattern of giant fall leaves surrounding the building. More about the artist can be found at www.roadsworth.com.

Tim Moxam

Featured in Episode 3

With his supermodel looks and dulcet tones, Toronto based musician Tim Moxam has been breaking hearts across the provinces both solo and with his band Hey Bear, Whoa Bear. After listening to his deeply personal lyrics, listeners are left wanting to know more about the soulful singer, but for now will have to satisfy their yearnings by listening to his album, and if they’re lucky, by catching him performing a live show. www.myspace.com/timmoxam

Zeesy Powers

Featured in Episode 2

Zeesy Powers was born and raised in Toronto’s North West part of the city. She graduated from OCAD with a degree in painting and drawing and has consistently produced compelling works of art.  Her artwork spans various mediums including video, performance and drawing and painting. Her work has been showcased in Toronto, Germany and Japan. Most recently, she has created a series of talk show style interviews called Breakfast with Zeesy. Some of the people who she has snacked with include artists, musicians, activists and family members.  Her work can be viewed at www.zeesypowers.com.

Extermination Music Night/Bite Your Tongue

Featured in Episode 2

Since 2005, the abandoned or underused buildings and spaces of Toronto have been given new life in the form of late night events featuring experimental artists and performers. The organizers of these events, known as Extermination Music Nights, are friendly trespassers Matthew McDonough and Daniel Vila. The response among Toronto’s art community has been overwhelmingly positive, and each night draws large groups of people who travel to the outskirts of the city using directions given only on the day of the event. Make sure to keep your ears open for where the next one will be held – Extermination Music Nights only go on during the warm months, so the next one, rumoured to be happening on September 26th, may be your last chance until next year.

Peter Stebbings and Charlotte Sullivan

Featured in Episode 2

Peter Stebbings is the writer/director of his first feature film, Defendor, which is playing at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The movie stars Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings, Sandra Oh and Charlotte Sullivan.

In Defendor,  Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), a regular man who adopts a superhero persona known as Defendor, combs the city streets at night in search of his arch-enemy, Captain Industry.  In his attempts to combat crime and bring down Captain Industry, a drug and weapons dealer who he mistakenly blames for the death of his mother, Defendor ends up befriending a young prostitute, Katerina Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings).  Armed with unconventional weapons of mass confusion, aided by his new friend, and putting his life on the line, Defendor proves that everyone is capable of making a difference.

Whale Tooth

Featured in Episode 2

Local band Whale Tooth, with members Elise LeGrow (vocals), Norman Maschke (guitar/vocals), Alex Denike (guitar/vocals), Michael McCreary (bass/vocals) and Sep Noroozi (drums), have been taking the city by storm with their unique brand of hyper-energetic indie pop. With powerful vocals and tight, fast-paced sets, the energy the band emits is infectious, and it doesn’t take long for everyone in the audience to start shaking their hips. A relatively new group, having formed just over a year ago, Whale Tooth are rising rapidly, and have shows lined up across the country, as well as an upcoming LP. Visit them at www.myspace.com/whaletooth for tour dates and more information.

Che Kothari

Featured in Episode 1

Che was raised in Guelph, Ontario and moved to Toronto when he was 17 to pursue a degree in photography at Ryerson University.  His past work has included shooting portraits of Ziggy Marley, K-os, Ice Cube, Zaki Ibrahim and Faith Evans, and many others. But Che is not just a photographer.  He uses many tools other than the camera to inspire and create meaningful change.  Che has utilized his connections within the artistic community to help foster other young artists in Toronto by creating a grassroots organization called Manifesto.  The culmination of his works is a four day city wide festival called Manifesto Festival of Music, Art and Culture.  This festival features young artists, designers and musicians who perform, network and make lasting connections throughout the festival.  Check the festival out at www.themanifesto.ca.

Poster Pocket Planter Guys

Featured in Episode 1

Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung both have very different pasts.  Eric works as an architect and Sean is completing is MFA at OCAD, yet they have combined their skills to create a new project that challenges the way we interact with public space.  Known as the Poster Pocket Planter guys, they take old layers of crusty posters in the cityscape and transform them into planters for a variety of flowers and plants.  Check them out at posterpocketplants.blogspot.com.

Boys Who Say No

Featured in Episode 1

Not just pretty faces, the indie-pop quartet Boys Who Say No – featuring the gifted Toronto natives Luke Correia-Damude (vocals/guitar/banjo), Frank Cox-O’Connell (drums/banjo), David Stein (bass), and Mike Lobel (synths/ukelele/percussion) – also provide their audience with a hefty dose of talent. Famous for their magnetic stage presence and contagious melodies, the men of Boys Who Say No are in increasingly high demand and are rapidly expanding their fan base. Currently, they are splitting their time between recording their LP and preparing for upcoming shows across Canada. Tour dates and more information can be found at www.myspace.com/boyswhosayno.