401 Richmond Picks: Yorodeo @ Open Studio, Lara Rosenoff @ Gallery 44, Dianne Pearce @ Red Head

This weekend, Culture Days features free arts events from coast to coast. But it’s worth remembering that art shows are always free of charge at 401 Richmond. Today the National Post has published a few of my site picks for now and later: Yorodeo @ Open Studio, Lara Rosenoff (and Melanie Friend) @ Gallery 44 and Dianne Pearce @ Red Head (the latter closes today, so if you're in the area—perhaps for Gabby Moser's 1pm tour of the building for the Canadian Art Gallery Hop, also recommended—you'll want to drop by to catch it. An excerpt of the reviews:

1. Yorodeo at Open Studio
104-401 Richmond St. W., to Oct. 30

This is the most fun I’ve had in a gallery all year. Forget 2010’s buzz about 3-D TV and 3-D magazines — Halifax’s Yorodeo, which started as a gig-poster company in 2003, branched out into 3-D art prints in 2008. This Toronto premiere of their eye-popping oeuvre (accompanied by a bin of retro, blue-and-red-lensed cardboard glasses) features out-there imagery and excellent execution. The content, admittedly, mostly runs the Comic-Con-to-indie-hipster spectrum: There are crystal igloos in darkened, bat-filled caves; wolves prowling bottled cities; and skyscrapers growing out of clouds — a more analogue version, perhaps, of Star Wars’ Cloud City. But there’s also a sweet, fairy-tale quality that comes across in scenes of a dog-coached dogsled wending through snowy mountains, mystical worlds attached to swimming turtles’ backs and braided waterfalls flanked by turrets. A series of smaller vignettes — a rooster in a peaked cap and lace collar, an elf napping in a peanut shell and winged horses out to pasture — also charm with precise, ridiculous medievalism. Throughout, Yorodeo’s craft shines; rather than being muddled like old-school 3-D, these scenes are clear, standing up to extended viewing. Overall, a delightful twist on op-art and printmaking traditions.

(Image of someone giving their eyeballs a treat at Open Studio by Sara Kelly, via the National Post)