iOnsite Gallery (OCAD University)Entertainment District, Downtown
Forty years of sculpture, painting, traditional materials, interior and graphic design, film art direction and public art by Cree Métis siblings Rebecca and Kenny Baird.
Outside, look up at the street-level mural the siblings made for this show: two crows, one with a pearl in its beak. Kenny Baird admits, with what the gallery calls a sassy smile, that the pearl stands for his sister Rebecca's pearls of wisdom.
Inside is the first retrospective of the two Cree Métis artists, who arrived in Toronto's Queen Street West punk scene in the late 1970s. Rebecca's side is painting, sculpture, public art and work in glass seed beads, sweetgrass and porcupine quills. Kenny's is interiors, graphic design and art direction, including a set for David Bowie's Little Wonder video. He also designed interiors for the Drake Hotel, so plenty of Torontonians have had a drink inside his work.
No critic has reviewed it yet. Entry is free, and Onsite stays open until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. Rebecca leads a beaded rosette workshop on 16 October (register by email), and both siblings talk with the curator on 24 October, 1 to 3 p.m.
Lost in the Right Direction, the street mural
Look for the two crows on the vinyl mural outside at street level; in Cree stories crows are tricksters and teachers, and one holds a pearl for Rebecca.
returning to ourselves, the beadwork
The piece the show is named after is a narrow strip of orange glass seed beads stitched onto blue cotton, about 60 cm long.