FOUR ONE SIX

Image credit: Will Munro Infinity, 2010, stitched fabric, 34 x 58 inches. Courtesy of the Estate of Will Munro.

AGYU starts 2012 by looking back. The exhibition Will Munro: History, Glamour, Magic is about the history Will based his work on and the history he was; his glam subjects and the glamourous one he was; the magic dimension of his last work and his magic that lives on.

Celebrating the life and work of Toronto’s beloved Will Munro—the lively centre of so many overlapping communities as DJ, music promoter, activist, queer community catalyst, and visual artist—the AGYU opens a major retrospective exhibition on Wednesday January 11, 6-9 PM that attempts to capture the full scope of the Will Munro experience…right down to his underwear! The exhibition continues until March 11, 2012.

The exhibition concentrates on the multi-media work Munro produced after graduating from OCAD in 2000, i.e., from his first exhibition Boys Do First Aid (2000) to his last, Inside the Solar Temple of the Cosmic Leather Daddy (2010): from his various signature underwear work (his handcrafted underwear made, for instance, from heavy metal concert T-shirts); the banners of legendary queer performers such as Klaus Nomi and Leigh Bowery; his stitching collaborations with West Side Stitches Couture Club, Jeremy Laing, and others, which includes the restaging of The Pavilion of Virginia Puff-Paint, his collaboration with Laing made for the AGYU in 2004; his experimental films; the multitude of hand-made silkscreen posters that accompanied his DJ’ing and music promotions at his venues Vazaleen, Peroxide, No T.O., and Moustache. The dynamic exhibition will be punctuated by a collection of never before seen ephemera and archival material that stitches together the many vibrant activities of this non-stop artist. The exhibition is generously sponsored by Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex.