The Ontario College of Art and Design hosted its 9th annual formal auction gala on November 17 at the institute’s landmark headquarters-on-stilts in Toronto. The event drew an impressive crowd of artists, presumed family members and students, and the markedly well-dressed crowd of Toronto businesspeople happily endowed with enough of a fortune to bid on the pieces starting at $1,500, a small price to pay for the time and creative energy each artist undeniably put into their work.

Beguilingly titled “Whodunnit? Mystery Art Sale”, the institute’s fundraiser seemed like an art piece in itself; the foyer ushered us into one of two directions: the Mystery Art Silent Auction (featuring 1400 artistic works, each roughly 5×7”) on the main floor, and the upper floor Emerging Artists Live Auction with full scale pieces by OCAD graduates. After befriending the main floor bartender and the snack-carrying man (I am sorry for making that face in front of you), I (under a pseudonym I might add) turned to the art itself.

The main floor’s miniature collection had a number of absolute gems, typically a current generation’s dark and depressive observation of somewhat Group-of-Seven inspired visions, collections of doll parts and bird feathers, buttons and twigs, more birds, and the occasional high school binder sketch of, dare I mention, fat penises. Each of these smaller pieces sell for $75, with the intent being that both established and unknown artists are on equal ground to the observing art shopper. Winding the wobbly staircase (or was I wobbly at that point already?) upstairs to the live auction, we were confronted by a veritable sea of shiny people, thick-rimmed glasses, and perhaps quasi-celebrities, where it seemed their appearances were more visible than the art itself.

OCAD has not yet released the amount of money raised from the live auction, but emerging artists supported by their university’s events like this can presumably feel reassured by Toronto’s established and emerging art patrons themselves.

~ Susan Burke

Whodoesn’t want to go to Whodunnit?