Toronto's AGO Is A Definite GO!

The Art Gallery of Ontario completed our self-assigned 'High Five' tour of attractions, courtesy of City PASS Toronto The AGO is the little gallery that grew from a cute 1817 Georgian house called 'The Grange' into it's current international gallery and architectural status. Thank a Frank Gehry 2008 makeover for the latter label.

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A film clip of Monet at Giverny is part of an exhibit currently on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art, tracing the evolution of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

We took a top down approach, beginning our tour with an elevator to the fourth floor Impressionist exhibit.

My fav artists were well represented, but never enough for me!

There was even a selfie setup within the exhibit.

Vincent van Gogh's 'Sheaves of Wheat' painted in July 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, shortly before the painter's death.

If you are like me, the urge to frame viewers and artwork is an irrepressible visual exercise.

Further to matching people with art, we stepped outside for a breather and lunch just as a work crew was setting up on the street.

The AGO has installed a colouful, bright cafeteria, but for something different this day we went next door for an ooey gooey doner kebab.

Meanwhile, back at the Gallery everyone was hard at viewing.

The notable Thomson collection (from newspaper publisher Ken Thomson) includes many works by the Canadian 'Group of Seven' landscape painters.

You'll find a wide range of art from contemporary to classics paintings, indigenous works to Henry Moore sculpture, intricate religious carvings to model ships.

Miniature portrait busts in ivory, marble and alabaster.

I've always liked the simple scenes by William Kurelek. As a newspaper photographer I made a portrait of him lit by a bare ceiling bulb suspended in his basement stairwell. The simplicity was deliberate.

Follow the curved stairs overlooking the old Grange at the back of the building for a view of the Ontario College of Art (the dalmation-style building) and the city skyline.

Everyone should feel at home in a gallery, eh?.

Asteroid 3033 X1 (2025) by Canadian sculptor Ranbir Sidhu. the 24-foot long polished metal structure weighing more than 5,000 pounds was imagined as carrying Earth's memory into space.

© Gary Crallé 2026