Last week, we were invited for a personal tour by Craig Boyko and Eugene Paunil, two of the artists who founded 1st Run. Their art, and those of Ian Vandenberg and Mark Mazurak, are part of the exhibit running through this weekend. These artists, and some of their friends, spent their nights cleaning out and renovating the space to make it functional and accessible for their art, and, being artists, they filmed the entire process. The video was playing in the back room of the gallery while we were there, and you can watch it here as well!

Craig’s thought is that 194 Ossington could be a permanent co-op gallery with different artists renting it out for shows and events, a sort of rotating line-up of Toronto’s emerging art stars. As he pointed out, most of the galleries are on the south end of Ossington, and then on Dundas west, so 194 makes a nice addition to this side of the street.

This weekend is the last weekend of 1st Run at 194 Ossington. Like I said, check out this creative place, and the inventive folks behind it, before it’s gone.

Want to see how the space was transformed? Check out this great video Craig made of the transformation of Monarch into 1st Run.

1st Run - from Brian Sharwood on Vimeo.