The festival runs the entire month of May with the theme “Figure & Ground” and features traditional exhibits in galleries and restaurants, and also a number of public installations and open exhibits.

The full calendar is available online, and there’s even a mobile app. We, of course, want to highlight some exhibits and events in and around Ossington Village.

On Sunday, May 1 between 6 and 9PM, head over to The Painted Lady for the opening of owner Nikki Potter’s exhibit, States of Undress: The Big Easy. The walls will be filled with her work for the entirety of May.

At the same time, 6-9PM Sunday May 1, Brockton General will host an opening for Ian Brewster‘s Cover of Night.

From 6-9PM this Thursday night, Angell Gallery launches two Contact exhibits, including Long Divisions by Geoffrey Pugen.

Also that night from 7-11PM at Levack Block is the opening for Pigeons and Powerlines by Mark Binks.

If you can’t make it out for the openings, these exhibits should be up all of May. Also, check out the Contact displays at Alison Milne Gallery.

There will be lots to see and experience this May with the Scotiabank Photography Festival. For more recommendations in other parts of the city, try these sites. It’s a city-wide event with a lot of variety, so go explore yourself!

Joe is both celebrating and looking back on the year with a book of photos from the year as well as an event this Thursday and showcase at the studio over the next month showcasing 30 of the great artists from the past year.

The book is a great retrospective of the work in the neighbourhood, bringing back memories of nights on Ossington, the G20 conference in the city, Halloween portraits and many exhibits at the show, including one of my favourite exhibits, Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, a showcase of the work of Vince Carlucci with pictures of punk rockers from the 70s and 80s. There are only a limited amount of books that Joe has available, so head on over and grab one to pick up some Ossington history.

Joe also keeps a great Tumblr blog which has a great archive of last year’s pictures here.

The exhibition is running from the Thursday night opening until May 15th.

Below are a couple of the pictures from the blog that you can also find in the book, and maybe even for sale in the studio next month.

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.

Apart from the fundraising there are some great works displayed. Check the preview out online at their site here, but better yet see it in person at 56 Ossington. It’s always better that way!