Working in the creative field sometimes can feel like a mental depreciation of creativity when we are constantly solving problems. We are stepping out from our creative shoes of interior design and reaching out to other creative outlets for inspiration. We wanted to call it Renao World. That was where the idea of picking Renao’s favourite was born. We will try to do this every month, but not promising it yet. That being said, we begin our blogging journey. We would like to present to you our 1st blog for Renao World!
Renao favourite will feature place, building, interior, people, art, product, almost anything or everything that we find fascinating and maybe add a bit more value to your world through ours.
Renao Favourite Pick #1
Tiny Art Gallery , Kingston, Ontario
Honestly we have never seen such a cute art gallery in our life although we went there after evening. It felt like a movie set as it was in the middle of a residential neighborhood and the only source of light was the dimly lit street light. We had used our phone flashlight to spot it on someone’s fence. The little gallery itself is hanging off someone’s backyard fence. Yes you heard it right. It just made us smile.
The gallery showcases one art per month with local artists which is so cool! This month it is an untitled piece by Julianna Brazil.
This whole concept of a tiny gallery in a residential area, far away from the downtown core made us think a lot about the civic point of interest. Why not create something in the neighborhood you live in? This person who created this gallery did exactly that. We should not just be heading home to live our lives, this could be an idea to give back to the community and create a point of interest where people like us show up from Toronto hoping to find something really cool. It really created curiosity among passersby. Maybe you are walking your dog or jogging and you find a little gallery on the side of the street to stop and think about the art. We found this tiny gallery idea really interesting!
I hope after reading this blog you will also feel encourage to check it out.
Renao Favourite Pick #2
Agnes Etherington Gallery. Kingston, Ontario
This gallery is located in Queens university campus and has an incredible art collection from quite a few contemporary indigenous artists like Noval Morrisseau, Kenojauk Ashevak, Robert Houle, R Gray Miller; just to name a few. Lot of these artists live to tell the horrifying residential school experience which is portrayed in the work art through painting, printmaking or beading. If you follow us on Instagram, we went to explore art gallery The Room in St John Newfoundland last year and we felt very similar vibe of art exhibiting.
We are especially in love with Lukta Qiatsuq art piece of Arctic Shore Birds. Beautiful contrast of colour. We are also incredibly moved by Noval Morrisseau’s work which was all lined up on one wall. The bold colour and contrast gave away a very strong present among the other artists’ works. There were many incredible pieces. We would highly recommend you visit the gallery.
Renao Favourite Pick #3
The Bag Lady Variety. London, Ontario
Okay, so we had to go to London and got really hungry at lunch time so we were on a mission to find a place to eat. We stumbled upon this really corky little restaurant plus a vintage store in a residential area. We ordered a poutine; it was so good. Apart from the food, we had never seen such a unique store before. The decorations are so colourful and vintage pieces from 1950-60s some of them maybe even older. It has a diner setup like the movies you watch. You can find some vintage kitchen tools as well. This place also carries comic books from different periods of time. The place has such a perky vibe and cute vintage decor all around, it just makes you feel nostalgic. We believe you can buy some of the items as well.
Oh yes last thing is this has the best salt and pepper shaker we ever seen!
Renao Favourite Pick #4
Anna Wilson Exhibition – Westland Gallery. London, Ontario
We swear it was an accident! We have been following Anna Wilson’s works for a while. We were at the westland gallery just to explore and we found out that the Anna Wilson exhibition is taking place in the gallery. We could not be more thrilled when we get to see her artwork in person. We were awe-inspiring with incredible pencil details for each work. Our favourite work has to be the tree. There is something calm and simple about it. You will feel the serenity, it looks like the long thin stand with leaves are weaving with the wind. Our 2nd favourite has to be the vintage chair floating in the negative space. It possibly explores the positive and negative spaces, at least that is our interpretation.
Renao Favourite Pick #5
Eberhard Zeidler Library-Daniels Faculty of Architecture. Toronto, Ontario
The 1 Spadina Crescent of Daniels faculty of Architecture at UofT has a long standing history on Toronto urban fabric. But we are not going to talk about it on this blog. We focus on this beautiful Eberhard Zeidler library that is located inside of this building. This place holds an amazing collection of architecture, interior, urbanism design books. Although if you are not a U of T student you need a special card to borrow books which is quite pricey. But this library is open everyday for certain hours for anyone to visit and explore their collections. If you are looking for a place to work, this is a great place. When we were there it was pretty quiet as well for working. It has been our favourite library that is only dedicated to resources that focus on art of buildings. We got to say it’s a pretty cool place for professionals such as interior designers, architects, urban designers and even developers.
This concludes our 5 favourite picks for January. If you would like to collaborate, please get in touch with us at hello@renaodesignstudio.com.
