FLASH: Five top artists to donate work to The Autists’ live auction

Great news — already — from our newly installed Art Curator, Mr Charles Pachter: He has sought and received pledges from five prominent artists to donate work to The Autists for the live auction portion of the event.

Here’s a little about each of them and a few peeks at their work.

Viktor Mitic, a native of Belgrade, Serbia, is a master of the stylized portrait and vivid, colour-saturated abstracts among his other techniques and approaches.

His work has shown in Japan, Serbia and his current base, Toronto, and hangs in the private collections of many well-known Canadians, from former Prime Ministers and ministers to sports celebrities.

Check out more of his work here.

Joanne Tod is a Toronto artist and lecturer whose vast array of superbly crafted work has been exhibited nationally and internationally over the past 20 years.

Joanne’s work spans portraiture as well as Pop Art-inspired social critique and examination. It is on display in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Montreal’s musee d’art contemporain, as well as private art collectors.

See more of her work here.

Kim Dorland is a Canadian-born artist whose work examines the psychic, nostalgic spaces of his Canadian upbringing.

His work regularly shows in galleries internationally and is part of collections at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Neumann Family Collection in New York and the Sander Collection in Berlin, as well as several corporate portfolios.

See much more of Kim’s work here.

Thrush Holmes is a talented artist based in Toronto. The OCAD alumnus has had work recently shown in galleries in Ottawa, California, Toronto, Ireland and many other cities and countries. Self-taught, he tackles notions of art, myth, introspection and biography via a great variety of mediums, and to great effect.

His work is also in Elton John’s private collection, and is regularly featured in influential publications.

See more of his art here.

Kent Monkman is an artist of Cree ancestry who works in a variety of media including paint, film/video, performance and installation. His approach swirls over, under and in between extreme in-your-face hellraising and witty social critique. One thing it’s not is dull.

He has exhibited widely within Canada and is well represented in numerous private and public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

See more of Kent’s work here (and don’t miss the Louis Vuitton quiver).

All in all an exceptional lineup for an art event. An unbelievable one for a fundraiser.

All of us at The Autists and the Geneva Centre for Autism would like to extend a gigantic welcome to all five of these incredible talents, and a profusion of thanks for their generosity.

Oh, and very nice work, Charles.