[PHOTO] Nine photos of Rita Letendre: Fire & Light

Wednesday evening, I went over to the Art Gallery of Ontario to catch their new Rita Letendre retrospective, Fire and Light, before it closed. I was not disappointed.

Murray Whyte's July article for the Toronto Star does an excellent job profiling the Québec-born painter, who managed to overcome a childhood marked by poverty and discrimination to become, first the only woman member of the Automatistes of the 1950s, then a painter moving outside movements. I found myself particularly drawn by her later paintings, expanding on from the strict geometries of earlier works like "Lodestar" to subtler explorations of light and colour. Her work is glorious.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Anthrodendum considers the difficulties of the anthropologist in the context of a world where their knowledges are monetized.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about two days she spent in Montréal, with photos.


• Crooked Timber starts a discussion about the justice, or lack thereof, in Harvard denying convicted murderer Michelle Jones entry into their doctoral program now that her sentence is over.


• D-Brief looks at the changing nature of the global disease burden, and its economic consequences.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that Equifax's terribly lax data protection should mark the endgame for them.


• The Map Room Blog considers the use of earth-observer satellites to predict future disease outbreaks (malaria, here, in Peru).


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how quantum mechanics helps explain nuclear fusion in our sun.


• Window on Eurasia notes a report that Muscovites live on average 12 years longer than non-Muscovite Russians.

[NEWS] Four blogospheric links about the achievements of Saturn probe Cassini

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait celebrates the many achievements of Saturn probe Cassini in its two-decade lifespan, with images.


• Centauri Dreams took a look at Cassini on its final approach to Saturn, having passed Titan.


• The Crux interviews a Cassini scientist who, after the probe, would be surprised if Enceladus does not have life.


• D-Brief bid a fond farewell to Cassini.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto notes: Gibraltar Point, Centreville carousel, condo designss, Estonians

• NOW Toronto notes how Gibraltar Point marks the Toronto Islands' point most vulnerable to erosion.


• It seems, as Fatima Syed notes, that the Centreville carousel will not be bought by its intended buyer.


• VICE reports on a young Toronto architect who suggests condos could be more affordable if they were more modular.


• A highly disproportionate number of Toronto's innovative post-war architects were Estonian refugees. Stunning works. The Globe and Mail reports.

[NEWS] Five links about a changing world: Beyak, Congo, creative cities, 1990s Russia, queer

• Tory Senator Lynn Beyak's latest ignorant statements about First Nations have to disqualify her from public office. Global News reports.


• Is the rebirth of Congo's palm oil exports sign of a return to normality? Can it occur? Will it last? Bloomberg examines.


• Oli Mould is critical of the idea promoting the arts and public culture will do much for poorer urbanites, over at Open Democracy.


• Tom Rowley profiles a book, drawn from a VKontakte group, examining the experiences of the former USSR in the 1990s, also at Open Democracy.


• This VICE discussion about what "queer" means is fascinating.