In conjunction with the spring exhibition The Communism of Forms: Sound + Image + Time – The Strategy of Music Videos, the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) is hosting a DJ Showdown – Old School vs. New School – tonight from 10pm to midnight. DJs will be squaring off from two different bars – The Beaver and The Ossington – through live video-feed projection.
Old-school DJ Cozmic Cat will throw it out, spinning and scratching, and then new-school DJ Vaneska, equipped with a laptop, will respond. The jam will be amplified, so just glide and let your backbone slide.
Vaneska is considered the current favourite new-school DJ. Her reputation as a tastemaker on new and fashionable music has made her an earmark in the city’s party scene and at Toronto’s high-profile venues such as Circa, Ultra Supper Club, the Drake Hotel, State Theatre, Wrongbar and The Social.
Vaneska has DJed for numerous come-to-be-seen art and fashion events for the likes of Calvin Klein, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Virgin Mobile, M.A.C., Puma, Aritzia, Triple Five Soul, Boxfresh, The Cobrasnake and MySpace, to name a few. And when world-renowned DJs and producers such as Daft Punk, Justice, MSTRKRFT, Steve Aoki and Diplo want to party in Toronto, it’s at one of Vaneska’s exclusive parties that you’ll find them.
After a decade of spinning in Philadelphia, Cozmic Cat (Fur Salon), now spinning and producing music out of Toronto, will represent the old school. The award-winning Canadian DJ/producer has rocked dance floors in New York City, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, DC, Puerto Rico, Canada and Australia. She holds residencies all over Toronto and has an album due at the end of 2009.
The Beaver is at 1192 Queen St. W. at Gladstone Avenue in Toronto. The Ossington is at 61 Ossington Ave. at Queen Street West in Toronto.
The Communism of Forms: Sound + Image + Time – The Strategy of Music Videos exhibition, curated by AGYU assistant director/curator Emelie Chhangur and Earl Miller in Toronto and Fernando Oliva and Marcelo Rezende in São Paulo, Brazil, runs at the AGYU until June 14.
The AGYU is in the Accolade East Building, Keele campus. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm, Wednesday from 10am to 8pm, Sunday from noon to 5pm. Admission to everything is free.
For more information, contact Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot, AGYU assistant curator, at ext. 55169 or scarte@yorku.ca.