Things seem to finally be back in full swing after the holidays in the Toronto arts community. A few artist talks take place this week among a slew of openings that I'm sure blogTO's own Tanja Tiziana Burdi will tackle in this week's Gallery Space.

The first artist talk, given by Guillermo Gomez Pena, is tonight, Tuesday, January 9 at 7 pm @ Vtape, 401 Richmond St, in Suite 452 (free). Part of the on-going exhibition The Symptom or the Cure? that ends this Saturday, the 13th, Guillermo Gomez Pena's video works such as Declaration of Poetic Disobedience (see clip still above) critique current globalization practices.

For this Wednesday and Thursday, January 10 and 11, Simon Frank will be at the Koffler Gallery in North York for a Creation Performance of his environmental installation, Sketch for New Forest, between the hours of 10-4 pm. Frank will also be giving an Artist Talk during the Reception on Thursday at 7 pm. The Koffler Gallery is part of Koffler Centre of the Arts located @ the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre, 4588 Bathurst Street.

The other artist talk I was going to write about is apparently in Winnipeg not Toronto so instead I'll mention the Gladstone Hotel's First Anniversary. For the Gala's activities, the Gladstone is opening its doors (bedroom doors that is) this weekend. The Reception starts at 7 pm followed by the Party at 9 pm on Friday, with an Open House for Public viewing of the 37 Artist's designed rooms on Saturday 11-5 pm @ 1214 Queen Street West.

There will be other art there as well as co-curators Katharine Mulherin and Kris Knight present Other Moments, works of artists they feel deserve to be seen.