Art Battle in the National Post

“Not all art created is equal,” says artist Chris Pemberton, one of the founders of Art Battle, a competitive painting event held each month at The Great Hall on Toronto’s Queen Street West. “When you go to a gallery, guaranteed you’re going to like one thing better than the other.”

Pemberton and Art Battle co-creator Simon Plashkes have designed an event that combines music, booze and live competitive painting with the goal of promoting art while allowing an audience to see how it is made.

“At Art Battle, we come together as a community to cull the diamonds from the rough, but also to invigorate and expose the artistic process to a wider audience,” Plashkes says. “To see a talented artist paint — there’s really nothing like it.”

– Lia Grainger, National Post · May 17, 2010