Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes

TORONTOS HIDDEN PASSAGEWAYS BROUGHT TO LIGHT IN A CELEBRATION OF URBAN LIFE Michael Cho began creating drawings of the back alleys near his Toronto home in 2008. With this book he has amassed a collection that speaks to the beauty of the urban landscape: sometimes grittily citified sometimes unexpectedly pastoral and always bewitching. Cho is a skilled draftsman and Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes shines with lovingly rendered details from expletive-filled graffiti splayed across backyard fences to the graceful twists of power lines over a bend in the road. Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes meanders through the city functioning as a sort of caught-on-paper psychogeographical Janes Walk. With each seasons change different color schemes become dominant and a whole range of moods and moments are articulated. Cho lets the reader visit his city as a virtual flaneur lingering equally over dilapidated sheds and well-groomed gardens in a dazzling tribute to the urban environs.