Many of us — certainly me in particular — have long maintained a fascination with other people’s stuff.
   Collections in museums and galleries have often provided historic relevance to the life and times of human beings like us, and the recent installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario furthers our fascination with renowned Canadian Leonard Cohen.
   Everybody Knows: Inside his Archives provides a deeper view into Cohen’s poetry, his songs, and cultural influence. This is the first museum exhibit to showcase the contents of his collection and career spanning more than five decades.
   Insightful and inspiring, the AGO exhibit provides a glimpse into his early life in Westmount, Montreal (his lifetime home) and showcases personal diaries, Polaroid and photo-booth selfies, sketches on napkins and drawings and paintings of an artist whose myth and legend is well know beyond this country.
   While the multi-media screens broadcast interviews and performances you cannot help but be spellbound by, it is the intimate handwritten notes, report cards, and letters to and from Cohen that provide context to the deceased artist’s life.
   So much has been written about Cohen and so much more is to be seen.
   Everybody Knows leaves you wanting more.

01/08/2023                                                                                         j.g.l.