Art and basketball: In the Paint dives deep into a sport that's already rich in culture and aesthetics

Pepe Bratanov, curator of Toronto's The Local Gallery, says Toronto is "a legit basketball city." And it's hard to argue with him. In addition to Toronto's passionate support of the Raptors, it also has a thriving grassroots basketball culture. Not so long ago, seeing kids from the GTA make the NBA, WNBA or NCAA Final Four felt like an exciting anomaly. Now, it's almost expected.

In the Paint, a show at The Local Gallery, features art from 13 different artists, celebrating the city's basketball culture. The show opened on April 13 and continues through April 30. The pieces in the show range from a bedazzled basketball and a sneaker covered in watch parts to a machine that shoots ping pong balls, painted to look like basketballs, into a hoop, over and over again, and almost never misses. 

Mallory Tolcher is one of the artists featured in the show. Her work takes the traditionally masculine-coded world of sport and re-envisions it using "feminine" materials: think basketball hoops with nets made out of crystal beads and lace, or jerseys made of tulle with numbers made of flowers. She says that she actually grew up a hockey fan. She got into basketball via a university boyfriend who was a fan, but quickly "realized that basketball is the greatest sport in the world."

Tolcher says that there are a couple of reasons why basketball, in her eyes, lends itself to art more than other sports. One is that the game is accessible, both in terms of participation and fandom. To play it, "all you need is a basketball," she says. And as a spectator, there's not the same barrier between the audience and the players and and the crowd that you get in other sports

"As someone who used to be into hockey, I remember going to my first