Gerhard Richter in Toronto, in film and on canvas

Speaking of the Reel Artists festival, tonight, you can go see a film about German painting giant Gerhard Richter at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, but first, why don't you head over to the AGO to see his work in person? Culling some extraordinary works from the permanent collection, the gallery has assembled Shift, a selection of outstanding pieces from 1917 to 1971, a period, as the gallery puts it, "of great change." Change? Over 50-plus years? You don't say. However arbitrary the frame, though, the work is strong enough to leave anyone agog, as is the staging: Deep charcoal walls, low light cast a sombre tone over the show, and your eyes are magnetically drawn through the shroud to Richter's 1966 work "Helga Matura," one of his early pieces experimenting with the imperfect visual resonance between painting and photography, and one of his signature works painted from newspaper photographs of murder victims. It is haunting, visceral magic and virtuosic painting; the chances to see the work are all too rare, so don't squander this one and go.