Well that really is news!

Image: jupiterimages.com

“Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government is providing extra funding for the Ontario Arts Council over the next four years: $5 million a year, for a total of $20 million.

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Vancouver’s Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design is to become a university.

Going head-to-head with Toronto’s OCAD - also an art and design university - and VoCA wonders whether this is a good thing.

Toronto artist - and OCAD dropout - Thrush Holmes’ studio. Image: lowegallery.com

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…although we think this sculpture - below - looks more like ‘playing hockey’ than ‘watching Northern Lights’, and so is an appropriate homage to les Canadiens in the playoffs.

Mattiusi Iyaituk, Watching Northern Lights. Image: spiritwrestler.com

We think the time is right for First Nations art to attract renewed interest - there’s a lot of new and excellent sculpture and drawing around - for instance the Sobey Art Prize-winner Annie Pootoogook.

You can find great Inuit art at Feheley Fine Arts in Toronto: Click HERE.

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Miuccia Prada and the artist Carsten Höller “are to set up a “Prada Congo Bar” in London in the autumn, a four-month installation project that will contain two bars, one African and one European, and an “in-between area”. Fashion meets globalisation in the hedonistic metropolis.”

Carsten Holler’s Upside-Down Mushroom Room, in the collection of the Fondazione Prada.
Image: nytimes.com

Read more about Ms. Prada’s plans for a new art foundation in Milan, designed by Rem Koolhaas. Click HERE.

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Winnipeg photographer (and VoCA favorite) Sarah Anne Johnson is the winner of the inaugural Grange Prize for Contemporary Photography.

The annual $50,000 prize is the largest of its kind in Canada and the only prize entirely determined by the public. The AGO will present an exhibition of Johnson’s work in the spring of 2009.

Sarah Anne Johnson, Clearing the Yard, 2005. Image: bulgergallery.com

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1. How much will the Toronto International Art Fair improve now that Paul Morris is in charge?

Morris, a co-founder of New York’s Armory Show, now oversees six fairs owned by the Chicago-based Merchandise Mart, including Art Chicago, Next: The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art in Chicago (Where some of Canada’s best galleries, Birch Libralato, Edward Day, Goodwater, Greener Pastures, Katherine Mulherine, Newzones, the Other Gallery, Pierre Francois Ouellette, Clint Roenisch and Skew are exhibiting this week), Volta fair in New York and Basel, the Armory Show and TIAF.

Armory Show founder Paul Morris. Image: newyorksocialdiary.com

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“Art originates out of a diversity of opinions. The gallery owners are biased. And that’s why they are bad witnesses from the start. Also the art collector is biased. Because he defends his own preferences. And thus he is a bad witness. Art is rather determined by neutral positions. From critics, from museums, from curators. These are the people that matter first and foremost when you evaluate art.”

-Harald Falckenberg, art collector, Hamburg

In related news, the RBC Painting Competition has just announced its 2008 jury panel:

-3 artists: Pierre Dorion, James Lahey, Neil Campbell
-4 curators: James Baird, Louise Dery, David Liss, Kitty Scott
-2 gallerists: Jessica Bradley, Monte Clark

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In honour of Earth Day 2008, the new curatorial agency No.9 in Toronto has mounted their inaugural installation, a witty environmental interviention by the super-hot Quebec artist collective BGL.

Installing Project for the Don River. Image: All installation images courtesy of Catherine Dean.

This installation is the most significant public work outside of Quebec for the collective, who speak mostly en francais and who were each outfitted like the captain on Gilligan’s Island – in head-to-toe white with sailor caps - at the opening party on Saturday night.

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The artist A.A. Bronson, former member of collective General Idea and presently director of New York’s Printed Matter Inc. has been rejected by the University of Manitoba for the position of director of the School of Art.

VoCA thinks that the shortsightedness of the University has resulted in an unfortunate missed opportunity.
A real shame.

A.A. Bronson. Image: artnet.com

Following are excerpts from the job posting from the university’s human resources department, A.A.’s letter of interest (removed), his C.V and finally, a letter to the Other Gallery’s Paul Butler (removed).

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Between Quebec City and Montreal, La Belle Province’s cozy little art scene is where it’s happening.

Here’s only a partial glimpse of what’s on:

COLLECTIVE:

BGL – They’re about to launch a project on the lower Don river in Toronto for No. 9 (Stay tuned for VoCA’s report early next week) Click HERE for their website.

The installation of BGL’s Toronto project. Image: courtesy Catherine Dean

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