Archive for February, 2009

NUIT BLANCHE MONTREAL: Part Two

Montreal’s Nuit Blanche is a night of arts, culture and entertainment that takes place in the middle of a week-long Montreal High Lights Festival, which runs from February 19 – 1 March 1, 2009. Nuit Blanche takes place from the evening of February 28 through the morning of Sunday, March 1. The event is divded into zones – Click HERE
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Toronto: Films on Art and Artists

We have been busy promoting the Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival, which launches this weekend in Toronto, with fourteen films on art and artists. An installation shot from David Lynch’s art exhibition. Image: re-title.com Below, we recommend our top three festival highlights: The Canadian premiere of Herb and Dorothy, about New York collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who, in
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News: B.C. Government Slashes Arts Funding

There appears to be some confusion over recent cuts announced to arts and culture in British Columbia. Image: Wikimedia.org Here’s how Plank Magazine breaks it down: For the upcoming fiscal year, the provincial government in BC is reducing its spending on arts and culture by 40% from $19.5 million to $11.9 million. Plus, the income from the new $150 million
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NEWS: John Baldessari, Yoko Ono win Venice’s Leone d’Oro

The 53rd Golden Lion awards for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Yoko Ono and John Baldessari at the opening of the Venice Biennale in June. The unbelievably fabulous Yoko Ono. Image: arstechnica.com Curator Daniel Birnbaum says: “Yoko Ono and John Baldessari have shaped our understanding of art and its relationship to the world in which we live. Their work
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NUIT BLANCHE MONTREAL: Part One

Here are VoCA’s picks for Montreal’s Nuit Blanche. The night of arts, culture and entertainment takes place in the middle of a week-long Montreal High Lights Festival, which runs from February 19 – 1 March 1, 2009. It’s the event’s tenth anniversary! Josée Pellerin, Chapitre Un : Louis (2008). Image: galerieorange.com It’s worth going to Montreal for. We have chosen
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Art Books: A Collector’s Bookshelf Part Two

Collector of art and art books (and friend of VoCA) Bill Clarke continues his tour of his bookshelves: A Young Man of Extraordinary Personal Beauty by Gareth Jones/Oscar Wilde; 2007 4. A YOUNG MAN OF EXTRAORDINARY PERSONAL BEAUTY by Gareth Jones; 2007. Published by Four Corners Press, London. This book is the first in a series of classic British novels
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Art Books: A Collector’s Bookshelf Part One

A few weeks ago, we recommended artist books as a more affordable (and under appreciated) alternative for art collectors. Imagine our surprise to discover that art collector and friend of VoCA Bill Clarke was also a collector of art books. Here, he gives us a tour of his bookshelves: Robert Indiana: Trilove (1969). All images: courtesy Bill Clarke 1. TRILOVE
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VoCA Rumour…or Not

We were going to post a rumour that we have heard – that the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art has let go Sue Jeffries, their enthusiastic curator of Modern & Contemporary Ceramics. We also heard that they might be closing their entire contemporary department, but now we hear that this is NOT true and that they will continue curating contemporary
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On Curatorship (and the artist Peter Callesen)

In his (VoCA recommended) book Art Power, Boris Groys argues for the emergence of the curator as an important figure in art today. Noting that originally, art became art through decisions made by museum curators rather than artists, he goes on to say “Sacred objects were once devalued to produce art; today, in contrast, profane objects are valorized to become
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Report: Shift in the Geography of Art Buying

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai with John Martin, Director of Art Dubai. The report, Globalisation and the Art Market, Emerging Economies and the Art Trade in 2008 takes a detailed look at the growing importance of China, Russia, India and the Middle East in the art market in recent years.
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