We’ve wondered about the Conservative Government’s plan for cultural spending for some time now. It has started to seem like a sinister re-evaluation of cultural priorities and this scares VoCA.

Ken Lum, What an Idiot. Image: burnaway.org

Few people are talking about it, but here is an excellent piece by David Akin in the National Post:

“The argument, it seems to me, should not be about whether any government of the day is spending more or less on “culture”. Anyone who spends the time reading through government financial information for the last five years, as I did, will see that the government is spending more. The argument is really about what we define as culture.”

Read the full article HERE.

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This is a just-unveiled bridge in Calgary. It crosses the Bow river and it’s causing division amongst Calgarians, some of whom object to its $24.5 million dollar price tag. Do you love it or loath it? VoCA wants to know!

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VoCA loves Chicago. There is architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, the Hancock Tower, the Sullivan Auditorium…..

…There is art: Chinese sculpture in Millienium Park, Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, and Olafur Eliasson at the MCA…

Shen Shaomin, Kowtow Pump, 2007. Image: picasaweb.google.com

We enjoyed the Kowtow Pump, 2007 by Shen Shaomin, which are large oil rigs painted in camouflage. Watching people pass by unaware of their powerful symbolism was quite something. Click HERE for more from the Chicago Art Blog.

…Best of all, you have art and architecture together: Renzo Piano’s elegant new addition to the Art Institute…

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Anish Kapoor’s sculpture, Cloud Gate, in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Image: flickr.com

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Lately, we’ve become interested in art made by immigrants to Canada, and artists from other cultures whose work offers a refreshing counterpoint to the trendy things that come out of western art colleges.

Natalia Laluque, Taste Canadian, Oil on canvas, photocopy on paper, 2006. Image: natalialaluque.com

We profiled Inhyuck Song, an excellent Vancouver-based Korean artist whose work caught our attention at the Art Expo in Toronto, and the Sri Lankan artist Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, whose work was a part of SAVAC’s One Year Drawing Project in Toronto that we blogged about HERE.

An exhibition by Toronto-based Ukranian artist Natalia Laluque is on view at the Station Gallery in Whitby from July 25 – September 6, 2009. The Canadiana Project is a reflection of how this immigrant artist sees Canada, how she and others like her experience cultural identity – maintaining relationships with the history of their adopted country.

More images after the click..

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It’s summer, and you don’t want to get too serious…so here are some easy shows to check out throughout July. Swing by for free nighttime screenings in Montreal, or get outside for public art interventions in Calgary.

La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse
Montreal

In Montreal, stop by La Centrale’s window to see these screenings, which are about appearance and transformation. From dusk ’til dawn.

Stephanie Chabot, Destroyer, 2005. Image: stephaniechabot.netfirms.com

BLUE MOON
Stéphanie Chabot
2007.
July 29 to August 2, 2009

Blue Moon presents a woman coldly displayed in virtual space accompanied by a soundtrack based on an Elvis tune. Evoking beauty, pleasure, and desire, Blue Moon is a tender take on woman’s complex and sometimes contradictory situation within the myth of romance.

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Above and Below
July 18 – 12 September, 2009
Foreman Art Gallery, Bishop’s University
Sherbrooke, Quebec

Penelope Stewart, Cloche, 2008. 12′ x 10′ double photograph ( on vinyl), in the woods.
Image: penelopestewart.ca

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Richard Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art magazine, will curate the 7th Alberta Biennale at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.

Walter May, History, 1989. Image: ccca.ca

Rhodes, who is planning a series of studio visits with artists from the province, commented on how many great and overlooked artists are living and working in Alberta. He plans to mix in some less known artists with the upcoming young artists for which the province is becoming increasingly known.

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Finally!

In Paris, the largest all-female art exhibition in the world has opened at the Pompidou Centre. elles@centrepompidou will bring together a selection of over 500 works and over 200 artists, including Sonia Delaunay, Frida Khalo, Dorothea Tanning, Joan Mitchell, Maria-Elena Vieira da Silva beside contemporary giants Louise Bourgeois, Rosemarie Trockel, Rachel Whiteread, VALIE EXPORT and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster.

Katie Pretti, Caligula 2, 2008. Image: le-gallery.ca

Why now? Apparently, even a few years ago the gallery would not have had enough work by women artists.

Click HERE for the exhibition website. The show continues until 24 May 2010, so you have time to get to Paris.

Read the Guardian’s piece, HERE.

VoCA is a huge fan of women artists, particularly those in Canada: Isabelle Hayeur, Paulette Phillips, Gunilla Josephson, Sarah Anne Johnson, Elizabeth MacIntosh and Katie Pretti, to name just a few.

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An inspiring story from Edmonton on how artist Kristy Trinier is shaking things up in Edmonton as the Public Art Director for the Edmonton Arts Council.

Kristy Trinier and Davide DiSaro, Inkognito, 2005. Image: skewgallery.com

The above work by Kristy Trinier was a collaborative sound and light installation for an exhibition of paintings by Sverre Bjertnaes at the Trondheim Kunstmuseum in Norway. Ten record players continuously looped, playing a composition developed with sound software and printed on white vinyl LP’s. The paintings in this work of the exhibition were only visible in the black lights. Materials used were vinyls, record players, black lights.

Read the full article from Vue Weekly HERE.

For more on Kristy Trinier, see Skew Gallery’s website, HERE.