The finalists for the 2010 Sobey Art Award were announced today. The artists, selected by a jury from each region of Canada, are competing for the Award’s $50,000 top prize. Bendan Tang may be the newest kid on the block, but our money’s on Duke & Battersby or the excellent Daniel Barrow, who was passed over in 2008.  Do we have wonderful artists in this country, or what?

The 2010 Sobey Art Prize shortlist:

• West Coast and Yukon: Brendan Lee Satish Tang

A work by Brendan Lee Satish Tang. Image: illusion.scene360.com

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The 2010 Power Ball, the annual fundraiser for Toronto’s Power Plant Gallery, took place June 3, and took as its theme ‘The Ball that Started it All‘, which, it turned out, worked well!

All photos VoCA/Scott Barker.

Billed as “a carnivalesque line-up of amazing art, extraordinary entertainment, and spectacular prizes“, it aimed to “remix the best of the best from Power Ball’s glorious (and often notorious) past.”

Click below to see lots more photos…

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Ryan Van Der Hout, Slide 17, 2007, Chromogenic Print

I got a lovely email from a young artist Ryan Van Der Hout, a recent graduate of the Ryerson photography program in Toronto. He calls his phot-based work, which doesn’t involve the use of a camera, “photographic sketches that highlight the possibilities of the medium.”

He’s got an exhibition on at Toronto’s Lonsdale Gallery from May 26- June 27, 2010, with an artist’s reception this coming Saturday.

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His highness the Aga Khan, with his Order of Canada. Image: archive.gg.ca

1. His Highness the Aga Khan will participate in the Foundation Ceremony to mark the beginning of the development of the Ismaili Centre, the first-ever Aga Khan Museum for Islamic Art and Culture, and their Park, in Toronto’s Don Mills area.

Read more HERE.

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We stopped by Redbull 381 Projects in Toronto last night to take in an intriguing installation by Montreal artist David Armstrong Six, titled The Law of the Excluded Middle.

David Armstrong Six, The Law of the Excluded Middle. All images: VoCA

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This past weekend, an exhibition titled Art School: Dismissed, curated by Heather Nicol, brought together works made by artists who are also art teachers. It took place in a decommissioned elementary school in Toronto. Here are some highlights:

The exhibition’s poster. All photos by VoCA.

Jay Wilson’s sculpture made from toothpicks and white glue.  It reached nicely between floor and ceiling, and was a reminder of school art projects, where the joy was in making something really cool. We liked its shape and structure.

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Check out my piece on artist Kent Monkman’s home and studio in the current issue of Design Lines magazine. The studio, a former factory, was re-done by Jason Halter of boutique design firm Wonder Inc.

You know Monkman for his traditionally painted landscapes into which he inserts contemporary figures of First Nations people, often doing rather unconventional things…

Kent Monkman, Achilles and Patroclus, 2008. Image: kentmonkman.com

Or for his drag performances as Miss Chief Eagle Testickle…

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It’s well known – in the art world, at least – that many artists support their careers by teaching.

It has also become popular for artists, collectives and independent curators to mount exhibitions in abandoned spaces.

Johanna Householder, video stills from installation in the Principal’s Office. Image: courtesy Heather Nicol

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Marshall McLuhan’s poetic description of photographs as “dreams that money can buy,” begins the catalogue text for the 2010 CONTACT photography festival in Toronto.

A view of the exhibition by David Rokeby. Image: VoCA

The 2010 festival, on throughout May in various venues across the city, celebrates the media legend – wonderfully and appropriately – on the 30th anniversary of his death.

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Vote now for your favorite - or least favorite - buildings in Toronto!

The Toronto skyline. Image: flickr.com

The Pug Awards, the people’s choice awards for architecture, celebrate the best in Toronto architecture and planning.

Register and then decide what you love, like or hate.

Right HERE.