Your Cultural Concierge! VoCA offers critical commentary on the Canadian art scene, with a focus on Toronto. Featuring exhibition previews, critics picks, interviews and in-depth articles on art in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax.
June 25th, 2008 — Art Market, Art News: International, Painting
…plus c’est la meme chose.
From Reuters: A Monet water-lily painting sold for 41 million pounds ($80.5 million) Tuesday, doubling the previous auction record for the artist and ensuring London’s key art market season got off to a flying start.
Claude Monet, Le Bassin aux Nympheas, 1899. Image: intermonet.com
“Le Bassin aux Nympheas” had been expected to fetch 18-24 million pounds, but after an intense bidding battle it smashed the previous Monet auction record of $41.5 million set in May…
June 12th, 2008 — Art News: Canada, Art News: International, Rumour Has it..., Video/New Media
Rumour has it that London-based film artist Mark Lewis will be selected as Canada’s representative for next year’s Venice Biennale.
Mark Lewis, Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside (2005). Image: marklewisstudio.com
We sure hope this rumour his true – Lewis has long been one of VoCA’s favorite artists and we think he’d be brilliant.
Stay tuned for the official announcement…
Mark Lewis’s website – click HERE
Mark Lewis is represented in Canada by Monte Clark Gallery – click HERE
April 28th, 2008 — Art News: International, Sculpture/Installation
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.
April 7th, 2008 — Architecture, Art News: International
VoCA was pleased to hear that French architect Jean Nouvel has won the Pritzker prize for architecture. His Fondation Cartier in Paris is one of VoCA’s favorite exhibition spaces, and his Insitut du Monde Arabe is simply as magical as a university institution can get.
Jean Nouvel’s Fondation Cartier in Paris, 1994. Image: fondation.cartier.com
Click HERE for the Guardian’s article.
March 20th, 2008 — Art News: International
The international art world is rife with forgery, fraud and misappropriation – which makes for some fascinating reading.
This article, from Portfolio.com is about the fall from grace of renowned New York art dealer Larry Salander.
It’s a fascinatingly gossipy account involving former tennis star John McEnroe and the actor Robert De Niro, among others.
Read it right HERE.
VoCA happened to notice that this sculpture – credited as “A crucified Christ, on display at the new Salander-O’Reilly Galleries” on Artnet.com:
Image: artnet.com
March 14th, 2008 — Art News: International, Sculpture/Installation
Cai Guo-Qiang, Inopportune: Stage One 2004. Image: national.gallery.ca
It is now the hottest art market in the world, with paintings changing hands for giddying sums. But could this sudden injection of cash stifle an art scene that is still in its infancy?
March 1st, 2008 — Art News: International, Thoughts on art
From today’s New York Times:
Who wants to admit that “I’ve had these posters since college, I know that…I should get some real art, but I don’t know what that means”?
Read the full article right HERE
Tracey Emin with work from the 2007 Venice Biennale. Image: zichi.blogspot.com
February 29th, 2008 — Art News: International
New York’s Guggenheim Museum. Image: artlex.com
1. Thomas Krens To Step Down As Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation:
Read it HERE at Artdaily.com
February 13th, 2008 — Art News: International, Video/New Media
Pixel power: Virtual art online commands high prices in the real world
An MFA graduate exhibition in Second Life. Image: www.deanterry.com
Second Life, the virtual world that mimics the real world, has held art auctions fetching big prices. And curiously “real world” galleries have sold artworks based on online creations — capturing the image, enhancing it and transferring it to canvas. (Those pieces reportedly sold for $10,000 each.)
Read the full article HERE
January 14th, 2008 — Art News: International
Why I collect: Collectors reveal what drives them – an excellent article from the Wall Street Journal:
For the full article, please click HERE
Oscar Neimayer, Novomuseu, Curibita, Brazil. Image: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz
For this year’s Sao Paolo Biennale (October – December 2008), director Ivo Mesquita has revealed that he intends to organise an exhibition with no works of art.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...Read full bio