London-based film artist and VoCA favorite Mark Lewis will represent Canada at the 2009 Venice Biennale!

Mark Lewis, Isoceles, 2007. Image: marklewisstudio.com

Click HERE for the full article.

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The RBC Canadian Painting Competition, a barometer of emerging painters from across the country, has announced this year’s shortlist.

Eli Bornowsky, Untitled 2008. Image: front.bc.ca

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St. Catharines and the Niagara region is home to a good number of excellent artists and art-related spaces. Cram, the NAC and Brock University’s Rodman Hall Art Gallery (see links below) all have strong programming.

Perhaps the best-kept secret in the St. Catharines art community is the Teutloff Collection of Sculpture that exists across Brock’s campus. In 1988, then president Terry White reached an agreement with German art collector Lutz Teutloff to display his large-scale sculptures on campus. The collection includes work by Fabrizio Plessi, Ilan Averbuch, Reinhard Reitzenstein and Bucky Schwartz.

Ilan Averbuch, The Bleeding Harp. Image: collegepublisher.com

Please click HERE for more info.

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From James Adams in yesterday’s Globe and Mail:

“When its September, 2007, online sale resulted in gross revenues of about $600,000 on 156 lots, (Heffel Fine Art Auction House) started to think seriously about going with a separate live auction (for post-war and contemporary art) and “concentrate more on this growing component of the market,” noted Nina Kim, Heffel’s director of postwar and contemporary art…”

For the rest of the article, please click HERE.

Tom Thomson, View from a Height, Algonquin Park, Fall, 1916.
Auction Estimate: $800,000-1,200,000
Price Realized: $1,207,500

While the Canadian auction ’scene’ may seem laughable next to the inflated numbers bandied about in the U.S and the U.K these days, we are finally seeing increased interest in Canadian art since 1945, which is great because it has, for so long been terribly undervalued.

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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

1. NEWS: CALGARY

Dennis Oppenheim’s sculpture, Device to Root out Evil moves to Calgary from Vancouver.

Dennis Oppenheim, Device to Root out Evil. Image: metamedia.stanford.edu

Originally celebrated by the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale and arguably the most valuable piece of public art in Vancouver, Oppenheim’s compelling 22-foot glass, steel and aluminum structure became more than the Vancouver Public Parks Committee could handle.

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The five finalists are:

-Tim Lee, West Coast and Yukon region

-Daniel Barrow, Prairies and the North region;

-Terence Koh, Ontario region

-Raphaëlle de Groot, Québec region

-Mario Doucette, Atlantic region

Who will win this year’s Sobey Art Award? The list is full of strong contenders including the hot photographer Scott McFarland, the excellent Paul Butler and Theo Sims, Luis Jacob, Raphaelle de Groot and the fun, funny art collective BGL.

While choosing among the contenders is tough, VoCA has chosen one artist from each region who we feel are deserving of the Sobey, regardless of whether they win this year or not.

For more on the Sobey Art Award, please click HERE.

WEST COAST AND YUKON: Althea Thauberger; Tim Lee; Scott McFarland; Mark Soo; Kevin Schmidt.
VoCA PICK: TIM LEE

Tim Lee, My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) / Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), Neil Young, 1979. Image: hustlerofculture.com

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The late Haida artist Bill Reid received the Order of British Columbia. Image: protocol.gov.bc.ca

In Canada, the first time the work of contemporary indigenous artists made it into an art context was in 1965-67 when Doris Shadbolt, at the Vancouver Art Gallery, organized the groundbreaking exhibition, Arts of the Raven: Master Works of the Northwest.

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In a move perhaps inspired by the spate of American, European and Chinese collectors opening up their own spaces, the dashing Canadian collector Bob Rennie will open his own private museum to showcase his collection of contemporary art.

Collector Bob Rennie. Image: rennie.com

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