Artist and friend-of-VoCA AA Bronson with Governor General Michaelle Jean.

Congratulations, AA.  Very well deserved.

For more on AA Bronson, please click HERE

So she didn’t win the Sobey Art Prize this year…but Shary Boyle has won the 2009 Iskowitz Prize from the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Shary Boyle, Lovers, 2009. Image: canadianart.ca

Awarded for her outstanding contribution to visual arts in Canada, the $25,000 Prize includes an exhibition of her work at the AGO in 2010.

Visit Shary Boyle’s website HERE and the Art Gallery of Ontario HERE.

Boyle is represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects in Toronto.

A new sculpture by the 2007 Sobey Award-winning Montreal artist Michel de Broin was unveiled in Winnipeg a few days ago.

Michel de Broin, Monument, 2009. Image courtesy Denis Prieur.

The granite work, titled Monument, is the inaugural sculpture for the Jardin de sculptures at Le Maison des artistes visuels francophones in Saint-Boniface, in Winnipeg.

Up to 20 sculptures will eventually be placed on the site by various provincial, national and international French speaking artists.

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VoCA is sad to report that one of Toronto’s most unusual and unique galleries will close.

Image: Goodwatergallery.com

Goodwater, a small store-front space on a non-descript stretch of Queen Street at Sherbourne run by John Goodwin, was unique in that it allowed artists to create special projects that they might not have the opportunity to do otherwise. The work wasn’t always salable, as with the installation of colourful paper sheets tacked to the wall by the painter Elizabeth MacIntosh.

Nonetheless, many installations were stunning, like Andrew Reyes’ bold crisscross, which Leah Sandals wrote about HERE.

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For the third year, from September 10 - 19, 2009 TIFF will feature a program of art films as part of its Future Projections series, at venues throughout the city.

The programme was initiated to call attention to video art, and the upcoming Bell Lightbox building will continue this goal with a street-level gallery that, we hear, will screen video art through a window 24/7. (Great news!)

Isabella Rossellini, Green Porno: Scandalous Sea. Image: wired.com

The 2009 Future Projections features artists and filmmakers such as Isabella Rossellini, Jesper Just, a brand new work by VoCA favorites Lisa Steele and Kim Tomszak and the North American premiere of Mark Lewis’s work straight from the Venice Biennale, in case you missed going, as we did.

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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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The annual ARTnews collectors list is out, and there are no big surprises. Over half the major collectors featured are from the United States, followed by Germany, the UK, Switzerland and other Western European countries.

Most focus on contemporary and modern art, though Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Old Masters are also popular.

Jativa Master (also known as the Master of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin), The Crucifixion, late 1400’s
oil on panel lined with fabric. Gift of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum to the AGO, 1995

Four Canadians make the list:

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Conceptual artist Ian Wallace is a very big deal in Canada, particularly in Vancouver where he is regarded as the father of the conceptual photography movement - his students included Jeff Wall and VoCA favorite Rodney Graham. Wallace has won the Molson Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts.

His works often bring together the photo, the painting and the object.

A piece by Ian Wallace. Image: saatchi-gallery.co.uk

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Paulette Gagnon, chief curator of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, has been given the top job at the gallery.

Paulette Gagnon. Image: newswire.ca

She will replace Mark Mayer, who left last year for the bigger top job at the National Gallery of Canada.

Paulette Gagnon is the 9th director general of the museum, and the third woman to occupy this post.

Gagnon has been as the MACM since 1992 and gets VoCA’s thumbs up for organizing exhibitions that included VoCA favorites Isaac Julien, Louise Bourgeois and Attila Richard Lukacs.

He may not have won any of the big Biennale awards, but no matter.

With all the fundraising the Canadians were forced to do, it’s impressive that they put up so much work. Cold Morning, a selection of four new films by the excellent film artist Mark Lewis, is on view at the Canada Pavilion as part of the 53rd Venice Biennale from 7 June to 22 November 2009. Lewis has long been one of VoCA most-admired artists and he certainly deserves to be our rep at Venice.

Mark Lewis, Rear Projection: Molly Parker from 2006. Image: marklewisstudio.com

Mark Lewis’s films for the Canada Pavilion combine documentary footage and dramatic action with his recent interest in the historical technique of rear projection, resulting in works that explore the history of place and the passage of time.

Four autonomous works are presented together:

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