From London, UK: A charity called Art of Giving is launching their National Art Competition in October 2010.

The Saatchi Gallery, London. Image: piclondon.co.uk

It’s an open competition for artists working in painting, drawing, sculpture and photography. Ten finalists in each category will be given the opportunity to exhibit their work at London’s Saatchi Gallery on October 7 – 9. How many categories? It’s unclear, but you can read more HERE and apply HERE.

The winners receive a cash reward, and lots of publicity, which in the U.K, means something.

Paintings on view at the Saatchi Gallery. Image:contemporaryartlinks.com

Artists are invited to submit up to five works of art. It costs 20 Pounds per work, which is $30, which is not bad for the incredible exposure that your work could receive. And Art of Giving will be donating a minimum of 10% of the proceeds from the competition entry fees to the Red Cross Disaster Fund.

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Now’s a good time to check out the Art Gallery of Ontario again.

Part of Barbara Kruger’s billboard on the facade of the AGO. Image: VoCA

You can take in Barbara Kruger‘s magnificent billboard that lines the front of the gallery, (done for CONTACT photography fest, which in on throughout May.) The billboard reads LOVE IT-SHOVE IT-PRAISE IT-PLEASE IT-DOUBT IT- SHAME IT-BLAME IT-KISS IT-BUY IT-BELIEVE IT.

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Click HERE for a questionnaire with Vancouver artist Jeff Wall in this month’s issue of Frieze magazine.

“I get so much from looking at great works, but some days – or even some months – I get more from not looking at them. You experience the art also by being away from it and not seeing it.” – Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall, The Destroyed Room, 1978. Image: tate.org.uk

Also, HERE in Art + Auction, Souren Melikian writes on the shifting perceptions in the Old Masters market, where mediocre works are achieving great prices, thanks to scarcity of the real gems.

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Often, the spotlight eludes excellent artists who aren’t showing with the right galleries, or for that matter, any gallery. So…here’s an off-the-radar artist who is doing lovely, sensitive work about place and memory.

All photos courtesy Sandra Hawkins.

We met Ottawa-based artist Sandra Hawkins M.E.S., B.F.A., C.F.A., B.A. soc. through Facebook, and have been interested in her work for some time.

Now she will be showing an installation and series of prints @Reference, on Queen Street West in Toronto next door to the Drake Hotel, for three days from Tuesday, March 30 until Thursday April 1.

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Scott Treleaven was born in Toronto, Canada and graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) in 1996.

Scott Treleaven, My Ever Changing Moods, 2009, ink, photographs, watercolour. Image: kavigupta.com

Now based in Paris, he has shown in Chicago at Kavi Gupta, in New York at John Connelly Presents and has had a limited edition book published by Printed Matter Inc.

He is probably best know for his film The Salivation Army (2002), which caught the attention of the Village Voice in 2003, screening worldwide, most notably in the official Art Basel film program in 2004 and at the Museum of Modern Art in 2006.

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Dogs.We’ve been thinking about them a lot lately. Toronto is full of dogs. It’s a very dog-friendly city, aside from the over-salted winter sidewalks, which can be tough on paws.

William Wegman, Basic Shapes in Color, 1993. Image: dreamdogsart.com

With all the dogs comes bizarre dog owner behaviour. You see more and more people carrying their dogs around, like a living handbag, or a security blanket.  Can’t they walk?  And of course the outfits!  Some owners even dye their dogs fur.

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“Photography for me is about awe in our world brought to us through nature.” -Ariel Estulin

Friend of VoCA and traveling nature photographer Ariel Estulin will debut his work at the Rivoli Lounge in Toronto, from Sept 6 – 7 November.

A scene in Patagonia. Image courtesy Ariel Estulin.

Estulin draws inspiration from two great North American photographers, the late Galen Rowell, outdoor adventurer, photo artist and writer; and Canada’s renowned landscape photographer and writer, Freeman Patterson, from whom he learned much about the practice of photographing nature.

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With so much writing being done online, books have taken on a precious new meaning.

That’s no different in the art book world, or more specifically, the luxury book market as defined by Benedikt Taschen, the German publisher who in 1999 famously published SUMO, a retrospective of the work of iconic photographer Helmut Newton.

It was the largest book produced in the 20th century and now sells on Ebay for $15,000.

An image by the late, great Helmut Newton, from SUMO. Image: livresphotos.com

“…books can themselves become their own pieces of highly sought-after art. “The making of the titles is a collaboration with the artists,” (Taschen) explains. “Their ideas are at the centre of the work and they are involved all the way through the process, making the books original, personal and desirable – like great art should be. Why shouldn’t an art book be something to be revered?”

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“With their artists competing on an international stage, Canadians can no longer complain of their country as a cultural backwater nor luxuriate in the nostalgic charm of provincialism. In art as in political, social and economic activities, Canada is fully involved in the world of today,”
– Dr. R. H. Hubbard, former Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada.

Guido Molinari, Untitled, 1964. Image: artnet.com

Walking down Bloor Street in Toronto last night, we stopped at a bookshop’s outdoor display and there, right in front of us, on sale for $1.99, was a copy of Canadian Art Today, originally published in 1970 by Studio International.

Edited by William Townsend, a professor at the University of London, the slim book is filled with contributions from Canada’s art elite at the time: R.H. Hubbard, then chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada, Doris Shadbolt, then curator of the Vancovuer Art Gallery, curators Dennis Reid, Pierre Theberge and David Thompson.

“Canadian artists were dependent for generations on the artistic traditions of France and England and it is only since the last war that contemporary American influences have made a decisive impact,” writes Townsend.

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Chamber Music: Mixed media works by Kenny Lee
August 12 – 23, 2009
Launch Projects, Toronto

We’ve been noticing, over the past few years, that more artists are looking at objects from varying perspectives.

Barbara Probst, “Exposure #34A: N.Y.C., Central Park, Umpire Rock, 06.14.05, 6:34 p.m. ,” 2005. Image: twi-ny.com

Barbara Probst’s excellent photographs tackle an event from numerous points of view, as do the mesmerizing videos of Bettina Hoffmann. VoCA favorite Sarah Anne Johnson creates sculptures that relate to her photographs, for a more immersive experience. We blogged about her recent show HERE.

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