Bernar Venet: English Bay and Venice Biennale

Vancouverites are familiarized with the work of French sculptor Bernar Venet. His work was seen during the ciyt’s Sculpture Biennale in 2005 and now is on permanent display at English Bay (see photo below). His series Arc Hypothesis can now be seen at the Venice Art Biennale. Designboom published many shots of the powerful installation. Born in 1941 in France, Venet now live and works in NY.

See more photos of Cam in Can here

We’re All Gonna Die

It’s not the first time I stumbled on this website but this 100-meter long image holds its power even after a second or third look. Simon Hoegsberg took 20 days making this giant panoramic portrait of 178 people, always from the same spot on a Berlin railroad bridge. You can slide through We’re All Gonna Die on the project’s website.

The Venice Biennale Cafeteria Gets the Golden Lion Award

Tobias Rehberger is awarded the Golden Lion as best artist at the 53^rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Tobias Rehberger received the prize for the cafeteria, for which he collaborated closely with Artek using customized Artek furniture in an ingenious way. The cafeteria created by Rehberger is a complex scheme of geometric forms with contrasting colors, a visually disorienting environment that draw from a specific example from the past: razzle dazzle or dazzle painting – a decorative style used on ships during the First World War. (more…)

Emily Carr painting goes for over 2 million at Vancouver auction

One of the three paintings to be sold for over the one-million mark, Emily Carr’s Wind in The Tree, circa 1939, went for a record $2,164,5000 on Heffel’s auction last night (June 17) at Vancouver Convention Centre. David Heffel, on the auction brochure: “I think there’s three key elements in this painting that pushes it to the forefront. One, it’s a great painting. Two, it’s in great condition. Three, it’s got great provenance.”
A small sketch by Tom Thomsom, Birches and Cedar (below), sold for $1,404,000. Read more at Vancouver Sun.
It’s good to see the art market in Vancouver – and Canada – showing this level of confidence and optimism.

The Canadian Pavilion at Venice Biennale

I am not sure if it’s true for every one of the sixty national pavilions throughout Venice, but Canadian Pavilion represents a lot of this country’s qualities, its love and respect for nature, its clean and transparent organization. The beautiful glass and brick structure was built in 1958 by Milanese architecture firm BBPR as part of Italy’s WWII reparations to Canada. This year, for the 53rd Biennale, it shows the work of Ontario artist Mark Lewis curated by Barbara Fischer. The project is a series of short silent movies called Cold Morning using the technique he became known for: rear projection.

Subdivisions

New York artist Ross Racine creates aerial views of fictional suburbs, examining the relation between design and actual lived experience. No photographs or scanned images are used in the pieces above. Each was drawn freehand directly on the computer and then printed on an inkjet printer.

This post is a “re-tweet’ from one of my favourite blogs: bad banana blog by Tim Siedell, an interesting, funny and creative guy.

Vancouver Art in the 60s

Gary Lee-Nova, Dreadnaught, 1966, acrylic, 154×182 cm

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is launching a new website: Ruins in Process: Vancouver Art in the Sixties, an online resource and digital archive incorporating hundreds of photographs, press clippings, audio recordings and film clips. Drawn from private collections and archives as well as public sources, Ruins in Process brings together the research of many artists, curators and writers in an exploration of the diverse artistic practices of Vancouver art in the 1960s and early 1970s. With five project ’sub-sites’ it’s our chance to get in touch with Vancouver’s wild past.

Chuck Close – Tapestries

Self-Portrait/Color, 2007 jacquard tapestry, 103″ x 79″

Isn’t it wild to apply an ancient technique as jacquard tapestry to contemporary arts? Chuck Close didn’t have to abandon his computerized images, portraits and self portraits: he simply translated them in gorgeous large wall tapestries. Portraying himself as well as Cindy Sherman, Brad Pitt, John Cage (who posed many other times) and others, the ‘rugs’ are shown together with paintings at PaceWildenstein through June 20. Close will be soon heading to Aspen where he just got the Aspen Institute Residence award.

What Moves Us

Marilou Lemmens and Richard Ibghy, Mission to Kumasi, video still, 2008

Western Front will be showing from June 5 to 27 a group exhibition of videos dealing with a very up-to-date matter: the transience of people and cultures. Through video collages and interviews five artists explore themes as different as immigration and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a very personal approach. Don’t miss the dim sum brunch with curator and artists on June 7 at noon.

Terrance Houle and Trevor Freeman, Portage, performed in Toronto

Western Front
What Moves Us
June 5 to 27, 2009 | Opening: Saturday June 5, 7 PM

Jack Shadbolt – Works on Paper

Image in Cedar Slash, 1947 Oil on wood board, 58.0 x 73.0 cm

Jack Shadbolt (1909-1998) is one of Canada’s most important artists. He is known for his paintings and murals that draw from his personal experiences and from the social and political conflicts that have taken place in British Columbia’s and world history such as the struggles of the First Nations, the Second World War, and environmental movement. Jack Shadbolt: Underpinnings is a celebration of the artist’s centenary and includes over 150 drawings and sketches from the Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery [more]

Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery
http://www.belkin.ubc.ca/
May 1 – August 23, 2009