Picasso in Seattle!

Here is a better reason than outlet shopping for braving the three-hour drive from Vancouver to Seattle: Picasso! Over 150 works by the Spanish master will be shown at the Seattle Art Museum starting today and going through January 17th. The range of works includes pieces from virtually every phase of Picasso’s legendary career and all medium he dabbed on: paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculptures.

This unprecedented opportunity is possible at this time because the Musée Picasso has recently closed for renovations, allowing a global tour of this full-scale survey to travel for the first and, probably, the only time. The Musée Picasso’s holdings stand apart from any other collections of Picasso because they represent the artist’s personal collection—works that the highly self-aware artist kept for himself with the intent of shaping his own artistic legacy.

This is the first major survey of the long and productive career of Pablo Picasso to ever be seen in the Northwest. The exhibition is curated by Anne Baldassari, General Curator of the exhibition and Chief Curator of Collections and Chairman of the Musée National Picasso, Paris.

Tickets are $23 for adults and can be bought online.

VIFF Brings a Great Line-Up of Arts Movies To Town

This year’s Vancouver International Film Festival brings to town an extraordinary collection of documentaries on the world of visual arts. I had the opportunity to preview some of them and there is something for every art lover. From Emily Carr to Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The latter is brought to us by American director Tamra Davis who put this definitive documentary on the dread-locked artist out of hundreds of hours of footage taken in the 80s. It’s a pleasure to see so many of the artists compelling paintings at full frame on the large screen. The Radiant Child is an unique opportunity of having a very intimate glimpse at the artist’s life and creative process.

Waste Land made me review my opinion on Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. His work seemed somehow easy to me – a great idea well-executed but more on the realm of brilliant illustration than actual contemporary art. Muniz is the most recognized Brazilian artist abroad, with exhibitions attracting thousands of people and photographs selling for thousands of dollars. The movie, directed by Lucy Walker, follows Vik in an art project where he creates large-scale portraits of a group of “catadores” (pickers), who collect recyclable material from Brazil’s largest landfill, using material found in the trash. The human component makes the difference and I followed each individual story with interest until the final outcome, when the works are showed in an exhibition at Rio’s Museum of Modern Art in 2008.

This link for the full Fine Arts Series.

More VIFF soon, here in The Art Monitor.

Homemade is Best

Photographer Carl Kleiner shot this amazing pics for IKEA‘s new baking book, called “Hembakat är Bäst” (Homemade is Best).  (via Today and Tomorrow)

The Games are Open

Photo by Vancouver Sun

Now that the Games are over The Games are Open can be viewed from Friday, September 10th.

A project by German artists Folke Kobberling and Martins Kaltwasser, this massive sculpture representing a bulldozer is made of 1,000 wheat board panels liberated from the neighbouring 2010 Olympic and Paralympic

Presented by Other Sights for Artists’ Projects. The Games are Open is curated by Barbara Cole and is the second project of When the Hosts Come Home, a series of artists’ works that address issues of sustainability in the development of South East False Creek and will deteriorate gradually, becoming fodder to be offered to the gardens throughout the neighbouring development.

The constructing crew is formed by students of UBC, Emily Carr and Langara.

Julian Schnabel at the AGO

Julian Schnabel:  Asia, 2007 oil on map mounted on linen

Julian Schnabel: Art and Film

September 1, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Art Gallery of Ontario

American art superstar Julian Schnabel has spent his life pushing the limits of painting and crossing artistic boundaries as an award-winning filmmaker. Now, for the first time, a major retrospective examines the connections between painting and film in Schnabel’s work, tracing how his paintings exist in dialogue with the cinema and revealing the rich interplay between the two media. Julian Schnabel: Art and Film surveys Schnabel’s work as a painter from the mid-1970s to the present and features more than 25 key works. The exhibition will occupy the entire fifth floor of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Vivian & David Campbell Centre for Contemporary Art.

Fall Fashion: Nick Cave’s Soundsuits

Hats off to this Vogue’s September issue. The magazine put together purses  and Nick Cave’s soundsuits in a great-looking fashion photo essay. Chicago-based artist Nick Cave (not to be confused with the Australian musician of the same name) is an Alvin Ailey-trained dancer and posed for the photos wearing some of his most theatrical and surreal sound sculptures.

Raised by a single mother, Nick inherited most of his clothes from the elder of his six brothers. Re-fashioning them with objects found around the house was the starting point for these pieces.

Unfortunately you can’t see the photos online – go buy the magazine and get some extra 790 pages of fashion.

Ah, I wonder what the Sartorialist would say about these suits…

Ceremonial dance costumes or playful stuffed animals?

Summer Reading

photo by me

No recent releases here but I stand by this selection as being able to keep the interest of any art lover – with a couple of other subjects and styles to spice things up. You may even find some of them in a bargain bin. If that happens, snatch it and you won’t regret.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake
I Bought Andy Warhol
Seek My Face
Mistress of Modernism
The Private Lives of The Impressionists
Naked
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark
Doce Cuentos Peregrinos
The Year of Magical Thinking
The Expendables
Lives of The Artists
Annie Leibovitz at Work

Jessica Stockholder at the Palacio de Cristal

Born in Seattle and with an art degree from University of British Columbia, Jessica Stockholder has been exploring multi-media installations for many years. Now her work takes the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid courtesy of Museo Reina Sofia with an installation titled Peer Out to See. The work was planned for this bright space and includes several elements and many colours. I love the central column formed by shopping and waste baskets, bowls, and other objects made of plastic. Subtle and vibrant, this work reminds me of Frank Stella, Rauschenberg, Miró.
Familiar objects transformed with witty humour and a clever sense of colour.
Stockholder lives and works in New Haven and currently directs the undergraduate program in sculpture at Yale University.

Rodney Graham is The Guardian’s Artist of The Week

Shady dealing … Rodney Graham’s Good Hand Bad Hand (2010), courtesy of
the artist and Lisson Gallery. Photograph: Ken Adlard

Rodney Graham is artist of the week in the London’s Guardian. In Vancouver, his piece Dead Flowers in My Studio can be seen at the Contemporary Art Gallery until August 22nd, part of the group show Triumphant Carrot. The exhibition includes works by the likes of Jeff Wall (another Canadian legend) and Sam Taylor-Wood.
You may remember my comments on the Rodney Graham band at the Candahar during the Olympics.

From The Guardian:

Why we like him: For his film The Phonokinetoscope from 2001, Graham took acid and rode a bicycle backwards. While the soundtrack that accompanies this feat suggests 1970s-style delirium, the everyday footage suggests a chasm between inner states and outer reality.

Art rock: Graham formed new-wave band called UJ3RK5 (“you jerk” – the five is not pronounced) in his twenties with Jeff Wall, while his current ensemble, the Rodney Graham Band, morph between country rock, folk and psychedelia.

(read more)

RootsXDouglas Coupland Pop-Up Store Launch in Vancouver

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“I want people to get in here and say: Is this an art gallery or what is this?” said Douglas Coupland of the Roots pop-up store last night. The cocktail party was pretty much like any gallery opening. I saw many of the faces I usually see at art events around town, there were art and colours everywhere and wine was served ( Unoaked Chardonay from No99 Wayne Gretzky Estates). Kris Krug was my ‘plus one’ for the evening and took a great shot of me against a background of colourful targets.

The store will be open through the 28th  – “or longer” added Laura Simpson, PR of the brand.

With that I am done with local celebrities I wanted to meet in person. The list was Arthur Erickson (who I had the luck to meet before he passed), David Suzuki, Mayor Gregor Robertson and Douglas Coupland.