Vancouver

Draw Down leaps from the canvas to the street

“Hands-on festival includes Random Acts of Chalk on city sidewalks.” Vancouver Sun, June 12, 2010

Handmade models help architects visualize and solve design problems

“Architects make models out of paper during brainstorming sessions when everyone on the design team is seated around a table trying out ideas. They make them to see how the various forms relate to one another or to see how different facades look. Sometimes, the very act of making a model leads to design solutions.” Vancouver Sun, June 14, 2010

Victoria

Aboriginal artists go modern

SMASH: International Indigenous Weaving is an exhibition that showcases the weaving of cedar, wool and other materials by Salish, Mi'kmaq, Alaskan, Southwestern and Hawaiian artists. “While constant reference is made to tradition, this show highlights contemporary and creative expression.” Times Colonist, June 12, 2010

Ottawa

Will it offend you? No

“Pop Life is about artists, mainly in the 1980s and '90s, who managed to blur the lines between art, the artist and the marketing of the art.  This artist self-promotion was an intriguing fad at the time. Today, it looks rather tawdry and more than a little quaint, akin to looking at the paintings of Cornelius Krieghoff...” National Post, June 13, 2010

Pop! goes pop art

“From Westfest to the Gallery, pop art is having a local moment.” Ottawa Citizen, June 12, 2010

Montreal

She was true to herself and a mentor to others

Agatha Schwager, a Montreal artist who “worked with watercolour, oil, batik, photography and ink, drew on her life experiences for inspiration.”  Globe & Mail, June 14, 2010

Los Angeles

LA Should Say Yes To Eli Broad's Downtown Museum

"[T]he City Council and other agencies of local government should base their decisions not on what is best for Broad but on what best serves the public. And they should approve this deal." Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2010

Indianapolis

A Great Big Art Park In Indianapolis Museum's Backyard

The Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, opening next weekend, "is one of the largest in the United States and rare in its focus on temporary, site-specific commission. 'We're resisting this tendency in the last few decades to collect giant sculptures and then try to keep them forever outside,' [the park's curator] said. 'These things have lives to live and at a certain point will be retired'." New York Times, June 13, 2010

Philadelphia

Was Renoir Actually A Modernist?

 "[Albert] Barnes believed that in old age Renoir achieved a rare mastery over form, light, and color. Even more heretical, he considered Renoir to be a wellspring of modern art, on a par in his influence on younger artists with his friend Cézanne … Many critics, scholars, and collectors have rejected this apotheosis, and still do." This summer, you can visit two exhibits in Philadelphia and decide for yourself." Philadelphia Inquirer, June 13, 2010

New York

A YouTube Project Helps Guggenheim Connect With Artists

"Beginning Monday anyone with access to a video camera and a computer will have an opportunity to catch the eye of a Guggenheim curator and vie for a place in a video-art exhibition in October at all of the foundation's museums" via a project that's "open even to entrants who don't consider themselves artists." The New York Times, June 14, 2010

London

Jean Nouvel's Serpentine Pavilion In London Is 'Very, Very Red'

"This annual addition to the summer season [in Kensington Gardens], in its tenth year, has produced many things - Rem Koolhaas-s tethered balloon, Frank Gehry-s explosion in a lumber yard - but it has never before seen a red plastic playground. It's very plastic and very, very red." The Times (UK), June 14, 2010

Dusseldorf

German Artist Sigmar Polke Dies, Age 69, After Cancer Battle

Sigmar Polke, one of Germany’s best-known artists died June 10, from cancer at the age of 69, his dealer Erhard Klein said in a phone interview. Bloomberg News, June 11, 2010

Sydney

Aussie Gov't Says Retirement Funds Should Not Invest In Art; Artists Object

 An Australian government report has concluded that "art is a collectable and should not be counted as an investment that boost[s] retirement savings. … If implemented, the estimated $100 million [Aus] invested in art by self-managed [pension] funds each year would be lost." Artists, dealers and auction houses are reportedly "quite outraged." Sydney Morning Herald, June 13, 2010