Vancouver

Rodney Graham, Reece Terris, and Althea Thauberger win top art prizes.  Acclaimed Vancouver artist, Rodney Graham will be awarded the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts when it's given out on May 5 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  The Audain Foundation also announced that Reece Terris and Althea Thauberger are the 2011 recipients of the VIVA Award prizes.  Georgia Straight, April 19, 2011

Rodney Graham wins B.C.'s Audain art prize.  The $30,000 prize from the Audain Foundation was announced Tuesday, along with the $10,000 VIVA Awards. CBC News, April 20, 2011

Vancouver Art Gallery To Show 'The Colour of My Dreams ~ The Surrealist Revolution'. 'The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art' is the most comprehensive exhibition of surrealist art ever presented in Canada, opens at the Vancouver Art Gallery, May 28.   Art Knowledge News, April 21, 2011

Federal election campaign light on arts.  “Members of the arts community say they’re disappointed that arts and culture have not been given a greater profile in the federal election campaign.” Georgia Straight, April 21, 2011

At IGNITE! Youth Arts Festival, the young wildly create and clash.  “Youth, by its nature, is full of passion. For proof, one need look no further than the Cultch’s IGNITE! Youth Arts Festival, running from April 25 to April 30.” Georgia Straight, April 20, 2011

West Vancouver

Sylvia Tait: A Classical Spirit is a mini-retrospective of a West Coast original. “Sylvia Tait’s abstract paintings are so filled with luscious colour and vibrant brushwork that it’s easy to read them as paeans to life and the sensuous possibilities of her medium.”  Georgia Straight, April 19, 2011

Alert Bay

B.C. first nations, Germany loan treasures.  “A unique cross-cultural exhibition and exchange between a small Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations museum off the northeast side of northern Vancouver Island and a major international art and cultural museum in Dresden, Germany opens today in Alert Bay.”  Vancouver Sun, April 21, 2011

Toronto

Julie Oakes: A life in art.  “Each delicate glass sparrow dangling high in the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery looks as light as a moon beam, until one of the 120 birds drops like a rock, smashing into brittle bits on the floor.  Welcome to a classic Julie Oakes moment — one with drama.”  Toronto Star, April 20, 2011

Secret venues: home’s where the art is.  “Rainbow Palace is one of the most unique multi-use arts spaces in the city. Nearby in Kensington, there are shows at the collectively run White House gallery, which offers precious, affordable studio space to up-and-coming artists.” Toronto Star, April 20, 2011

Montreal

Pierre Gauvreau helped launch Quebec’s Quiet Revolution.  “Obituary -- Pierre Gauvreau was a Quebec abstract painter and a pioneer filmmaker who also enjoyed a successful career as a Radio-Canada television scriptwriter and director.  In 1948, Gauvreau was one of the 16 prominent artists who signed Le Refus Global, the historic manifesto that laid the groundwork for Quebec’s Quiet Revolution.  He remained a life-long nonconformist.” Globe & Mail, April 20, 2011

Nazi-stolen Klimt painting will be returned to Canadian descendant. The painting, “Litzlberg am Attersee,” is currently in the collection of Salzburg's modern art museum MdM Salzburg and could be worth as much as 30-million euros ($44-million). The painting was seized from the apartment of Amalie Redlich after she was deported to Poland in 1941, where she was killed.  Ms. Redlich's heir is her grandson, Georges Jorisch who lives in Montreal.   Globe & Mail, April 21, 2011

Canada

Artists to issue manifesto.  “More than 70 arts services organizations from British Columbia to Newfoundland have joined ranks to issue an unprecedented election manifesto calling on politicians of all stripes to safeguard federal cultural institutions such as the CBC and Canada Council for the Arts.” Vancouver Sun, April 20, 2011

Consider adding art to portfolio.  “Unlike stock certificates, art is unique. While technically you could hang your stock certificates on your wall, they probably won't give you the same kind of enjoyment as an Emily Carr landscape. But both have attractive value as an investment.” Financial Post, April 20, 2011

Los Angeles

Landscape architects are L.A.’s unsung heroes. Christopher Hawthorne wonders "how to explain the fact that Los Angeles architects have for so long been much better known, locally and around the world, than their counterparts in landscape architecture? Why have our best gardens tended to be even more susceptible to neglect or demolition than our best houses, which are themselves infamously vulnerable?  Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2011

New York

Stan Douglas: Seeing through a hard-boiled lens – or not?  “Vancouver artist Stan Douglas takes pictures for a living, but his current show at New York’s David Zwirner Gallery casts his trade in an entirely new light.” Globe & Mail, April 20, 2011

Washington

National Latino Museum Plan Faces Fight. “Though the creation of such an institution has support from members of Congress, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and celebrities like Eva Longoria, building it faces significant obstacles, including budget pressures and a feeling among some in Washington that the Smithsonian should stop spinning off new specialty museums and concentrate on improving the ones it already has.”  The New York Times, April 20, 2011

Paris

Louvre denies pledging to loan Persian artefacts for Tehran exhibition.  "Claims made by an Iranian government official that the Louvre pledged to help organise a major exhibition of Persian artefacts in Tehran are strongly denied by the Paris museum, which says that an agreement was never finalised." The Art Newspaper, April 21, 2011