Vancouver

Brad Phillips's Somebody Write Me emerges from the abyss.  “There’s something blackly satirical about Brad Phillips’s show of paintings, Somebody Write Me.  There’s something painfully confessional about the work, too.” Georgia Straight, May 18, 2011

New Sign for the City reclaims human stories.  Inspired by a Berlin public-art project in which a daily cannon shot pays tribute to the socialist martyr Rosa Luxemburg, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber decided to dedicate a year’s worth of Brockton Point blasts to the unsung individuals and events that shaped Vancouver’s history. Georgia Straight, May 18, 2011

Visions of Mexican Art reveals a country's artistic legacy.  Visions of Mexican Art is a surprising show in an unexpected place. Sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico and hosted by the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver, the exhibition comprises some 55 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. Georgia Straight, May 19, 2011

Portrait of an Artist: David Semeniuk.  Vancouver artist David Semeniuk imaginatively combined photographs taken in his hometown of Red Deer, Alta., for the series Landscape Permuations.  The Straight interviewed Semeniuk about his series…  Georgia Straight, May 19, 2011

Martin Creed breaks all the rules. “Looking at work made by British artist Martin Creed can be a little unsettling. After all, how could a room half-filled with balloons, a crumpled piece of paper on a plinth or several walls covered with prints made out of sliced pieces of broccoli be called art? …When I looked at the pink balloons in the exhibition room at the Rennie Collection, they make me think of childhood birthday parties.” Vancouver Sun, May 19, 2011

Calgary

Fibre artist spins yarns with knitted labyrinth.  Fibre artist Linda Cunningham has an emotional connection with every last strand of yarn that she's spun into her current creation, The Simplicity of Ritual, a 75 foot knitted labyrinth which she's in the process of creating. Calgary Herald, May 19, 2011

Winnipeg

Sarah Anne Johnson to vie for Sobey Art Award. Johnson, who creates playful images incorporating dolls and other toys, was nominated Wednesday as the Sobey finalist representing the Prairies and the North. Other nominees are: Zeke Moores, Manon De Pauw, Christian Giroux and Daniel Young, and Charles Stankievech. CBC News, May 18, 2011

Exhibit demonstrates legends' influence on young artists. Looking back at seven ground-breaking First Nations artists and connecting them to four Winnipeg artists working today, curator Cathy Mattes has put together an important, urgent show. Winnipeg Free Press, May 19, 2011

Toronto

Lynne Cohen wins $50,000 Scotiabank photo prize.  Lynne Cohen’s “homages to the elaborate rooms we construct to stage our public and private lives,” have won the U.S.-born, Montreal-based photographer the first $50,000 Scotiabank Photography Award, announced Wednesday in Toronto. Globe & Mail, May 19, 2011

Creepy and kitschy: Montrealer Lynne Cohen wins the Scotiabank Photography Award.  Lynne Cohen takes home the $50,000 prize and a book deal. The two runners-up, Toronto’s Robin Collyer and Vancouver’s Roy Arden, received $5,000 each. Cohen spoke to Melissa Leong about the family rooms, laboratories, spas and other spaces that she has captured for 40 years… National Post, May 19, 2011

New York

Alexander McQueen exhibition a perfect fit for New York’s Met.  “The jolt-delivering Alexander McQueen: “Savage Beauty” exhibition is a perfect fit with the rest of the Met’s precious antiquities and their narratives of sex, power, salvation and seduction.” Toronto Star, May 19, 2011

Rumor Confirmed: Frieze Art Fair Coming To New York "There have been rumours about the London firm making a move into Manhattan over the past two years, but the organisers struggled with the logistical issue of finding a big, and convenient, enough location. Randall's Island, which is situated on the East river, is "good because you can drive. It's basically ten minutes from the Upper East Side." The Art Newspaper, May 19, 2011  

As Art, Tania Bruguera Lives Like a Poor Immigrant  To draw attention to the plight of immigrants, the conceptual artist Tania Bruguera is sharing a tiny Queens apartment with 11 other people and scraping by on the minimum wage. New York Times, May 19, 2011 

Creating Graffiti With Yarn  “Yarn bombing” seems to be having its moment in pop culture.  New York Times, May 19, 2011 

Los Angeles

Photo Exhibition in Los Angeles Studies Beauty  “Beauty Culture” at the Annenberg Space for Photography looks at both sides of the beauty industry.  New York Times, May 19, 2011 

United States

Increasingly, Arts Students Seek Training At For-Profits "The difference between the non- and for-profit art colleges may not be the quality of the education but the nature of the student. Those taking classes at for-profits schools tend to be older than 18 to 22; the average age of an Art Institute student, for example, is 25. The students are more racially and ethnically diverse and less affluent than those at nonprofits." The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2011 

England

Britain's Best Buildings Of 2011 In Pictures The Royal Institute Of British Architects names its top new buildings of 2011. Here's a gallery... BBC, May 18, 2011