Vancouver

Pauline Frommer: Stanley Cup or not, Vancouver's got lots to show  The intellectually rigorous, artistically lush exhibit titled “The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art” running at the Vancouver Art Gallery through Sept. 25. All of the famous names in the movement are represented, from Andre Breton and Salvador Dali to Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington.  Toronto Star, June 13, 2011 

YouTube - La grande mostra sul Surrealismo a Vancouver - Canada  Alla Vancouver Art Gallery la stupefacente mostra sul Surrealismo "Il colore dei miei sogni: la rivoluzione surrealista nell'arte", curata da Dawn Ades, esperta mondiale di questo movimento artistico.  YouTube, June 11, 2011 

Forgotten artist developed rapport with natives  Sheryl Salloum's new book is about artist Mildred Valley Thornton. It's an illustrated biography of a largely forgotten artist who made her fame in Vancouver in the 1940s and '50s. These missing chapters of local art history fascinate me. Thornton was adept at painting landscape and for many years was art critic for the Vancouver Sun, but she is best known for the documentary portraits she painted of the elders of Canada's First Nations. Victoria Times-Colonist, June 12, 2011 

Jeff Wall: One of Today’s 10 Most Important Artists Newsweek critic Blake Gopnik chooses the creators who could be the next Leonardo, Rembrandt, or Picasso—including Jeff Wall, whose photographic compositions feel like an Old Master’s tableaux. View photos of his work.  The Daily Beast, June 6, 2011 

Victoria 
The ‘Pablo Puckasso’ of Victoria  Local artist Shawn Shepherd uses old hockey pucks to create artwork.  Globe and Mail, June 13, 2011

Abbotsford

Reach Gallery Museum's biennale offers artistic diversity  The Tree: From Sublime to the Social, organized and circulated by the Vancouver Art Gallery , explores the tree’s significance in art spanning time, culture and media. The exhibit reveals a variety of different aesthetics and perspectives from some of British Columbia ’s most well-known artists, including Emily Carr’s interpretations of West Coast forests and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s politically charged works that explore environmental devastation. Vancouver Art Gallery assistant curator Emmy Lee will lead a guided tour on June 23 at 7 p.m.  Abbotsford News, June11, 2011 

Edmonton 

Quebec artist Pascale Girardin challenges perceptions about public art  Well-known for her ceramic works, Quebec’s Pascale Girardin has expanded into large-scale sculptural projects that challenge both her engineering know-how and perceptions about public art. The West Edmonton Mall may be never be the same.  Globe and Mail, June 11, 2011 

Saskatoon

Mendel seeks $390K contract for fundraising consultant The Mendel Art Gallery is asking city council to approve a $390,000 one-year contract with a fundraising consultant to help raise $5 million for the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan. The request is one of two from the Mendel that goes before city council.  Star Phoenix, June 10, 2011 

Toronto 

Three pillars of emerging art  It took longer, but Canada’s abstract expressionists gained mainstream endorsement much like their New York predecessors.  And now: Since the AGO’s Matthew Teitelbaum and MoMA’s Glenn Lowry have given us their glorious exhibition Abstract Expressionist New York, it seems only appropriate they give New Yorkers an exhibition of our glorious Abstract Expressionist Toronto.  Globe and Mail, June 13, 2011 

Chicago

Prime Rauschenberg at Chicago Art Institute The Art Institute of Chicago has bought Rauschenberg’s “Short Circuit,” an important example of his “Combine” paintings. New York Times, June 10, 2011 

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Is Remaking Itself "Like a new owner in an old home, chief curator Michael Darling is overseeing a philosophical gut rehab whose ultimate goal is clarity. ... By [next month], every last corner of the building ... will have been re-imagined, perhaps for the first time in its 15-year history, with the museum's permanent collection in mind." Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2011 

New York

Elliott Erwitt’s Photographs - Review The work of the photographer Elliott Erwitt, who seized and froze decisive moments over several decades, is the subject of an exhibition at the International Center of Photography.  New York Times, June 10, 2011 

Bellini’s ‘St. Francis in the Desert’ at the Frick After a period of conservation and study, Bellini’s “St. Francis in the Desert” gets its own special show at the Frick.  New York Times, June 10, 2011 

London

The Vorticists (They're A School Of Painters, Not A Rock Band) They were a "group banded around Wyndham Lewis which exploded on the London scene with a full manifesto and magazine just before the First World War, only to become all-too-quickly subsumed by that terrible conflict and to be forgotten once it was over." (exhibition at the Tate) The Independent (UK) June 13, 2011 

Taroudant, Morocco

Claudio Bravo, Artist Who Blended Hyperrealism and Classical Elements, Dies at 74   Mr. Bravo, who was born in Chile and lived in Morocco, was an established society portrait painter before he began depicting commonplace objects in the context of art history.   New York Times, June 13, 2011 

Tbilisi

Georgian Artists, Doing It for Themselves With a turbulent recent history and little government support, the contemporary art scene in Tbilisi has largely survived thanks to private initiatives.  New York Times, June 11, 2011

Beijing 

Ai Weiwei: Planting originality, reaping Beijing's fury  The Guggenheim Museum, the Andy Warhol Foundation and Change.org are circulating online petitions demanding Ai’s release, calls being echoed by the Vancouver Art Gallery and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “Release Ai Weiwei” has been prominently printed across the light box topping the Tate Modern in London.  Globe and Mail, June 11, 2011 

 Perth

MoMA Loans 100+ Works For Exhibition In World's Most Isolated Big City "In an exclusive deal with New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Art Gallery of Western Australia [in Perth] will display the works from some of the biggest superstars of surrealism, minimalism and abstract expressionism. The exhibition, entitled Picasso to Warhol: Twelve Modern Masters, will open next year and feature more than 100 modern art masterpieces from MoMA's collection." The Australian (AAP) June 9, 2011

Cheryl Siegel, Librarian/Archivist

Vancouver Art Gallery

750 Hornby Street Vancouver BC, V6Z 2H7

604-662-4709