Vancouver

Rodney Graham ponders entropy with unbridled charm Add to ...“I mean, my leading-man days are kind of behind me,” he laughs. “I'm looking for roles now that I can actually play.” Rodney Graham: Canadian Humourist continues at the Vancouver Art Gallery until Sept. 30.  Globe and Mail, August 18, 2012

Saskatoon

Remai gallery receives $100,000 donation Saskatoon artist Darrel Bell has made a donation of $100,000 to the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan capital campaign.  The owner of the Darrell Bell Gallery and a member of the Mendel Art Gallery board of trustees, Bell has been exhibiting his evocative landscape paintings since the early 1980s.  Star Phoenix, August 18, 2012

Toronto

Patti Smith’s photography coming to AGO  AGO will showcase work that Smith began after deaths of her husband, brother and close friends. Smith confesses to being “very excited” that Camera Solo, currently wrapping a three-month stint at the Detroit Institute of Arts, is coming to the “great city” of Toronto. She, in fact, plans to visit the Ontario capital for a few days in early March and do some kind of live performance, “something connected with the gallery and the exhibition.”  Globe and Mail, August 20, 2012  

Los Angeles

Work dealing with African resistance wins $100,000 prize  Public chooses Meleko Mokgosi as their favourite artist for Mohn Award, voting online and at Hammer Museum.  The Art Newspaper, August 16, 2012

Brunswick, Maine

‘William Wegman: Hello Nature’ at Bowdoin College Museum Mr. Wegman’s refusal to take himself too seriously may explain why he has escaped the hero worship that is lavished on other Conceptual artists. New York Times, August 17, 2012

New York

Creative Time Hosts Sand Castle Contest at Rockaway Beach A sand-castle competition on Rockaway Beach will include structures by the design team Snarkitecture and the performance artist Kenya Robinson. New York times, August 20, 2012

Taryn Simon Exhibition at MoMA For “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII,” the artist spent years chasing down stories and people to photograph. New York Times, August 17, 2012

Bookstores as Galleries of the Page Among the atypical gallerylike spaces hidden in New York are bookstores carrying hard-to-find art books or other rare publications. New York Times, August 17, 2012

New York Bookstores Catering to the Art World Printed Matter, Specific Object and 6 Decades are among the smaller bookstores catering to the art world in New York. New York Times, August 17, 2012

The Ceramists Frans and Marguerite Wildenhain on View  The works of the Bauhaus-trained ceramists Frans and Marguerite Wildenhain have returned to the limelight. New York Times, August 17, 2012

‘Fifteen Years of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective’ Shared features of this show include a feminist perspective, an activist spirit and a resistance to melting pot assimilation. New York Times, August 17, 2012

That One Time I Destroyed A Jeff Koons Piece ... John Powers: "My job was simple: Paint by numbers. The most intricate sections required miniature brushes, sizes 0 and 00, their bristles no longer than an eyelash. The goal was to hand-fashion a flat, seamless surface that appeared to have been manufactured by machine, which meant there could be no visible brush strokes, no blending, no mistakes." The New York Times, August 17, 2012

Atlanta

Putting a Good Face on Street Art, to Upgrade Atlanta In Atlanta, a city with one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates, a project called Living Walls commissions artists to spruce up recession-hit neighborhoods.  Indigo, a street artist from Vancouver, B.C., is among the international artists taking part in the Living Walls art project in Atlanta.  New York Times, August 18, 2012  

Domburg, The Netherlands

Where Mondrian Lingers on a Dutch Coast In an area two hours by train from Amsterdam, where Mondrian began a move away from naturalism a century ago, suggestions of the artist’s brush dot the landscape. New York Times, August 19, 2012  

Paris

French museum sets sights on ambitious Asian art loans  The new president of the Musée Guimet, Olivier de Bernon, a specialist in ancient Cambodian art, has revealed his plans for an exhibition programme that will bring Chinese bronzes and artefacts from Angkor to Paris.  The Art Newspaper, August 20, 2012

Guernica, Spain

Guernica (The Town) Is Doing Really Well, Thanks For Asking In the town Picasso made a symbol of destruction, creativity is booming again.  A film about the painter's vision of a key event in Spain's civil war sheds light on a community finally overcoming the tragic scars of the past  The Guardian, August 18, 2012