Vancouver

Gathie Falk fashions scary beauty with Presence and Absence. “Clothing is the chief symbol of the human figure in Gathie Falk’s exhibition at the Equinox Gallery. Here, she deploys sculpted shirts, shoes, dresses, and ball caps to articulate her theme, “Presence and Absence… The most eloquent and thoughtful essay about Falk’s metaphoric use of clothing was written by Vancouver Art Gallery senior curator Bruce Grenville. It’s included in the book that accompanied the VAG’s 2000 Gathie Falk retrospective, and is a useful companion to the Equinox Gallery show.”  Georgia Straight, November 10, 2011

Critics say Vancouver's municipal parties need to support artists directly “In a wide-ranging interview at the Straight offices, Vision Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson responded to the NPA’s election promise to turn over the entire city block across from the Sandman Hotel for a new Vancouver Art Gallery.”  When asked what was stopping him from making a similar election promise, Robertson said there was a public process under way to allow the city to find out what residents and the arts community thinks about the gallery’s move and to give the gallery time to fundraise and make a business plan. Georgia Straight, November 10, 2011

Alliance for Arts and Culture plans for a new future The Alliance for Arts and Culture’s outgoing executive director, Amir Ali Alibhai, says the organization is developing a new strategic plan to be implemented by his successor.   Georgia Straight, November 10, 2011

Sheryl McGraw appointed ArtsBC executive director. After nine months of acting as ArtsBC's interim director, Sheryl McGraw has been appointed to lead the organization permanently.  Georgia Straight, November 10, 2011

Victoria

Photo project puts life into perspective. “Mike Andrew McLean gets a common response when people learn that he's a photographer: They love photography too — in fact, they took 3,000 photos on their last vacation… Thus was born the idea of Thirty-Five Thousand Forty, a project that saw McLean take at least 100 photos each day. Times Colonist, November 9, 2011

Edmonton

First Nations exhibit enthralls with power — and peace. “Reflecting on the exhibition title, Shifting Patterns, curator Aaron Paquette says, “Our perspectives, our patterns of thinking are changing as we sort of weave our lives together. It is something I love about Canada. I am Métis, so I know what it means for two different cultures to find a way to work together.”” Edmonton Journal, November 10, 2011

Toronto

The cups add up.  “Ken Nicol is a master at divining order out of chaos - particularly chaos of the everydaylife variety. Whether he's carefully sorting swarms of houseflies or arranging potato chips into tidy grids, this Toronto artist distills mathematical purity out of lo-fi dross. With his latest show, themed on the number 100, now on in Toronto, Nicol talks to Leah Sandals about counting, craft and obsessive compulsion.” National Post, November 10, 2011

Grade 6 students review contemporary Canadian Painting. “The other day, I received a set of terrifically enjoyable art reviews. They were all written by Grade 6 students at a Toronto public school. Their teacher had assigned them to look at the semifinalists in this year's RBC Canadian Painting Competition and make a case for their favourite work.” Unedit my heart (Blog), November 9, 2011

The Mill & The Cross: Paint me a story.  The Mill & the Cross (opening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox) invites us to inhabit a work of art along with the mind of the man who made it and to be enthralled by the images shared in vivid tableaux by visionary Polish director Lech Majewski. Toronto Star, November 9, 2011

Ottawa

Big Beat: War art tells us much about the human condition.  “Art illuminates, war eliminates. Art is the light of truths we should think about, war is the darkness of truths we would rather not think about — and they meet, sometimes uncomfortably, as war art.” Ottawa Citizen, November 9, 2011

Los Angeles

Hedi Slimane, Designer Turned Photographer, at the Top of His Game, Again The former designer of Dior Homme now takes portraits of up-and-coming artists. New York Times, November 10, 2011

Denver

Denver Museum Raises ore Than $100 Million For Building Selling Clyfford Still Paintings "Four pieces by Still, whose works rarely come to market, were sold, taking a total of $114m (£71.6m). All of the works came from the Estate of Patricia Still and were being sold by the City and County of Denver with funds going towards the new Clyfford Still Museum, set to open in a week's time." BBC, November 10, 2011

Houston

On Location: For the Director of the Menil Collection, an Unadorned Home  It took some courage for Josef Helfenstein, the director of the Menil Collection, to build a house just 200 yards from the museum, which Renzo Piano designed. Philip Johnson’s Rothko Chapel is nearby, too, in this leafy, art-filled neighborhood.  New York Times, November 10, 2011

Sycamore, IL

Who Made That? The Origin of Spray Paint.  “That a paint salesman from northern Illinois created the tool through which rebels, gang members, artists and anti-Wall Street protesters alike have expressed themselves merely confirms that inventors can neither control nor predict the impact of their innovations.” New York Times, November 4, 2011

New York

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale Totals $316 Million Abstract canvases by Clyfford Still and Gerhard Richter brought record auction prices for those artists at the contemporary art sale. New York Times, November 10, 2011

Day in the Sun for Postwar and Contemporary Art The Christie's auction in New York comforts the faithful in a time of economic dysfunction. New York Times, November 10, 2011

Still On The Block Tonight, And The Deaccessioning Still Keeps Coming.  Tonight all eyes will be on the sale of contemporary art at Sotheby's, which needs to score as well, or better, as Christie's did last night.  The sale will offer art works from "more than a dozen of America‟s most-respected museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the Harvard Art Museums; the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the North Carolina Museum of Art; Louisville‟s Speed Art Museum; and Hartford‟s Wadsworth Atheneum," Christie's was pleased to say.  CultureGrrl, November 9, 2011 

Berlin

On Location - In Berlin, a Showpiece of Communal Living Two architects and life partners create an elegant, six-story co-op with 10 apartment units in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood. New York Times, November 10, 2011

Oldest Human Painting Found In Europe "The Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany has yielded yet another startling archeological discovery -- the oldest evidence of human painting ever found in Central Europe." Der Spiegel, November 8, 2011

Moscow

Is The Pushkin Museum Showing A Fake Modigliani? The allegations come from a leading Russian collector, who does not wish to be named, as well as other figures in the Russian art world. The Art Newspaper, November 10, 2011