Vancouver

New life for old character Outside the corporate tent of Marvel and DC, there’s a thriving, eclectic, and motley world of independent artists and writers creating words and pictures that stretch the limits of the comic book form.  Vancouver’s David Boswell, who will be among the artists at this year’s festival, knows better than anyone how to survive outside that corporate tent.  The Province, May 23, 2013

Centre A Gallery Announces New Gallery Location Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is pleased to announce their new location at 229 East Georgia Street, as well as the launch of the new video installation “hearts and arrows” by Vancouver artist Khan Lee.  Galleries West, May 22, 2013

Richmond Richmond Art Gallery's Materially Speaking questions the value of the handmade Works by Jen Aitken, Lou Lynn, Brendan Lee Satish Tang, and Julie York find ways to employ traditional materials such as glass, clay, bronze, and fabric while also questioning our beliefs about craft and skill. Georgia Straight, May 21, 2013  

Whitehorse Yukoners knit wooly mammoth a new coat Life-size sculptures of ice age mammals at Whitehorse’s Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre are now wearing colourful coats thanks to industrious knitters. Yarn Bomb Yukon stitched a wooly mammoth into a onesie and put pyjamas on a giant beaver this week.  CBC, May 23, 2013

Calgary  We have a growing education, experiential and life-satisfaction deficit. You might say Calgary’s experience last year as a Cultural Capital of Canada ended not with a bang or a whimper, but with a flash mob. Even a $5.8-million infusion of federal arts funding gave cultural patriots little to cheer.  Galleries West, May 17, 2013  

Saskatoon "Back Talk (Works 1983-2009)" by Ruth Cuthand, Mendel Art Gallery/Tribe Inc., 2012 This catalogue for a recent retrospective exhibition by Ruth Cuthand was shortlisted for the 2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards.  Galleries West, May 21, 2013

San Francisco From Pictorialism to Modernism, With Little Notice  Alma Lavenson, who lived through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and saw the Transamerica Pyramid erected, had a long, remarkable and largely unknown photography career. New York Times, May 23, 2013

New York About Last Night | Fun Times at MoMA's Party in the Garden The star-studded gathering honored Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the artists Ellsworth Kelly and Cindy Sherman. New York Times, May 23, 2013

On View | Koloman Moser's Viennese Vision At the Neue Galerie, works from the prolific, late Austrian artist and designer go on view today. New York Times, May 23, 2013

Baltimore Museums: the cure for a crowded house? Will the shrinking size of US apartments drive more people to visit museums? “If you aren’t hanging out with friends at home, you need somewhere else to go,” said Elizabeth Merritt, the founding director of the Centre for the Future of Museums, at a presentation during the American Alliance of Museums’ (AAM) annual meeting this week (19-22 May).  The Art Newspaper, May 23, 2013  

London Tate purchases Constable for £23.1m Heritage Lottery Fund gives £15.8m, the largest amount of money for a single work in its history, to secure painting for the nation.  The Art Newspaper, May 23, 2013

Paris Legendary Picasso Catalogue Returns To Print "Comprising 33 volumes and more than 16,000 images," Pablo Picasso - known in the art world as "the Zervos" - "was the result of an intense four-decade collaboration between the artist and [scholar/dealer Christian] Zervos." New York Times, May 23, 2013

Venice New Guide in Venice  Massimiliano Gioni’s ambitious Venice Biennale art extravaganza opens this week.  New York Times, May 23, 2013  

Hong Kong  Hong Kong Welcomes the Art World Art Basel Hong Kong, the newest outpost in its art-fair empire, opens on Thursday, leaving the local arts community both excited about their turn in the international spotlight and worried about losing a local flavor. New York Times, May 23, 2013