01 Oct 2021

Unceded Territories

If you’re lucky,  you saw the remarkable artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s remarkable exhibit: Unceded Territories at the Museum of Anthropology in 2016. Living in Vancouver, Yuxweluptun is of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) and Okanagan (Syilx) descent. ‘I have been an artist all my life,’ Yuxweluptun wrote in the accompanying book.

14 Sep 2021

Basquiat @ The Broad

If you happen to be in Los Angeles – or visiting the Broad Museum online – you’ll see their ‘Expansive Presentation of Jean-Michel Basquiat’. It’s a remarkable exhibit that showcases all thirteen of The Broad’s Basquiats. This is the first time that three of Basquiat’s works – Santo 2, Deaf,

27 Aug 2021

Rembrandt In Amsterdam

‘Life etches itself onto our faces as we get older, showing our violence, excesses, or kindnesses.’ So said the phenomenally talented painter of portraits and scenes much beyond, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn  (1609-60). Rembrandt’s portraits ranged from the biblical, such as the Old Testament heroine above, to ‘aspirational merchants and

17 Aug 2021

Black Cat Fancy

Happy Black Cat Appreciation Day! To honour these midnight felines, some art .. . . Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Cats Suggested as the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō. 1850 . John Everett Millais: A Flood. 1870 . Giovanni Boldini. Girl with Black Cat. 1885 . Aubrey Vincent Beale. The Black Cat, for Edgar

10 Aug 2021

A Whirl Of Words

A whirl of words. It’s what we imagine when we look at Vancouver artist Andre Petterson’s striking series of mixed media typewriter pieces. A whirl of words is also the concept behind the new book of Jonathan Berkowitz – CBC Radio’s ‘Word Guy’, author, puzzler, statistician, professor. We would rave,

03 Aug 2021

Flower Punk

“Hand me the shears please.” Azuma Makoto is building one of his incredibly creative floral sculptures whilst talking to filmmaker Alison Klayman and her New Yorker Documentary team. “I always feel this way,” Makoto continues. “Flowers are about something more than just beauty. If you just wanted to see something

13 Jul 2021

A Century of Women Writers

‘Goodnight stars Good night air Good night ….’ Can you finish this? If not outright, is the ending just out of reach in the recesses of your memory? These words come to us from one of the best-selling books ever: ‘Goodnight Moon’, the 1942 rhyming children’s book by Margaret Wise

29 Jun 2021

Pool Party Please

The Heat Dome is not it. Want proof? A good friend and his daughter just baked cookies in their car. 🔥 Rolling into a cold pool sounds idyllic if: a) one can find a pool that isn’t stuffed with people, and b) one has the energy to drag oneself out

15 Jun 2021

Misty Copeland Drops Into Degas

Photographers, and spouses, Deborah Ory and Ken Browar are known for their striking portraits of dancers. Ory was a dance major in college who, after injuring herself in first year, started photographing the rehearsals she would have otherwise been in. Browar developed his reputation as a top fashion photographer with

06 Jun 2021

In The Heights

In 2008, before Lin-Manuel Miranda was Lin-Manuel Miranda, Whoopee Goldberg stood on the Tony Award stage to announce the winner of Best Musical. The audience was already ‘In The Heights’ hyped after having seen its brilliant creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and his cast perform an excerpt onstage. Miranda had written the