I first wrote about ideaBOOST, the Canadian Film Centre's exciting program for digital entertainment startups when it launched back in November, and now the first phase of the four-month intensive "bootcamp" has come to a successful close.

CFC Chief Digital...

Last week, the Canadian Film Centre's CFC Media Lab launched a fantastic new program called ideaBOOST, designed to assist artists and companies exploring the frontier in digital entertainment.

For those that aren't familiar with the term,...

I sat down with legendary performance artist Marina Abramovic who was in Toronto recently for the Canadian premiere of The Artist Is Present, a documentary on her work, which screened at the Reel Artists Film Festival. She is also setting up an institute for the preservation of performance art,...

Tasman Richardson's immersive installation at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, is on until April 1st in Toronto and I recommend you see it.

Tasman Richardson, Memorial. All images courtesy the artist.

Conceived in collaboration with curator...

I was in New York last weekend, to see friends but also to see the Maurizio Cattelan retrospective the day before it closed. It has gotten quite a bit of attention for its unusual installation. The work was hung entirely from the ceiling, down the central atrium, with absolutely...

I stopped by the studio of young painter Rob Davidovitz the other afternoon. Rob doesn't paint in the traditional sense, though. Instead he uses paint to create these textile/painting hybrids.

He mixes paint...

I came across a quote from the Young British Artists godfather, Michael Craig-Martin in the Financial Times recently. Speaking about the practice of being an artist, he says, "What interests me is the part of you that you are stuck with, that you can't control, and it comes...

Patriotism is defined as a "love of one's country." Nationalism is a more complex thing, referring I suppose to one's nationhood, as distinct from one's homeland. It's a topic explored in the new show at MOCCA in Toronto, which opened on Sept. 9, days before the anniversary of Sept....

With all the condo development going on in downtown Toronto recently -- the good, the bad and the embarrassingly ugly (Hello there, Bohemian Embassy -- what is with that sign?!) has come a smart new wave of Toronto's downtown art scene.

Hunter &...

Last weekend, we went up to a friend's cottage on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park.

You may recognize the name -- it's well known as the lake where Group of Seven painter Tom Thomson mysteriously died at age 42 in July, 1917. He had left to go on a fishing...

I've been thinking recently about Canada's arts granting system. With all this talk of financial reform, from the global to the municipal levels (hello, Rob Ford), maybe it's time we looked at whether the art granting system in Canada could use some reform of its own.

Federal, provincial and...

Today, I went to the media preview of Haute Culture, the retrospective of famed Canadian artist collective General Idea, which opens this Friday with a free party at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Although I don't blog about public art in Toronto, since it could create a conflict with my position on the City of Toronto Public Art Commission, that doesn't stop me from blogging about public art elsewhere.

The entrance to the new Sofitel Hotel in Vienna.

I...

While it's clear that Canada has some thriving art scenes in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg, the issue continues to be the comparatively weak market for contemporary art.

We have Nuit Blanche in Montreal and Toronto (which is a good start) and we have art fairs for...

It's better late than never for some highlights from this year's Venice Biennale.

Flying into Venice. All photos: VoCA

Having been to several Venice Biennales in my life, I almost always prefer the pavilions where the artist addresses the architecture of the...