The University of Aberdeen announced that it will return the Benin Bronze in their possession to Nigeria, the first such commitment after a 40-year call for their return. The return calls to the forefront the ethical dilemmas that face institutions that have built their collections on items looted and plundered from their rightful nations.  While the sculpture is a prime example of Benin metallurgy capabilities, the Scottish University at least describes its possession by anyone besides the Nigerian people as “extremely immoral.”

One of Canada’s most celebrated artists, Dr. Mary Frances Pratt (1936-2018) was a realist painter, specializing in photo-realistic still life.  Her works focused heavily on domestic scenes and portraits of a young woman named Donna Meaney.  While her works have been connected with the feminist movement of the 1970s, Pratt painted what she found “erotically necessary to have forever.”  She sought to capture the vibrant charge of light, calling it a “love affair with vision.”

An artist statement is your elevator pitch, a few sentences (or sometimes paragraphs) explaining who you are, what you create, and why it’s relevant. Artist statements are an important introduction to your art and are often required if you are applying for a competition, residency, or grant funding.

Rebecca Belmore has a prominent place in Canadian Art. So much so that her work at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), “Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental,” was one of the first exhibitions featured in the newly restructured department of Indigenous and Canadian Art. The exhibition, curated by fellow Anishinaabe Wanda Nanibush, is the culmination of more than 30 years of Belmore’s work giving voice to the voiceless.

The City of Vancouver now has new tenants within the former location of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The Arts Umbrella officially opened its new space located on Granville Island, the reclaimed industrial space along the waterfront that is now the home of parks, boutique shops, and open-air markets. This month’s Art World looks at the move, and what it means for young artists within Vancouver.

At first glance, Alex Colville’s paintings are portraits of everyday life.  They represent the people and situations that are familiar to all of us.  But after careful inspection, you begin to suspect that there is something sinister lying beneath, a threat of something waiting to happen.  Perhaps it’s the distinctive pointillism of his later works that give the viewer this feeling, the tiny brushstrokes of color not forming a full picture until viewed at a distance.

There is beauty and power in motion, which a kinetic artist seeks to capture and present to the audience.  For over thirty years, Toronto artist Marla Hlady has been presenting her moving sculptures to reflect on the society they were born from.  Hlady works mainly in sculpture and complex machinery, and her pieces are made from everyday materials.  They are meant to represent everyday occurrences, like the spinning of a fan, or the toasting of a glass.  But these ordinary objects and actions are altered and made beautiful.  “I rarely make a piece and not feel unbelievably excited to do the next piece,” she comments.

A couple in Seoul were horrified to learn that they had mistaken an abstract mural worth $440,000 for participatory art.  JonOne, an American graffiti artist living and working in Paris, painted Untitled in front of a live audience at the Seoul Arts Center in 2016.  The large piece was hanging unframed in Jamsi’s Lotte World Mall in Seoul as part of the Street Noise exhibition, featuring graffiti artists from around the world.