On holidays…
Last week, I took a short trip to Sydney, Australia to visit my family and see my 90-year old Grandma. Since there was more family-ing and beach-ing than art-ing, I didn’t get a chance to see much art, but I did see a bit :)
On my way over, I had a 14-hour stop in Vancouver (the joys of flying on the cheap ticket) and so I killed some time at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Unfortunately, they were doing a show change so only bits of the permanent collection and the lots from their upcoming fund-raising auction were available. If I had the money to spend at the auction, I these would have been my picks:
Gathie Falk, Watermelons, Ceramic
Rodney Graham, Studies for Smoke Break, C-pritnt
Brian Howell, 35 East Hastings Street, Ink Jet Print
Jeff Wall, Steve’s Farm, C-print
Paul Wong, Video Art, Neon
In Sydney, I checked out the Art Gallery of NSW on my first day in town (unfortunately, the Contemporary Art Gallery of Sydney was closed for renovations). The space is beautiful and right in the park in the city. The contemporary collection had some great works by international artists and Aussies. 
I’ve been a big fan of Ricky Swallow’s carved works for a while and ‘Killing Time’ blew me away.
Callum Morton’s ‘Motormouth’ was also one of my favorites in the gallery. (and man is there traffic in Sydney!)
Apart from that… the city and the beaches are beautiful!
From the ferry…
Bondi Beach
Don’t forget appropriate beach reading…
