Amsterdam for culture trippers

Amsterdam for culture trippers

Amsterdam charms with history, her lovely canals lined with houses that resemble gingerbread cookies piped with white icing.  And with more museums per square kilometer than any place else on earth, it would be easy to imagine the city as an open-air museum of Holland’s Golden Age.  But the spirit of adventure, tolerance and freedom that built […]

20.04.2011 · Filled under: Art, Destination Guides, Europe, Netherlands · Tags: , ,
Investing in beauty: The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, Netherlands

Investing in beauty: The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, Netherlands

If TEFAF Maastricht is the mother of all commercial art fairs, she is a gracious hostess with a salon full of fresh flowers and the best-informed minds of the international art world. Often described as an incredible once-a-year museum in which everything is for sale, TEFAF this year hosted 260 of the world’s top art and antiques dealers showing everything from classical antiquities to crave-worthy jewellery by Lalique and […]

05.04.2011 · Filled under: Art, ArtSmart Roundtable, Europe, Festivals & Events, Netherlands · Tags: ,
El Anatsui at the ROM

El Anatsui at the ROM

I had heard of Ghana-born sculptor El Anatsui before – he has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Met (New York), the British Museum (London), the National Museum of African Art (Washington, DC), the Pompidou (Paris) – so couldn’t wait for the opening of  El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa at […]

13.12.2010 · Filled under: Art · Tags:
Buffalo’s electric cultural scene

Buffalo’s electric cultural scene

There’s something Gotham-esque about Buffalo, New York, at night. The moon rises through cold crisp darkness over monuments to its past wealth and importance: the ghost-white Electric Tower, the floodlit ladies atop the Liberty Building, the magnificent Art Deco pile of its City Hall. In dark streets below, the city’s legendary nightlife carries on until a […]

26.11.2010 · Filled under: Architecture, Art, Destination Guides · Tags: , , ,
Beautiful downtown Pittsburgh

Beautiful downtown Pittsburgh

When Visit Pittsburgh invited me to come and see the city’s private and public art collections, I jumped at the chance. My expectations were high but were exceeded many times over. Yes, the Warhol.  Seven storeys of work by one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, including something you’re not going to see anywhere […]

31.07.2010 · Filled under: Architecture, Art, Destination Guides · Tags: , ,
On towels, Kabuki and the Japan Foundation Toronto

On towels, Kabuki and the Japan Foundation Toronto

All aitch might have broken loose downtown during the G20 summit but inside the Japan Foundation Toronto (on Bloor Street just west of Bay), life went on as serenely as ever. In fact, attendance was up for their exhibit Tenugui Towels: Design Excellence in Japanese Daily Life. I went back Thursday night, not just to […]

18.07.2010 · Filled under: Art · Tags:
Luminato Festival: first the happy faces

Luminato Festival: first the happy faces

I didn’t have time to catch much of Luminato 2010 in Toronto other than the Wish Come True Festival presented by FriendsWithYou, a Miami-based visual arts collective.  Queen’s Park looked as though a giant box of toys had been spilled: bouncy mushrooms you could crawl inside, smiling lollipops and totem-pole peppermint sticks, super-sized beach balls […]

21.06.2010 · Filled under: Art, Festivals & Events · Tags:
Oh, Ottawa!

Oh, Ottawa!

Four days in Ottawa last week – which I almost backed out of for fear I’d be bored – wasn’t enough as I ran out of days before I ran out of things to do. Toronto Mayor Miller recently asked: who would want to live in Ottawa? Well, I wouldn’t mind. Perhaps it takes a Torontonian […]

King Tut exhibition, Art Gallery of Ontario

King Tut exhibition, Art Gallery of Ontario

Outside the Art Gallery of Ontario in December sleet, colossal Anubis uards the treasures within. The King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs show is a wonder. The story of Tut is actually the story of two boys: the mysterious Egyptian Boy Pharaoh and another, more modern, English boy who would grow up to discover […]

15.12.2009 · Filled under: Art, Toronto · Tags:
Buffalo Gal

Buffalo Gal

Still carrying on my not-so-secret love affair with Buffalo, an affair that shows no sign of cooling any time soon. This time, a stroll down Elmwood Avenue, the sidewalk scattered with with golden gingko leaves, to our favorite Buffalo hangout, Cole’s.  Robbie at the old (1934) bar – dark wood, college memorabilia, antique carousel horses – […]

17.11.2009 · Filled under: Art, Food, New York · Tags: ,
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