Tutto Bene

“All is good“. Well, it is more than good! For serious art lovers, Florence is delightful and inspiring. I had to go back to my two favourite art institutions – the Uffizi Gallery and Galleria dell’Academia. Nothing beats making a reservation for both galleries in advance. For an extra 4EUR fee for each ticket, one gets to bypass the long queues. The Uffizi was uncrowded at 8:30 in the morning, which rewarded me with some serious solo time with the gallery’s masterpieces that included Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, Michaelangelo‘s Tondo Doni, and Piero della Francesca’s portraits of the Duke and Duchess…

Aga Khan Museum

September 28, 2014 Categories: Architecture · Art · Canada · TorontoTags: Aga Khan Museum · Canada · Fumihiko Maki · Islamic Art · Ismaili Centre Toronto · Toronto2 Comments

Opened ten days ago, the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto is one magnificent building designed by Japan’s Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Fumihiko Maki. Utilizing light as inspiration, light animates the building in myriad ways depending on the time of day or season. Maki incorporates historical elements from Islamic cultures into contemporary design. The $300 million Aga Khan Museum is the first museum in North America dedicated to showcasing Islamic Art. It offers visitors into the world of Islamic civilization across the centuries from the Iberian Peninsula to China. Across the museum is the also newly-built Ismaili Centre Toronto designed by Indian architect Charles Correa. The…

Recoleta

June 1, 2014May 29, 2014 Categories: Accommodations · Argentina · Art · Buenos Aires · TravelTags: Argentina · Art Gallery · Buenos Aires · Cemetery · Four Seasons Hotel · MALBA · Palermo · Recoleta · Travel

Adopted by upper-class porteños (or locals) after yellow fever broke out in San Telmo in 1871, the barrio of Recoleta has grown into a model of bourgeois refinement as one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires. Recoleta has a distinctly European feel with its French and Italian architecture, tree-lined streets, big-name international brand stores, restaurants and galleries and of course, the barrio’s famous cemetery — the Cemeterio de la Recoleta. Cemeterio de la Recoleta has earned its reputation as one of the world’s great necropolis. Occupying an area of 14 acres, the Recoleta Cemetery is a labyrinth of more than 6,400 tombs and mausoleums…

MCASD

April 27, 2014April 25, 2014 Categories: Art · California · Carlsbad · San Diego · USATags: Art · Art Museum · California · La Jolla · MCASD · Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego was founded in 1941 and has a collection of more than 4,000 works created after 1950 in its location in La Jolla, California and it’s second location in downtown San Diego. The MCASD reflects an artistic program that encourages promising emerging artists and recognizes mid-career artists whose works need more visibility.

Art Fair in Manila

February 22, 2014May 9, 2014 Categories: Art · Art Fair · Manila · PhilippinesTags: Art Fair · Art Fair Philippines · Philippines2 Comments

Art Fair Philippines is the premier platform for exhibiting modern and contemporary Philippine visual art. Only on its second year, this year’s fair already features twenty-eight of the country’s foremost contemporary art galleries and seven solo exhibitions. Held at The Link in Makati City from February 19 to 23, 2014.

Botero + Street Art

December 3, 2013May 15, 2014 Categories: Art · Bogota · Colombia · TravelTags: Bogota · Colombia · Fernando Botero · Graffiti Art · Museo Botero · Travel2 Comments

One highlight of my trip is the visit to the Museo Botero. Colombia’s world famous artist, Fernando Botero, is well known for his figurative artworks of sculptures and paintings that depict people and figures in large and exaggerated volumes that are viewed as satire, caricature or political commentary. The widely recognized collection of gordas and gordos (or “chubby women and men”) are brilliant and at times, humorous. His monumental public sculptures adorn squares and parks in cities around the globe, including Paris, Madrid, Florence and New York. The Museo Botero in Bogotá exhibits several of his sculptures, paintings and drawings which…

According to What?

August 30, 2013April 4, 2014 Categories: Art · Canada · Toronto · TravelTags: AGO · Ai Weiwei · Art · Canada · Toronto2 Comments

Ai WeiWei’s current exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto is a powerful yet emotional, at times, commentary on society. Modern art that is relevant and one can easily relate to. The exhibit runs until Oct. 27, 2013 and is highly recommended. The Snake Ceiling is made of backpacks to commemorate the more than 5,000 school children who were killed due to the collapse of the shoddily constructed schools in the May 2008 massive earthquake in China’s Sichuan province. Moon Chest is comprised of seven chests made from quince trees. The circular openings align to show every…

Toronto: Ai Weiwei

June 24, 2013April 4, 2014 Categories: Art · Canada · Toronto · TravelTags: Ai Weiwei · Circle of Animals · Public Art · Toronto · Zodiac Sculpture2 Comments

I am welcomed back to Toronto by summer and Ai Weiwei’s installation at Nathan Phillips Square (running until October 27). Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most prolific, provocative and significant artists of today. Circle of Animals / Zodiac Sculpture is his reinterpretation of the twelve bronze animal heads of the Chinese zodiac that once stood in the gardens of the Yuanming Yuan, an imperial summer palace in Beijing. Designed in the 1700’s, the animal heads originally functioned as a water clock fountain, but in 1860, the palace was ransacked by French and British troops and the heads were…

Museums (More!)

June 13, 2013April 4, 2014 Categories: Amsterdam · Architecture · Art · Europe · Netherlands · TravelTags: Amsterdam · Amsterdam Museum · architecture · Museum Van Loon · Museums · Netherlands · Scheepvart Museum · Tassen Museum of Bags and Purses

There seems to be no end to the astounding line up of museums in Amsterdam. Aside from the Big Four museums (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum and Anne Frankhuis), there are the Canal House mansions turned museums, historical museums, and many other specialty museums. I noted a sign for a Tulip museum, one for a Cheese museum, and another for a Torture museum. Whatever your interests may be, likely there will be one that will cater. Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum (Maritime Museum) – once the arsenal of the Dutch Navy, the classical building was designed by Daniel Stalpaert in 1655…

Van Gogh Museum + More Art

June 11, 2013April 4, 2014 Categories: Amsterdam · Architecture · Art · Europe · Netherlands · Photography · TravelTags: Amsterdam · De Appel · FOAM · Huis Marseilles · Museum · Museumkaart · Van Gogh Museum

The other “must see” museum in Amsterdam is the Van Gogh Museum. Opened in 1973 to house the collection of Vincent’s younger brother Theo, it is home to 200 paintings and 500 drawings by Vincent and his contemporaries such as Tolouse-Lautrec, Monet and Gaugin. The original building was designed by Gerrit Rietveld and opened after his death in 1973 (with renovations undertaken in 1998 by Martin van Goor) and a new exhibition wing designed by Kisho Kurokawa was added in 1999. This year marks the 40th year of the opening of the museum and the 160th anniversary of Van Gogh’s…

where's gary

Category: Art