Weekly arts agenda: 35th Sydney Festival celebrations

(Sydney Festival)

On Saturday, January 8, festivities will get underway for the 35th edition of the Sydney Festival in Australia. The city of Sydney will be transformed into a magical wonderland of music, dance, and cinematic adventures for the festival opening night. More than one million people are expected to attend over 100 events during the three-week festival.

35th Sydney Festival 2011
January 8-30
Various locations
Sydney, Australia

The Sydney Festival is Australia's largest summer arts festival. With its more than one million visitors it outshines Australia's other arts festivals including the Perth International Arts Festival, the Brisbane Festival and the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts. It has been running since 1977 and aims to showcase local and international talent while at the same time celebrating Australian culture. More than 1,500 artists in the fields of dance, theater, music, visual arts, and cross media platforms will be involved in the 2011 Sydney Festival. Most events are free to the public.
http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/


1st Art Stage Singapore
January 12-16
Marina Bay Sands
Singapore

The inaugural edition of Art Stage Singapore will welcome more than 100 international modern and contemporary galleries to showcase "the best and most exciting of Asian artistic creativity." Art Stage Singapore's Project Stage will feature young galleries and emerging artists while the works of David LaChapelle, Yayoi Kusama and Li Hui will be featured in solo presentations at the fair. Art Stage Singapore director Lorenzo Rudolf was a former director of Art Basel, inventor of Art Basel Miami Beach and co-creator of China's ShContemporary art fair.
http://www.artstagesingapore.com/


2nd Miami International Art Fair
January 13-17
Miami Beach Convention Center
Miami, FL, USA

Now in its second year, the Miami International Art Fair (MIA) juxtaposes Miami artists and dealers with their international counterparts. The dynamic selection of contemporary art, photography, video art and installation art hails from galleries spanning across every continent and is paired with an informative series of lectures by influential speakers in the art world. MIA is the newest in a series of Miami-based art fairs (which includes Art Miami, AIFAF and Art Palm Beach) organized by the International Fine Art Expositions.
http://www.mia-artfair.com/


20th Photo Los Angeles
January 13-17
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
Santa Monica, CA, USA

Los Angeles's longest-running art fair, Photo LA, celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2011. While it is primarily a contemporary photo fair, the more than 10,000 guests will also find video and multimedia installations as well as photographic works created by 19th century masters at Photo LA. Similar American contemporary photography fairs include Photo San Francisco, Photo MIAMI, Photo Santa Fe and Photo NY.
http://www.photola.com/


23rd London Art Fair
January 19-23
Business Design Centre
London, UK

The London Art Fair is hailed as the event that "launches the art world year in the UK." This long-standing event is in its 23nd year and will host more than 100 galleries in 2011. Organizers expect more than 23,000 visitors to attend the contemporary art fair - the largest modern British and contemporary art fair in the UK (slightly larger than London's Art London and 20/21 British Art Fair). Two curated sections, "Art Projects" and "Photo50," run alongside the event and focus on younger galleries and contemporary photography.
http://www.londonartfair.co.uk/


14th Art Palm Beach
January 20-24
Palm Beach County Convention Center
Palm Beach, FL, USA

More than 70 international and local galleries will showcase modern and contemporary artworks by 1,200 artists at the 14th edition of Art Palm Beach. Recent works by contemporary artists will be juxtaposed with large-scale installations and modern masterpieces such as sculptures by Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle. In 2010, around 20,000 people attended the show. The state of Florida is also home to the Miami International Art Fair, Halifax Art Festival and the American International Fine Art Fair (AIFAF).
http://www.artpalmbeach.com/


35th ARTE FIERA ART FIRST
January 28-31
Bologna Exhibition Center
Bologna, Italy

Art Fiera Art First is the largest and most important annual international contemporary art event in Italy. More than 200 galleries will present works across three sections: modern art, contemporary art, and the "latest trends." Italy is also home to contemporary art fairs MiArt, KunStart and Artissima.
http://www.artefiera.bolognafiere.it/en


The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City
Metropolitan Museum of Art
February 1 - May 1
New York City, New York, USA

More than 90 lavish objects are displayed, including murals, paintings, furniture, decorative works, and architecture from the 2-acre residence and gardens of the Qianlong Emperor of China's last dynasty, created in 1771 and shuttered in 1924. Objects of lacquer, porcelain and gilt bronzes - never been seen before by the public - are part of a larger show, the Summer of China, including Extravagant Display: Chinese Art in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Organized by Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, it travels to Milwaukee in June before returning to the Palace Museum in Beijing.
http://www.metmuseum.org


59th Perth International Arts Festival
February 11 - March 7
Various locations
Perth, Australia

The Perth International Arts Festival is the longest-running multi-arts festival in Australia. While attendance is slightly lower than at NSW's iconic Sydney Festival, the Perth International Arts Festival offers a more varied program. The three-week long festival welcomes more than 800 performers and boasts a diverse program of art, music, theatre, dance, literature and film. More than 800,000 people attended the festival in 2010.
http://perthfestival.com.au/


Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century
Milwaukee Art Museum
February 12 - May 15
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Timed to mark the centennial of Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home, studio and school in Wisconsin, this survey of the architect's major projects includes Unity Temple, Fallingwater home and the Johnson Wax building. Highlights feature never-before-exhibited drawings, furniture, photography and work related to Taliesin and his Arizona home, Taliesin West. The first exhibition to consider the relevance of Wright's architecture to today's environmentalism.
http://www.mam.org


30th ARCO Madrid
February 16-20
Feria de Madrid
Madrid, Spain

The 30th edition of the Spanish-based arts festival aims to provide a truly global perspective on modern art and emerging creative expression. Around 180,000 visitors will travel to the festival to view cutting-edge contemporary works. Twelve of the Fair's 160 galleries hail from Russia in 2011 as part of the event's FOCUS RUSSIA program. Other noteworthy Spanish art events include PHotoEspaña, ArtFutura, Loop and Swab.
http://www.ifema.es/ferias/arco/default_i.html


Paul Gauguin: Maker of Myth
National Gallery of Art
February 27 - June 2
Washington DC, USA

Paul Gauguin's colorful images of Brittany and the South Seas' islands are presented in this exhibit of 120 works, organized by the Tate Modern of London. The first major show in the US of the French artist since a 1988 retrospective, featuring self-portraits, still lifes and landscapes, paintings, pastels, sculpture, and decorated objects. The show explores Gauguin's use of myth and symbol to tell stories, from European culture to Maori legend.
http://www.nga.gov