Thursday August 16th, 2012 Global BC TV: Vancouver Tour de Biennale Learn more Friday August 10th, 2012 National Post: Why are you laughing? $1.5M secures Vancouver’s beloved smiling statues, but what do they really mean? They are crowd pleasers, to be sure. Fourteen figures, larger-than-life self-portraits by a renowned Chinese artist who conceived and crafted them from bronze. Grinning from ear to ear, every one. That’s Yue Minjun’s trademark, after all. He applies it to all of his work. Learn more Thursday August 9th, 2012 Fred Lee’s Person of Interest: Barrie Mowatt Took His Passion for Art and Made it Public As founder and president of Vancouver's Biennale, Barrie Mowatt has been painting the town with art. Held every two years, the biennale a public Open Air Museum for contemporary art has become an important part of the city's artistic and physical landscape. Highlighting art in public spaces, Mowatt has been inviting Vancouverites to experience the worlds best talents where they live, work, play and take transit. The last biennial which ran from 2009-2011 featured 38 installations from around the world. No work delighted the public more than Chinese artist Yue Minjuns A-maze-ing Laughter bronze sculptures in Morton Park at Davie and Denman. Learn more Friday August 3rd, 2012 Globe and Mail: Lululemon Billionaire Ready to Chip in for Vancouver Being a billionaire (and then some) can offer more freedom than even the stretchiest of yoga pants. Learn more Monday July 23rd, 2012 Globe and Mail: Yue Minjun gives Vancouver the last laugh Even if laughter yoga isn’t your thing, this may be enough to prompt a sun salutation, or at least a hearty Namaste in Vancouver. Yue Minjun’s wildly popular installation A-maze-ing Laughter will remain here, thanks to a donation by the founder of yoga wear giant Lululemon. Chip Wilson and his wife Shannon have given $1.5-million to the Vancouver Biennale Open Air Museum, allowing the organization to gift the work to the city – where residents and tourists have fallen hard for the 14 painted bronze figures. Learn more Friday June 29th, 2012 Vancouver Courier: Bicycle-led public art tour spins by 30 pieces People rode their bikes all the way from Port Moody last summer to tour Vancouver's public art. Reservations for Art Wheelers' inaugural bicycle-led public art tours sold out after a story about the tours aired on CBC Radio. "We were really surprised, we didn't think there would be an interest from locals," said Art Wheelers' co-founder, codirector and art guide Carole-Ann Ryan.     Learn more Wednesday June 20th, 2012 STREET VIEWS Art in public spaces CONSUMED AS I WAS with the dense traffic in Richmond one day, my preschooler's urgent cry initially caused me a moment of trouble and confusion: "Mama, look at the tumbling heads!" I realized she was pointing at the grouping of elegantly dynamic heads with baroque beards and blown locks, solemnly topsy-turvy- Cabeza Vainilla, Cabeza Cordoba, Cabeza Chiapas (2008-2009), Javier Marin's stunning contribution to the Vancouver Biennale 2009-2011 public art exhibition. Learn more Wednesday May 9th, 2012 City Lights – Vancouver Biennale “BIG IDEAS” Arts in Action [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TewgzeKoukw[/youtube] Learn more Monday April 23rd, 2012 The Georgia Straight: Vancouver Biennale Receives Arts Champion Award THE VANCOUVER BIENNALE has received the Arts Champion in Education Award, while Gabriola Island’s Kathy Ramsey, Vernon’s Lynne Hossay, and New Westminster’s Trudy Van Dop have received Arts Champion in Community Awards. Learn more Sunday April 22nd, 2012 Inside Vancouver: Giant Laughing Statues to Stay in English Bay Good news for public art fans in Vancouver:  A-maze-ing Laughter is staying in English Bay. Learn more Saturday April 14th, 2012 Vancouver Sun: Vancouver Biennale Raises City ‘Onto a World-Class Stage’ The number of public art installations in the City of Vancouver is set to shrink dramatically with the closing of the Vancouver Biennale exhibition, but organizers are hoping at least one of the sculptures will find a permanent home here. Learn more Tuesday November 8th, 2011 Globe and Mail: Vancouver biennale works go under the hammer in New York A few weeks ago, Zhan Wang’s Artificial Rock #143 was removed from the corner of Granville and Georgia Streets in downtown Vancouver, where the crunched up ball of silvery contemporary art has been attracting climbing children and curious adults since the run-up to the Vancouver Olympics. It now resides at a Park Avenue address in New York (albeit temporarily), where on Tuesday it goes on the auction block along with several other offerings from the Vancouver Biennale, as well as works by in-demand emerging artists and superstar pop artists such as Keith Haring, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. Learn more Friday September 30th, 2011 Take a ride through some outdoor art Cyclists will gear up for a ride around Vancouver’s outdoor sculptures this weekend, while taking in the art and culture of the city. Learn more Wednesday September 21st, 2011 Richmond Review: Steveston Village Joins Tour de Biennale The Vancouver Biennale is welcoming all serious cyclists 18 years and older to participate in the upcoming Tour De Biennale. Learn more Wednesday March 16th, 2011 Vancouver Observer: Vancouver Biennale Creates Blue Forests to Spread Environmental Awareness It has been our experience that with all of the distractions available, you need to do something big if you want to get some major attention. Beware, because if you pull off the ever elusive big attention getting thing that we’re talking about, you better have something meaningful to say. Learn more Thursday January 20th, 2011 Vancouver Observer: Free admission: a look at Vancouver’s public art This week Vancouver has been celebrating the developments of upcoming public art projects, like the new Terry Fox sculptures designed by Douglas Coupland that will be installed at BC Place. So we felt it was a great time to talk about the amazing public art that our city already has to offer. Great cities are built for the people, and Vancouver is no exception. But, when was the last time you went for an art walk – or even stopped to admire a piece of public art in Vancouver? Sculptures, memorials, fountains and graffiti are everywhere, yet if you are not familiar with where to look then how would you even get started? Learn more Sunday December 27th, 2009 The Province: Public Art Can Both Be Engaging and Fun As part of Vancouver Biennale, 30 sculptures were installed throughout the Lower Mainland this summer. The sculptures were erected throughout 12 neighborhoods along beaches, bike and walking paths, parks and urban plazas. The show will be open until June 2011.   Learn more Saturday October 31st, 2009 Canadian Architect: Vancouver Biennale Launches in-transit-ion Exhibition As part of the Vancouver Biennale, a new exhibition entitled in-transit-ion launches on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 10:00am at Morton Triangle, English Bay in Vancouver. Learn more Friday September 4th, 2009 Vancouver is Awesome: Wang Shugang’s “The Meeting” A little while back I introduced you to the epic public art project, the Vancouver Biennale, which is taking place over 22 months in the city. As the sculptures are revealed the Biennale blog will be profiling each of them, and we’ll be reminding you and urging you to have a closer look. Learn more Wednesday July 1st, 2009 Vancouver Magazine: Ready to Install "I've based it all on a drop of water." Chinese sculptor Ren Jun is using his beverage to describe a monumental piece of public art. He's trying to convince a dubious Barrie Mowatt, in the offices of the Vancouver Biennale near the Olympic Village, to approve his proposal for the international outdoor art festival that begins in September. Learn more