The lineup for the next Venice Biennale's core pavilions is drawing mixed responses from curators... gee who could have predicted that? Isn't that healthy... and wouldn't consensus seem fascist? That said European and US dominated shows seem tired. Even here in Portland we have enough foreign nationals to question why every high profile list, award or group show in the city needs to be extra WASPy.

Turns out what they thought was a later Rembrandt copy depicting the artist in a funny hat is in fact the real thing.

No new news in the MOCA drama but Christopher Knight chimes in again. MOCA needs independence and that requires an end to the drama... which will take an effective director and board combo... not simply one man or one savior institution. Reading between all the lines it is curious how nobody is talking about Deitch leaving or staying... seems like there is a done deal out there? Any deal that keeps him in place is the wrong deal, Deitch is better as a gadfly than as a stabilizing agent.

Toyo Ito is the latest Pritzker Prize winner (but of course he is). Check out these Iwan Baan photos of one of Toyo Ito's best projects the Tama Art University Library. Frankly, it is one of my favorite buildings completed over the last decade. The PNCA's Cloepfil designed 511 building will make somewhat similar use of form substituting catenaries for arches... especially in the library areas. Ito's design still outclasses Cloepfil but to be fair the PNCA project is a renovation and has a more challenging program to address. I just think Portlanders should be conversant about the properties of both projects. With PAM in a semi-silent planning phase, a new transit bridge over the Willamette and the Japanese Garden working an a super exciting Kengo Kuma expansion Portland is looking up in turns of international caliber architecture. Design excellence does push patrons... but it is a push that needs to happen now that Portland is perhaps the most interesting city in the USA.