Some people do it all. Take Leonard Cohen, for example. He’s a Canadian icon, poet, artist, novelist, music and singer-songwriter, and writer of “Hallelujah” perhaps the most covered Canadian song of all time.

He’s also a visual artist. The Art of Leonard Cohen is on display at Axis Contemporary Art in the gallery’s new location on the second floor of Art Central. Cohen’s images collected from 40 years archival drawings and journals have been reproduced on watercolour paper with each of the 100 editions stamped with a personal seal by Cohen himself.

Behold a slice of Canadiana. —Jaelyn Molyneux

Til May 14, Axis Contemporary Art, 203, 100 7 Ave. S.W., Calgary, 403-262-3356, www.axisart.ca

If a picture is worth a thousand words, there is a lot of chatter happening this February with Exposure.

The photography festival rolls out dozens of events throughout the month in Calgary, Banff and Canmore. Check out exhibits that include Diana Thorneycroft’s staged recounting of unsavoury moments in Canada’s past at the Art Gallery of Calgary and Edward Burtynsky’s large-scale landscapes of places altered by industry at the Glenbow Museum.

Emerging photographers have their work splashed on digital billboards around town and the Telus Convention Centre will have photographs in the windows along the LRT platform. In between looking at photos, learn something at artist’s talks and workshops.

Point and click your way to the closest gallery. —Jaelyn Molyneux

www.exposurephotofestival.com

Sometimes it is good to be bad, especially as interpreted through the artistic eye of Mandy Stobo.

The Calgary-based painter’s Bad Portrait Project has her busting out her watercolours to whip up a rendering of anyone who is interested. Send a photo of your face to Stobo and she’ll interpret it into a bright and blurry portrait that looks a little like you and a lot like art. She posts the pics on Twitter and Facebook and you can buy your original for $100.

Bad can be beautiful. —Jaelyn Molyneux

www.badportraitproject.com

Saturday morning cartoons turn high art at Watch Me Move: The Animation Show.

The exhibit is 111 works of moving art covering two floors and five galleries starting with slides and prints created in the 1800s breezing through 1960s and The Flintstones and taking us right up to Lord of the Rings with visits by Betty Boop and Snow White along the way.

This largest survey of animation work ever mounted explores the medium that invents superheroes, deftly provokes social commentary, and constantly pushes the limits of technology. —Jaelyn Molyneux

Until December 24 at the Glenbow Museum, 130 9 Ave. S.E., Calgary, 403-268-1400, www.glenbow.org

When life gives you lemons, forget the lemonade and instead, make art. That’s the motto of Form Letters, a new show from Vancouver-based artist Heather Passmore now on at The New Gallery.

Passmore has created a series of drawings on and around rejection letters she has received throughout her career. The project starts with a commission and a thematic request from a client and ends working around the many incarnations of “unfortunately,” “we regret to inform you,” and “good luck.”

Rejection never looked so good. —MG

Until April 23 at The New Gallery, 212, 100 Seventh Ave. SW, Calgary, 403-233-2399, www.thenewgallery.org

Proms, grads and high school dances are stressful enough for teens, but throw in a natural disaster and who knows how the youth will react.

Toronto visual artist and performer, Kirsten Johnson brings her humorous show Prom Storm to town tomorrow. The series of paintings, shadow boxes and video depict the confusion of adolescence with the unpredictability of the weather, highlighted by six large oil paintings of teens at a prom during a hurricane.

Johnson is no stranger to the study of human behaviour in tense situations: her previous work included cat-fighting flight attendants and geishas.

We’re all for a little teen angst, just as long as no one is channeling Carrie.

Until February 19 at Axis Contemporary Art, Art Central, 107, 100 Seventh Ave. SW, Calgary, 403-262-3356, www.axisart.ca

Floating down the Bow River is a rite of passage during the city’s summer. But there’s more to the Bow than lounging on a raft, dipping your toes in the water and losing paddles.

A six-part public art series titled “The Celebration of the Bow River 2010,” launched in June to make people aware of the Bow’s indispensable role.

The latest in the series, “Sources: River of Light” includes three-foot illuminated floating spheres representing the Bow’s four water sources: rainwater, groundwater, glacier and snowmelt. The event culminates tomorrow at dusk with the highly anticipated release of 500 illuminated spheres into the river.

Float on, we say.

Detailed schedule here.

Dynamic duos: Peanut butter and jelly, Bonnie and Clyde, bread and butter, Dolce and Gabbana, and now, home furnishings and art.

Ellipses Design has just shacked up with DaDe Art and Design Lab in one large space to offer a must-stop shop for all your home décor desires.

For art, large abstract canvases by artists such as Danielle Bartlette and Darcy Lundgren are on the roster and new addition Bee Kingdom’s colourful glass designs.

Home furnishings include large leather adjustable sofas by Bullfrog, one-of-a-kind tables from reclaimed wood and stunning stainless steel pieces from Beijing. 

Some couples were just meant to be.

DaDe Art and Design Lab, 1327 Ninth Ave. SE, Calgary, 403-454-0243, www.dadegallery.com

Last time we saw Aron Hill’s work it was a bird’s-eye view of sorts with his intricate pencil drawings of the winged creatures.

But the multi-dimensional artist is taking a different approach to nature in his new show, Taste the World and Digest It.

Inspired by personal travel photographs, Hill returns to a more traditional mode of painting with playful oil canvases of romantic scenes abroad in countries such as Nicaragua. Family members including his mother (pictured in “Liz”), his father and wife make appearances, casually lounging or walking along in the scenes.

Until January 16 at Newzones Gallery, 730 11th Ave. SW, Calgary, 403-266-1972, www.newzones.com

Even if you’re still holding out for a Warhol or a Picasso check out this weekend’s Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) Winter Show and Sale for up-and-comers to add to your collection.

Starting tomorrow at 4 p.m., the college’s main hall will be packed with hundreds of works by ACAD students from all departments including painting, printmaking, sculpture, glasswork and jewellery, all for prices that will not break the bank, or the “art fund.”

Warhol and Picasso were emerging artists at one time, after all.

Until November 29, Alberta College of Art and Design, 1407 14th Ave. NW, Calgary, 403-284-7600, www.acad.ab.ca