Massive Links! Fairly Massive Edition

Screengrab AFC

• Dan Cameron’s latest curatorial project looks like a pretty big deal. Prospect.1 a Biennial for New Orleans appeals to me for a number of reasons, some of which have to do with the art and the rest relating to the food, the jazz, and rich cultural history of the city. Of course, the most exciting aspect of this exhibition, are its prospects to bring wealth to New Orleans again. From the website;

Prospect.1 New Orleans has been designed to help reinvigorate New Orleans following the human, civic, and economic devastation left by Katrina in 2005. The long-term primary goal of the biennial exhibition is to redefine the city as a cultural destination, where the visual arts are celebrated and can once again thrive. Prospect.1 New Orleans aspires to initiate a new category of cultural tourism for the city, on a scale normally seen during Mardi Gras and the city’s celebrated Jazz-Fest.

If this piques your interest at all, Director and Chief Curator of Prospect.1 and former Senior Curator at the New Museum Dan Cameron moderates a discussion on the revitalization project, at Cooper Union May 15th. Artists on the panel include Janine Antoni, Jacqueline Humphries, Wangechi Mutu and Nari Ward.

• In rumors, ArtInfo reports an overheard conversation at a New York gallery amongst several “top art world figures” suggests Frieze copublisher and art fair cofounder Matthew Slotover is ranked high on the Dia Art Foundation's list of nominees for director. In what may amount to less interesting news the other unofficial rumor I’ve heard floating around is that Frieze will be getting a new New York office space.

• “Sotheby’s auction house called it the “most important collection of contemporary Chinese art to ever come to market”…runs the lead sentence in a rather gross New York Times story about the sale of Estella Collection, now the center of much controversy. Many of the artists, dealers, and curators say they were duped them into thinking a rich Westerner was putting together a permanent collection and would eventually donate some of the works to leading museums. Some claim they deeply discounted their work as a result. As it turns out, the Westerner, is group of investors who cashed in by selling the works last August to dealer William Acquavella, who is now selling them through Sotheby’s.

• In social networking news, Artreview.com introduces ArtBuzz, a new service that allows users to instant message, post events and exhibitions, and send in text message updates from your phone. It’s basically ARTtwitter with greater capabilities. I hope people use this, because it does seem like it will be useful.

• The most talked about subject in the art blogosphere has to be the no photo policy of 303 Gallery, which now extends to requesting that bloggers remove photographs they’ve taken of their booth at art fairs. Barry Hoggard has the original letter of request, c-monster bestows the gallery with the honor of their first ever douchebag award, Libby and Roberta weigh in, and Heart as Arena posts this great photo essay in response to 303’s email. Thanks to Joy Garnett and Barry Hoggard for pointing me to The Freedom of Expression Policy project which indicates the gallery exceeds its legal rights in asking bloggers to remove these images from their site. More on this to come.