Archive of Rhett Jones

Rhett has written 41 article(s) for AFC.

Posts by author:

Rhett Jones

This Week’s Must See Events: All Goth Timelines Lead to Brunch

by Rhett Jones on July 11, 2016

This is a great week for some of the more obscure haunts around the city. Not only are the DIY venues bringing some good programming but we have a lot of stuff to check out at museums that don’t get as much attention as the big guys.

We start the week off with a cyborg sex lecture, move into what will probably be an excellent drawing show of found speaker screens and finish out with a mobile sound installation and zine fest. Mark your calendars, this is a good one.

Read the full article →

GIF of the Day: Black. Lives. Matter.

by Rhett Jones on July 7, 2016

black_lives_matter_forever2

Back-to-back videos of black men being gunned down by police officers have sent waves of sadness and outrage around the world over the last two days. It’s hard to express the horror we feel seeing Alton Sterling and Philando Castile have their lives taken. In a statement released this afternoon, President Obama spoke broadly, “all Americans should be deeply troubled.” Addressing the video of Sterling’s death, Larry Wilmore was more direct, poignantly ending his segment with the question, “doesn’t Alton Sterling’s life matter?”

Read the full article →

How To Turn a Museum Into An Arcade

by Rhett Jones on July 7, 2016

Now that our culture has crossed the hurdle of recognizing that video games are more than just a time-wasting triviality that rots your brain, institutions have to grapple with how to preserve and present the rapidly forming canon. The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens was the first museum to collect video games and its currently showing off some prime gems in the exhibition, “Arcade Classics: Video Games from the Collection.” (on through October 23rd)

Art F City sat down with the museum’s Curator of Digital Media, Jason Eppink, to discuss the difficulties of preservation, how VR may become the new social medium and exactly why Duchamp was such a dedicated gamer.

Read the full article →

Thursday Links: At The Corner of Bill Cunningham and 5th

by Rhett Jones on July 7, 2016

bill_cunningham_corner

The corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue is temporarily being renamed “Bill Cunningham Corner.” The Mayor is allowed to rename a street for a week, in order to make it permanent, the change would have to be approved by the city council. [DNAinfo]
ArtList, an app startup for anonymous secondary market sales of art has shut down. Artnet News spoke with art advisor Todd Levin about the startup’s downfall. His view is that internet-based platforms aren’t ready for high-end work and can only hope for “momentarily younger hotter artists like Parker Ito, Kour Pour, and Ibrahim Mahama, who don’t always stand up to the test of time.” [artnet News]
Under the Sun, the documentary about North Korea has been released and currently has an 83% score on Metacritic. The film was controversially pulled from MoMA’s Doc Fortnight Festival over fears of retaliation from North Korea. That decision resulted in longtime assistant curator, Sally Berger, being fired. [Metacritic]
Young Thug says there is no such thing as gender. While no one should hurt themselves trying to pat him on the back, homophobia is a rampant problem in the hip-hop world and it’s kind of a big deal that those words are coming from the most-hyped rapper around. [Dazed]
A reminder that you do not have to enter a police station to ‘catch ’em all’ in the new Pokemon augmented reality game. [Polygon]
28 years later, Anthony Haden-Guest explains how he did NOT kill Jean-Michel Basquiat.[artnet News]
Vice has bought a majority stake in Garage magazine, a Russian oligarch’s wife’s “art, architecture, fashion and design” publication. Having never read Garage we can’t speak to the quality of the art coverage. But, they have an app where you can check out issues and if you use it to scan Kendall Jenner’s photo at the following link you’ll “bring her to life.” [Recode]
You have exactly one extra second to get those grant applications in this year. [Phys.org]

Read the full article →

This Week’s Must See Events: Summer Art Party!

by Rhett Jones on July 5, 2016

The art world continues its post-holiday slow period with an absence of big-time blockbusters but plenty of smaller shows. No big loss. This week we’ve got party as art performance courtesy of BHQFU and a party for art to celebrate the on-going contributions of the Black Contemporary Art Tumblr. There’s also an elaborate multi-media play at Flux Factory. Pretty much everything they do is a party. Let’s get to it.

Read the full article →

Tuesday Links: The High Cost of the Star-Spangled Banner

by Rhett Jones on July 5, 2016

highCostMarching

The U.S. military’s marching band budget is almost three times as large as the annual sum being allocated to the National Endowment for the Arts. That’s $437 million dollars going to renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner and an Air Force rock band called Max Impact. Seriously, check out that rock band link. On a related note, it’s estimated that Americans spend $675m a year on fireworks. [New York Times]
Is Donald Trump the villain that protest art has been craving? Hyperallergic’s Carrie Dunne takes a look. Also, speaking of the Donald, the great George Saunders joins the ‘respected writer attends a Trump rally’ club. [Hyperallergic, New Yorker]
Iranian pop artist, Parviz Tanavoli, had his passport confiscated by authorities in Tehran this weekend. He was scheduled to attend a lecture in London that focused on his book, “European Women in Persian Houses.” As of July 4th, Tanavoli still did not know why he wasn’t allowed to travel. [The Art Newspaper]
Abbas Kiarostami, director of great films like “Where Is The Friends Home?” and “Close-Up,” as well as a large body of photography and installation work has died at the age of 76. He was reportedly undergoing treatment for cancer. [Al Jazeera]
Pieces of Christo’s Floating Piers have already appeared on eBay following the closing of the piece on July 3rd. The work is intended to be recycled but it seems some industrious person managed to snag a few chunks. The special socks that visitors wore are also available for $1000. [artnet News]
The United Nations has passed a nonbinding resolution that makes internet access a basic human right. [Gizmodo]
Pirates are now using YouTube’s 360° panorama feature to hide full-length films from the streaming video services automated content id systems. The resulting videos have an odd, online gallery showroom quality. While it’s a clever trick, as it is, this probably won’t become a widespread problem because it just looks weird. [Kill Screen]
Wow, you might want to think twice before co-signing for a student loan in New Jersey. Specifically, if the student dies the loans will not be forgiven. One bankruptcy lawyer describes the program as “state-sanctioned loan sharking.” [The New York Times]
While the verdict is still out on whether public interest will be able to sustain the new wave of virtual reality, Japan’s first VR porn festival was an overwhelming success. Mobs of people attended the gathering in Tokyo, causing organizers to shut off entry. Most of this stuff looks really uncomfortable. [The Next Web]

Read the full article →

GIF of the Day: He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands

by Rhett Jones on July 1, 2016

itsputinsworld

Maybe not the most patriotic GIF for this Fourth of July weekend, but Putin’s looking pretty gangster.

Read the full article →

ICP Enters the 21st Century with a Bunch of Mirrors

by Rhett Jones on July 1, 2016

For a prime example of ambitious curating standing in the way of excellent artwork, look no further than the convoluted mess of a show at the International Center for Photography’s brand new Bowery location. While I’m always up for seeing art that takes advantage of technology and addresses our weird wired world, this show is filled with wrong-headed assertions, painful hanging choices, and eyeball-straining design.

Read the full article →

Friday Links: A Good Day For LGBT Rights

by Rhett Jones on July 1, 2016

lgbt_pentagon-flagd

The Pentagon has announced that the ban on transgender citizens serving in the military will be lifted. What’s more, transgender recruits will receive full coverage of medical expenses, including hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery if a doctor determines the procedures to be medically necessary. [CNN]
Two planned buildings in New York’s affordable housing program will be making specific efforts to be more LGBT-friendly. The buildings are aimed to provide housing for low-income, elderly New Yorkers. Programming will include Pride Month celebrations and events that highlight LGBT artists and writers. The initiative is designed to make people in the community feel safer when applying for senior services. [Curbed]
Candy Coleman, the director of Gagosian Gallery’s Los Angeles location has resigned and will be joining Sotheby’s. Her role will be to increase the auction giants west coast operations. [ArtNews]
After 176 years in business, the world’s oldest photography studio is shutting down. Bourne & Shepherd, in Koltaka, India, opened sometime around 1840. Reports say that business has slowly been in decline after a fire destroyed significant portions of their archives, 25 years ago. [artnet News]
Australia has been experiencing severe funding cuts to their national arts program. In addition to 50% small to medium arts organizations being left without funding, 1,300 arts workers are expected to lose their jobs. The Guardian has an insider account of the activist campaign to raise awareness and make this an election issue. [The Guardian]
Tesla has announced that a man died while using the company’s autopilot feature. He is the first known casualty and unfortunately it may be the electric automaker’s fault. Maybe slow down hopes for those driverless cars coming sooner rather than later. [Forbes]
Roberta likes MoMA’s new Bruce Conner retrospective. This thing sounds massive, it features 250 works including Conner’s drawings and assemblages. We’re looking forward to this one. [New York Times]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

Archive of Rhett Jones

Rhett Jones

GIF of the Day: He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands

Get Our Newsletter!

Like Us On Facebook!

Follow Art F City

What is Art F City?