From the category archives:
Massive Links
by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 15, 2017
Jeff Koons’ sculpture “Play-Doh 1994-2014” has paved the way for Donald Trump, according to Alex Melamid. Is it because there’s a melty orange blob in the center and a weird yellow thing hanging off the top?
- Of everything that’s been written about Trump’s unlikely ascendence and the art world, Alex Melamid’s recent piece in TIME might just be the most specious and bizarre. According to Melamid, artists and critics have created a culture that idolizes avant-garde thinking, infantilism, and publicity above all else—thus legitimizing Trump’s outrageous approach to candidacy and governing. Two of the most laughable moments: Melamid citing Roberta Smith’s praise of Jeff Koons’ “Play Doh” sculptures (because the average Trump voter is an avid NYT Arts reader, I’m sure?) and the wildly out-of-touch statement “plagiarism in the arts has mutated into what’s now called appropriation, a term stripped of any negative judgment.” LOL. [TIME]
- For anyone else who ever thought the Harvard campus reminded them of Hogwarts, you’ll enjoy this bit of news that sounds like something out of Harry Potter. The Harvard Art Museums is restaging “The Philosophy Chamber,” a sort of wunderkammer from the university’s early history that became the basis for the museums’ present collections. [The Harvard Crimson]
- A lottery has opened for affordable housing units in a new Long Island City high rise, starting at under $1,000/month. Apply now! There are only 34 slots, sadly. [Curbed]
- Coming as a shock to no one, Anne Imhof’s “Faust” has snagged a Golden Lion at Venice. The “health goth”-esque performance was by far the most talked-about piece of the Biennale. [ARTnews]
- Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is being lauded as the biggest and most important exhibition of Cuban art in recent history. Patricia Restrepo, however, feels that the Cisneros-backed show is lacking in nuance. We haven’t seen the show ourselves, but if you’re in Texas, it looks like a must-see. [Terremoto]
- AFC friend Jeanette Doyle has launched “CF” at the Research Pavilion in Venice and is looking for artists and curators to participate. The framework: you chose a nation you want to represent and an art work and stage it. CF will present these staged works via a series of projections chosen at random with the help of a computer algorithm. Deadline for submissions is August 11th. Submit here. [Art & Education]
- Steven H Silberg has launched an art-making project titled “In Care of the White House”. Artists are invited to create works in response to the Trump administration, which the organization will document and send to the White House, with the idea that all the pieces will end up as a document of dissent in the National Archives for posterity. [In Care of the White House]
- Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips are looking to auction off over $1 billion worth of art this week, including a 6-foot Basquiat at Sotheby’s that’s valued at $60 million. These auctions are being watched closely as a litmus test for the art market. Since Russian and Middle Eastern bidders have retreated from the auction scene due to lower oil prices, it’s been a buyer’s-market-boon for American and Asian collectors. But now the market might’ve bounced back, as the auction houses are hoping. [CNBC]
- 15 Art Deco buildings not to miss. [Curbed]
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by Michael Anthony Farley on May 12, 2017
- LOL. Someone at Vanity Fair, intending to reach John Waters via his mailing address at Atomic Books, addressed an envelope to “Jhon Walters; Antomic Books”. [Facebook]
- The last few building booms have contributed some pretty heinous new additions to New York’s cityscape, but this might just be the worse. I’m not sure we can even call this ill-proportioned stack of claustrophobia-inducing hotel rooms clad in signifiers of “Brooklyn-ness” (Brick! Street Art!) and mismatched decor trends architecture. This is straight-up an attraction out of a theme park, which I suppose makes sense considering it’s called “The Williamsburg Hotel”. The most cringe-inducing detail? A grand ballroom designed to “reflect the derelict buildings of Detroit”. [Dezeen]
- This is awesome. Baltimore nonprofit art space/residency Creative Alliance is throwing a giant dance party tomorrow in support the city’s status as a “sanctuary city”. Bailar Sin Miedo will feature Mexican food vendors, bachata lessons, and live music. [Creative Alliance]
- The Hard Times has now fully replaced The Onion as my newsfeed’s satirical headline supplier of choice: “Moving to Brooklyn Gave Me the Confidence Needed to Finally Start Wearing This Hat”. [The Hard Times]
- A giant Jeff Koons inflatable sculpture of a ballerina is coming soon to Rockefeller Center. [artnet News]
- Here’s a sneak peak at the new Marciano Museum opening in LA later this month. The inaugural exhibition is inspired by Walter Benjamin’s “Unpacking My Library.” From the few images here, though, it doesn’t really seem like the Marciano Collection is particularly good? [Los Angeles Times]
- Rioters in Portland smashed the windows of Michael Parsons Gallery, which unbeknownst to them, ironically, was showing paintings of last year’s riots by Alex Lilly. Is this a Portlandia sketch for the Trump era? [Oregon Live]
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by Michael Anthony Farley on May 11, 2017
New World Design, Flying Pigs on Parade: a Chicago River Folly (2016). Courtesy New World Design.
- Yes! Former Washington Post art critic Jessica Dawson is bringing dOGUMENTA to Manhattan this August. The art show is curated with dogs as the intended audience and will be installed outside, hung at doggie-level, and mindful of the limited color spectrum visible to canine eyes. [W]
- Chicago architect Jeffrey Roberts of New World Design is planning a Pink Floyd-inspired Trump protest installation and has the band’s blessing. If all permits and fundraising go ahead as planned, it will comprise a series of gold pig balloons anchored to barges in the Chicago River, obstructing Trump’s giant gold name on his tower there. [artnet News]
- Looks like the Trump administration has one more post to fill. The White House curator, William Allman, is retiring after 40 years at the residence. [The Art Newspaper]
- Banksy’s large Brexit-themed mural in the UK has already been tagged. This story is only of interest because it’s brought the following two sentences to a newspaper: “But thugs armed with spray paint have written the words ‘THE CLASH’ – complete with an anarchist ‘circle A’ symbol on top of it. Whether this is in reference to the punk band whose second album opens with the song ‘Safe European Home’ is unclear.” [EXPRESS]
- “Behold the Health Goth Choir That Rules the Art World” is basically the best headline we’ve seen out of Venice this year (or ever). Coincidentally, health goth is Paddy Johnson’s favorite goth subculture! [Observer]
- Oh, nope this headline might be better: “Courtney Love Is Here in Venice to Defend Damien Hirst”. [ARTnews]
- Looks like Courtney will have her work cut out for her: Damien Hirst is being accused of the deadly sin cultural appropriation! Hirst’s epic “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable” features dozens of faux-antiquities from a fictional ancient collector’s shipwreck. Among them, knockoff Ife-era sculptures inspired by artifacts from Nigeria are supposedly problematic. Hirst’s exhibition fully credits the sources of his work, so I don’t see what the problem here is. It seems like an example of outrage-bootstrapping to get attention on the part of the “offended”. [CNN]
- Blake Gopnik on the importance of preserving brutalist architecture. [artnet News]
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by Michael Anthony Farley on May 10, 2017
- Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or a windowless detention cell somewhere) you’re aware that Donald Trump has dismissed FBI director James Comey, who has been investigating the president’s ties to Russia. Basically everyone is freaking out, because this is dictatorship 101. [The Internet, Screaming in the Street, Texts From Loved Ones]
- David Wallace reviews the Jewish Museum’s The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin, which appropriately seems to meander like the writers’ texts. [The New Yorker]
- The first trailer is out for the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. Will this be good? Terrible? One immediate thought: movies need to stop putting those CGI “hologram” billboards in the background of every scene (it distracted from otherwise really lovely art direction in Ghost in the Shell). The original Blade Runner looked so great and so real because it was all show with practical special effects. Countless imitators have failed to make a believable future city in the decades since. [YouTube]
- Speaking of Sci-Fi masterpieces, it’s crazy to believe Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element is now 20 years old. Ben Child looks back at the film’s depictions of gender and sexuality and tries to decided if they were regressive (straight white male protagonist surrounded by hyper-feminized service industry workers) or visionary (Ruby Rhod, female Jesus, etc.) As a weird queer kid, Ruby Rhod was basically my hero! [The Guardian]
- Anish Kapoor dominates the discussion on Dezeen this week. Commenters are debating whether Kapoor’s calls for artists and designers to oppose Trump are hypocritical, given the apparent lack of political messaging in the artist’s own work. Opinion also remains divided over his vortex “Descension” that was recently unveiled in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Wasn’t the water in that thing supposed to be black? [Dezeen]
- Hernan Bas discusses Florida Living (his new show at Savannah College of Art and Design), growing up in Miami, his part-time move to Detroit, and more. Bas seems like a funny guy who resists cliches about the artist narrative. [The Miami New Times]
- This looks kind of cool. A new miniature of Manhattan, called Gulliver’s Gate, is now permanently installed in Times Square. It’s crazy intricately detailed (though geographically innacurate). [Curbed]
- Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith thinks the art market is no longer cyclical, but structurally poised for growth. That’s because the richest people keep getting ever richer, meaning they will forever shell out more and more cash for artworks. While there’s some truth to that (obviously) we’ve seen enough boom-and-bust to know the market isn’t that simple. [CNBC]
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by Michael Anthony Farley on May 5, 2017
- A man who goes by “Kirby Jenner” (god, I hope that’s his real name!) has been flawlessly photoshopping himself into all of Kendall Jenner’s Instagram posts and the results are glorious. [Instagram]
- Congress voted away the healthcare of 24 million people yesterday afternoon, which has resulted in tears and endless posts written in frustration. It needs to pass the Senate, but there’s no filibuster any more. Be afraid. [The internet]
- The nation’s tallest public artwork will soon grace San Francisco’s soon-to-be-tallest skyscraper. The Salesforce Tower will be topped by an LED screen from Jim Campbell that slowly changes imagery. The images will be photos of the daytime cityscape as viewed from the tower, which will only be visible at night. This sounds like it might be a little cheesy, but could also be really beautiful and cool. Warhol’s Empire for the Blade Runner age? [SF Gate]
- Anya Brjevskaia won a prize package for being the Perez Art Museum Miami’s 1 millionth visitor. That’s a pretty impressive attendance figure for a museum that’s only been open for 3 years in a city with less than half a million residents. Anyway, lucky Anya Brjevskaia got showered with balloons, confetti, a yearlong membership, and gift cards. [Miami Herald]
- It turns out big companies aren’t interested in all the new office space developers have been ruining Brooklyn with. So far only one non-government employer has signed a lease for more than 100,000 square feet since 2015, all while supply is increasing and the Manhattan market is easing up. Maybe in a generation all of this will go back to light manufacturing use and warehouse spaces? One can dream… [Curbed]
- Barack and Michelle were in Chicago to unveil the first conceptual images and models of the Obama Presidential Library, which will be built in a park in that city. Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects’ design is much better than I was expecting. It’s a little evocative of OMA’s glorious Casa de Musica in Porto, but massed to a taller, more regal orientation with a town-square-esque plaza. [Dezeen]
- This is the 40th anniversary of New York’s Public Art Fund, and as the weather gets nicer, there’s plenty of excuses for art lovers to spend some time outdoors. The Art Newspaper has a list of highlights, and it seems concrete casts of domestic spaces transposed to the public realm are trending on 5th Avenue. Liz Glynn’s “Open House” at 60th street recalls a formal living room and Adrián Villar Rojas’s “The Theatre of Disappearance” on the roof of The Met imagines figures from the museum’s collection at a series of trippy dining tables. Are artists responding to some collective subconscious Upper East Side house envy? The Surreal Housewives of New York City? [The Art Newspaper]
- Satellite programming for the Venice Biennale has basically taken over any and all space in the tiny sinking city. Here’s Alyssa Buffenstein & Caroline Elbaor’s recommendations for what to see apart from the main event. [artnet News]
- Ah, so that’s what this was all about! All day yesterday, I kept noticing a weird caveman dude and a pilot roaming Frieze. It turns out they were two of three Leonardo DiCaprio impersonators planted by artist Dora Budor (the other was his Wolf of Wall Street character, who blended right in, sadly). [ARTnews]
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by Michael Anthony Farley on May 3, 2017
- Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich has been arrested following his unsanctioned Met Gala performance (cue the fashion police jokes). The Russian artist was dropped off by accomplices naked and sealed in a plexiglass box on the red carpet. In his defense, the look was much more fitting of this year’s “avant-garde” dress code than whatever the hell it was any of the Kardashian-Jenner brood squeezed into. [The Art Newspaper]
- Long Island City’s long-awaited new waterfront library, designed by starchitect Steven Holl, is being delayed yet again. This time, a custom glass shipment has been delayed by a strike in Spain. [Curbed]
- Many millennials might vaguely remember the ridiculous children’s film Blank Check that always seemed to be on TV for much of the 1990s. It turns out that the movie is really, really fucked up when you watch it from an adult’s perspective. Though, honestly, I remember having suspension of disbelief issues with it as a child. [Observer]
- Toronto’s Visions Gallery has cancelled a show of (pretty bad) paintings by Amanda PL after the artist was accused of “cultural genocide”. PL’s work is influenced by Norval Morrisseau’s 1960s paintings, which incorporated motifs from his Indigenous Canadian roots. When the gallerists found out PL was White, they axed the show and issued a public apology. I’m not sure I have an opinion about this beyond the point that the paintings are bad no matter who painted them. [Heat Street]
- Apparently one of the booths at RuPaul’s Drag Con (which wrapped up over the weekend) was a Divine “mini museum”. Thankfully social media has documented this cultural event thoroughly for posterity. [Facebook]
- Anyone planning an Escape From New York during Frieze Week: I highly recommend the Maryland Film Festival, which opens today. This year should be especially exciting. The organization has bought and renovated a historic theater in Baltimore where there will be year-round programming. It looks great. [BmoreArt]
- Revisiting Jean Paul Gaultier’s 1000+ costumes for The Fifth Element: twenty years later, they’re still amazing and futuristic. [DAZED]
- And some say the Grinch’s heart grew three sizes as big that day: Florida Republicans have decided not to slash state funding for Miami’s famed New World School of the Arts. [Miami Herald]
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by Paddy Johnson on May 2, 2017
The Met Gala
- The NEA lives to see another day. In fact, it actually got a funding increase through Trump’s administration. [artnet News]
- The Met gala pictures are out. Watch out. It’s a time suck. [CNN]
- PS1 founder Alanna Heiss and New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni talk. [ARTnews]
- B&H workers are on strike. The electronics company is being accused of union busting, following the announcement that it would be consolidating warehouses in New Jersey and eliminating those in NYC. [Hyperallergic]
- Michael Kimmelman discusses Penn Station and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to update it, which he compares to slapping “a two-car garage onto a dilapidated split-level and declare the property good as new.” He also compares Cuomo to Republican Governor Chris Christie. Uh oh. [The New York Times]
- Ivanka Trump gets profiled in the Times and comes out smelling pretty okay. Her book, though, “Women Who Work”, gets a thorough trashing. According to Jennifer Senior, it is written entirely from a point of privilege and is witlessly derivative. Those are the biggest issues identified by Senior, but from the reporting, I’d think the complete lack of interest in others might be larger. In the few quotes provided, I actually found it offensive. [The New York Times]
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by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 1, 2017
- Here’s a list of Hasan Minhaj’s best jokes from what sounds like the most awkward White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the history of the tradition. Knowing that basically no one from the press-hating Trump administration (including the President) even showed up, I totally would’ve been too preoccupied listening for an incoming drone strike to enjoy the comedy. [Washington Post]
- Vito Acconci died of a stroke at the age of 77. The conceptual artist turned architect was best known in the art world for his performance “Seedbed” 1972 in which he camped out under a ramp in the gallery and masturbated to fantasies about viewers he voiced through a microphone. [The New York Times]
- The Met Gala takes place tonight. This is a chance to look at rich people in fancy dresses. This year, guests are being encouraged to think “avant-garde” in response to the exhibition Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between. [The New York Times]
- For those curious about the exhibition, Vogue got a walk-through with Chief Curator Andrew Bolton and it sounds like this is truly going to be one of the Met’s weirdest undertakings. The show spans decades of Kawakubo’s work, but it is not a retrospective and doesn’t feature her best-known work. Instead, it’s a highly-focused look at womenswear that’s organized into dichotomous categories like “Clothes / Not Clothes” or “Model/Multiple”. There is no other wall text, per the designer’s wishes. [Vogue]
- Thaddaeus Ropac has opened his fourth gallery. This one’s in a converted London mansion and it’s huge. There are numerous exhibition spaces spread out over 16,000 square feet and five floors. That’s basically the amount of space some museums have. How can the market support that much art from one dealer? [Forbes]
- Gentrification is basically turning all of once-cool Manhattan neighborhoods into Jersey strip malls. The Lower East Side is getting a Target and Trader Joe’s in the same building. This feels like the end of an era. [Curbed]
- artnet News’ weekly “Best and Worst of the Art World” round-up is really good this week. The Smithsonian has an exhibition called Before Internet Cats and horrendously underpaid Tate employees were asked to donate to outgoing director Nicholas Serota’s going-away gift: a boat. People are pissed. [artnet News]
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by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on April 28, 2017
Thomas Houseago
- More developments in the saga of the beleaguered Bell Foundry art space in Baltimore. The city shuttered the live/work building last year, evicting residents with no warning, citing safety issues. Now the property is on the market as a knock-down development site for $1 million. Yesterday someone tagged “$HAME 100” on the side of the building, which is already covered in bank-sponsored street art. The article implies that the Baltimore Rock Opera Society (the sole remaining tenants) are somehow responsible for cleaning it up. Isn’t that their slumlord’s job? The Facebook comments on this one are entertaining/infuriating, as to be expected. [City Paper]
- The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg have broken ground on an expansion project (doesn’t that sentence about Virginia sound like something a Brooklyn poet would write about gentrification?). The expansion, designed by Samuel Anderson Architects, will increase exhibition space by 22%. I think it kinda looks like a McMansion. [ARTFIXdaily]
- The NYT profiles American Medium, discussing the niche skill of translating digital works to the white cube, the gallery’s origins, and their move to Chelsea. [The New York Times]
- Google is launching a virtual reality “art gallery” where Tilt Brush makers can share their works with one another. Importantly, you won’t need a VR headset to see the 3D objects. This could spark a lot of interest in the technology. [Business Insider]
- Boy this is appalling: The city run initiative, “Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) program”, leaves 38 percent of all affordable housing unoccupied due to mismanagement. [Curbed]
- Is Frieze going to be a more “populist” fair this year, as this article suggests? Absolutely not. But gallerists are responding to the political crisis with some borderline-gimmicky nods to protest. Cheim & Read, for example, is doing an all-pink booth as a tribute to the sea of “pussy hats” from the Women’s March. And P.P.O.W. gallery will show an Anton van Dalen pidgeon coop that looks like a car burnt in a riot. [Bloomberg]
- Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather has created a font in memory of LGBTQ artist/activist Gilbert Baker, who designed the rainbow flag in 1978. They’ve launched the website Type With Pride, where the font can be downloaded in the hopes it is used in marches and protests. It’s a really pretty font, but I don’t see this being super legible from a distance at a rally. [Dezeen]
- A vaguely skeletal public sculpture by Thomas Houseago is scaring some Chicagoans. It mainly seems people think it will spook the children or ruin family photos. We’re all for more scary public art. [ABC 7]
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by Michael Anthony Farley on April 27, 2017
- Basically every review of Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale says the same thing: it’s a masterful piece of streaming television and scary timely. I binge-watched the first three episodes yesterday. [The Internet]
- If you haven’t read the book yet, head to the Highline, where an appropriately dystopian-looking installation contains thousands of free copies of the book. [Curbed]
- It’s really hard to tell if Ivan Argote’s solo show at the new Galerie Perrotin sounds great or awfully cheesy. In one video, Argote interviews people born on exact opposite sides of the Earth on the day the Berlin Wall fell, demonstrating how small the popular conception of “history” can be. Another work is a giant golden sweet potato. Mostly, it seems like a lot of romantic text-based works. We’re going to have to see this one ourselves. [Forbes]
- This is the art heist movie we’ve been waiting for. Gael García Bernal is set to star in a film about a real-life midnight robbery of a Mexico City museum in the 80s. [artnet News]
- The Denver Art Museum will be the only U.S. institution to host the blockbuster exhibition Degas: A Passion for Perfection. [The Know]
- Apparently it’s illegal for California art galleries to serve beer and wine at openings, and police in some cities have been cracking down. However, hair salons and barber shops can serve alcohol. What? A new bill, A.B. 629, is hoping to change this. Under the proposed law, gallerists wouldn’t need a liquor license to serve beer and wine. [Los Angeles Times]
- Pop artist Marisol has bequeathed her entire estate to Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Apparently the museum had been the first to acquire one of her works as an emerging artist. Now they’ve received the largest donation in the institution’s history. [The New York Times]
- Alex Greenberger and Andrew Russeth have a handy infographic of what obscure art historical movements are trending and which have fizzled out. 1970s Chicago Imagism is apparently more relevant than 1990s-present(?) Stuckism. Who knew? [ARTnews]
- Artist and Curator Blair Murphy discusses DC’s rampant gentrification, the loss of art spaces, and hope for the future. [BmoreArt]
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