Posts tagged as:

art

Revolution for the Family: Heather Bhandari and Nikki Columbus on Pandemic Parenting, Art, and Activism

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on May 19, 2020
The Abrons Art Center has paid all their staff and performers during the shutdown.

The Abrons Art Center has paid all their staff and performers during the shutdown.

This week on Explain Me, co-hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson talk to arts organizers and activists Heather Bhandari and Nikki Columbus about the challenges for mothers during the pandemic, and the challenges for arts workers seeking to make changes to a system that no longer works for them. 

Of the family-focused topics discussed we take on pandemic screen time for kids (Bhandari describes DinoTrux as terrible for kids, but a necessary evil), what to do if your toddler licks a bodega door, and disrupted schedules that make it impossible to find or look for work and require long and often unusual hours. 

On the subject of organizing we discuss several projects spearheaded by Bhandari and Columbus respectively designed to pave actionable paths for artists. 

Finally we discuss Frieze New York, and contrast their dubious charity efforts during the fair to the more collective NADA art fair model that works towards a sustainable model for everyone. Show links below. 

The Art World Conference 

Forward Union 

Art/Work, Heather Bhandari and Jonathan Melber 

N+1, Free Your Mind, by Claire Bishop and Nikki Columbus

Art+Work+Place, Emergency Session I, Veralist Center

Art+Work+Place, Emergency Session II, Veralist Center

Museum transparency Newsletter (Read about all the layoffs and other bad news that’s happening in the museum world right now—of which there is a ton.)

The Model Model: Ethical Actions by Arts Organizations in the time of COVID-19 (Read about the good news and exemplary work by arts organizations.) 

Obama Commencement Speech

#graduatetogether2020 (twitter hashtag) 

Frieze Art Fair (May 8-15th) 

NADA Fair (May 20-June 21)

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From L.A. With Love: Thoughts on Online Viewing Rooms, Museum Layoffs, and More with Carolina Miranda and Michael Shaw

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on April 20, 2020
Steve Locke Student 338, 2016 Hydrocal, galvanized steel nails, procion dye, shellac approximately 12x4.5x5.5" $4,000

Steve Locke, Student 338, 2016, Hydrocal, galvanized steel nails, procion dye, shellac
approximately 12×4.5×5.5″, $4,000. Link to item.

This week on Explain Me, William Powhida and Paddy Johnson speak with artist Michael Shaw and L.A. staff writer Carolina Miranda how quarantining is affecting artists, galleries and journalists on the West Coast. Shaw talks about the prospect of losing his studio of nine years, The L.A. Tenants Union and landlords who are neither friendly nor flexible. Miranda speaks about cuts at the L.A. Times and the surrounding museums, as well as her latest story on how corona is impacting commercial galleries.

We take a virtual visit to the Dallas Art Fair together, and talk about the art we’ve enjoyed recently. All links below.

NEWS

Marciano Collection Announces it won’t reopen in wake of layoffs following union drive. — L.A. Times

MOCA lays off all 97 part time employees — L.A. Times

Uovo lays off pro union organizers while others are paid to stay at home —The Art Newspaper

How Arts Non-profits are responding to COVID – Hyperallergic

LACMA began demolition: But that hasn’t stopped a protest group for an alternate plan—L.A. Times

Painful closures lie ahead for L.A. galleries. How 35 are bracing for the worst. — L.A. Times

ART

The Dallas Art Fair 

Mark Amerika’s Grammatron

Wellnow.wtf

Scott Mendes—Darren Bader’s VR app (still not released)

El Greco Audio Tour—Art Institute of Chicago.

This is Chance—99% Invisible

Sheep video review — The New York Times

The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic — The New York Times

Magda Sawon’s Twitter

SUBSCRIBE

Explain Me Patreon 

The Conversation Patreon

The L.A. Times

Hyperallergic membership

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.ART Domains Cost 757% More Than Other Comparable Domains

by Paddy Johnson on February 13, 2017
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It’s been five days since e-flux sent out their mailers giving art professionals early access to purchase .ART domains, and the registration process has been a disaster from start to finish. Many users were not able to access the .art site, which is run by UK Creative Ideas Limited (UKCI). The website described an abundance of demand for the reason, and e-flux sent out an email earlier today apologizing for the technical issues. This should not have been a problem. e-flux has a mailing list of close to 100,000 readers—a fraction of the traffic needed to pull down most websites. What happened?

No explanation was given in the mailer, but since that time, some of the bugs have been worked out. But now that users can get on the site, many have been shocked to learn that .ART domains cost $300 for the initial registration and $18.99 for the renewal—757 percent more than the comparable, .PHOTO which costs only $34.99 with a $34.99 renewal fee and 2900 percent more than .STUDIO, which costs only 9.99 with a 19.99 renewal fee.

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e-flux Offers Early .ART Domain Registration to Professionals

by Paddy Johnson on February 2, 2017
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Just how important is it for art professionals have access to .ART domains? The conceptual artists behind the collective e-flux believe it’s essential and have thus spent six years working on the project and hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to secure management of the domain. Ultimately they lost the bid to UK Creative Ideas Limited (UKCI) in 2015, a set back that as of yesterday turned out to be only temporary. On Wednesday e-flux announced their collaboration with UKCI, to offer early access to the .ART domain to those who are signed up to e-flux mailing list. Starting February 8th and running through May 8th, e-flux will offer subscribers early access to the domain registration.

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The Tears That Donald Trump Brought

by Paddy Johnson on November 9, 2016
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When I did sleep last night, I dreamed I was stuck in a small hovel trying to hide from an evil demon. I told my friend there was a demon outside, but he let him in anyway and then left me to defend myself. Somehow, I knew I’d be doing it for a long time—this wasn’t the first time I had the nightmare.

The symbolism in my dreams—when it exists at all—has never been anything but obvious. I woke up to the light of my phone. It was 3 am, but there was so much activity in response to the election, that the battery was drained and the screen was on.  Donald Trump’s win of the election was already taking a toll. No one I knew slept for more than three hours.

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Unexpected Election Revelation: Joy Can Be Found in a Brooklyn Call Bank

by Paddy Johnson on October 7, 2016
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Art and the presidential race don’t often collide. Every once and a while we can report on an artist who’s rendered Trump with a small dick, or more recently, the bizarre Twinks4Trump art show. But mostly, the election replaces the art news on our feeds, rather than intermingles with it.

This past Wednesday I experienced a rare intersection of art and electoral politics in the most unlikely of places—Hillary Clinton’s campaign office.

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.ART Re-Emerges as “The Art World’s Exclusive Domain”

by Rea McNamara on June 6, 2016
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Will the days of describing the internet as an ungentrified space finally be over? As the internet becomes an overcrowded domain space, ICANN’s new generic Top Level Domain (TLD) program is showing signs of an emerging virtual real estate boom—or at least that’s been the story for the last several years.

At the center of all this is .ART, which went live last week. The website, dotart.domains, comes less than a year after the widely-contested Top Level Domain (TLD) went to highest bidder UK Creative Ideas Limited. Judging by the art fair-esque logo and elevator pitch calling itself “the art world’s exclusive domain”, it seems the centralized online entity that is now .ART has truly been exploited by commercial interests.

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Sports, Space and Sandwiches

by Emily Colucci Rea McNamara on May 31, 2016
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Even after a lazy and steamy Memorial Day, the art world shows no signs of slowing down for the summer. Returning rested, refreshed and ready to go, this week is flush with performances from Itziar Barrio’s The Perils of Obedience to András Böröcz’s satire of artist’s practices, Leitz & Fuchs Escape Through the Chimney, to Cayla Lockwood’s tasty Free*Sandwiches and the inimitable Yvonne Rainier at The Kitchen. If live performance isn’t your style, this week also boast openings like the sporty Children’s Museum of Arts’ Game On! and Sardine’s starry-eyed Space Oddity. 

And since it’s June, kick off Pride month with Visual AIDS’ First Saturday panel Women, Art, AIDS and Activism at the Brooklyn Museum and Natalie White For Equal Rights at WhiteBox. Who knows? Maybe you’ll feel radical enough to follow White on her two-week march down to D.C. starting July 8. 

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