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Damien Hirst

Wednesday Links: Damien Hirst Spot T-Shirts for Kids Discontinued

by Paddy Johnson on July 19, 2017

Okay, who is buying “I “spot” Damien Hirst” t-shirts for their kids and why???

This seems pretty big for creatives in Sacramento: $500,000 has been allocated to a pilot program that will fund art, tech and food projects with a public benefit. [The Sacramento Bee]

A kinda sorta rags to riches story about art dealer Peter Loughrey, who began his career as a stunt man living out of his van, got life-threatening cancer, and is now a rich art dealer. [CNBC]

Governor’s Island will remain open for the fall for the first time ever. [Curbed]

Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation has awarded grants to $50,000 each to eight arts journalists. The prize totals $400,000. Winners are Phong Bui (publisher of the Brooklyn Rail); Charles Desmarais (art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle); Bob Keyes (features writer for the Portland Press Herald, Maine); Jason Farago (writer for the New York Times and the Guardian and founding editor of the magazine, Even); Jeff Huebner (contributor to the Chicago Reader); Carolina Miranda (culture writer for the Los Angeles Times); Christina Rees (editor-in-chief of Glasstire, Dallas); and Chris Vitiello (freelance writer and independent curator and organizer, Durham, North Carolina). Congrats – this prize is a huge deal in the media world, where writers are chronically underpaid. [Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation]

Random thought: Do we really need op eds about Donald Trump’s secret meeting with Vladimir Putin? There’s zero new information to be gained from this and what is there to say about this past the obvious fact that this President is not operating in the best interests of the country. [The Internet]

Is art schwag in trouble? Damien Hirst’s store Other Criteria has announced it will close and relaunch as a book store. (Good luck making money on that venture.) In addition to selling his limited edition prints, the store sold all manner of art on skateboards, plates, mugs, t-shirts and whatever else you could print on or mass produce. [Devonline]

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Wednesday Links: More Appropriation Accusations for Damien Hirst, a Circus Art School for Portland

by Michael Anthony Farley on May 17, 2017

Left: a photo Jason deCaires Taylor took of Damien Hirst’s “Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable” and posted to Instagram. Right: Jason deCaires Taylor’s own work.

Here’s the latest bizarre beef over Damien Hirst’s Treasures From the Wreck of The Unbelievable: sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor is upset that Hirst’s work here looks a little like his schtick. Taylor, who is showing in the Biennial’s Granada pavilion, has been putting sculptures underwater for around a decade (the same amount of time Hirst started planning this show). Hirst, for his part, had been experimenting with similar processes in the 1990s, which makes Jason deCaires Taylor’s implication that Hirst plagiarised him and statement that he is “considering my options and discussing it with my legal team” even more ridiculous. There are 7 billion people on a planet with a surface that’s 75% covered with oceans. The fact that two of us had the idea to put some shit in them and leave it there isn’t surprising. [artnet News]
Here’s a very cool map: all the best mosaics in New York subway stations. [Curbed]
America’s first accredited degree program in “circus arts” is building a tent-shaped campus. The Circus Conservatory will be opening in Portland, Maine. I literally had to reread this sentence multiple times to accept that it wasn’t Portland, Oregon. [Dezeen]
The ReThink NYC plan imagines a transit system in which commuter trains can run from New Jersey, through Manhattan, and into Queens and the Bronx. They claim this, in addition to extending several subway and PATH lines to meet the new hub stations, would free up track space and avoid congestion at Penn Station. It’s always been baffling that NYC doesn’t have a connected regional commuter rail system that doubles as high-frequency rapid transit in the core, like Paris’ RER or Madrid’s Cercanias. [NJ.com]
Speaking of transit, the MTA has admitted New York City’s subways are falling apart and has released a six point plan to address the matter. The big thing is that they are planning to expedite their capital plan to purchase hundreds of new trains. Cuomo cut 65 million in funding to the MTA this year even though the train system is in dire need of repair. [Gothamist]
The Cincinnati Art Museum has received a nearly $12 million gift to establish the Alice Bimel Endowment for Asian Art (the largest in the museum’s history). In addition to the cash, Carl and Alice Bimel donated over $14 million in art objects. [ARTFIXdaily]
Sotheby’s Impressionist Modern sale had an Egon Schiele painting estimated to sell at between 30-40 million withdrawn at the last moment last night. Reports are that the sale was a bit of bore with its star lot lost. [ARTnews]
Josh Baer speculates that the cover lot (Schiele) was withdrawn because they did not anticipate a winning bidder. Ouch. [Baer Faxt]
The movie Baby Driver is inspiring so much fan art, that Kaitlyn Tiffany has written about it. The movie is about a getaway card driver who wants out of a life of crime, but his bosses won’t let him. The art looks as unoriginal as the movie does, though, which is a disappointment. [The Verge]
25 million images of art from 14 art institutions world wide are about to be digitized and put online. The partnership aims to make available 7 million images by 2020. [artnet News]
Artist Matthew Ritchie is selling his 4 million dollar loft in TriBeCa. He needs more space to work. [Curbed]
Frighteningly, a new poll finds that the majority of New Yorkers support Governor Andrew Cuomo running for president. [Politico (paywall)]

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Thursday Links: Venetian Headlines Vie For Absurd Surpremacy

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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Friday Links: Rosa Parks’ Detroit Home Moved to Berlin for Art

by Michael Anthony Farley on April 7, 2017

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Las Vegas is trying for a contemporary art museum… again. The city has had two art museums come-and-go in recent history. [Las Vegas Review Journal]
Choreographer Ann Carlson has found herself in the crosshairs of conservatives over her seemingly inoffensive project “Doggie Hamlet”. The piece involves dancers, sheep, and sheep herding dogs. It admittedly sounds extremely silly at first glance, and of course the Right Wing is pissed that some NEA funds went into its production (by way of New England Foundation for the Art’s National Dance Project). Dance critic Gia Kourlas weighs in on the debate. [The New York Times]
The Wildensteins, the eccentric and controversial family of art dealers, have sold their UES townhouse/former gallery for $79.5 million. That’s now the most expensive house ever sold in New York City, which makes sense, because you would have to be both disgustingly wealthy and totally insane to spend that kind of money. [Daily Mail]
Speaking of insane and wealthy: Damien Hirst’s Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable has to be one of the oddest, most ambitious projects we’ve ever heard of. Hirst has spun the tale of a freed slave, who 2000 years ago became an art collector. His ship sinks, bringing all of his treasures with it. Hirst has spent somewhere around £50 million on the show—fabricating gold and bronze “antiquities”, dumping them in the Indian Ocean to patina, and hiring boatloads of divers to retrieve them for exhibition in Venice. [BBC]
Artica Svalbard, a residency program in the icy northernmost extremes of Norway, has announced its first batch of artists: Carlos Casas, Oddvar I. N. Daren, Lars Palgaard, and Mette Henriette. These lucky four will get to live out their Fortitude fantasies, hopefully avoiding polar bear attacks and vitamin D deficiency along the way. [ARTnews]
In yesterday’s links, I mentioned that London’s local governments have been scrambling to prevent a mass exodus of creatives from the increasingly unaffordable city. Here’s one of their initiatives. A House for Artists, designed by architects Apparata in conjunction with artist Grayson Perry, will provide affordable housing and studios above a community center in Barking Town Centre. Some of these interior renderings look unbelievably spacious for now-build affordable housing. [Dezeen]
Artist Ryan Mendoza and Rhea McCauley, the niece of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, have teamed up to move Parks’ house from Detroit to Berlin. Mendoza has restored the home and is showing it as a piece of public sculpture. For now, McCauley wants the house to stay in Europe until America “grows up”. [New York Post]

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Monday Links: This Video of Nico Covering David Bowie is the Best

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on August 1, 2016

Someone dug up footage of Warhol Superstar Nico covering Bowie’s “Heroes” with a disco beat in a small British bar in the early 1980s. She looks totally crazy and it’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life. [YouTube].

More counterculture nostalgia out of England: London’s Michael Hoppen Gallery has a show of vintage punk memorabilia and 1970s photographs of Vivienne Westwood, Siouxsie Sioux, Johnny Rotten, and more. It’s on view through August 26th, if you’re planning a trip to take advantage of the cheap pound! [Blouin Artinfo]

Alexandra Lange questions the veracity and relevance of the “50% of the world’s population live in cities” assumption. She makes some good points about the inaccuracy of the UN’s methodology and the need for more nuanced looks at local morphologies for designers and theorists. In the Bay Area, for example: “I can think of a dozen other reasons, right in their own backyard, why a Silicon Valley incubator should be interested in the future of housing, transportation, regional planning, and workplace design. Why, then, must they go global? The future of one kind of city, in which people live densely and work in sprawl, is being written on their doorstep, and yet, the use of the statistic implies that they want to change a larger, less knotty idea of the city.” But isn’t the whole fun and spirit of architecture, design, and planning a never-ending strive for the utopian? [Curbed]

The New York Post unearthed pictures from the mid 90’s, when Melania Trump (then Knauss) posed with another female model for a “lesbian-themed” photoshoot. True to the Post’s classy editorial style, this just reeks of slut-shaming and isn’t really journalism. Maybe all those out-of-work Gawker staff can send their resumés over to Rupert Murdoch. [The New York Post]

Related: Australian muralist Lushsux has had his Instagram account deleted after publishing photos of a mural he completed depicting Hillary Clinton in a sexy American Flag swimsuit. [9 News]

Update: Lushux responded to the censorship by covering Clinton in a Burqa. [ABC News]

This must’ve been a fun article to research… the history of drugs in art, from ancient times to Kenny Scharf’s installations for tripping and Damien Hirst’s medicine cabinets of psychopharmaceuticals. Even Marina Abramović has dabbled in mind-altering substances! But for the best example of drug-induced creativity, rewatch Nico’s “Heroes” rendition at the top of the page. [CNN]

Job alert: Italian art fair Artissima is seeking a new director. The fair takes place in Turin in November. [artnet News]

The AC Institute is holding an open call for a gun memorial design. Those interested should submit a mock up for a memorial design at the National Mall in Washington DC. The winning projects won’t be installed at the mall, but will be included in an online show and a publication. Deadline: December 2016. [AC Institute]

Creative Time has added seven new board members: artist/actor Waris Ahluwalia, artist Trevor Paglen, designer Ivana Berendika, collector Heather Farrer, curator Sofía Hernández, Clinton Foundation program vice president Maura Pally, and Andrei Tretyakov, a venture capitalist. [ARTnews]

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Jeff Koons Lays Off Workers Amidst Reports of Unionization

by Paddy Johnson and Rhett Jones on July 18, 2016

According to sources speaking anonymously with Art F City, Jeff Koons’ mammoth studio operation in Chelsea has laid off 14 of its night crew workers who were attempting to unionize and one day crew member who was friendly with those night crew organizers.

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Monday Links: Goodbye Alan Vega

by Rhett Jones on July 18, 2016

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Famed founder of Suicide and prolific poet Alan Vega has died at the age of 78. [The Quietus]
Following budget cuts and buyouts, the Met says it will begin layoffs in order to balance its budget. More than 50 people reportedly accepted the buyout offer and the Met says that layoffs will increase the total positions cut to more than 100. [New York Times]
Jonathan Jones takes a stand against all of those people who think that you can make great art by clicking a button in a photo filter app. We’re pretty sure that is practically no one, but glad he’s on the case. [The Guardian]
It turns out Damien Hirst’s work isn’t toxic after all. [The Art Newspaper]
The Contemporary Austin has established $100,000 art prize that will also include a solo show for the winner. [Artforum]
Is transrealism the first major literary movement of the 21st-century or just “Post-Internet” for books? You be the judge. [The Guardian]
The Keno Brothers, antique specialists famous for appearing on Antiques Roadshow are involved in a couple of bizarre lawsuits. Having worked at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s, one would assume the brothers would know how to handle themselves at an auction. But, on at least 3 occasions at two different auction houses, they say they didn’t realize they were bidding against each other and sending the respective item’s prices soaring. They’ve refused to pay and are being sued by different auction houses. [New York Times]
Photojournalists are packing bulletproof vests, gas masks and other war-zone type gear to get ready for the Republican National Convention. They aren’t the only ones who are worried, the head of Cleveland’s largest police union has asked for open carry laws to be suspended during the convention out of fear for officer’s lives. [Wired, CNN]
Speaking of the RNC, Jon Stewart will be rejoining Stephen Colbert as he broadcasts live from the convention this week. [CNN]
Yayoi Kusama is releasing an illustrated edition of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid.” [Dazed]

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Thursday Links: I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up

by Paddy Johnson Michael Anthony Farley Rea McNamara on April 21, 2016

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has completed an expansion project for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, increasing exhibition space by 90%. [Curbed]
Independent Brussels opened yesterday, and apparently the vibes strike a good balance between Independent circa it’s scrappy Dia building days and it’s sleeker current iteration at Spring Studios in TriBeCa. “It’s the Dia building breathing new life,” marvelled Brussels collector Alain Servais. Further, it looks like a lot of booths took risks and avoided pushing paintings, which is appropriate given the city’s collector base for conceptual art. [Artsy]
Juicy Q&A of the day: this interview with Gary Indiana, who adroitly addresses why his time in New York was omitted from his long-awaited memoir, I Can Give You Anything But Love: “all the recent necrophiliac nostalgia for the late 1970s and early 1980s New York…is so off-base that I didn’t want to engage with it at all.” [The White Review]
“When is too rich, too rich to not notice you’re missing a Picasso for 10 years?” Yes, it’s true: billionaire socialite Wilma “Billie” Tisch didn’t notice her Picasso portrait “Tete” had been missing for nearly that amount of time, and was unaware it had been offered at Sotheby’s in 2013. [New York Post]
Kimiko Nishimoto is an 87-year old photographer who takes a lot of “I’m falling and I can’t get up” self-portraits. She learned how to use a camera at 71, and then took courses in digital editing. Amazing. [Booooooom]
AFC Staffer Rea McNamara wrote a feature about the tyranny of celebrity lifestyle gurus. In it she parses the love-hate relationship many women have with Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Blake Lively, et al. — and how the distributed content age strengthens the hold celebrities have on our lives. [Globe and Mail]
Uh oh, scientists claim Damien Hirst’s 2012 Tate retrospective featuring his infamous preserved animals leaked unsafe levels of carcinogenic formaldehyde gas. [BBC News]
Jennifer Smith checks in on Anne Pasternak’s first seven months as director of the Brooklyn Museum. On top of green lighting the Jeremy Deller project that had Iggy Pop pose for a life drawing class, she’s striped away by at least over 20% objects on display in the American and European galleries, and plans to hire more curators. Her first show won’t appear until the summer of 2017. [Wall Street Journal]
Hate-read alert: Rémy Martin CEO Eric Vallat complains about how inconvenient a transfer to a cushy job in Tokyo was. Thankfully, he found peace by visiting Naoshima, the island of outdoor art installations and a boutique hotel designed by Tadao Ando. Also, cognac aged in a barrel for 100 years—apparently art appreciation on Naoshima taught Vallat to let it linger in his mouth before swallowing. [The Wall Street Journal]
Josh Baer recommends seeing Georges de La Tour 1593-1652 at the Museo Del Prado in Madrid. We took a look at the work and we wish we were there. Masterful. The image of a young rich man demanding an old woman’s last coin seems not so unfamiliar these days. [Baer Faxt]
Sarah Ann Ottens was raped and murdered on the University of Iowa campus in 1973. Her death inspired some of Ana Mendieta’s most provocative works, who attended the same college, but today Ottens’ name is rarely mentioned. Even Mendieta’s most thorough auto-biography includes no mention of Ottens. Read the whole piece tracing the two histories by Sarah Weinman. Incredible. [The Guardian]
Who in the art world donates what to which politicians? It’s pretty surprising how many collectors and dealers donate to right-wing super PACs. There’s also plenty of bet-hedging: many people donate to both a Republican candidate or PAC and the Clinton campaign. [ART News]

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Thursday Links: Bearded Orthodox Priests with Their Cats

by Rea McNamara on December 3, 2015

A Pirelli anecdote: a calendar with bearded Russian orthodox priests and their cats. [The Art Newspaper]
“Hirst is now 50, and his career thus far has been a downhill slalom of provocation and pound signs.” This really sums up that painting of his Paddy saw in White Cube’s ABMB booth. Oh, and somewhat related: Hirst is opening his own gallery! [New Republic]
Also seen at ABMB: a Skype painting. “‘It’s the best thing I’ve seen so far!’ said the Warhol Foundation’s president Joel Wachs. ‘He’s in the painting!’” [artnet News]
Further ABMB preview reports; Nate Freeman says that a lot of Stellas are selling post-Whitney retrospective, while Brian Boucher tries to make sense of the bright and shiny selfie-baiting luxury artworks with more challenging political works in light of the San Bernardino mass shooting. [ARTnews, artnet News]
OK, last one: looks like Sly Stallone (who’s in an “acquiring mood”) replaced Leonardo DiCaprio as the most interesting ABMB-attending celebrity. [Bloomberg]
According to a new survey by the National Coalition Against Censorship, college students have demanded trigger warnings for spiders, indigenous artifacts, “images of childbirth”, nude models in a studio art class and being told a favourite artist was gay. Seriously. [You’ve Cott Mail]
The National Gallery is taking over the Sobey Award, one of the Canada’s richest art prizes with a $100,000 purse. Previously, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia had overseen the annual award for the past 13 years, but there had been grumblings about it lacking international reach. Looks like this might be the step on the right direction. [Ottawa Citizen]
Imagined dialogue in MoMA’s merchandising department: “OK, beach towels are done. Same with yoga mats. A collab collection—so three seasons ago. Wait! How about a skateboard? A Warhol skateboard. We’ll make sure to emphasize how ‘functional’ they are. It’ll be amazing.” [Observer]
Not surprised: if you Bing search “MoMA Judd” you get, well, Mama Judd. [@gregorg]

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Art Basel Feels Like Last Season’s Trunk Sale

by Paddy Johnson on December 3, 2015

My Art Basel experience will sound familiar to almost everyone following the fair. After a day at Art Basel Miami, most dealers I spoke to still had work available. That’s not to say that sales were slow— just slower than the usual mad rush we’ve become accustomed to over the last few years. According to art consultant Josh Baer, that’s not because the art was bad, but because collectors have become more thoughtful.

Yeah right. Collectors have not suddenly transformed into more curious and discerning people. They’re just not oblivious to the obvious: most of the art on view looked like B-rate work we’d seen a hundred times already. Even people who have nothing to do all day but buy things will eventually get bored of that.

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