Dog burritos. Corinna prefers the pug that looks like an Ewok. Paul prefers the puppy that is wrapped in an actual tortilla. Paddy wonders what the selection criteria we’re all using, and would agree with Paul if there wasn’t the worry that puppy could accidentally be eaten. Given that that’s the case, Paddy chooses the terrier wrapped in leopard print. [Sad and Useless]
After being cleared of phone-hacking charges, media maverick Rebekah Brooks is making headlines again. It is rumored that she will be rehired by Rupert Murdoch to head up the social-networking news site Storyful. Terrifying. [The Guardian]
What makes a movie bad ass? A thoroughly convincing essay on the subject. [The Weeklings]
Triennial reviews are coming out: AFC’s discussion of individual works includes this zinger from Corinna Kirsch “Panels leaning against pedestals. Where am I? An art fair?”. Over at artnet News, Paddy Johnson discuss the Triennial’s obsession with the figure. Holland Cotter at the New York Times says the show adds up to some of the most distinctive art of the past decade. Hyperallergic’s Thomas Micchelli finds the show lacks excitement, and its focus on technology given its ubiquitous presence “feels dated and even a little clueless.” Also at Hyperallergic, Benjamin Sutton found it too crowded. Art Agenda’s Andrew Stefan Weiner says the show looks like a Tumblr and has mixed feelings on its success. On the one hand there’s curatorial legerdemain. On the other, not all the works live up to artist and curator Ryan Trecartin’s example. ARTnews’s Andrew Russeth thinks the Triennial shows that “new ideas are on the rise,” and over at Christie’s, Brienne Walsh doesn’t think the show’s got enough cohesion. Given the number of cohesive moments identified by other critics, Walsh’s thesis is the most easily challenged of them all. [The Internet]
Paul Chan’s Hugo Boss Prize exhibition gets a nod from Holland Cotter at the Times. The reason why, though, remains a bit convoluted. “Mr. Chan’s work is always surprising and as smart as art gets, which means, among other things, that it’s smart enough not to always give us the art we think we want.” [The New York Times]
Yet another adventure in the life of the rich and famous. Swiss business magnate Yves Bouvier has been charged with fraud and money laundering for allegedly inflating the prices of Picasso, Modigliani, Gauguins; those works were then sold to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who, if it matters to you, owns the Greek island of Skorpios, purchased from the Onassis family. [Luxembourger Wort]
Artists David O’Reilly and Kim Laughton have tricked news outlets into thinking that #HYPERREALCG, a Tumblr “showcasing the world’s most impressive & technical hyper-real 3d art,” consists of CGI-based work. It’s just “art.” [Metafilter, #HYPERREALCG]
In Bushwick, the Roberta’s Pizza Empire is crumbling. One of the three restaurant’s owners has split off, and is seeking $5.4 million for his stake in the company. [Brooklyn Magazine via New York Post]
Meet Andy Warhol’s family, the Warholas. They’re kickstarting a film called Uncle Andy—with your help! Now, for the low price of $2,500, you too can own a “Rusyn Tradition Decorated Ostrich Egg” painted by Warhol’s niece Madalen. Abby Warhola is apparently well trained in the art of the selfie. [Artforum]
Marina Abramovic is publishing a memoir. If you’re curious why the artist has decided to release a tell-all of her life in the former Yugoslavia, this is indeed about giving people “the courage to do the things they’re afraid to do in their own lives.” [Arts Beat]
Dear Artforum Editors: Can you please explain what this means in your 50 Shades of Grey review? “James’s own voice and writing tics…suggest nothing so much as a non-lubed and nonconsensual fist fuck of the English language.” [Artforum]
Miss P, a 15-inch beagle from Canada, won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Show. [The New York Times]
What “real dogs” look like after a thorough brushing. [Imgur]
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Bitcoins go unused every day. Most Bitcoiners sit on their investments—like hens waiting for their money to hatch. [MIT Technology Review]
The Soap Factory, one of the largest non-profit spaces in Minneapolis, has been selected to create a work at this year’s Art Basel, in conjunction with Kickstarter and the Walker Art Center. That’s a quartet of names I never expected to hear mentioned together. [The Soap Factory]
I’m always amazed by the number of animals who donate works of art to auction every year. Seriously, Jett the Dolphin, Azy the orangutan, and Tomby the elephant all donated finger-paintings to benefit the Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University. [Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis]
“My work isn’t your clip art dude.” First part of this story: Mega-famous DJ Diplo used artist Rebecca Mock’s GIF without properly attributing the work to her. Then, second part: sexism ensues! [Dazed via Canvas]
Not another article that claims, in 2015, that museums and galleries are finally “starting to take digital art seriously”! [Dezeen]
Storm King in the snow (Image courtesy of Storm King Art Center on Facebook)
Last night’s snowstorm came, but it wasn’t a blizzard! Some New Yorkers will be unhappy to know that they will be going to work today; the MTA will be running on a Sunday schedule as of 9:30 a.m. Schools will remain closed. For these, and more updates… [WNYC, any New York news source]
Because all the news is snow-related today, and Cuomo hatred runs high, the Brooklyn Paper reports that last night’s subway ban was a farce—ghost trains ran all night. (They keep the tracks clear). Daily Intelligencer has the proof, in Instagram pics. [Brooklyn Paper]
Good news, curators! The Node Center for Curatorial Studies Berlin has launched a two-month-long residency this fall for curators interested in devising projects beyond the gallery walls. It’s free, and you’ll receive a 900 Euro stipend. Not perfect, but close to paradise for recent Bard MAs. [Call for Curators]
A man carrying meat cleavers tried to attack museum passersby in the Dutch city of Groningen. Police shot him as he jumped into a nearby canal. He is now dead. [Artnet news]
Hide your dogs! 40 innocent pooches have been stolen from a small north Texas town since November. Police have no suspects in the case so far. (I would suggest that the police watch the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry suspects his Korean bookie of killing his friend’s dog for sandwich meat.) [Gawker via WFAA ]
Art writer Carol Vogel pens her last column for the New York Times; she notes changes in the art world since she began writing for the Times in 1991, as well as asks questions for the years to come. “How soon will the bubble burst?” she laments about Sotheby’s and Christie’s. As for Zwirner and Gagosian: “As these mega-companies multiply, there is fear they may start squeezing out the midsize gallery unable to compete with the growing giants.” Standard responses. Vogel accepted a buyout this past fall. [New York Times]
You can now post videos and send group messages on twitter, yay. [The Verge]
Storm King has launched an artist residency program with the Shandaken Project. 15 artists will be selected; you have through February 20 to apply. [Hyperallergic]
In Dallas, Texas, (male) artist Loris Gréaud wasn’t pleased by a review of his show by (female) Dallas Observer art critic Lauren Smart. Gréaud hounds her on Facebook and tells her she’d understand his show better if she got a boyfriend with steroid injections. Smart responds to this nonsense in her own column. [Dallas Observer]
Admittedly, the search results for dogs in snow is not as satisfying as those for cats in snow. This is surprising because dogs are cuter and better than cats. Also, dog google searches far outsize cat searches. Is this a conspiracy? Here are some of the better GIFs I’ve found.
Robots do tai chi at the Westport Library. (Image courtesy of Danny Ghitis for The Wall Street Journal)
Now that there’s this Jeff Koons retrospective at The Whitney, I guess it’s a good time for collectors to sell their work. Collector Frank Cohen waited eight years for his balloon dog to be made, and now he’s selling it because “it’s too massive”. In that same article Christie’s chairman Brett Gorvy explains that Koons like monkeys and that’s why they are in his work. Read this if you like rubbing sandpaper on your brain. [Bloomberg]
Watch these dogs with a waterhose on fullscreen. [YouTube]
Hyperallergic has some great photos from “Crossing Brooklyn”, a survey show of contemporary art made in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum. It opens tomorrow. [Hyperallergic]
Art Basel launches “Survey”, a section of the fair which will host 13 mini historical surveys. Is this a trend? Frieze does this too. [artnet News]
Humanoid robots at the Westport Library are supposed to teach people programming. But mostly, they’re awesome and can dance and do kickboxing. [Wall Street Journal, via The Paris Review]
Philadelphia-based performance and comic artist Beth Heinly launches a new cosplay inspiration tumblr. She does a pretty good Ann Coulter. [cosplaynhoes]
It looks like there will be more reasons to make the trek up to Flushing Meadows. Laura Raicovich, of Creative Time, has been named executive director of the Queens Museum. She’s replacing Tom Finkelpearl who left his post to be New York City’s cultural affairs commissioner. [Artforum]
Feisty headline from artnet News! “Obscure Russians Buy the Art Newspaper”. Lol. This refers to Russian mathematician, engineer, and collector Inna Bazhenova, who’s had her eye on the paper since 2010, even though its circulation has been declining. “ I pass the baton to her because she and her husband Dmitry are young, they are rich, they are honest and have convinced me that they share my ideals,” says owner Umberto Allemandi. [The Art Newspaper]
“Animals will eat just about anything. The proof is in the radiographs.” So runs the tagline for the Veterinary Practice News X-ray contest, where they asked contestants to submit their best animal X-ray results. Winners include a 3 year old great dane who had eaten 43 ½ socks, a german pointer who ate a shish kabob skewer and all, and a frog that ate 30 small ornamental rocks while in his cage. [Veterinary Practice News]
Thomas Galbraith of online auction house Paddle 8 argues that there would be greater transparency in the market, if collectors let sales go to auction more often (as opposed to relying on the gallery). There’s some truth to this, but let’s also remember that Paddle 8 does not make their auction results public. [Businessweek]
A new study concludes that if you went back in time and killed your grandfather, you’d still be okay. This supports the theory that there are several versions of every history, and the time line we exist on is only one. [Scientific America via: Animal]
The NADA Exhibitor list is out and it’s longer than ever. That’s not too much of a surprise given NADA’s sales success last year. Our favorite addition? P! [Artnews]
Ben Davis says that “Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight” is amongst the most important performances of the year. The piece was conceived by Emma Sulkowicz, 21 Year old Columbia Student who was raped on the first day of her sophomore year. She is carrying a mattress twin college dorm mattress everywhere she goes until the university forces the perpetrator out. [Artnet]
An interview with Jenny Dubnau, a realist portrait painter (and ASAP member). “Everyone thinks photography is real, but it is just a fiction like anything else. Over time, I realized there are reasons that I paint from photography. It is distancing, yet paradoxically it adds to the emotion; it creates a kind of tension.” [Hyperallergic]
Woo-hoo! AFC friends Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw’s souvenir shop gets a write up in the Wall Street Journal! [The Wall Street Journal]
Makeover! The Louvre is getting a “complete makeover”. [The Art Newspaper]
Milton Glazer, of the “I <3 NY” logo, has coined a new slogan for the times: “IT’S NOT WARMING IT’S DYING.” This comes with the urging of the New York Attorney General for the state to take action now. He’s now suing the EPA for not enforcing the Clean Air Act. [Animal New York]
Ukrainian separatists are raiding World War II museums to steal and use Stalin-era tanks in their war effort. “Can you believe it?” one museum visitor told Agence France-Presse. “They’re even stealing museum exhibits now.” [artnet News]
Last week, Mayor de Blasio announced a New York City municipal ID, which would be beneficial for undocumented immigrants, those without a drivers license, and now, museum-goers. This weekend, the administration announced their plan to work with museums like the Met to make admission free for those with the ID. [The New York Times]
In the art world, is it only okay to show the political, but not take a political stance? On Thursday night, a workshop by Khaled Jarrar for “10 Days/10 Ideas” was to be held at Undercurrent Projects, but was cancelled the night of. (Jarrar’s work is currently included in the New Museum’s current exhibition Here and Elsewhere, but was denied a visa.) Undercurrent Projects owner Katie Peyton told Hyperallergic that the space does not host “political activist meetings or sponsor political agendas.” This, despite the fact that Undercurrent describes itself as a “freethinking art space inspired by the epic myth of the avant garde.” [Hyperallergic]
Just how fucked up are classical themes in art history? Let The Toast’s Mallory Ortberg reveal how “The Judgment of Paris” is a tale about some whiny, insecure women who want to know if they’re still hot. The Real Housewives of Mt. Olympus, indeed! [The Toast]
Cory Arcangel is working on a novel about people tweeting about working on a novel. This would be meta if it weren’t already a Twitter joke taken too far. [Fader]
Come September, Bushwick’s itsy-bitsy Microscope Gallery is moving into a bigger, more legit space. They’re hoping to raise some dollars on Indiegogo for events and programming by July 30—help ‘em out! [Bushwick Daily]
Zachary Woolfe, music critic for the New York Times, reviews the Christoph Schlingensief exhibition at MoMA PS1. The exhibit, he writes, is a reminder that “the future of opera has been taking place without us.” Met, take note. [The New York Times]
Here’s a dog that really likes its bucket. Gotta love the soundtrack.
Miami cannot agree who has control over the Museum of Contemporary Art’s future; is it the city or the trustees? Behind door one, we have Alex Gartenfeld, interim director for Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Behind another, we have Babacar M’Bow, the other interim director, appointed by the mayor. [The New York Times]
A Brooklyn spa is sending out weekly traffic and detour announcements, so that you can make it to the wet lounge on time. It’s actually the best way to know about weekend parades in the city. [Body by Brooklyn]
BIG’s proposal for a flood-proof Lower Manhattan includes a raised West Side Highway and lots of park space. [BIG]
If you left a prosthetic leg on the LIRR, it’s at the lost and found at Penn Station. [The New York Times]
The city, now accepting proposals for public art projects at 46th Street and Queens Boulevard. You’ll get 5k for the project this summer! [Department of Transportation]
Now you won’t be able to invite people to your Gmail calendars from your email. Apparently people didn’t use the function enough, though that’s likely due to the fact that users didn’t know it existed. [Google System]
But hey! At least you can play Rubik’s Cube on Google’s front page today, right? [Google]
David Carr offers some much needed insight into the firing of New York Times editor Jill Abramson, saying that all the talk about pay inequity was a sideshow. The real issue, he speculates, was that the Times had been lagging in digital endeavors, and in response, she tried to bring in a digital expert, Janine Gibson, a senior editor at The Guardian. This proved to be an issue in terms of office management, as Abramson failed to tell Dean Baquet, the paper’s managing editor, that he would now have to share his job with someone else. Baquet was furious and threatened to quit. [The New York Times]
Yet another museum will be rolling out a Frank Gehry expansion; this time it’s the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [Philly.com via @kellycrowsj ]
Is the 9/11 museum gift shop in poor taste? The New York Post seems to think so, but their argument seems to be wrapped up in the idea that museum directors get paid too much money. [The New York Post]
Ben Davis writes about how the Yams decision to pull out of the Whitney Biennial should be a wake-up call for the museum. The biennial, he says, has a race problem. [Artnet]
Now you can buy trading cards of female net artists. But cheerleading, really? Sorry, but I would’ve preferred a deck that shows actual stats where artists get HP and special attacks, not “cheer highlights.” [Etsy, via Anthony Antonellis]
The International Center for Photography will close its Midtown museum in January 2015. [Artnet]
Greenpoint is about to get real. Real smelly. [Gothamist]
This weekend, activists put up fake 20-mile-per-hour signs in Brooklyn neighborhoods. [The Brooklyn Paper]
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has chosen the architectural firm of Annabelle Selldorf to head up the museum’s multi-million dollar expansion. [Culture Monster]
“[I]t was abysmal to be a black artist in Dallas over the last fifteen months,” writes Darryl Ratcliff, who breaks down the city’s exhibition ratio within the last year. [Glasstire]
Longreads: A personal history of how China’s Ministry of Propaganda has become Americanized. [n + 1]
In case you didn’t know, the New York Post has an archive of all their covers going back to 2002. So Photoshop. [New York Post]
Fiercely Independent. New York art news, reviews and culture commentary. Paddy Johnson, Editorial Director Michael Anthony Farley, Senior Editor Whitney Kimball, IMG MGMT Editor
Contact us at: paddyATartfcity.com
Paddy Johnson, Editorial Director
