- Brazilian artist Ana Smile has pissed off Catholics by repainting religious figurines as pop culture characters like Maleficent or Batman. [Dangerous Minds]
- There’s a nonprofit in San Francisco that hires drag queens to read to children in libraries. [SF Gate]
- In other Bay Area news, Google’s weird AI has its first art exhibition. Should we all be bracing ourselves for more terrifying psychedelic dog landscapes? [Wired]
- When a new pigment hits the marketplace, all bets are off. Last year, it was the accidental discovery of a new blue pigment by chemists at the Oregon State University. This year, it‘s vantablack, and it looks like Anish Kapoor has already rained on the parade by buying the exclusive rights to a black so pure it’s absorbs 99.96% of light. This has pissed off other artists — does a blue-chip artist really deserve exclusive rights on a pigment? — and one of them, painter Christian Furr, is already planning a whole series using the shade. [Daily Mail]
- The Hnatyshyn Foundation has launched a new awards program that will give 150 cash awards totalling $1.5 million to Indigenous artists in 2017. [Canadian Art]
- Gerhard Richter has penned an open letter decrying the closure of the Museum Morsbroich near Cologne. The German institution, frequently named the best museum in North-Rhine Westphalia and has hosted shows in the past by artists like Yves Klein, Rosemarie Trockel and Richter himself, is closing as part of municipal cost-cutting measures. Worst, it appears the city wants to sell the museum’s collection. In his letter, Richter rightfully states that “a public art collection is not a financial investment that can be plundered depending on the cash situation. It is a piece of art history and represents the cultural memory of its trustees.” [The Art Newspaper]
- Institutions around the world are deaccessioning pieces at a breakneck speed. This can help museums pay off debts from expansion projects, but is also “the cultural equivalent of burning the furniture to heat the house”. [Maclean’s]
- Who knew 10cc’s “The Things We Could Do For Love” could be used as the soundtrack for an animated musical sequence on chapters 19-40 from the Book of Exodus? This comes from Nina Paley’s upcoming animated film Seder-Masochism. [Vimeo]
- Tilt Brush is a VR drawing/painting program that looks like it’s probably so much fun to use that I’m afraid to try it. Here, the writer says we’re waiting for a maestro of the medium. Based on our experiences at DiMODA, I think it’s Jacolby Satterwhite. [The Verge]
- The Met has made at least one signage change that people might like: the “recommended” $25 admission will now be “suggested”. [The Guardian]
- Art world headline of the day: Why Casey Jenkins is vaginal knitting your online abuse into art [ABC News]
