Shi Xinning, “Duchamp Retrospective Exhibition in China” now on view at Hong Kong’s M+
- Art collective Meow Wolf has convinced investors, including Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, to help them acquire and transform a Santa Fe bowling alley. When it opens, the space will be a psychedelic Victorian interior with maze-like secret passageways to sci-fi landscapes. It sounds insane. [Los Angeles Times]
- At LA’s new Broad Museum, all of the floor staff receive 40 hours of training to become “Visitors Services Associates”. That means the people taking your ticket or guarding the artworks are also paid to talk to you about the art, like a docent. I’m not sure if this sounds great or super annoying. [NPR]
- M+, Hong Kong’s newest contemporary art museum, is pretty ballsy. The institution is hosting a pre-opening exhibition entitled Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art that sounds as if it’s curated to piss off mainland censors—showing everything from artwork about Tiananmen Square to sculptures by persona non grata Ai Weiwei. Although the former British colony enjoys different freedoms from the rest of China, Beijing has been cracking down on dissidents. This is going to be a culture war battle to watch. [The Guardian]
- DIA’s new director Jessica Morgan sounds awesome. The institution is back to showing artwork in NYC after she scrapped multi-year renovation plans, and more importantly, she’s a curator artists respect and like working with. [Vogue]
- In other glamorous curator news, Stacy Engman has been accused of assaulting a fellow passenger on a flight from Istanbul to New York, where she was reportedly wearing a tiara and bit the other woman. Where’s the Vogue photoshoot for this? [artnet News]
- Apparently Ken Griffin dropped $500 million on paintings by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning before the market cooled off. This would be a record for a private sale. [The Telegraph]
- The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts will be free for over a month as a gesture of goodwill following the mass shooting in the area. [mlive]
- Thomas Schütte is designing and building his own museum to show and house his own work. [artnet News]
