Detail of The Reckoning panel from The Prophets of Ecstasy (2014), by the artist Chemical X, which was assembled from more than 10,000 pills. Photograph: Chemical X
- Jenny Dubnau of the Artist Studio Affordability Project talks about the importance of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act to Hyperallergic’s Claire Voon. This bill would give commercial tenants the right to renew their lease, the right to a 10 year lease renewal if they want it, and the ability to go to unbinding mediation if you don’t like your landlord’s lease renewal offer. This is great exposure for a very important bill. [Hyperallergic]
- “A Field Guide to NYC’s Biggest Week of Gallery Openings” is a pretty impressive block-by-block run down of which streets have which shows opening which nights. It is a little terrifying how much art there is in New York this week. [Artsy]
- “Left liberals express their outrage that Europe is allowing thousands to drown in the Mediterranean: Europe, they say, should show solidarity and throw open its doors. Anti-immigrant populist say we need to protect our way of life: foreigns should solve their own problems. Both solutions sound bad, but which is worse? To paraphrase Stalin, they are both worst.” Slavoj Žižek on the refugee crisis. [London Review of Books]
- A fascinating look at how the kinda sorta Canadian recession has created a lagging confidence in Canadian art market: Moderately priced works (under $5000) are not doing well, and with institutions primarily focusing on known commodities (Group of Seven, Quebec Impressionists), these are the only works that do well in the secondary market. This article suggests that if Canadian Museums curated less obvious historical shows, there would be a positive impact on the middle tier art market. [Canadian Art]
- Adrián Villar Rojas has a tiny, secret sculpture on the roof of the Guggenheim. An equally secretive contract with the museum ensures that the piece (a fragile, eroding mud nest) will be rebuilt in perpetuity, along with an annual performance involving a museum staff member and the atrium skylight. According to the writer, “It’s hinted that the contract holds the promise of other secrets that may reveal themselves over the years to the observant.” [The New York Times]
- Good #longread: get to know the latest American presidential candidate, securities pioneer and “Prophet of Paranoia” John McAfee. [Men’s Journal]
- The new iPhones are out. Apple also used its media event to tell us all that their watches are going to get better and that you will soon be able to buy one with Hermes wrist band. [The New York Times]
- As one might’ve guessed, the North Korean art scene is extremely weird and state-run. Thousands of artists and production workers churn out propaganda posters, cheery realist paintings, and sculptures from Mansudae Art Studio, which might be the world’s largest art production center. The government-run center has its own website, where even wicked imperialists like us can purchase artwork. It seems like the hand of the market is at play even in the most anti-capitalist corner of the art world. [The Huffington Post]
- In 2013, there were 1,654 gainfully employed “fine artists” in New York. Ben Davis analyzes the recently-reported Creative New York report, and takes issue with its peddling of the “creative economy”, and how it obscures the real employment dynamics artists face. [artnet News]
- Why are so many people making pharmaceutical art? [The Guardian]
- Jennifer, a ring-tailed lemur, makes abstract paintings and is in a group show with a bunch of other animals (including a cockroach) this month. [CBC]
- The eternal pain that is a skeleton riding a segway. [Brown Cardigan]
- Bodega has opened a new space called Princess in what appears to be a walled off alley. [ARTnews]
- A new report on the state of Russian artwork in the global art market is painfully dry reading, but this figure is pretty mind-blowing: since his death 30 years ago, the collected artwork of Marc Chagall’s has generated $1.4 billion in total sales value. [artnet News]
- Andrew Russeth reports on what he describes as an art book boom. Lots of galleries are producing books for their artists and there’s the mammoth New York art book fair. Mainstream art books, though, seem to be struggling. [ARTnews]
