Prospect, the New Orleans biennial conceived and founded by curator Dan Cameron, now transformed into a triennial has announced its artist list for Prospect.4 2017. The list, put together by Artistic Director Trevor Schoonmaker, (of the Nasher Museum in Durham North Carolina), includes 73 artists from North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the European powers that colonized New Orleans, and will address themes of identity, displacement and cultural hybridity. It will be called “The Lotus In Spite of the Swamp.”
This sounds a bit like every show ever, so we’ll be curious to see how Schoonmaker distinguishes his exhibition.
If only I were in New Orleans right now. If so, I would be petting an alligator (because you can do that there), walking along the edge of the world (because you can do that there, too), and visiting2 Freaky 2 Friday at Pelican Bomb Gallery X (which you still have time to do because the exhibition runs through September 18). The mostly femme and femme-identifying artists in the exhibition all explore images of celebrity in a sometimes critical, sometimes celebratory way that fits in so well with the AFC brand. A note on the exhibition from curator (and friend of AFC) Amanda Brinkman:
I grew up with a British mother and an American father in a small German town with a population fewer than 9000 people. Celebrities were my lingua franca and my guide to living like an American kid in the ’80s—something I was determined to do even halfway across the globe….I eventually threw away my New Kids on the Block sheets, but my interest in celebrities and what they can represent continues today. I’m routinely condescended to by intelligent people who “don’t even own a TV” and see stars as the ultimate waste of time and brainpower. But celebrities can help us theorize the relationship between the surface-level, lowbrow, and easily accessible and the deep, highbrow, and complex in incredibly fruitful ways.
In lieu of buying a last minute plane ticket, I’m posting excerpts from Faith Holland’s 2013 GIF series “Chelsea Manning Fan Art,” part of 2 Freaky 2 Friday. Peace out, y’all—it’s Friday night, so I leave you for the weekend with the now-classic Lady Gaga and Beyoncé video for “Telephone,” from which the GIF takes its lead.
“So, we’re American. And when the enemies of the US want to strike at US symbols, they now strike at us! LGBT equality would seem to be another American export than can be resented and attacked as American. For anyone used to being an pariah, this will take some getting used to.” In 2008, Skylar Fein’s “Remember the UpStairs Lounge” showed at New Orleans’ Prospect.1 biennial. The installation recreated aspects of the popular 1970s gay bar that was tragically set fire by an arsonist and killed 32 people. In light of Orlando, Hrag Vartanian revisits the work, and talks with the artist about the US’s complicated history of anti-LGBTQ violence. [Hyperallergic]
A change of guard: Barbara M. Vogelstein will succeed Elizabeth A. Sackler as chair of of the Brooklyn Museum’s board of trustees. Vogelstein has three decades experience in private equity investing, and served on the institution’s board from 2001-2010 and then again since 3015. Vogelstein was involved in the search for the museum’s new director, and she and her husband endowed the museum’s contemporary art curator position in 2005. [Artforum]
Adrian Searle glowingly reviews the Switchhouse, the Tate Modern’s new extension. The off kilter pyramid matches Herzog & de Meuron’s original conversion of Bankside power station into contemporary art gallery in 2000. And the show’s pretty good! Actual conversations between art works occur. [The Guardian]
Rose Eveleth just launched a new column exploring design bias in medical research and products. First up, artificial hearts. Even though women are more likely to die on transplant lists, artificial hearts aren’t designed for them — in fact, an artificial heart typically fits 80% of men and only 20% of women. [Motherboard]
London’s public transportation system has a new screen-friendly typeface. The new typeface, a revamp of the original 100 year old Johnson typeface, has a lighter weight made for mobile reading, while retaining certain idiosyncrasies like the “bulbous ‘U’”. [The Verge]
Yes, this happened today: UK Independent Party leader Nigel Farage and Bob Geldof had a boat war on the Thames. The Brexit debate just got real. [Telegraph]
Merray Gerges chats with Montreal’s GothShakira, who has been getting a lot of media traction for her intersectional feminist image macros on Instagram. [Canadian Art]
By 2020, the New York skyline will look f-ugly. Get ready for skyscrapers—a rendering by CityReality. [Curbed]
The International Association of Art Critics has announced that this year’s winner of AICA Incentive Award for Young Critics, will receive a trip to Havana, Cuba, to attend the AICA Congress this October. Submit a review by July 29th. [AICA via: ARTnews]
At the VIP opening of the new Tate Modern opening, over 150 feminist activists protested the institution’s decision to show work by Carl Andre, chanting “oi Tate, we’ve got a vendetta, where the fuck is Ana Mendieta?”. Organized by the WHEREISANAMENDIETA movement, the protesters are decrying the exhibition of Andre’s work — not to mention the failure to show Mendieta’s work in the same space, even though the Tate has five works in storage — as a glorification of violent men within the art institution. [Dazed]
Talk about exploitation: Jenny Lorenzo and Brittany Ashley, both popular producers/personalities for Buzzfeed’s Motion Pictures company, were fired for appearing in “Gente-Fied”, a web series produced by actor America Ferrera. Why? Because Lorenzo and Ashley apparently breached the non-compete clause in their contracts. Even though non-compete agreements are fairly common in tech and engineering jobs, digital media companies like Buzzfeed are now adopting them. It’s a backwards revival of the old Hollywood studio system, back when stars signed ironclad 7-year contracts. [Politico]
Breaking: Bloomberg’s art market reporter Katya Kazakina confirms billionaire Leon Black has won ownership of Picasso’s “Bust of a Woman” plaster sculpture. At the center of an international legal drama between Gagosian and the Qatari royal family, the dispute stemmed from Picasso’s daughter, Maya Widmaeier-Picasso, selling the work not once but twice to both parties. [@artdetective]
Art Basel reports are coming in: Dealers are bringing their best work to counter-act the narrative that says the market is down. [ARTnews]
From Damien-Hirst-inspired appetizers to a painter’s palette full of sauces, chef Uwe Opocensky’s Art Basel menu at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong is ridiculous. [Quartz]
San Francisco’s art scene is being gutted by gentrification. To combat displacement, a group of philanthropists has opened the Minnesota Street Project—a for-profit warehouse building with artist studios, offices for nonprofits, and retail spaces for gallerists who can now share resources under one roof. It’s an interesting model. [ABC 7]
Brace yourselves: another art fair is coming to New York. A satellite fair called “Portal” will occupy the Federal Hall on Wall Street during Frieze Week. [The New York Times]
Baltimore collective Open Space has released the vendor list for their seventh annual Publications and Multiples Fair, which is always awesome. Some of our favorite artists and groups are participating, including the BHQF, April Camlin, Transmitter, and Bmore Art. [City Paper]
Christie’s is being held responsible for more than $700,000 worth of art destroyed in Hurricane Sandy. [New York Post]
Big Freedia—the queer artist who popularized New Orleans bounce—is facing jail time over housing voucher fraud. Brentin Mock argues that would be Louisianna making the worst out of a bad situation. [City Lab]
If you live in an American city, chances are your subway/public housing/bridges/other vital infrastructure is falling apart. The capital metro just had to shut for safety inspections. That disaster-fraught system is the poster child for the “Great Society” era infrastructure we’ve inherited—it was beautiful when it opened, but the past few politically dysfunctional decades haven’t seen us building anything new or maintaining what we have. “Demolition by neglect is now our maintenance policy, and not just when it comes to things we have made in bricks and mortar; it erodes our civic landscape, too.” [The Washington Post]
Now BART—another aging transit system left over from a more civilized time—is responding to twitter critics with brutal honesty. “We have 3 hours a night to do maintenance on a system built to serve 100k per week that now serves 430k per day. #ThisIsOurReality” [Vox]
Every day, forever, Bob Weisz posts a “Wigglegram” to the Tumblr Four Realz. These are GIFs made by compiling 35mm film photographs from the Nimslo 3D stereo camera, which has sadly been out of production since 1990. The content is heavily focused on glimpses of New Orleans night and street life, so Weisz is blessed with an already (infamously) colorful palette to work with.
The grainy analog quality of these lends the images a sense of nostalgia—as if the viewer is preemptively, fondly remembering all the weird shit we hope won’t get washed away by gentrification or rising sea levels. There are pages and pages of these to scroll through, so get ready to lose yourself for at least an hour. Authentic NOLA hangover not included.
This fall, the Joan Mitchell Foundation launches its first artists-in-residence program at their brand-new studio facilities in New Orleans’ historic Tremé neighborhood. The inaugural residents come from all over the United States.
Paddy and I are in New Orleans for Prospect.3; if you want to know the background to the exhibition, the why and how, this interview with Artistic Director Franklin Sirmans sums up all that we know, too. [Hyperallergic]
The Swedish government has commissioned a national font, Sweden Sans. If America named a national font what would it be? Our guess: Comic Sans. [Medium]
Time waster + art = Doll Index. Developed by artist Joseph Montgomery, the site lets you generate differently sized stick figures. [Broadway World]
A partial solar eclipse happened yesterday, but if you want some tips on how to photograph it the next time around, here’s your filter guide. DON’T LOOK AT THE SUN. [Mr. Eclipse]
Can you name the horror movies depicted in these minimalist posters? [i09]
Frank Gehry really is a grumpy old man. He flipped off a journalist at a press conference in Spain; he later apologized, blaming his anger on jet lag. The proof is in the pictures. [The Guardian]
No likey: “New York City developers will spend 60 percent more on new homes this year, while adding only 22 percent more units, a sign of the market’s tilt toward luxury condominiums, the New York Building Congress said.” [Bloomberg]
On Thursday afternoon, CalArts students walked out of class to protest how the art school has been handling a student’s rape allegation. [The Los Angeles Times]
Right now, Art F City is in New Orleans to see Prospect.3. Before we begin to contemplate this biennial, we thought it’d be timely to look back at Paddy’s report from the first Prospect, held in 2008.
Fiercely Independent. New York art news, reviews and culture commentary. Paddy Johnson, Editorial Director Michael Anthony Farley, Senior Editor Whitney Kimball, IMG MGMT Editor
If only I were in New Orleans right now. If so, I would be petting an alligator (because you can do that there), walking along the edge of the world (
