Michael Anthony Farley continues his L.A. tour. Artist Megan Gordon shows him around Chinatown, a champagne bus strands him at the beach, and drag queens get patriotic.
I (Michael) don’t think I have ever been as emotionally invested in a piece of pop culture in my adult life as I have been watching the Netflix original Sense8. The show, from the Wachowskis, felt like the first site-specific artwork for the era of streaming—like watching eight addicting films from different genres at the same time in different tabs. It’s pretty heartbreaking that Netflix has inexplicably cancelled the show after two very well received seasons. In a real-world sociopolitical context increasingly defined by nationalism and bitter identity politics, a narrative that is essentially an epic morality play about global empathy—and individuals skill sharing to face repression in their respective societies—felt urgent beyond binge-worthiness. [the Internet: #RenewSense8 #SaveSense8 ]
Cara Ober stops by Glasstress, where international art stars collaborate with Venetian glassmakers. (Think Paul McCarthy glass buttplugs and an Ai Weiwei figure giving the middle finger). [BmoreArt]
Central St Martins grad student Camila Gonzalez Corea has been transforming images of topless women into emoji collages to protest Instagram’s censorship of female nipples. According to Instagram, it’s fine to show nipples if they belong to men. The Nipple Act bypasses this problem by replacing pixels with icons. [Metro]
68 Mayors are resisting Trump’s withdraw from the Paris climate accord and have pledged to uphold the agreements. New York is among them, and lit landmarks in green lights to show support for the international initiative. Michael Bloomberg, New York’s former mayor is co-ordinating the effort, and is negotiating with the United Nations to have its submission accepted alongside contributions to the deal by other nations. Bloomberg Philanthropies is offering to donate 14 million to help fund the deal’s budget. [Curbed]
Construction has started on “Ruby City”, a glittery red art museum David Adjaye has designed for the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio. For a building that is literally covered in glitter and painted bright red, it’s oddly understated. [Dezeen]
Another Renzo Piano museum that resembles a pharmaceutical giant’s depot has opened, this time in Harlem. Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery, nestled inside Piano’s Lenfest Center for the Arts, launches their inaugural show, “Uptown”, which is a triennial that includes well known artists such as Sanford Biggers, Nari Ward and Julie Mehretu along with emerging talent like John Pinderhughes and Alicia Grullón. Critic Jason Farago says it’s a pretty good show, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot to say about it. The most interest nugget in the review isn’t about the art but the fact that the Gallery partnered with other local museums to produce the show—a peace offering of sorts due to the gentrifying forces the University’s expansion brings. [The New York Times]
Sarah Cascone interviews Emma Sulkowicz about her strange S&M performance “The Ship Is Sinking” at the Whitney. Inspired by politics, Bertolt Brecht, beauty pageants, and figureheads on shipwrecks (among other references) it basically comprised a man dressed as “Mr Whitney” tying her to a piece of wood and torturing her. I have read the interview and I’m still not sure I (Michael) “get it”. [artnet News]
Ai Weiwei is posing as Alan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian refugee toddler, for a second time. Because it wasn’t a bad enough idea the first time around. In this picture he’s lying face down on his porcelain sunflower seeds—apparently it is a response to Donald Trump’s visit to the Israel Museum last week. The museum covered some of his works when the president visited—which it is now claiming it did because they were not fully installed. Whatever the case, can Ai Weiwei just let this toddler rest in peace already? [The Art Newspaper]
Here’s an interview with DoLab, the lighting team/curators who do the visuals for festivals such as Coachella. Their work sounds like a logistics minefield. [Variety]
“My Neighbor Totoro” will get its own theme park in Japan come 2020. [The Creator’s Project]
In a past life, Mexico City’s Museo Universitario Del Chopo was a punk flea market. Today, it’s gone back to it roots (kinda). Punk. Sus rastros en el arte contemporáneo is a fantastic survey of both punk and its impact on contemporary art. But when so much of that influence has been on video art, the logic of a gallery presentation is questionable.
The show feels a bit like it should be a film festival but has been squeezed into a white box. Good luck trying to sit through more than a dozen videos with overlapping sound on different loops.
Bjarne Melgaard is going through a reinvention phase, which means he’s giving away his entire $500K wardrobe for free on Valentine’s Day at Red Bull Studios. Then he’s launching his new project: a streetwear line with an installation a department store at the same spot Thursday night. Then two painters offer unique takes on domesticity through still lives—Sydney Licht at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts and Crys Yin at Amy Li Projects.
Friday night, things get weirder with a dystopian video game from Jeremy Couillard at yours mine & ours, artwork lost in translation at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, and a late-night performance from Actually Huizenga and one-time-AFC-contributor SSION (video above). The weekend brings two more all-women shows conceived in response to Trump’s sexism: BODY/HEAD Saturday night at Be Fluent NYC and BEAT at On Stellar Rays Sunday afternoon. Lookin’ good, NYC.
Expect the next three days to be filled with election news. Events are largely election related, and thus I will be wearing pant suits the whole god damned time. (Go Hillary!) Once that’s passed, there’s a whack of openings in Chelsea Thursday—Andreas Gursky, Paul McCarthy, etc—a must-see ceramics inspired show at Present Company in Bushwick Friday, and Smack Mellon’s 20th Anniversary exhibition Saturday. In short, nothing, not even an election, disrupts the art world.
Paul McCarthy’s butt plugs continue to spark outrage in Paris. Erected in Paris’s upmarket Place Vendôme this Thursday as part of the FIAC art fair, the giant green plug titled “Tree” enraged a passerby Thursday so much that he slapped McCarthy three times. Now, after protestors cut several ropes holding the plug up, FIAC has deflated the piece.
By now, you’ve heard the news: 69-year-old artist Paul McCarthy was attacked in Paris yesterday while installing “Tree,” a giant inflatable butt plug at Place Vendôme. The piece is part of FIAC’s “Hors Les Murs” program and was evidently an offense to an unknown assailant because it does not belong at the Place Vendôme—and because McCarthy is not French. News that the sculpture’s title did not match its function has been the subject of much press giggling.
Paddy Johnson’s artnet column this week tackles the critical GIF. [artnet news]
Looks like Pearl Paint on Canal Street could be shuttering. The building is on the market for $15 million and the store is hosting a 30% off sale. [Gothamist]
Tomorrow is Saturday, but not just any ordinary Saturday. It is also a day for two holidays: “Slow Art Day,” where you’re recommended to spend at least 10 minutes with a work of art, and “Grilled Cheese Day,” which is self-explanatory. [Grilled Cheese Day, Slow Art Day]
A great art-nerd piece! Jasper Johns, 83, made a rare New York appearance to testify against Brian Ramnarine, a native of Guyana charged with trying to sell a fake Johns sculpture for $11 million dollars. [The Awl]
Kunsthalle Zürich Director Beatrix Ruf has accepted a new position. Ruf, ranked seventh on this year’s Power 100 list, will move on to direct the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the largest museum of modern and contemporary art in the Netherlands. [e-flux]
The Guggenheim Bilbao doesn’t like the mural Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy made for their museum. It’s a caricature of the Guggenheim as an upside-down battleship. Needless to say, Guggenheim bureaucrats don’t understand satire; they want the artists to take it down. [The Daily Beast]
Big news for SF MOMA: The museum is going to build the largest exhibition gallery for photography. That space, the John and Lisa Pritzker Center for Photography, will open in 2016. [SFMOMA]
Vermont wants to bring single-payer healthcare to America. [Vox]
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
