Cassils and Robin Black, “Advertisement: Hommage to Benglis,” part of the series “CUTS: A Traditional Sculpture,” 2011, six-month durational performance.
©2011 CASSILS AND ROBIN BLACK/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND RONALD FELMAN FINE ARTS
- A poster to promote a travelling exhibition in Germany, Homosexuality_ies by trans artist and activist Cassils has been banned by Deutsche Bahn AG. Deutsche Bahn claims the advertisement, which features a muscular, androgynous Cassilis in lipstick and a jockstrap is “sexist.” Pretty much everyone has called bullshit on that. [ART News]
- Digital art enters the mainstream: the latest USA Today travel listicle rounds up the top 10 destinations for the stuff. Weirdly, the internet is not one of them. [USA Today]
- UCLA’s abysmal MFA studios are about to get a big, fancy renovation. [Los Angeles Times]
- Randall Szott and Shannon Stratton had a rambling conversation, often funny conversation about how one defines success, the amature, worth within the attention economy, and a host of other things I seldom think about (including whether or not “fake boobs” are more “real” than real boobs because they have intention). It’s so dense, and often bitter, but worth a read because there’s a handful of gems: “From the ArtForum point of view, it is more professional to have a day job and make work that finds its way into a group show that they might review than to actually support yourself as an artist in some god forsaken small town making “trite” landscape paintings.” But also, Randall Szott, are you really an “outsider” if you have your own Wikipedia page and two masters degrees? [Temporary Art Review]
- Borderline-creepy photographer Spencer Tunick (who is known for posing hundreds of nude models in public spaces) is planning one such intervention at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer. Based on the handful of often-contradictory statements he’s made about this (Tunick claims this isn’t a protest act, but then tweeted “For our daughters,
I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing”) it kinda seems like the RNC is just the latest excuse to photograph some naked ladies. [artnet News]
- Cara Ober notes that women “dominate” the Baker Artist Awards this year, with Joyce J. Scott taking home the big $50,000 prize. [BmoreArt]
- The oldest person in the world, Susannah Mushatt Jones, died today in Brooklyn at 116. Jones was born in 1899, before the Wright Brothers flew the first aircraft and while Queen Victoria was still on the British throne. Her grandparents were slaves, she was born before women could vote, and she lived through 20 U.S. Presidencies. Unbelievable. [BBC News]
