Tareq Sayed Rajab de Montfort, featured in “Unbreakable Rope”
- Geoffrey Farmer’s show at the ICA Boston sounds great. The artist has cut out found images of the human body (or representations of the human body) and arranged them as a crazy theater-in-the-round tableau. [The Boston Globe]
- “I know that Donald has received images and information on the stone, and I hope he continues to contemplate its meaning.” An interview with the anonymous artist who installed the Donald Trump tombstone in Central Park on Easter. [BULLETT]
- In related news, OH MY GOD THE LIST OF CELEBRITIES WHO ENDORSE DONALD TRUMP IS HILARIOUS. Mike Tyson, Wayne Newton, Fran Drescher, Hulk Hogan, Jessica Simpson… it goes on for dozens of names, each one reading more like the punchline to a joke than the last. Seriously, this is like something Tina Fey would’ve written for 30 Rock. [Gossip Vine]
- Trestle Gallery has put out a call for entries for an exhibition of small artworks curated by Heather Darcy Bhandari. [Trestle Gallery]
- Unbreakable Rope is an exhibition about sexuality in the Islamic world. In this essay, the curator’s husband Maajid Nawaz traces the roots of Islam’s contemporary hatred of gays—historically, the Arab world tolerated homosexuality and wrote a bunch of gay erotic poetry, apparently. [The Daily Beast]
- “I think in 25 years’ time, we will look back at the current lack of transparency and due diligence in property markets with the same incredulity as we watch a doctor smoke in his office in an episode of ‘Mad Men’ today,” Dieter Zinnbauer on urban real estate as a “resource curse,” or highly-valued commodity that creates economic problems, injustice, and corruption. [Next City]
- Adrian Smith has co-designed most of the tallest buildings in the world, from the Hancock Center in Chicago to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the even taller, under-construction Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia. Here’s a pretty dry interview with him about the future of supertall skyscrapers, which is worth a read because it’s rapidly becoming the defining building typology of 21st Century New York. [Curbed]
- There are trains in Japan with mechanisms to move seats to the ceiling, creating more standing room and poles during rush hour. This is so weird but so smart. [RocketNews24]
- A detailed report on how the Panama Papers have made visible a global system of concealment. David Nahmad, Joe Lewis and Christies, and Dmitry Rybolovlev are discussed. [Hyperallergic]
- CNN will live-stream the Democratic debate in Brooklyn at 9 p.m. tonight, with no login required to view online content. We have a guide to the candidate’s positions and records on housing and support for the arts. [CNN]
- This jute sack sale battle never seems to end. Stefan Simchowitz and art dealer Ellis King allegedly sold work by Ibrahim Mahama without his permission. Simichowitz and King bought some jute sack work for $150,000, cut it up and claim it’s worth 4.5 million. Mahama says he had concerns about placing too much on the market, Simchowitz seems to be claiming that Mahama’s interests are disingenuous because he bought the sacks for pennies in the first place. [artnet News]
