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The Met

Explain Me, Part II: Doug Aitken’s New Era, Worst Show of 2018

by Paddy Johnson on June 7, 2018

In Part II of Explain Me, William Powhida and I discuss the difference between relational aesthetics and social practice, the whims of the auction market and the perilous affect it can have on artist careers, and Doug Aitken’s train wreck of a show at 303 Gallery along with a handful of truly remarkable shows. Those shows listed after the jump.

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Tuesday Links: Draw Sean Spicer Like One of Your French Girls

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on June 27, 2017

Sean Spicer

In Los Angeles, the battle between Chicano anti-gentrification activists and gallerists in Boyle Heights continues to escalate. Maybe they should just team up to fight for something like New York’s proposed Small Business Jobs Survival Act together? [NPR]
CNN hires veteran sketch artist William J. Hennessy Jr. to record press briefings now that cameras are no longer allowed. They should hire Molly Crabapple to do some work for them too. [artnet News]
Talking Pictures opens today at the Met. For the exhibition, curators asked six pairs of artists to communicate with one another by sending photos from their smartphones back and forth. The show comprises records of that exchange in various formats. It seems kinda silly. [The Verge]
Sarah Douglas at ARTnews offers a recent history of gallery closings. The list does a good job at providing an overview of what’s happening in the industry and refutes the gallerist argument that these closures simply reflect the fact that there are too many galleries in operation. It’s not like these were bad galleries that didn’t make it because they were bad at the game, somehow. These were great galleries and businesses, often in operation for more than a decade, that should have been able to make it work. The business for lower tier galleries may not be sustainable. [ARTnews]
A lot of Alexander Calder’s sculptures and mobiles are meant to move, so they need to handled to make that happen. As such, The Whitney has hired “activators” for its new Calder show and the Times has a new feature showing them in motion. SO. COOL. [The New York Times]
Curbed provides an exhaustive account of just why Penn Station sucks so much and why this is going to be the “Summer of Hell” for commuters passing through. [Curbed]
Tarot card reader Maria Pilar Abel Martínez claims Salvador Dalí is her father and has taken the estate to court to prove it. No big deal except the court, siding with Martinez, ordered Dali’s dead body exhumed so a paternity test could be administered. If she is proven to be the heiress she would be entitled to a portion of the estate. The estate is expected to appeal. [Hyperallergic]
Rea McManara wrote about Alison S. M. Kobayashi’s detective work and performance when it debuted in Toronto last year. Now, it’s all the rage in New York. In fact, from the recordings she based her work on, the only brother still alive, Larry Newburge, gets choked-up when discussing it with the Times. It sounds like a great, great piece. [The New York Times]
Magazzino, or “warehouse” in Italian, has joined the ranks of museums in the Hudson River Valley. It’s the brainchild of collectors Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, and will showcase works from their collection of Arte Povera works from postwar Italy. [The Art Newspaper]

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Wednesday Links: Tonya Harding Still Muse for Artists

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on June 14, 2017

Animal rights activists in Athens smashed windows and threw paint on the studio of Aboubakar Fofana, whose Documenta 14 piece comprises 54 sheep dyed different shades of indigo. The dye is apparently nontoxic, so I’m not sure what the problem here is. If I were a sheep, I’d be happier being a piece of living artwork rather than mutton. [The Art Newspaper]
So, this is a job that exists: “Art curator for a cannabis company”. Meet Burgandy Viscosi, who picks the artwork for different strains of pot for a Washington marijuana company. [Leafly]
Daniel H. Weiss will take the helm at the Met as its president and chief executive. He takes over for Thomas P. Campbell, who was forced out of the position of chief executive and director due to the financial mismanagement and conflict of interest scandals that plagued his leadership. Weiss, will help find a director, as, unlike Campbell, he will not be overseeing both the artistic and financial direction of the museum. Much a do has been made about this, but the idea that any person can effectively fill both positions is misguided at best imo. This is a step in the right direction. [The New York Times]
Not to do with art, but the Gwyneth Paltrow Goop summit sure seems to reveal that line of product as being a total and utter sham (if the jade eggs you’re supposed to insert in your vagina weren’t enough evidence on their own.) Lectures included a talk on “integrative photosynthesis,” “spiritual Wi-Fi,” “laterality to the body,” “neuro-vegetative signs” and “the ontological experience called your life.”, a panel discussion about gut in which panelists claimed that that kale, superfood of the millennium, can be extremely dangerous; that taking one Advil or Aleve “is like swallowing a hand grenade” and that cancer does not exist among wild animals. It seems ever talk was punctuated with opportunities for guests to go buy vastly overpriced Goop products at the IRL store set up for the summit. [The New York Post]
From documentaries and musical theater to art collections, Tonya Harding has become an unlikely muse for the arts in the decades following her 1994 violent feud with fellow figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Erik Piepenburg considers why. [The New York Times]
The Riga Biennial (how many biennials does the world need?) is hiring a Curator of Public Programmes for their 2018 edition. Applications are due on the 24th. [e-flux]
There are $89 million worth of Basquiats on view at this year’s Art Basel. artnet News has a roundup of the works. It kinda seems like only two of these are really good? [artnet News]
We’ve never heard of UNDO Project Space in Chelsea, but John Ortved is RAVING about Alison S.M. Kobayashi’s Say Something Bunny, a performance based on an amateur audio recording made over 60 years ago that’s part detective story, part monologue, part tragicomedy. That’s not too dissimilar to our own Rea McNamara, who last year lauded the performance. [Vogue]
Adam Rogers’ tempered criticism of Norman Foster’s new Apple campus in Cupertino is a good read. Basically, it’s a building out of 1950s corporate suburban sprawl that reinforces some of the Bay Area’s biggest problems. [Wired]

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Friday Links: Photoshopper Digitally Photobombs Kylie Jenner’s Instagram to Hilarious Ends

by Michael Anthony Farley on May 5, 2017

Me n Kendall got roped into an Elmo themed runway show but at least we got to choose our own hairstyles LOL! Kendall went with “Beyoncé Lemonade” and I went with “The Coolio” ALSO snapped a quick pic of Kendall but she wouldn’t let me post it (I’m def gunna post it)!!! #StayTuned #ElmoFashion #justBeatAngryBirds

A post shared by Kirby Jenner (@kirbyjenner) on May 17, 2016 at 2:19pm PDT

A man who goes by “Kirby Jenner” (god, I hope that’s his real name!) has been flawlessly photoshopping himself into all of Kendall Jenner’s Instagram posts and the results are glorious. [Instagram]
Congress voted away the healthcare of 24 million people yesterday afternoon, which has resulted in tears and endless posts written in frustration. It needs to pass the Senate, but there’s no filibuster any more. Be afraid. [The internet]
The nation’s tallest public artwork will soon grace San Francisco’s soon-to-be-tallest skyscraper. The Salesforce Tower will be topped by an LED screen from Jim Campbell that slowly changes imagery. The images will be photos of the daytime cityscape as viewed from the tower, which will only be visible at night. This sounds like it might be a little cheesy, but could also be really beautiful and cool. Warhol’s Empire for the Blade Runner age? [SF Gate]
Anya Brjevskaia won a prize package for being the Perez Art Museum Miami’s 1 millionth visitor. That’s a pretty impressive attendance figure for a museum that’s only been open for 3 years in a city with less than half a million residents. Anyway, lucky Anya Brjevskaia got showered with balloons, confetti, a yearlong membership, and gift cards. [Miami Herald]
It turns out big companies aren’t interested in all the new office space developers have been ruining Brooklyn with. So far only one non-government employer has signed a lease for more than 100,000 square feet since 2015, all while supply is increasing and the Manhattan market is easing up. Maybe in a generation all of this will go back to light manufacturing use and warehouse spaces? One can dream… [Curbed]
Barack and Michelle were in Chicago to unveil the first conceptual images and models of the Obama Presidential Library, which will be built in a park in that city. Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects’ design is much better than I was expecting. It’s a little evocative of OMA’s glorious Casa de Musica in Porto, but massed to a taller, more regal orientation with a town-square-esque plaza. [Dezeen]
This is the 40th anniversary of New York’s Public Art Fund, and as the weather gets nicer, there’s plenty of excuses for art lovers to spend some time outdoors. The Art Newspaper has a list of highlights, and it seems concrete casts of domestic spaces transposed to the public realm are trending on 5th Avenue. Liz Glynn’s “Open House” at 60th street recalls a formal living room and Adrián Villar Rojas’s “The Theatre of Disappearance” on the roof of The Met imagines figures from the museum’s collection at a series of trippy dining tables. Are artists responding to some collective subconscious Upper East Side house envy? The Surreal Housewives of New York City? [The Art Newspaper]
Satellite programming for the Venice Biennale has basically taken over any and all space in the tiny sinking city. Here’s Alyssa Buffenstein & Caroline Elbaor’s recommendations for what to see apart from the main event. [artnet News]
Ah, so that’s what this was all about! All day yesterday, I kept noticing a weird caveman dude and a pilot roaming Frieze. It turns out they were two of three Leonardo DiCaprio impersonators planted by artist Dora Budor (the other was his Wolf of Wall Street character, who blended right in, sadly). [ARTnews]

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Monday Links: All Eyes on The Met

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 1, 2017

Here’s a list of Hasan Minhaj’s best jokes from what sounds like the most awkward White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the history of the tradition. Knowing that basically no one from the press-hating Trump administration (including the President) even showed up, I totally would’ve been too preoccupied listening for an incoming drone strike to enjoy the comedy. [Washington Post]
Vito Acconci died of a stroke at the age of 77. The conceptual artist turned architect was best known in the art world for his performance “Seedbed” 1972 in which he camped out under a ramp in the gallery and masturbated to fantasies about viewers he voiced through a microphone. [The New York Times]
The Met Gala takes place tonight. This is a chance to look at rich people in fancy dresses. This year, guests are being encouraged to think “avant-garde” in response to the exhibition Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between. [The New York Times]
For those curious about the exhibition, Vogue got a walk-through with Chief Curator Andrew Bolton and it sounds like this is truly going to be one of the Met’s weirdest undertakings. The show spans decades of Kawakubo’s work, but it is not a retrospective and doesn’t feature her best-known work. Instead, it’s a highly-focused look at womenswear that’s organized into dichotomous categories like “Clothes / Not Clothes” or “Model/Multiple”. There is no other wall text, per the designer’s wishes. [Vogue]
Thaddaeus Ropac has opened his fourth gallery. This one’s in a converted London mansion and it’s huge. There are numerous exhibition spaces spread out over 16,000 square feet and five floors. That’s basically the amount of space some museums have. How can the market support that much art from one dealer? [Forbes]
Gentrification is basically turning all of once-cool Manhattan neighborhoods into Jersey strip malls. The Lower East Side is getting a Target and Trader Joe’s in the same building. This feels like the end of an era. [Curbed]
artnet News’ weekly “Best and Worst of the Art World” round-up is really good this week. The Smithsonian has an exhibition called Before Internet Cats and horrendously underpaid Tate employees were asked to donate to outgoing director Nicholas Serota’s going-away gift: a boat. People are pissed. [artnet News]

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Monday Links: Apocalyptic Dinner Parties, Legal Battles Over Sculptures

by Michael Anthony Farley on April 17, 2017

Adrián Villar Rojas, “The Theater of Disappearance”

Adrián Villar Rojas’ The Theater of Disappearance, installed on the roof of the Met through the summer, looks so cool. The artist used the museum’s advanced imaging technology to scan and collage overlooked works from the musuem’s collection. That includes everything from medieval tombs to plaster casts of Renaissance sculptures and banquet tables. These new hybrid sculptures are rendered in black-and-white and feel like a strange end-of-the-world party. I can’t wait to see this IRL. [artnet News]
Gallerists have been returning, or refusing to display, the work of South African artist Zwelethu Mthethwa following his conviction in the murder of sexworker Nokuphila Kumalo. [IOL]
Designer Antonino Cardillo added an extension to a Roman art gallery inspired by the opening scene of Wagner’s Das Rheingold opera. Which means, apparently, that every surface has been painted The-Exorcist-pea-soup-vomit-green. I am having a hard time imagining how artwork is going to live in this space. [Dezeen]
Arturo Di Modica, the sculptor behind Wall Street’s famous “Charging Bull” sculpture is suing to get “Fearless Girl” removed from in front of his piece, claiming it violates his rights as an artist by changing his work’s meaning. Jeff John Roberts points out why this case isn’t likely to go very far. [Fortune]
Somewhat related: sculptor Steve Tobin is suing nearby Trinity Church for removing his site-specific sculpture from its courtyard. Tobin created the sculpture in the place of a sycamore tree killed by falling debris on 9/11. Now, the church has put it out to pasture—literally, at a retreat center in Connecticut. [The New York Times]
Allie Wist, an associate art director at Saveur magazine, has a new photo series and recipe project about the dinner menus of the future. Lots of saltwater seafood, thanks to sea level rise, and not a lot of climate-sensitive crops (like chocolate). This is depressing. [NPR]
Christchurch is still recovering from the devastating earthquake that struck New Zealand in 2011. The Christchurch Art Gallery, which was closed for five years after damage, still hasn’t recouped its pre-quake visitor numbers. And now the museum faces higher insurance costs that make blockbuster shows impossible. [The Press]

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Arctic Performances and Rooftop Sculptures

by Michael Anthony Farley on April 11, 2017

This is a bit of a slow week in New York’s art world. That’s a good thing, because everyone will need their energy for our goth party next week.

Nevertheless, we managed to track down at least one art outing per day that looks promising. Tuesday, Wong Kit Yi is closing her show of Arctic-specific performance documentation at P [exclamation]. Karaoke is rumored to be involved. Wednesday, Hercules Art Studio Program is opening a show about painting and the body that couldn’t feel more relevant to contemporary discourse. Thursday, we found a subversive performance night at Ridgewood’s The Woods, and Friday we’re looking forward to checking out Adrián Villar Rojas’s rooftop installation at the Met. This weekend MoMA opens the must-see Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, and the Queens Museum will host a Sunday book launch of election-woe poetry.

Remember: rest up. You’ll need that energy for dancing.

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Monday Links: Outgoing Met Director’s “Inappropriate Relationship” With Staff Member Causes Museum Drama

by Michael Anthony Farley on April 3, 2017

The (obviously) strange story of how these terrifying wax Star Trek figures came to the collection of The Hollywood Science Fiction Museum. [The Fresno Bee]
A kinda-ugly Normal Rockwell painting has been reunited with a family after a theft 40 years ago. Sometimes the painting is known as “Boy Asleep with Hoe”. LOL. [CNN]
Chairman Mao must be rolling in his grave. A Warhol portrait of the Communist dictator just sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $12.6 million. [Reuters]
Renzo Piano has completed new ceramic-covered galleries for the collection and exhibition programs of the Fundación Botín in Santander, Spain. The center has a lot in common with Piano’s new Whitney museum, but looks much more elegant. [Dezeen]
This is fascinating: a map of every borough’s oldest buildings and a little history blurb about each. Staten Island and Brooklyn have so many structures dating from the 1600s! [Curbed]
Paul Moorhouse, the curator of Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends at London’s National Portrait Gallery, on the late artist’s work. A good, brief read. [Apollo]
Headline of the day: “City police save Light City art installation from a watery grave”. [The Baltimore Sun]
Wow. The situation at the Met sounds like a mess. Thomas P. Campbell, the museum’s outgoing director, apparently had an “inappropriate relationship” with a female staff member in the museum’s digital department. And the board of directors seems to have very little control over the massive institution. We’ll be watching this one closesly. [The New York Times]

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Monday Links: Be This Dog’s Neighbor

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on March 27, 2017

Gallerist Lydia Petit with her dog Ruby. By J.M. Giordano for City Paper.

Gallerist Lydia Pettit with her dog Ruby. By J.M. Giordano for City Paper.

City Paper asked some of their writers and friends to pose for awkward portraits with their pets, by photographer J.M. Giordano. These are amazing. We would do this, but sadly no one at AFC has time for a puppy. [City Paper]
Baltimore: if you’re interested in responding to an RFP for vacant buildings along Howard Street in the Bromo arts district, there are open houses and assistance available to artists and organizations. This area is full of artist-owned buildings (including Platform Gallery, where you can hang out with Ruby and Lydia, the awesome dog and human pictured above). Let’s keep it that way! [Bromo Arts and Entertainment]
Do we give too much media attention to art vandals? That’s one of several motives Noah Charney hypothesizes in his fascinating look at why people attack artworks. So far we have no clue why a man slashed a Thomas Gainsborough painting at London’s National Gallery, but motives for past attacks have included religion (from Islamic fundamentalism to believing one is Jesus Christ reincarnated) and the desire for a media spotlight. [Salon]
Robert Walsh is convinced the Met has been displaying a knockoff French medieval sculpture the museum acquired in the 1930s. The piece in question is a head, purportedly from a doorway at Notre Dame, but arrived in New York via a dealer notorious for trafficking in fakes. [New York Post]
Whatever happened to Frida Kahlo’s “The Wounded Table”? The painting hasn’t been seen since an exhibition in Warsaw in 1955. Kahlo painted it during her brief divorce from Diego Rivera, after she found out he slept with her younger sister. When she exhibited it at Mexico City’s International Exhibition of Surrealism in 1940 she was concerned it wasn’t well-received. She ended up gifting it to a Russian ambassador six years later. Following the Warsaw show a decade later, the painting’s whereabouts remain a mystery. [The Daily Beast]
Not to do with art, but in news from our dystopic country, as reported in Canada, Daniel Dale finds that Trump voters in Ohio are not bothered by the president’s lies. On the subject of Trump’s claim that Obama illegally wiretapped him, James Cassidy, an out of work construction worker said that they were obviously lies, but he liked that. “He’s ruffling every feather in Washington that he can ruffle. These guys are scrambling. So: yeah! I like it. I think it’s a good thing. I want to see them jump around a little bit.” [The Toronto Star]
Brad Pitt has taken up sculpting to help him deal with his divorce woes. Word has it, he’s a quick learner. [Page Six]
We’re having a hard time identifying the point of this article about gallery closures in artnet News. As far as we can tell, it’s an attempt to connect the closure of two middle tier art galleries in London to Andrea Rosen’s closure earlier this month. But are the two comparable? Rosen ran an upper tier gallery with two outlets in Chelsea and described what mostly seemed like personal reasons for closing. The other closures have to do with the effect art fairs have had on brick and morter locations. Speaking of which, did anyone else notice Nicole Klagsbrun at NADA this year? She closed up shop in New York a couple years ago, penning a fire-y letter about throwing the towel in on this business, and is now operating as a private dealer out of Chelsea. [artnet News]
Hyun-Gi Kim has created a chair that moves fake blood around tubes, depending where you sit on it. This looks so gross. [Dezeen]
“Fearless Girl,” a statue by Kristen Visbal that’s situated facing “Charging Bull” in the financial district will remain on view through February 18th, 2018. The new city permit extends the statue’s stay. The old permit was originally slated to expire April 2nd. The statue has been a lightening rod for critics, some of whom believe the piece represents a strong feminist statement, and others who believe it is a PR stunt rather than a “true” feminist statement. People will fight about anything. [Curbed]

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Thursday Links: Trump Escort Service Trademarked, Gallery Gets Private Island

by Michael Anthony Farley on March 9, 2017

Jordan Kasey, “Poolside”

Jordan Kasey’s show at Nicelle Beauchene gallery looks so, so good. [Hyperallergic]
IKEA will phase out metal fasteners and allen wrenches, instead shifting to snap-together wood joining. Reading the comments on this blog post about the new system, you would think art schools had just announced they would no longer teach figurative painting. Why are people upset about this? [Dezeen]
Police arrested Brandon Aebersold yesterday, who has been wanted since last week for his assault on a museum security guard. Aebersold told a guard at the Met that a painting was crooked. When the guard directed Aebersold a different department, he launched into a rage and smashed a bottle over his head. [DNA Info]
Applications for +Art’s Engaging Artists Fellowship are due next month. [+Art]
Axel Vervoordt Gallery is getting its own island in Antwerp. The gallery’s parent company is developing it into a “city within a city”, complete with showrooms, housing, offices for their associated foundation, a grocery store, and even medical facilities. This is weird. [The Art Newspaper]
Trump is registering dozens of trademarks in China, which will theoretically grant him exclusive use of the Trump name in promoting “escort services,” among other business ventures. [Reuters]
Stop by Pioneer Works, and you could appear in E.S.P. TV’s “Work,” a reality TV show the art collective is filming. [Forbes]
Transit planners are concerned that the MTA is unprepared for the impending L train shutdown. The MTA expects most would-be L train riders to switch to the G or JMZ (a problem in its own right) but a bus rapid transit alternative might be needed. The shutdown is expected to totally overwhelm bus lines, turning commutes into a nightmare. [Curbed]
Dana Goodyear looks back at the legacy of the late artist Jason Rhoades, whose practice seemed to foreshadow the contemporary American crisis. Rhoades sought to combine elements from the Middle East, Middle America, and Mexico into “clusterfuck” trash aesthetics. And the word “pussy” (and all its synonyms) frequently featured in his work. The irony of how prescient Rhoades interests seem: none of this work could ever be made by a white dude today without being crucified. [The New Yorker]

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