- An exhibition by black artists at the Tubman African American Museum in Georgia is causing quite the stir. The painting Preacher Pimp by Alfred Conteh has drawn ire from religious groups who want the artwork removed. [Macon Telegraph]
- A separate news story attributes the artwork to Rudy Mendez along with a photo of a venn diagram where the words “Preacher” and “Pimp” converge over “Money” and “Flock”. Isn’t this one kind of better? [NBC 41 WMGT]
- An opinion piece entitled Oxford Undergraduates and the ISIS School of Art Criticism is as full of fighting words as one would expect. Brendan O’Neil equates a petition to remove a statue of a British imperialist with the American movement for iconoclasm of Confederate symbols. O’Neil argues that both of these desires are no different than the cultural rampage ISIS is blasting through the Middle East. [Newsweek]
- In related news, artists Brandon Joyce and Jessica Ciocci are calling for submissions for a new flag for the south, as the Confederate one clearly isn’t cutting it anymore. The best submission so far? A giant billowing Waffle House menu. [The Enthusiast]
- The South Street Seaport’s vacant retail spaces are being rebranded as the pop-up Seaport Cultural District. Former tourist-aimed businesses that have been empty since hurricane Sandy are now being converted to temporary outposts of the Guggenheim and the art and tech center Eyebeam, among others. The scheme is being funded by the controversial development group the Howard Hughes Corporation. [The New York Times]
- Read this excerpt from The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries in the Art World and marvel at the ballsy-ness of Ely Sakhai. The dealer acquired original paintings by the likes of Gauguin, Rembrandt, and Paul Klee. He would then commission Chinese forgeries and sell them along with the originals’ certificates of authenticity to collectors in Tokyo. The originals were sent to auction houses. Unfortunately for Sakhai, this led to awkward moments when both Christie’s and Sotheby’s were listing “identical” works in their catalogs as Japanese collectors attempted to flip his fakes. [Salon]
- The Seattle Art Fair gets a blow job. “It’s really, really exciting for Seattle,” Interior Designer Brian Paquette told the Times. “No, seriously. This is, like, beyond amazing.” Paquette was excited to see a Louise Nevelson at the fair. That’s just one of seemingly countless glowing reviews of the fair. Apparently Seattle was suffering for not having an art fair in its home town. [The New York Times]
- More Banksy in Detroit controversy: an especially sappy mural the street artist completed on the Packard Plant there in 2010 was removed by the nonprofit 555 Gallery. The gallery intends to auction the piece to raise money for education programming, despite promising that the mural would not be sold. [Deadline Detroit]
- We doubt there’s a single artist who will get behind Magnus Resch’s conclusions in his new book “Management of Art Galleries”. The author, in trying to determine why so many galleries lose money in a time when so much money is pouring into the market, suggests that galleries don’t pay their staff enough and pay artists too much. The profit split, he says should look more like 70/30. Given that artists don’t pay their bills either, this doesn’t seem like a useful recommendation, but we appreciate the author’s willingness to table ideas no matter how ridiculous. (And he has a number of outright loony ones, including placing sparklers beside work that has sold at gallery openings to increase sales.) We haven’t read Resch’s book, but our recommendation for the field is to charge more for art, so that businesses can pay their expenses. [Bloomberg]
- The ten most awkward things artists have said to art critics: from Warhol inquiring about Calvin Tompkins’s penis size to James Franco bashing Ben Brantley on Instagram. [artnet News]
- Now on YouTube: A fan fiction sequel to Star Trek TOS episode, “Mirror Mirror” produced by Star Trek Continues. “The Fairest of Them All” is the third of four sequels produced and the one recommended by Metafilter user Wittgenstein. [Metafilter]
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