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Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva: Images from the Arsenale

by Paddy Johnson on May 10, 2017

We’ve spent the better part of a day looking at the Venice Biennale’s exhibition, “Viva Arte Viva”. Curated by Christine Macel and described as a Biennale designed “with artists, by artists and for artists”, the show amounts to a love letter addressed to artists. Studios have been transported, materials worshipped, and methodologies examined. Weaving as a metaphor for making, togetherness, and life, is completely and utterly ubiquitous. The sincerity of it all can be a bit much. But more on that later. A look at the Arsenale section of the show below.

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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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The AFC Summer Guide to Grants & Residencies You Should Apply For Now

by Michael Anthony Farley on July 27, 2016

Yes, it is Summer, and none of us feel like moving. Thankfully, the heatwave makes a great excuse to stay inside and catch up on applications to grants, residencies, and fellowships for individual artists, curators, and critics. I rounded up some of the most promising with upcoming deadlines—organized by due date to keep your procrastination in check.

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Tuesday Links: Bullshit Reaches Beyond the Confines of the Fine Art World

by Paddy Johnson on April 19, 2016

Real Alcázar, an architectural influence on Game of Thrones

We’ve all heard about the rat king. Now monster rats in the UK are making headlines and they are even more disgusting. A pest controller who goes by the name of Lord Dean Burr shows images of two foot long cannibal rats found in a British housing estate. Yuck. [MSN]
Game of Thrones real-world architectural influences. [Curbed]
Mark Bradford will represent the United States at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Somehow this doesn’t seem like much of a surprise given his huge show at Hauser & Wirth last year. He has backing and the exhibition likely helped make the cast to the US Government. The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University will head up the project and Katy Siegel, its curator at large, will organize the show. [ARTnews]
Why don’t many galleries list their prices? One explanation from artnet: So tax authorities can’t track their client purchases. Uhhh. Tax evasion can’t be the primary reason galleries don’t list their prices. Isn’t this practice mostly about marketing? Luxury items frequently don’t come with a price tag attached to the piece. Part of what you purchase, when buying these goods, is the doting sales pitch that comes along with it. [artnet News]
The Guggenheim has informed the Gulf Labor Coalition (GLC) that it will no longer negotiate with the group regarding working conditions of the workers who will be building its museum in Abu Dhabi. The group had been in discussions with the museum for months, so the timing seems a bit strange. In a comment, the museum claims it hasn’t chosen a contractor for the building so no abuses have taken place. [Hyperallergic]
Bullshit exists beyond the field of fine art. There’s a new start up called Helena. A journalist embarks on an odyssey trying to figure out what they do. [Gawker]

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The Best 25 Shows of 2015

by The AFC Staff on December 31, 2015

2015 was great for art. For all the bitching that went on about art fairs, the dominance of the market, and sub-par museum shows (cough, cough Björk), I saw more great shows than I have in my ten years working as a critic in New York. Rather than try to whittle our picks down to a few select shows, we wrote up every show we thought was truly exemplary.

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Friday Links: Immortalize Your Couple

by Michael Anthony Farley and Corinna Kirsch on May 22, 2015

My Selfie in 3D to “immortalize your couple.” [My Selfie in 3D via @therourke]
The “golden ratio” that you learned in art school—and that someone you went to art school with has a dumb tattoo of—is totally fake. [Fast Company]
Women have been part of electronic music since forever. You can listen to the proof with the playlist “Women In Electronic Music 1938-1982.” Hours of music! [Synthtopia]
Try not to throw up in your mouth and/or punch a wall while reading this smug real-estate investor describe his tactics for displacing black residents to make more money from white ones. [New York Magazine]
The Triennial closes this weekend. Only a few days left to say you saw SWAT-team Teletubbies. [New Museum]
Christoph Büchel’s Venice Biennale mosque has definitely been shut down. Exhibition organizers have 60 days to appeal the local council’s decision. [The Art Newspaper]
Get your zines and artist books ready for the NY Art Book Fair. Applications for the fair, held at MoMA PS1, are due on May 31. [Printed Matter]
Artist who wears robotic cat ears designs a terrifying cyberpunk virtual-reality environment. Somehow I’m not terribly surprised. [Motherboard]
Worst dance-related photo of the day. [Reddit]
Grayson Perry: wonderful performer, but paltry at pots. [The Guardian]

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Friday Links: Dr. SnapChat

by Corinna Kirsch on April 24, 2015

Absolut Art. sells artwork in front of people’s faces.

Meet the newest online retailer for art, Absolut Art., brought to you by Absolut. [Absolut Art.]
Or, why not meet a doctor who’s addicted to social media, and SnapChats his surgeries? [VICE]
It’s painful to watch Chelsea Manning’s Twitter feed; still in prison, she’s seeking donations for her legal defense fund. [@xychelsea]
Artist Wim Delvoye’s career includes an array of materials: pig carcasses, fecal matter, and, as of 2014, a yoga mat. [Art Markit]
The Venice Biennale won’t open until May 9, but we already know who’s set to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, born in 1944. [ARTnews]
45 percent of men think it’s harder to be a man today than in their father’s generation. [Think Tank]
Why is that? “The Shriver Report,” from which Think Tank culled that statistic, contains responses indicating that it’s because of attaining a stronger position in the workplace, a stronger position financially, and greater gender equality. [A Woman’s Nation]
Protests continue at the National Gallery in London over the museum’s choice to outsource jobs to a private company; the decision would affect more than 400 current employees. [The Art Newspaper]
Brought to our attention via the Internet pipelines, a 2011 review of Open Engagement: “Is there a significant difference between what this street preacher is doing and what socially engaged artists do?” The more things change…maybe they don’t change—see our 2015 review of Open Engagement. [Portland Art]
Bitcoin is for dudes. [Fusion]
“[C]apitalism constitutes the horizon of possibility for artists and manufacturers alike, and must be reckoned with as such. The question then becomes: how far can artistic reflexivity go before becoming complicit with the economy it seeks to critique?” [DIS Magazine]
Chinese auction houses hope to bring in more local buyers through sales of Impressionist and Modern art. [South China Morning Post]

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Monday Links: Easter Hangover

by Paddy Johnson and Corinna Kirsch on April 21, 2014

What appears to be a North Korean children’s orchestra and choir. [Facebook, via Arash Akbari]
Unexpectedly, Martha Stewart produced the most disturbing Easter egg still life we saw yesterday. A taxidermied Easter bunny sitting on emu eggs and quail eggs and pheasant eggs. [@marthastewart]
Easter iconography made ugly. (We like these gifs by Mike and Claire.) [VICE]
Romans were some of the first art collectors. In a nutshell, here’s how it’d work: After taking over an enemy, they’d steal their art collections, then open up a victory museum. [University of California]
An original print of Richard Prince’s “Spiritual America” (1983) is going up for auction at Christie’s, but it was probably made in 1987. This, despite claims from Richard Prince himself that the work was conceived later. Why is nobody listening? [greg.org]
Amazon is going to start selling self-published photo books. [The Telegraph]
Camille Henrot, darling of the 2014 Venice Biennale, has a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art where she focuses on the Houma tribe of Louisiana, a tribe that has failed to receive federal recognition. [Art in America]
Next level Easter eggs for your Easter Monday. [Vimeo]
A woman “gives birth” to a painting. Someone call Keith Boadwee up. His asshole paintings are being given a run for their money. [The Huffington Post]
The grammar of click bait. So good. [The American Reader]

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