Friday Links: Chelsea Still the City’s Art Center

“’Dismaland’ is spectacular, but its ideas are not everything you want a candidate for history’s largest work of conceptual art to be.” Dan Brooks argues that sarcasm is the new kitsch—the default tone of the internet and now an unfortunate end unto itself in the production of culture. “As with memes, Banksy asks us to substitute the sensation of recognizing a reference for the frisson of wit.” [The New York Times]

More galleries opened in the Lower East Side than any other neighborhood in 2015. Still, Chelsea is by far the capital of the city’s art scene, contrary to reports of a mass exodus in the face of rising rents. Surprisingly, Bushwick seems to not be living up to its hype as the new art destination: only three new galleries have arrived there this year, less than DUMBO and the Upper East Side. [Crain’s]

Where do famous artists teach? This piece could be handy for art-school-shopping, despite its unfortunate “listicle” format. SVA’s MFA candidates get one-on-one time with Fred Wilson and Marilyn Minter, while Ai Weiwei might be offering courses at Univeristät der Künste Berlin next month. [artnet News]

Does the drama surrounding Anish Kapoor’s “Dirty Corner” never cease? Versailles municipal councilor Fabien Bouglé has filed a complaint against Kapoor in response to the artist’s decision to not remove anti-semetic graffiti from the sculpture. Kapoor’s statement: “I think it’s a wonderful reversal; I’ll see him in court… It shows how insane the whole thing is.” Yes, it is insane. So why won’t he just let them power-wash it? [Artforum]

How many more Pablo Picasso shows can MoMA launch? Normally, isn’t a show that would begin to interest us, (we agree with Hyperallergic’s Benjamin Sutton, who describes Picasso as “the Steven Spielberg of European modernism — flashy, prolific, proficient at a vast range of genres, and overrepresented in the mainstream cultural canon.”) but it seems to be getting good reviews. Sutton says there are a number of surprising and inventive works. Roberta Smith at the Times loves the show so much she called the exhibition art. And then there’s the ridiculously titled Jerry Saltz review, “How Picasso the Sculptor Ruptured Art History”. We haven’t been able to bring ourselves to read that one—he makes the show sound like an injury that occurred during sex—but he clearly likes it. [The Internet]

This is really cool. The Hamabul Art Collective is opening the unofficial “Iranian Embassy in Jerusalem”. The group is made up of Israeli, Persian, and Arab artists who hope to spark dialog by highlighting Iranian art, film, and music in spite of their respective governments’ refusals to engage in diplomatic or economic relations. [The Art Newspaper]

Jane Rosenberg, the artist behind the infamously-bad courtroom sketch of Tom Brady, is now seeking legal action against unauthorized reproductions of the portrait. In the past few weeks, it’s showed up on T-shirts, mugs, and phone cases. If she ends up in a courtroom herself, she should cash in with a self-portrait. [The Boston Globe]

An incredible review by Michael H. Miller on Mike Kelley’s show at Hauser & Wirth. On the glass maquettes of Kandor, the capital city of Krypton, Superman’s home planet, Miller says the work makes him feel incredibly sad. “ Curators and dealers seem to be pushing for Kandor as a major part of Kelley’s legacy—or maybe the work is just easier to get on loan—but either way I find so much of it to be mediocre. “Kandor” seems to me to be the product of a man endlessly tinkering with an idea but never really getting it to arrive anywhere beyond Kelley’s general metaphor of alienation…” [ARTnews]