Archive of
has written 6 article(s) for AFC.
Posts by author:
Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball
by Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball on August 13, 2014
A runway jedi by Konstantin Kakanias. Image courtesy of T Magazine.
- Apparently, we can look forward to seeing Jedis on the runway this fall. [T-Magazine]
- Baltimore’s City Paper spotted Pussy Riot in Baltimore, shooting for the next season of House of Cards. [City Paper]
- A well of linkage here from Carolina Miranda on the history of a largely-unseen 1992 war photo of an Iraqi man burnt to a crisp trying to escape his truck on the “Highway of Death”. She couches it in the history of painting and photography, shows that war photos are an essential piece in art, and that “there’s something a little weird about a culture that revels in…the blood-spurting, limb-chopping, brain-eating horror of “The Walking Dead” but can’t handle it when a dead guy shows up on the news.” The essay reminds me of the final scene in John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, which argues that in placing ads next to stories of war “one can only say this culture is mad.” [The LA Times]
- Here’s proof that, for two days, a secret noise festival happened in a basement in the Rockaways. “At the Burning Fleshtival, ‘Hey, man, can you help me out?’ really means ‘Hey, man, check this rock chained around my balls for me?’” Marina Galperina chronicles Burning Fleshtival. [Animal New York]
- The Washington Post profiles Save the Corcoran, a group of students, staff, and faculty who have filed a lawsuit as a last-ditch effort to stop the Corcoran’s merger with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University. (The story runs with a very, very, very, very, very dramatic photo of the group). If the deal goes ahead, then the National Gallery would take the collection– dissolving one of the oldest museums in the country– and George Washington University would absorb the art school. The judge will rule on August 20th. [The Washington Post]
- If you’re having trouble understanding why a merger would be such a disaster, then read Philip Kennicott’s very convincing argument against it. He makes this sound like another Cooper Union case, of a willfully neglectful board that will be rewarded for failing the institution they’ve been appointed to protect. [The Washington Post]
- Two German artists have taken responsibility for those white flags that replaced the American ones on top of the Brooklyn Bridge. They attribute the project only as a celebration of “the beauty of public space” and the German-born engineer John Roebling, who designed the bridge. [New York Times]
- A Fox News pundit suggested that we shouldn’t be taking nutritional advice from Michelle Obama, because the First Lady “needs to drop a few.” [Politico]
- Film noir actress Lauren Bacall has died. She was awesome at playing a bitch. The Hairpin has pulled some choice quotes from her Vanity Fair profile, like “I wasn’t put on earth to be liked.” Can the Internet please give us more people like this? [The Hairpin, Vanity Fair]
- The Frick made an app to “engage with youth.” Should we expect video tours of the collection with rappers next? [ARTnews]
- The National Portrait Gallery has installed a photo of Robin Williams. Also, Artnet news has a story about how Williams agreed to play the genie in Aladdin, as long as his voice wouldn’t be used to sell merchandising. Disney obviously violated that agreement, so they gave him a Picasso self-portrait as an apology. But the painting didn’t go with anything in the house. [Artnet]
- The Met is displaying all 17 of its van Goghs for the first time in a decade, and in response, Peter Schjedahl has written about how he learned to love the crowd-pleasing painter. “What makes van Gogh so magnetic? Picasso nailed it: “The drama of the man,” he said.” [The New Yorker]
Read the full article →
by Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball on August 6, 2014
Laika, the first living creature to be launched into orbit.
- Omg. Celestis Pets sells pet space funerals, which, Vocativ points out, can be cheaper than Earth pet funerals. You can choose moon landings; “Orbit”; “Earth Rise”, which sends your pet into space and then “recovers the payload”; or “voyager”, sending them into deep space. What a beautiful rationalization for pets in space: “perhaps one day, the universe will begin to comprehend the vastness and the gift of a dog’s unconditional love.” [Celestis Pets]
- The implications of pet space funerals, though, are grim. We’re running out of space to bury humans, too (just think of Hart Island, NYC’s mass grave for the homeless). Start getting ready for the idea of eternity in orbit. Or better yet, just vaporizing on the atmosphere. [Vocativ]
- Also a vending machine that takes bottles and gives stray dogs food. [Bored Panda]
- The Chinese government forbids internal use of ipads and Macbooks for fear of US spies. President Xi Jinping calls on China to develop its own Apple and Microsofts. [The Verge]
- So, James Franco and Scott Haze live in the same place. Here’s 1000 words of HE’S GAY, HE’S GAY! [The New York Times via: @choire]
- This gushing profile of Marian Goodman is so effusive, we actually feel a little awkward reading it. [The Wall Street Journal]
- After a framed anonymous 4chan post decrying itself art sold for $90,900 on ebay, Hrag Vartanian put his own post chronicling the news story and reactions up for sale on ebay. Last night, the bidding was up to $1,255. Now, it’s down to $202—a fake bid shot the number up temporarily. Bummer. We would have liked to see this publishing model succeed in the thousands! [Twitter; @HragV, @TwoCoats]
- Gmail’s crappy emoji crab takes iPhone’s pro-looking poop guy any day. [Gawker]
- The N train has bedbugs! Noooooooooo! [Animal New York]
- Orange Juice, Rip It Up. A style guide for net artists. [Youtube]
- Speaking of the 80’s, anyone remember Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners? We found this truly strange video made circa 1999 by their lead singer Kevin Rowland. You’re welcome. [MTV]
- Karen Archey talks to Oliver Laric, Forrest Nash, Metahaven, Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda, Dena Yago, Kenneth Goldsmith, and Lauren Cornell on the subject of curating. Very few of these art Interneters seem to think they’re doing it. [Kaleidoscope]
- Brian Droitcour ruminates on his yelp reviews of galleries and museums. Citing Pierre Bourdieu seems unnecessary, but there’s some good stuff in here. For example, this:
An art critic who gives Jeff Koons a negative review is like a yelper who gives one star to the Olive Garden. The market has already made up its mind and institutional policy follows. The art critic confronts this consensus and tries to express an independent, individual opinion in spite of it—a thankless task. The art critic doesn’t change the art world’s systems of power; he simply gives them publicity by reminding readers that they exist. [New Inquiry]
- The North Korean Mansudae Arts Studio is becoming a global monument factory, making massive statues for Senegal, Angola, Botswana, and other countries. [Dazed]
- Laurie Jo Reynolds sure has been influential, in a great way. Miles Pflanz and Kate Levitt have made a darkly psychological movie written by prisoners in Manhattan’s Lincoln Correctional Facility. “Pig Movie” is set to come out in a few months (hopefully) but you can watch a trailer in the latest Artist’s Notebook. [Animal New York]
Read the full article →
by Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball on August 5, 2014
Fred Tomaselli’s “Study for Expulsion”
- People have lost all faith in print publishing. Gannett, the company that owns 81 daily newspapers including USA Today, has decided to separate its print and digital ventures into two separate companies in order “to shield more profitable business lines from the decline in print advertising,” reports USA Today. Their shares have gone up like crazy since the news broke. [Gawker]
- Thank you, artnet News, for this headline: “Art School Defends Failing Student’s Poo Sculpture”. The student is accusing the University of Arts London of failing her because her unsavory ceramic poop would have deterred higher-paying students from applying to the school. School denies. [Artnet News]
- Dan Duray reports that Berlin-based online auction platform Auctionata is considering acquiring Artspace. According to an internal email sent by CEO and founder Chris Vroom, Auctionata will be visiting their offices to “discuss potential synergies with the collaboration.” Ooooh, synergy. [Artnews]
- The New Yorker comments that PS1 and the Rockaway Artist Alliance’s “Rockaway!” Festival will aid Hurricane recovery. I would say, that’s a stretch. Local businesses most evidently helped are organic Brooklyn taco trucks, the MTA, and Patti Smith. [The New Yorker]
- Science proves that doodling “allays boredom”. [The Wall Street Journal]
- Good news and bad news. Good news first: Tim Wu, the man who famously coined the term “net neutrality” and is a famed advocate for neutrality is looking to throw his hat into New York’s Democratic Primary. Zephyr Teachout, a fellow law professor and activist, asked him to be her running mate in a long-shot challenge to incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is upset about net neutrality being legislated out of existence. Now for the bad news: Cuomo has challenged the petitions that Wu needs to get on the ballot, saying they are invalid. Now he’s raising money to fight the legal distractions. [The Verge]
- Ben Sutton delivers a fabulous overview of the Museum of Biblical Art’s show “Back to Eden”. The show looks like a weirdly sexed up creation myth, with Biblical-themed work by Barnaby Furnas, Sean Capone, and Alexis Rockman. Looks like a must-see. [Artnet News]
- Oh, God. “Art Everywhere” is the world’s largest art exhibition, putting art on “as many as 50,000 digital and static displays in all 50 states”. Lots of people seem to believe that art’s ability to communicate is amplified by volume. [ArtDaily]
- The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is lending out a lot of their masterpieces in exchange for dough. That’s prompting some criticism—what if the work gets damaged while on the road? Not sure why this is such a no-no if the program exposes more people around the world to great works of art. [Boston Globe]
- 53,000 applications were filed for a mere 89 apartments in East Harlem artist-focused subsidized housing. [Hyperallergic]
- Crocheted dicks. [Huffington Post]
Read the full article →
by Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball on July 9, 2014
- New York Times Style section wizens up to net art, profiles Ryder Ripps. Naturally Adrian Chen writes the feature. From Ripps, “The Internet is just a ton of different people,” he said. “So, being good at knowing how to equally access these people to speak to them is being good at the Internet.” [New York Times]
- Bill Davenport has made a listicle of the top ten painters in Houston, noting “how few really good painters there are in this city…” Let’s see if he gets any challengers. Davenport also introduces us to a new painting term, “new-nothing abstractionists”. [Glasstire]
- Just as we would like to see the Guggenheim put a woman in its rotunda for once, Carolina Miranda would like to see the Whitney or the New Museum finally put on a show of Puerto Rican/Nuyorican art. [twitter]
- The Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome is at risk of closing due to budget cuts. [Artnet]
- Brooklyn artists might want to put Pittsburgh on their list of potential next destinations. The Pittsburgh Biennial is expanding and trying to raise awareness about their city as an art hub. They’ve got the Andy Warhol Museum, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Carnegie Museum, and the Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA). [The Art Newspaper]
- What do the men who pick up the stuff we drop in the subway find? A stuffed rabbit, for one. [Animal New York]
- Somebody’s putting pink donation boxes on the streets, possibly for donations and possibly for plunder. [Bowery Boogie]
- New York Times Dining Critic Pete Wells ruminates on the aesthetics of plating and how it’s influencing cuisine. Stunt dishes are on the rise (the burger with a length of bone embedded in the patty; the chicken Parmesan on a pizza stand), as is camera cuisine (people who study food movements through pictures alone). My favorite bit in this piece, though, is the account of how food nerds attack if you post anything less than a beautiful picture.
I got a taste of this shutter-shaming myself when I tweeted a picture of a trout a restaurant had served me. My point was that the dish was a mess, as carefully presented as a basket of dirty laundry. Never mind that: Twitter reacted to the ugliness of the image, not the broken tail of the trout. One person asked if I’d been taking pointers from Ms. Stewart. Whether you’re on Twitter, Instagram or your own blog, the message is clear: Don’t take pictures in a restaurant if you aren’t going to make the place look good. [New York Times]
Read the full article →
by Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball on June 30, 2014
This week offers plenty of ways to stay cool with art. This primarily means heading in doors. Bunny Rogers reads poetry from her highly anticipated book “Cunny Poems, Vol. 1,” Hito Steyerl offers advice on how to remain invisible in the digital age, and the Knockdown Center is host to a day of surreal performance art. Also, lots of air-conditioned screenings. Welcome to summer.
Read the full article →
by Paddy Johnson Andrew Wagner Whitney Kimball on June 30, 2014
Gramsci monument
- Whitney Kimball makes a case for artist resale royalties. Artists talk about why they’re so fucking poor. [Slate]
- Peter Schjeldahl says that if you approach The Jeff Koons Retrospective with your eyes and mind open, you encounter Koons’s formidable aesthetic intelligence. [The New Yorker (behind the paywall)]
- People are getting shot all over New York. [ANIMAL]
- Now that Facebook sucks, email is supposedly the way to go. It’s being described here as the cockroach of the Internet – impossible to kill. [The Medium]
- Oddly enough, David Carr over at The New York Times has written a piece on exactly the same subject that closes with a line comparing email to cockroaches. [The New York Times]
- So much for the idea that Koons bankrupts himself to make his art. He’s getting a mega mansion on the Upper East Side, combining two mansions to create “one of the city’s biggest homes”. According to Page Six, the original plan included a pool and maids’ quarters but this was rejected by the Department of Buildings. Upper East Siders are complaining. [Page Six]
- Speaking of neighbors complaining, residents of the gated Georgetown community Hillandale are complaining about Janet Yellen’s security detail. “Neighbors seem especially put off by the aesthetics of the security detail, in particular their blue uniforms and—in the words of one resident—’doughnut bellies.’” [Wall Street Journal]
- A recent study in which Facebook altered the news feed of 689,000 of its users to see if moods were “contagious” found that, in fact, the social network can alter your mood. Zeynep Tufekci finds this very disturbing. [The Medium]
- Yesterday’s Gay Pride March was led by a group of Boy Scouts. Though gay youth can join the organization, openly gay adults are still banned as leaders. [The New York Times]
Read the full article →
