- Meet Ralph Wolfe Cowan, the man who painted an “oil sketch” portrait of Donald Trump and was then hounded for 15 years to “finish” it. [Hyperallergic]
- Psychologist Vittoria Ardino, president of the Italian Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress, looks at drawings left behind by Syrian refugee children in a Milan train station. Yes, this is as depressing as you’d expect. [NPR]
- Bad news for parts of Bushwick and pretty much all of Ridgewood: the last leg of the M train will close for repairs next summer. This is to prepare the line for the expected overcrowding when the MTA shuts down the L train in 2017. [New York Post]
- David Pagel slams Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis’s show at Gagosian’s Beverly Hills branch: “if Israel and Ellis collaborate again, do it on billboards. Or in magazines. Leave the canvas for painters.” [Los Angeles Times]
- Tom Sachs has two exhibitions and one film opening this Spring. I (Michael) love Tom Sachs, but both of these things sound like Tom Sachs has run out of stuff to make out of other stuff. Now we’re left with boomboxes and tea ceremonies? What? Both of these sound like projects that would come about as the result of (two very different) commissions sponsored by a sneaker brand or Japan’s tourism board, respectively. [The Wall Street Journal]
- Two major Asian collectors have announced plans to build major museums in South and Southeast Asia. One of them, Indonesian businessman Haryanto Adikoesoemo, is funding all by himself a 43,000 square foot museum that will be part of his new business and residential development in Jakarta’s western Kebon Jeruk district. The institution’s director says that the museum won’t revolve around Adikoesoemo’s collection. (Yeah, I know.) [Art Newspaper]
- The TL;DR version of this feature on making it as a working artist in New York? Don’t expect to survive on the gallery system. It’s a long read, but the two depressing takeaways are as follows: Ryder Ripps compares himself to Donald Trump, adding credence to the theory that he has built his career success on being a troll, suggesting that the internet’s attention economics has finally trickled down into the art world. If you wanna get on top, embrace personal brand valuation (read: ego fascism). And even if you have gallery representation, you can still lose out: William Powhida, also profiled, says he’s represented by four galleries but lost 12k last year on his art. [Crain’s]
