by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on July 25, 2017
- Following up on our Shark Week coverage, the Discovery Channel aired their “race” of 500 time Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps swimming against a Great White Shark, and people are pissed. Obviously, they weren’t going to put Phelps in the water with a shark, but I at least thought there would be a shark. Nope. Basically, they had Phelps wear a fin to give the swimmer the same advantage the fish had, filmed him swimming alone, and then paired him with a computer animation. Lame. There were at least some good memes to come out of this whole thing though. Whomever the intern is that made this image—hire them. [The New York Times]
- Hate read: a guide to New York City’s largest mega mansions. There are typically created by rich people buying two to three buildings, kicking everyone else out, and combining them into one home so oversized it’s hard to imagine most of the space being used. The list of owners living/creating mega mansions includes Michael Bloomberg, Madonna, Larry Gagosian, and Jeff Koons. [Curbed]
- “I’m getting braver at saying the name of a sorely under-known Brazilian artist whose retrospective at the Whitney Museum, “Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium,” comes as an overdue revelation.” This is the first line of Peter Schjeldahl’s review in The New Yorker and we’re seeing grumblings on Twitter of how offensive this is. Get a grip. If you don’t know how to pronounce a name, or if it’s hard to pronounce properly for English people, it’s embarrassing. This is an admission that he’s working to learn, not that he’s revealing his implicit racism. If anyone has a right to poke fun at unpronounceable last names, it’s a guy named Schjeldahl. [Twitter, The New Yorker]
- Artist Sarah Craske found a 300 year old edition of Ovid’s “Metamorphosis” at a junk shop. She’s since cultured centuries’ worth of readers’ bacteria from over the centuries for an artwork. [The Guardian]
- Why is Condo being described as an art fair alternative? The event is an gallery-share model where galleries share their space with foreign dealers for the length of a show. Is launching exhibitions now secondary to participating in art fairs? [artnet News]
- It turns out Alice Cooper has had a Warhol “Electric Chair” painting rolled up in a tube in storage for decades. The rocker totally forgot he had it. [The Guardian]
- Microsoft is killing off its 32 year program beloved of artists, MS Paint. Well, there goes that genre of art making. [The Guardian]
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by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on December 14, 2016
- The Condo art event is returning to London, in which galleries in the British capital each play host to a different international gallery. Two New York galleries are participating this year, but mostly I’m excited about this map—which looks like it’s advertising a fantasy rave for libertarians thrown by M.I.A. [ArtReview]
- As if any of us needed any more reasons to be upset about the current political climate, we found out yesterday that America’s sweetheart RuPaul is losing beauty sleep over the election of Donald Trump. “It feels like the death of America.” [Vulture]
- Salvaged video art collective Everything is Terrible is transforming LA’s iam8bit Gallery into a VHS rental store… which only carries thousands of copies of Jerry Maguire. It opens in January. [Consequence of Sound]
- Fred Lazarus, the former president of the Maryland Institute College of Art, discusses the need for cities such as Baltimore to cooperate with artist-run spaces to make them safer places, following the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland where at least one MICA alumn died. [The Baltimore Sun]
- NY Times critic A.O. Scott isn’t a fan of Rogue One. It sounds like Star Wars might be getting a bit too formulaic. [The New York Times]
- Net art maven Minh Nguyen on the role of social media and art in 2016: “as the year progressed… everyone went ‘You know what? Maybe the Internet is a horrible place that cements all of our biases.’ You know, fascists also make memes, the alt-right have aesthetic Tumblrs, and they’re way better and more effective at it than us… Nobody understood aesthetics better than the Nazis. You have to acknowledge that, or the optimism is really irresponsible.” She also discusses the commodification of identity politics and the legacy of Occupy. [Seattle Weekly]
- Headline of the day: ‘FRIENDS AND ENEMIES’ GATHER AMID SILENCE AND GOLD FOR MARINA ABRAMOVIC’S 70TH BIRTHDAY. Sounds like the conceit of an electroclash song. [ARTnews]
- Seriously, if New York can’t figure out how to fix its subway problems, it’s not going to remain much of a tourist destination. The MTA has announced that the 2,3 will no longer operate on weekends due to Sandy repairs. Repairs start this spring. [Curbed]
- Alan Thicke has died. Those who grew up watching Growing Pains will find this a bit sad. Thicke played Jason Seaver, a father of three kids, in the sitcom. [LAist]
- An American judge has thrown out Scott C. Mueller’s lawsuit against German gallery Michael Janssen and art advisor Marisa Newman. Mueller was suing both parties for damages related to his purchasing of Cady Noland’s “Log Cabin,” which the famously mercurial artist disavowed following unauthorized restoration work. [artnet News]
- Tracey Emin has finally abandoned her controversial plan to demolish a historic East London building in order to construct a five-story live/work studio/mansion. Preservationists are breathing a collective sigh of relief. [The Guardian]
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