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donald trump

Monday Links: Donald Trump is a Terrible Artist

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on July 31, 2017

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Donald Trump, who has the drawing ability of a seven year old, produced a drawing of the New York City Skyline that sold for close to $30,000. It was originally made for a charity event in 2005. The drawing is without a doubt the worst presidential drawing we’ve ever seen, and possibly the worst drawing by an adult. And that’s an evaluation that comes completely independent of his incompetence as a president. The line drawing doesn’t reach the edges of the page, doesn’t indicate that Trump has any awareness of what Manhattan even looks like, and includes two swooshy lines at the bottom that maybe indicate water or are perhaps just needless flourishes. It appears Trump signed the piece in gold marker and of course the only recognizable building on the skyline is Trump Tower. [artnet News]

Rhizome is offering 4-6 “microgrants” for web-based artworks, ranging from $500-$1,500. Applications are due August 14th. [Rhizome]

Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield has come up with a reinvention plan that includes raising 60 million dollars to help it refocus its mission to include science and history as well as art. The details of this plan, however, are making The American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors—of which it is a member— very uncomfortable.The Berkshire wants to deaccession works to fund this new mission. This breaks with the association’s code of ethics, which dictates that Museums not deaccession works unless the funds are used for acquisition and direct care of the collection. Seems unlikely the museum will be able to remain a member of the association if it continues along this path. [NPR]

Non-art neon is making a big comeback in New York, from signs to restaurant interiors. [Eater]

Brace yourselves, New York, Miley Cyrus wants to return to the Big Apple to have another art exhibition. [Just Jared]

Why are auction prices so high for Mark Grotjahn works? An abstract painting by the 49 year old fetched $16.9 million at Christie’s and his primary market works can sell for $20 million. In a profile in the NYT, it’s revealed that Grotjahn has a rare amount of control over his career, working in with multiple galleries in multiple cities, often bypassing dealers completely, and having the final say over who his works sell to. This power shows up in the piece, as pretty much every quote comes off as an entry in a competition to offer the most ass-kissy complement to the artist. Notably Grotjahn didn’t respond to requests for comment. We weren’t asked, but we’re a bit confused about how even the best business management could push the value of these patterned paintings up so high. It’s not that they’re bad—but only a few feel truly distinctive. [The New York Times]

Danielle Directo-Meston considers the gentrification issue in her family’s house hunt. Not a lot of new information here, but it has plenty of Los Angeles-specific details and conversations about strategies for preventing displacement. Possible suggested legislation includes a ban on house flipping within a year and another that incentivizes owners to live in their properties for ten years. [Curbed]

Into the Unknown is a science fiction show at the Barbican Centre in London that should get the sci-fi nerd in us pretty excited. There are 800 works, going all the way back to the 19th century, and Hyperallergic has a review and photos to show off the exhibition. The review, though, doesn’t seem very excited about any of it. It’s a flat description, that complains that Octavia Butler and other African American artists didn’t get their due, but it’s still a significant show regardless because who else is doing this? I say, give us a few more photos and let us decide. [Hyperallergic]

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GIF of the Day: Visa Dance

by Michael Anthony Farley on June 29, 2017

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Today’s the day that Trump’s insane visa ban went into effect. Welcome to dystopia.

Illustrator Michael Hogue created this GIF for a story in The Dallas Morning News about how other Trump immigration policies will affect the high-tech workforce and teachers here on H-1B visas. That issue is a little more nuanced, but basically the message the Trump administration is sending to the global community is a big ol’ fuck-off.

The past few months have demonstrated to frightening effect how much the passport a person holds defines them, unfortunately. To that end, this GIF feels fitting for the end of the first day of the revised travel ban.

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In “Mind-Controlled Sperm: Woman of STEAM Grabs Back” Ani Liu Flips the Script

by Michael Anthony Farley on June 23, 2017

“Anti-disciplinary artist” Ani Liu has invented a device that allows women to control the movement of sperm with just their their thoughts. Really.

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Monday Links: Failed Banks and More at the Museum of Capitalism

by Michael Anthony Farley on June 12, 2017

Superflex, Bankrupt Banks (2012).

Art duo FICTILIS has opened the Museum of Capitalism in a former industrial space in Oakland. The museum contains works from artists, theorists, and economists that try to imagine the legacy of capitalism from the perspective of its end. Interesting stuff. [artnet News]
Hurricane season is upon us. This news report might be of interest to anyone else who has wondered how the bayfront Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is designed to hold up in a hurricane. The Herzog & de Meuron designed structure is built from a totally luxurious palette of materials, sits just next to the water, and has huge windows facing the bay. Supposedly everything about the building is super storm-proof. The confidence with which this is repeatedly expressed feels a lot like famous last words. [CBS Miami]
Apartment seeking? Here’s a map and guide to all the affordable housing lotteries one can enter in New York City right now. [Curbed]
Karen Green, Columbia University’s first-ever curator for comics. is now the subject of a comic book herself. The biography comes from Nick Sousanis, the guy who submitted his dissertation in comics form while a doctoral candidate in 2015. [boingboing]
Every 10 years, the Venice Biennale, Documenta, Skulptur Projekte Münster, and Art Basel align to create one jam-packed art summer for Europe. This year the brave writers at ARTnews are trying to do it all, as a contemporary version of “The Grand Tour”. [ARTnews]
Fisun Güner considers the way artists’ dark personal lives affect the way their work is contextualized or received (the protests that accompany Carl Andre’s exhibitions, for example, because he’s accused of murdering his wife Ana Mendieta). There are some good lesser-known stories in here, such as Kenneth Halliwell’s murder of his gay lover, playwright Joe Orton, and how that story is framed at Tate Britain’s show Queer British Art. [BBC]
Delta Airlines has pulled its sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater popular Shakespeare in the Park program because a production of Julius Caesar has a scene that alludes to the assassination of Donald Trump (yes, really). This was a nontroversy until Fox News (of course) criticized the production, which subsequently got the president’s attention and inspired more anti-art funding tweets. Ugh. [Inc.]

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Monday Links: Punk Rock—Queers Steal Roger Bernat Stone from Documenta 14

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on June 5, 2017

The Athens activist group Lgbtqi+ Refugees in Greece has stolen a Roger Bernat sculpture that was destined for a performance in Kassel as part of Documenta 14. They accuse the German arts festival of exploiting the refugee crisis on somewhat shaky grounds that I have a hard time following. Mostly, it seems like a publicity stunt. To that end, good job! It’s the most glamorous art heist photo we’ve seen in awhile. [Hyperallergic]
Another art fair has left the Hamptons. Art Southhampton has cancelled its 2017 edition, following Art Hamptons’ February announcement that their fair was suspended. The organizers (who also own Art Miami) cite market conditions and pressure to focus on other art fairs. Good. The world does not need multiple art fairs every month. [The New York Times]
Evidence to support that opinion would include cringe-inducing headlines such as this: “Puerto Rico’s New MECA Art Fair Opens in a Debt-Ridden Island Paradise”. [ARTnews]
The Johannesburg Art Gallery, one of Africa’s premier art institutions, is facing a crisis. The local government has finally earmarked funds to repair the historic structure (suffering from leaks due to someone literally stealing part of the roof and general lack of maintenance) but it sounds like the Gallery has larger problems. What’s the identity or audience of a colonial-era institution in a context of white flight and an increasingly migrant-based population? [Seattle Times]
Ian Schrager (of Studio 54 and design-minded hotel fame) thinks One World Trade Center is “a missed opportunity”. With the politics involved, it’s hard to imagine how any truly inspired architecture could’ve happened at the site. Luckily for him, his own view of the tower has been blocked by a much better skyscraper from Herzog & de Meuron. [Dezeen]
Residents of Trump Palace, an Upper East Side condo building, are starting a petition to rename the building. Basically, no one wants to buy their units and they’re depreciating in value due to associations with the president. Residents of several other Trump-branded properties have already gotten his name scrubbed. [Curbed]
This interview with Markus Lüpertz is a good read. The painter talks about Germany’s postwar art scene, his colorful personal life, and the role of an artist in society. His perspective about the politics of artmaking is interesting, even if we don’t 100% agree. Lüpertz argues that artists have no political or social responsibilities, and that good art makes the world an inherently more peaceful and compassionate place. [artnet News]
Can we stop putting Kathy Griffin and Bill Maher in the same category of comedian jokes gone wrong. Maher told a racist joke and was rightly criticized for it. Griffin posed for a photo and was harassed online relentlessly by the right wing media (and some from the left.) [Hollywood Reporter]
Here’s a juicy local news bit. Mark Lyons, a parking director in Sarasota, may have steered a $100,000 public art commission to his son-in-law, artist Mark Krucke. Now the city is considering cancelling the public art program in general to avoid a lawsuit. According to the news report, the Public Art Committee had no knowledge of Krucke’s relationship to the parking director and awarded the project to the artist on its merits. However, when the committee became deadlocked over a decision between two candidates, Lyons told the committee that the proposal of Krucke’s competitor was too logistically challenging without revealing his relationship to Krucke. He thus tipped the jury. [Herald Tribune]
The Bronx is getting more affordable housing. Sav Enterprises filed plans to construct a 15 story building with 319 units of affordable housing at 1932 Bryant Avenue in West Farms. This prime real estate is just across from the Cross Bronx Expressway. [The Real Deal]
I think everyone might need to see Wonder Woman. It’s supposed to be good, and given the amount of art inspired by the character, certainly relevant to the art world. [The New York Times]

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Tyler Shields is A Terrible Artist. Kathy Griffin is Just His Accomplice.

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on June 1, 2017

Is a picture worth ten million words? That’s the question we’re faced with when considering the out-of-proportion reaction to a recent photo of Kathy Griffin holding the decapitated head of President Donald Trump. Enough commentary has poured across social, mainstream, and fringe media to fill a small library. But conspicuously absent from the discussion has been mention of Tyler Shields, the photographer who should be at the center of the authorship conversation, not the comedienne. For example, The New York Times published two reports on the subject, neither mentioning Shields by name, and one omitting any reference to a collaborator whatsoever. Would the discussion be different if the image were considered as an artist’s work rather than a celebrity publicity stunt?

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Wednesday Links: Gallows Sculpture Deemed too Offensive, Slated for Demo

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 31, 2017

Sam Durant’s “Scaffold” is being disassembled by the Walker Art Center because it offends people. Image credit: ANTHONY SOUFFLE

Are these the world’s best outdoor sculpture parks? I have a hard time lumping the Brooklyn Bridge Park in this list. [CNN]
The Walker Art Center is dismantling a sculpture by Sam Durant after protests. “Scaffold” is a composite of seven different gallows used in executions in the United States between 1859 and 2006 (this article doesn’t make that fact particularly clear) and is intended to spark discussion about the history of capital punishment in this country. Activists from the Dakota community called for its destruction because one of the reference gallows Durant based the piece on was used to execute 38 Dakota Indians in 1862 and say the artwork trivializes genocide. I’m not entirely clear on why this is “trivializing”. If the sculpture was supposed to provoke discussion about the history of executions in America, it seems to be effective. Can we stop knee-jerk calling for the censorship of any artwork we might find any moral grounds to oppose? Otherwise we’re going to be left with nothing in museums/public spaces other than Jeff Koons balloon dogs. [Star Tribune]
The “Fearless Girl”/”Charging Bull” drama never ends. Alex Gardega has added “Pissing Pug” to the menagerie, urinating on the girl’s leg to demonstrate that adding another component to an existing sculpture distorts to original’s meaning. We get it. Let’s move on. [New York Post]
Speaking of dumb ideas, Comedian Kathy Griffin is in hot water because she posed for a video holding Donald Trump’s decapitated head. What passes for conversation in the media really needs to change. [The Internet]
Anne Imhof, whose much lauded four hour long opera “Faust” on view at The Venice Biennale’s German Pavillion is still be discussed, tells a crowd at the Serpentine Gallery that her influences include Michelangelo and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I would have guessed Adidas. (Though in fairness, she does say the health-goth cast plays themselves.) [ARTnews]
We’ve all had some pretty weird homework in art school, but this might take the cake.Katie Martin-Meurer, a University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee art professor, challenged her students to make biodegradable insect motels. The idea is they’ll end up in parks, decomposing, rather than filling a dumpster with foamcore like most student projects. [NPR]
Google Street View is adding a host of new features to its museum interior tours. Soon you’ll be able to read wall text, zoom into high-res images, and more. How long until there’s a selfie-taking function? [Time]
Audible has created a 5 million dollar fund for playwrights. This seems like a very good thing. [The New York Times]
Uh oh, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento has a failing humidity control system that’s threatening the preservation of numerous objects on view. If the museum and contractors who installed the system can’t get a replacement up and running to specifications, the Crocker could lose accreditation to host certain exhibitions. Tuesday night, city officials approved a plan to fix the system, so hopefully all will be resolved. [CBS Sacramento]

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Tuesday Links: Disney Art, Barbie Art Still Terrible Yet Still Trending

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 30, 2017

A detail from Jeff Gillette’s oil painting “Bandra Brown,” 2017. (Deborah Vankin / Los Angeles Times)

I (Michael) interviewed Raúl de Nieves ahead of his upcoming talk at the Baltimore School for the Arts as part of the Contemporary’s CoHosts series tonight (free tickets still available). We talked about process, growing up Catholic, and the sculpture he spent seven years making. [City Paper]
Anyone attempting to open a white box space in a drafty loft, take note: your perfect paint is here. Spanish paint manufacturer Graphenstone has created an eco-friendly paint by mixing lime with the synthetic “miracle substance” graphene. The result is an ultra-thin, durable lime wash which actually thermally insulates whatever walls you paint. So cool. [Dezeen]
Nate Silver writes a short novel on the likelihood that President Trump will be impeached and removed from office early. The upshot—not super likely. “The easiest-to-imagine scenario for Trump being removed is if Republicans get clobbered in the midterms after two years of trying to defend Trump, the Republican agenda is in shambles, Democrats begin impeachment proceedings in early 2019, and just enough Republicans decide that Pence (or some fresh face with no ties to the Trump White House) gives them a better shot to avoid total annihilation in 2020.” [FiveThirtyEight]
Jeff Gillette’s latest project at Gregorio Escalante Gallery in Los Angeles sounds terrible. The artist has painted Disney imagery around slums in India. He then documented his “interventions” and transformed them into 3-D photorealistic paintings. When can we stop using Disney as a cliché shorthand for all that is wrong with escapist capitalism? And haven’t we decided by now that ruin porn is problematic and exploitative? Viewers are also invited to trample on drawings on the floor that Gillette’s high school students created. Mixed in with the students’ work are some Gillette originals. You can buy pieces from this grab-bag of floor “trash art” for $5, a commentary on the art market because his paintings of slums cost a buttload of money. Get it? [Los Angeles Times]
Speaking of awful clichés, last week I noted that no one should bother making Barbie art. But lo and behold, one of the Kylie Jenner just dropped $20,000 on some Barbie prints from artist and model Beau Dunn for her Barbie-themed bedroom. [Inquisitr]
Peter Blum Gallery is moving back to Soho after being forced out of its uptown location on 57th street. (The gallery was located in Soho back in the early aughts.) [ARTnews]
Developers are moving forward with plans to rezone the former Pfizer site in Williamsburg. The latest plans from The Rabsky Group propose over 1,100 apartments in eight clunky new buildings. The number of affordable units in the proposal has dropped, and it doesn’t look like they’re opting to preserve any of the old industrial buildings. The plans are hideous. The rezoning is still in the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) stage, and now is the time for neighbors to get involved. Here’s one suggestion: push for a compromise that preserves the industrial buildings for arts/light manufacturing use and allows the developers to build smaller-footprint towers at a higher FAR in exchange for more affordable units? [Curbed]
I’m not sure how I feel about political figures being turned into action figures—I missed the days where politics was considered a boring field for nerdy policy wonks—but that’s where we’re at. Artist Mike Leavitt has created an Elizabeth Warren action figure you can support via Kickstarter in June. [lizwarrenactionfigure.com]

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GIF of the Day: Trump Meets His Handshake Match

by Michael Anthony Farley on May 25, 2017

Donald Trump has a notoriously weird handshake that only Justin Trudeau has been able to successfully beat. Until today, that is.

Newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron countered Trump’s death-grip in a minor arm-wrestling match that was described by IRL witness Phillip Rucker of The Washington Post:

“They shook hands for an extended period of time. Each president gripped the other’s hand with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening.”

It’s noticeable that Trump just seems to want his hand back, which is exactly how anyone who’s ever had their hand (or pussy) grabbed by the president must feel. Thank you Emmanuel Macron, for winning this second important victory—the other of course being his defeat of psycho Marine Le Pen, lest France found itself with a Trump of its own.

I’m wondering if there’s an asshole-countering handshake the French learn in handsome politician school? Notably, the only other world leader to best the tiny hand vice has been of French Canadian descent…

Beau Travail!

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Trump Family’s Bizarre Goth Visit to Vatican Sparks Meme Wave

by Michael Anthony Farley on May 25, 2017

Donald, Melania, and Ivanka Trump paid an extremely awkward visit to the Pope this week, and the only ones who seemed to enjoy themselves were everyone on the internet. This is the latest in a string of GIF-able, meme-able moments from a Mediterranean-spanning trip plagued by bad optics.

Of particular note were the bizarre goth ensembles donned by Ivana and Melania, adding to the somber vibe. Apparently it’s some Catholic custom (that seems out of the Dark Ages) for women to cover up when meeting the Pope. The Trump ladies took this as an opportunity to dress like Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice. We wish we had these outfits for our Goth Opera party!

One irony in this, of course, is that the conservative internet went wild praising Melania for not wearing a headscarf when visiting Saudi Arabia. The biggest irony? Trump criticized Michelle Obama when she decided to forgo a headscarf when visiting Saudi Arabia as First Lady.

The hypocrisy never ends, but at least the human trainwreck that is the First Family provides us all with plenty of LOLs to distract from the fact that they’re destroying civilization as we know it.

Below, some of my favorite memes from the Vatican trip—drawing comparisons to everything from the camp classic Death Becomes Her to Hot Topic employees.

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In “Mind-Controlled Sperm: Woman of STEAM Grabs Back” Ani Liu Flips the Script

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