I know it sounds too good, too absurd, to be true, but believe it. We’re actually launching The AFCRPAAaA* this February 23rd. We’re actually hosting an auction with Simon de Pury, in collaboration with Site 109. Attendees will actually see performances by Nate Hill and Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw. Prizes will actually be decided by a jury of Anton Vidokle, William Powhida, and Jen Dalton.
- A style trend piece we can get behind: Sol LeWitt yarmulkes. [Tablet]
- France doesn’t have enough poor people who support President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy hired some fake laborers to attend a press conference. [France 24]
- Even though SOPA’s dead, there’s still another bill to stress out about: The Research Works Act. This act would restrict “public access to scholarly material and research.” So far, the Modern Language Association and the American Library Association have expressed public opposition to the bill. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Ja Rule thinks prison ”is amazing.” While serving time upstate, Ja Rule made friends with the former executive of Tyco and traded stock tips with other white-collar criminals. [Gothamist]
- In other prison-related news, at least one opportunistic curator had a studio visit with Ai Weiwei just a few days after he was placed under house arrest from the Chinese government. [Magasin 3]
- Mike Kelley’s old band, Destroy All Monsters, has plenty of raw film footage online. [YouTube]
- One of the strangest one-liners I’ve read recently: “The Museum of Modern Art is now in the entertainment business.” What museum isn’t? [Artforum]
February: a month of multiple things happening, both here and in other places, often at the same time. Which things should you watch occur, and where and when will they occur? We know. Only we know. Enjoy.
Gagosian Gallery has confirmed a report this afternoon by GalleristNY that the artist Mike Kelley is dead. He was 57.
The gallery declined to offer details on the time or circumstances of the death, but one thing we know: this is a loss. Kelley was one of the smartest, most accomplished artists of his generation, and a favorite of the AFC staff. A graduate of CalArts, he took that school’s interdisciplinary approach to heart, producing an oeuvre that ranged from sculpture and drawing to performance and video, and quickly became a mainstay of Metro Pictures’s exceptional program in the mid-1980s. Last month, he was named as one of the artists to be included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, which opens March 1st.
Virtually any mid-sized sculpture would look good in the front gallery of KANSAS. Marked by large windows, warm wooden floors and a ramp leading down to the main gallery space, the sight lines and interior are designed to display artwork in a flattering light.
This isn’t so different from most galleries—artworks sell better when they are glorified—but it’s worth mentioning because the space re-enforces the warmth of KANSAS’s current group show. Cheat Chains and Telephones (through February 18th) demonstrates at every turn the power of both the handmade object and a good joke.
- How do three museums share a single artwork? The Israel Museum, Pompidou, and the Tate are splitting the costs for Christian Marclay’s The Clock. [Art Market Monitor]
- West coast hipsters are annoying. They wear blue lipstick and orange spray-tan. [PaperMag]
- Julia Halperin’s discussion of how the Prince v. Cariou case has affected artists’s decisions about appropriation and reuse should be required reading for anyone dealing with the “‘borrow and be borrowed’ culture of the Internet.” [Artinfo]
- Chelsea gallery D’Amelio Terras sent out an industry-wide press release yesterday announcing that the gallery has shut its doors. [Art&Education]
- Birds are not cute. Here’s some ferocious sky predators fighting, culminating in a 20-second continuous shot of birds in freefall aerial combat. [YouTube]
- Around the office, we’ve been debating the hipster turn to donuts – goodbye, cupcakes! Food critic Pete Wells wrote a brilliant review of a new donut joint and regardless of your opinion on hipster donuts, this is a solid piece of writing. [The New York Times]
- Susan G. Komen for the Cure, i.e. the pink ribbon foundation, has suddenly eliminated all funding to Planned Parenthood for performing that oh-so-controversial medical procedure – the breast exam. [NPR] People are getting furious. This thread on MetaFilter lists a ton of corporations who fund Komen; go bug them on Twitter. [MetaFilter]
Are you an artist or writer who’s lost their job and needs financial help? Here’s a list of resources and grants that will help if you’re in need.
