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Ai Weiwei

Is Claire Bishop Mired in Citational Modernism?

by Rea McNamara on November 5, 2015

Going to lectures where the speakers workshop their book on you sucks. This was the case last Wednesday evening, when a crowd of artists, students and academics packed an OCAD auditorium for “Déjà Vu: Contemporary Art and the Ghosts of Modernity”, a free public lecture by art historian Claire Bishop.

From what I could gather during the lecture, Bishop believes we’re stuck in a rut she describes as ’“reformatted modernism”. The self-invented term refers to a historicist strain of contemporary art, where our downloadable obsessions with Eames chairs, van der Rohe skyscrapers and archival forms of display (think slide projectors) have rendered Modernist references in art that are all image and no function.

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Monday Links: The Met Isn’t Punk and Neither Are Legos

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on October 26, 2015

Delaware is the Luxembourg of Interstate 95, apparently. The state’s lack of sales taxes means collectors can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by directly shipping artwork there after purchase. Of course, this means it won’t be displayed, only hoarded. [The New York Times]

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art tried to throw a mother and her child out of the PUNK show for writing in crayon on the wall… Shame on you!” This, and other one-star Yelp reviews of art museums are available for your edification and amusement on this Tumblr, which (full disclosure) is run by my (Michael’s) niece. [Bad Art Museum Reviews]

Ai Weiwei’s latest social media beef? The artist is accusing Lego of censorship after the company refused to send a bulk order of bricks for an exhibition. Lego apparently does not condone the use of its products for political artwork. [artnet News]

Speaking of beef, the World Health Organization released a report today finding that eating processed meats such as bacon increases the chance of getting colorectal cancer by 18 percent. It also said that red meats were probably carcinogenic, but there was limited evidence. The report also stressed the benefits of meat and said this was reason to cut down, not entirely eliminate meat from diets. [BBC]

Music producer/collector Kasseem Dean, also known as Swizz Beatz, and retired private equity investor Barbara Vogelstein have joined the Brooklyn Museum’s board of trustees. Vogelstein is actually returning to the board after a hiatus. [Artforum]

The Obama family likes more abstract art and have decorated the white house with works by Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg and others. [The New York Times]

Edward Gomez offers an indepth look at Martha Wilson’s show at P.P.O.W. We were interested in this exhibition because her image Bear in Mind/Bear in Hind was inspired by our panda calendar project, but also because there’s been a lot of talk over social media about “Martha Meets Michelle Halfway”, a portrait in which Wilson dresses like Michelle Obama…in half blackface. Many find it offensive. Wilson told Hyperallergic, “An African-American artist friend advised me not to wear blackface,” she recalled, “but I had been impersonating First Ladies for three decades. In the end I decided to wear half no makeup and half black makeup to clearly show that it was a performance whose subject had to do with how race figured into our perception of the current First Lady. Clifford [Owens] engaged the audience [at The Brooklyn Academy of Music] to get a discussion going about performativity in the room and in the culture at large.” [Hyperallergic]

Midsize brick-and-mortar galleries are dropping like flies in traditional art centers. Rising rents, the increased cost and importance of art fairs, and competition/mergers from/with international mega-galleries are to blame. [Blouin Artinfo]

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Monday Links: When Crochet Sets Off Gentrification Tensions

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on September 21, 2015

Chanel Von Habsburg Lothringen’s “Grannyboo” currently on view at Boyfriends in Chicago.

In this interview, Katherine Bernhardt essentially dispels any conjecture that her paintings have any conceptual intent beyond looking pretty and fun. She also wants us all to move to San Juan, for which she makes a more convincing argument. [Artspace]
“Why would the Royal Academy and Versailles share their space and prestige with practitioners who can only construct artistic identity through the leverage of their political correctnesss achieved through public controversy.” -Rodrigo Cañete writes a pretty biting review of art stars Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor, claiming the two have developed a politicized cult of personality that’s used to promote otherwise mediocre artwork.”…predictability is misunderstood by Ai as democracy and accessibility. But looking at his stuff you’re often confronted by a misfit between concept and making that causes created objects to be visually dull or lacking an intrinsic visual reason to exist.” [LOVEARTNOTPEOPLE]
A pretty awful crochet mural inspired by a Wes Anderson character has stoked gentrification tensions in Bushwick. Basically, recent transplant London Kaye asked the director of Brooklyn Flea if she could erect the piece on a wall abutting the market. He agreed, but neither he nor Kaye consulted the building’s owner—a longtime latino resident. The owner’s nephew has since taken to Facebook to complain, and a minor drama is now playing out over major anxieties about the neighborhood. [Gothamist]
Submit to Platform Gallery’s second annual juried exhibition. I (Michael) am on the jury this year. Submissions are open until October 17th. [Platform]
Art Handler Magazine has launched a Kickstarter to raise funds to support the publication. They need $30,000 to keep producing the project. Help them out! There aren’t enough sustainable independent publications out there, and this one is very thoughtful. [Kickstarter]
Postcommodity, a collective made up of artists Raven Chacon and Cristobal Martine will create a two mile installation made up of scare-eye balloons that bi-sect the American Mexico border. I (Paddy) have been following this project for a while, so I’m glad to see that it’s not only happening, but getting a little love from Carolina Miranda at the L.A. Times. [Culture: High & Low]
Missouri Republican party vice chairman Valinda Freed leaned on a historic Thomas Hart Benton mural to write down a phone number during a “right to work” rally. The internet got mad. [artnet News]
Jack Griffin, the Chief Executive of the Tribune Publishing Company sounds like he’s terrible at his job. First he ran Time Magazine into the ground by firing anyone of talent, and now he’s doing the same at The Los Angeles Times. Recently, he fired their new publisher, Austin Beutner, who held the belief that the way to save the newspaper was not by eliminating the people who produce the product they sell—content. [The New York Times]

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Tuesday Links: Art Cool Again Thanks to Miracle Dealer

by Paddy Johnson Michael Anthony Farley Rea McNamara on September 8, 2015

“It’s been such an amazing experience being able to travel all over and use my photography to impact people’s lives. Seriously can’t believe how many mountains I’ve climbed and beautiful views I’ve captured.” via the satirical instagram account Socality Barbie

Why does ISIS blow up archeological buildings and temples in Iraq and Syria? Turns out it’s a big cover-up for the looted art and historical objects they then sell on the international antiquities market. [The Independent]
Sotheby’s and Artsy are collaborating on an online-only sale of contemporary art next month. With a focus on works valued at $50,000 or less that meaningfully engage with technology — confirmed artists include Richard Prince and Cory Arcangel — this marks Artsy’s first sale with a major auction house. [New York Times]
According to this account, a Roxane Gay and Erica Jong discussion at last week’s Decatur Book Festival in Georgia was a very awkward demonstration of white feminism and the denial of privilege. [The Guardian]
The reviews are starting to roll in for the Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s sprawling, politically-tinged Istanbul Biennial: Adrien Searle calls it a meditation on “the “ongoing tides of human misery”, Amah-Rose Abrams praises Bakargiev for properly capturing the city’s long history of emigration and asylum. (Not mentioned: whether or not the press kit was a repeat of Documenta 13.) [The Guardian, artnet News]
Christopher Stout Gallery is opening on Meserole Street in Bushwick with a “program of showing subversive and difficult art.” [Hyperallergic]
Is there any headline more nauseating than “Meet the Art Dealer to Billionaires Who’s Making Collecting Cool Again”? [Bloomberg]
Right-wing vandals have struck Anish Kapoor’s controversial “Dirty Corner” at Versailles with anti-semetic graffiti. Kapoor doesn’t want the piece to be cleaned. He will “not allow … intolerance to be erased.” Why? [artnet News]
Jacob Appelbaum, Edward Snowden confident and Ai WeiWei Seven on Seven collaborator, has his first solo show opening in Germany this week. This fascinating interview offers an interesting take on the history of surveillance in Europe; Appelbaum calls the holocaust Europe’s “first big data project”. [we make money not art]
Who wants to go to Mars? We might be a few years from making those trips happen, but you can sign up to have NASA will put your name on a chip and send that to Mars. Not quite the same thing is it? [NASA via: @corinnakirsch]
The best parody Instagram account we’ve seen: Socality Barbie. This account places a hipster Barbie in various scenes—coffee shops, mountains, bars that have antlers hanging on the wall—applies the perfect filter and voila. It’s the captions that really make the account though. Under one shot of Barbie on a mountain the text reads, “It’s been such an amazing experience being able to travel all over and use my photography to impact people’s lives. Seriously can’t believe how many mountains I’ve climbed and beautiful views I’ve captured.” [Wired via: Metafilter]
What day has the largest number of openings and where are they concentrated? A useful graphic shows us that some what predictably, this Thursday will be the biggest night. 79 shows open that evening, most of them in Chelsea. Wednesday and Sunday are the big nights for the Lower East Side with 29 and 20 shows opening respectively. [ARTnews]
VICE journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool, along with two colleagues, was arrested in Turkey on terrorism charges while covering the violent conflict between the Turkish government and members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party. The other two journalists have been released and are back in London. Here, they make a plea for Rasool’s release. [VICE]
Valid #BackToSchool thought: “if sedentary lifestyles are killing us, if sitting is the new smoking, why does education continue to be about sitting still in class?” [@JesseHirsh]

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Monday Links: Eat a Waterbed

by Michael Anthony Farley and Corinna Kirsch on July 6, 2015

The strange world of sunburn stock photography. Ow.

How popular are different art businesses globally, according to Facebook likes? Apparently Americans like Christie’s more than Sotheby’s. [ARTnews]
Don’t do “sunburn art”! (As if this were a “real” trend….) [Standard Daily]
Australia’s art funding is facing “dark days” due to budget cuts. [The Guardian]
Also facing a budget crisis: Chicago public schools. The city is cutting the schools’ budget by $200 million. [Marketplace]
An insightful article on the former sources of performance art. The author wonders about some outsider sources as well, from Oofty Goofty, a feral man-beast covered in tar, to Mr. Eat It All, a guy who tried to eat a waterbed for a promotional event. [Glasstire]
This is not surprising: art is really popular among the mega-wealthy. JJ Charlesworth talks about the rise of the prices in relation to the new global elite and the concept of scarcity as value. [artnet News]
“Incredibly fast and easy loans against your artworks. 4% Monthly, No Fees. Money tomorrow.” The mega-wealthy can now receive low-interest loans from ArtRank by leveraging their art collection as collateral. [Observer]
The Studio Museum in Harlem has just announced that David Adjaye is designing a $122 million new home for the institution. Unfortunately, it looks like this means the current building, which dates from 1914, will be joining the list of historic structures in Harlem that have been demolished in the past few years. [The New York Times]
Horror fans and art-school students, rejoice! This Halloween, you’ll be able to feast your eyes on Art School of Horrors, a Roger Corman production, where “bad art wants revenge.” [IMDB]
Baltimore has awesome bars and creative people—who actually want to be friends with you. [The New York Times]
In China, the exhibition ban on Ai Weiwei has been lifted. The artist remains unable to travel outside the country. [The Art Newspaper]
A piece of public art in Liverpool has been destroyed by vandals. The sculpture was a brass bird with electronics that played recordings of city residents talking about their hopes and dreams. Everyone’s a critic. [Liverpool Echo]
Hello, bears! It’s bear-cam season. [Explore]

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Wednesday Links: Clown Insurance Explained

by Paddy Johnson on June 10, 2015

clown

Joel Mesler tells the story of his gallery UNTITLED, as contextualized within the New York art market. Lots of great stuff in here, particularly this: As I write this, Chelsea is still the center of the New York art world, but it increasingly seems to only have room for high-rise condos and luxury hotels. There are galleries there now that are the size of major corporations, and they’ll likely get to stay, or at least leave on their own terms, but the future looks bleak for everyone else. [Artnews]
Even clowns need insurance. [Mental Floss]
This weekend artist Tania Bruguera was arrested Cuba again, along with dozens of other activists. And she’s got bruises to show for it. Bruguera was observing a silent protest by the Ladies in White. Each Sunday, the group of female relatives of imprisoned dissidents attend mass wearing white, then carry photos of their missing family members through the streets. [Hyperallergic]
The CBC has fired prime time political correspondent Evan Solomon for using his position to broker art sales between galleries and the wealthy figures he interviewed. [The Toronto Star]
The Times has published The Art of Dissent, a documentary about the collaboration of Jacob Appelbaum and artist Ai Weiwei for Rhizome’s conference Seven on Seven. [The New York Times]
There’s some disconnect between seeing pictures of a bunch of collectors schmoozing and art Chapman Brother’s burnt body art that got them there. [Artsy]
Three suicide bombers were shot near the entrance to the ancient Egyptian temple of Karnak in Luxor. [The Art Newspaper]
Ooooh. Can Atlay at Arcade. [Contemporary Art Daily]

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The Terror and Thrill of Potential at Rhizome’s Seven on Seven

by Paddy Johnson on May 6, 2015

A report on Rhizome’s Seven on Seven conference. More ambitious than ever. Results still a total gamble. Amazing.

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Monday Links: Islam, Parking, Lots of Money, Condos, Censorship, Decadence

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 4, 2015

Brooklyn’s former “Broken Angel” house. Image by Chris Wood via Hyperallergic.

No, none of these links are about Dubai.

Last night, gunmen opened fire on the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” in the suburbs of Dallas. The anti-Islam event was organized by Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative—which is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. A security guard was wounded before both gunmen were shot and killed by police. [Reuters]

This comes just days after Renald “Luz” Luzier, sole surviving cartoonist from the Charlie Hebdo attack, announced that he has given up drawing Muhammad. It’s probably a wise choice. [BBC News]

The Bay Area’s “Parking Lot Art Fair” opened this weekend. The event was a free (to both visitors and exhibitors) uncurated alternative to Art Market San Francisco in a public parking lot. Based on photos, it actually looks like it was more fun than it sounds. [SFGate]

At the other end of the art world, Christie’s is hoping to break price records with the auction of one of the last major Picasso paintings in a private collection and Giacometti’s iconic “Man Pointing”. The works are valued at at $140 million and $130 million, respectively. [Business Insider]

Clinton Hill’s “Broken Angel” story keeps getting sadder. Arthur Wood, the sculptor who was evicted from the property after living and working there for 30 years, is heartbroken that the developers who bought the site are incorporating fragments of his sculptures into luxury condos. [DNAinfo]

A detailed account of a weekend with the dissident elite; artist Ai Weiwei, Wikileaks collaborator Jacob Appelbaum, and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. The three got together in Beijing for Rhizome’s 7on7. [Fusion]

Interview Magazine talks with Beth Fiore and Jonathan D’Agostino about their new Lower East Side gallery space D&F. When asked what the biggest struggle was opening a gallery, Fiore responds, “I think the biggest struggle is bigger than opening a gallery. It’s being in the art world. It’s so hard, and there is no regulation, and you can waste a lot of time with some really bullshit people.” Hear, hear. [Interview Magazine]
Russia is a weird place. In the 1990’s, culture, especially the music scene, was obsessed with being glamorous, apolitical, and mass-media friendly. Russia’s decadent post-Soviet years sound like they were probably a lot of fun… if you were a gangster or popstar. [The Moscow Times]

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Thursday Links: An Egg and a Crabapple

by Paddy Johnson Henry Kaye Corinna Kirsch on June 12, 2014

What’s trending, according to London’s smartest art magazine? Feminist cyborg theory is hot, Charles Bukowski is not. I suppose this is satire. (Behind the paywall.) [Frieze]
Why is everyone leaving the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts? Sylvia Hount will leave her position at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to head up the Met’s American art department. This announcement comes less than two weeks after a fellow curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Robin Nicholson, gave notice of his leave. [Art in America]
You won’t be able to find any of the Brooklyn Paper’s articles online; they lost their website URL to “Bar & Bat: A Mitzvah Guide.” [Brooklyn Paper]
Rick Perry describes homosexuality akin to alcoholism and the world isn’t that surprised because, really, we’re that used to him being horrible. [Gawker]
This week’s must-read: Molly Crabapple on the lack of support and freedom dissidents like Cecily McMillan and Chelsea Manning actually receive at home. [Vanity Fair]
Art book publishers are battling over who got to Ai Weiwei first. Taschen just released the “first comprehensive monograph on Ai Weiwei’s life and work”; this edition costs between $1,500 and $12,500, and comes wrapped in a silk scarf. Phaidon claims they came first with a 2009 tome they refer to as “the first comprehensive monograph on this key figure in China’s burgeoning art scene.” [Taschen, Phaidon]
MOCA loans a Frank Stella to a Los Angeles gallery; Critic Christopher Knight claims this conflict of interest goes against MOCA’s own written loan policy. Petty? [Los Angeles Times]
Grumpy Cat is set to star in a Christmas movie, airing on Lifetime. In Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, this furry meme can communicate with a 12-year-old girl. Grumpy Cat’s voice actor has yet to be cast. [The Wire]
Adrian Searle compares Marina Abramovic to a cultish dominatrix in his a tongue in cheek review of her new performance, 512 hours. “I’m waiting for Mistress Marina, the relaxation-class dominatrix, to give me a good telling off. Later, she takes my hand again. “Breathe slowly. Just be in the present. It’s a good feeling.” Not: “See you round the back later, you naughty boy.” But who knows what might happen if you hang around for long enough.” Ha! [The Guardian]

I ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon. I’ll let you know.

— Bill Murray (@BiIIMurray) June 8, 2014

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