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Chelsea

Surprising, And Some Unsurprising, Findings About Where NYC’s Artists Live

by Michael Anthony Farley on July 14, 2017

A new study from the Center for an Urban Future looks at where artists live in New York City. What neighborhoods in New York City are losing artists? Gaining them? Those answers aren’t surprising. But the dominance of pricey Uptown Manhattan nabes (in terms of total artist populations) certainly is.

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Wednesday Links: Too Privileged For Roommates

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on March 29, 2017

We need your thoughts: who owns the better gimp mask? @nashersculpture or @DallasMuseumArt ?https://t.co/s5qjeb32SE pic.twitter.com/2gQwyqx0Op

— Glasstire (@Glasstire) March 28, 2017

Not to ruin a funny tweet, but we will remind people that Nancy Grossman’s masks are not about S&M.
Not sure how I (Paddy) feel about this piece on class and privilege in the trans, queer, people of color community. Shak’ar Mujukian tells a story about living in a co-op mostly populated by TQPOC who were what I’d call conceptually poor—they live like paupers, but have grown up with a certain amount of privilege. In this case, the privilege was never discussed—to the point where it seemed like it might have been hidden. As an actual poor person, Mujukian found that offensive and something that fed into his insecurity or what he deems “internalized oppression”. Anyway, the upshot is that he felt alienated in a place that was supposedly built for people like him, and that’s why the wealthy privilege of being able to chose to live like a poor person is bad. [The Hyephen]
Trump’s former campaign manager Paul J. Manafort is involved in yet another scandal. Manafort, who used to be employed by a Russian oligarch “to nudge US news and politics in a pro-Putin direction”, may have been involved in a money laundering scheme involving New York real estate. Manafort would drop millions on properties (including one in Trump Tower) and then take out massive loans against the properties through the Federal Savings Bank, whose President Steve Calk was a Trump fundraiser and present economic advisor. [WNYC via Curbed]
Rupaul’s Drag Race is now on VH1, and the network is already stirring the pot. Many are outraged that Wendy Williams is scheduled to host a live pre-show, despite the fact that producers for her own show kicked drag queen Erickatoure out of the audience for wearing a dress instead of “dressing to impress” as a man. [Hey Qween]
Koenig and Clinton move from Chelsea to Bushwick. Why? Property tax in Chelsea is too high. [artnet News]
“Working from sternly jokeless material, Sanders and his crew save the wit for such formal flourishes. Roelfs’ production design, matching sprawling dystopian squalor to fluorescent, holographic flights of fancy, abounds in playful details within details; Kurt and Bart’s wardrobe of synthetic-chic kimonos and tectonic-plate bodysuits ensure not even a morgue body sheet goes without some subtle fabulousness.” The Variety review of the live-action Ghost in the Shell is so breathlessly glowing I (Michael) am nudging my skeptical optimism ever more to point of giddy excitement. [Variety]
Preview Michael Williams’ Artforum cover, featuring a “COEXIST” symbol obscured by moody purple haze on an upside-down portrait. It feels like one of the most subtle paintings of the current sociopolitical moment. [Facebook]
A mock trial at the Art Institute of Chicago tackled the issue of what the British should do with the Parthenon Marbles they stole/bought from Greece. This is the kind of debate we can get behind. Nobody is calling for the destruction of art works. [The Chicago Reader]
There are many icks and ews to this story, we’re finding it difficult to even link to it. A Swiss asshole drug addicted art dealer by the name of Bennet von Vertes murdered his best friend with a sculpture in a drug induced haze, believing him to be a green alien. He is also reportedly charged with rape, a case that will receive a separate trial. [artnet News]
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s life story is so interesting. Essentially, she’s been making 2017 work since the 1960s. So much of it has been in storage until recently. Now, at age 75, her explorations into digital identity and experiments with genre-blurring media are getting serious overdue attention. [ARTnews]

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Thursday Links: Apply Now for $519 Rent in the LES

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on March 2, 2017

Daniel Joseph Martinez on view at Roberts & Tilton’s Armory Show booth. Image: KATHERINE MCMAHON for ARTnews.

Daniel Joseph Martinez on view at’s Armory Show booth.
Image: KATHERINE MCMAHON for ARTnews.

This is so cool. Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher and Julie Mehretu have pooled their money and purchased the birthplace of Nina Simone—a 660 square foot house in Tryon, N.C. Plans for the structure haven’t been fully formulated yet, but for now at least it’s going to be preserved. [The New York TImes]

A new building in the Lower East Side has entered the NYC affordable housing lottery, offering studio apartments from $519. Apply now. [Curbed]

The Orange County Museum of Art had plans to finance a new location in Costa Mesa through a real estate deal involving luxury condos on land it owns in pricey Newport Beach. Now it’s in a world of political drama. Southern California NIMBYs make the West Village look like a tabula rasa. [Los Angeles Times]

Here’s one museum personnel saga that’s more scandalous than the Met’s recent shakeup: Munich’s Haus der Kunst might’ve been infiltrated by Scientologists. Yep. There’s a full-on panic over a staff administrator who may have a secret agenda. In Germany, Scientology is considered a cult and they take its shadowy mechanizations very, very seriously. [Artnet News]

Well, Baltimore is getting a new piece of public art. The prone “Homeless Jesus” was just blessed with holy water one block from my (Michael’s) house. The irony of this is that the very Basilica where it was christened has a terrible track record of landgrabs and demolition of housing in its immediate vicinity. Jesus actually has a pretty big house, now with gardens and a parking garage where once stood apartment buildings. Lots of others in the neighborhood, not so much. [ABC 2 News]

In the same neighborhood, artists are fundraising to rehab a group of buildings for performance, studio, and affordable live/work space. The project is called Le Mondo, and is an ambitious example of artist-owned, artist-run real estate. This is a good project to support. [Crowdrise]

More good news for the markets of the insanely wealthy, Sotheby’s recorded the highest total for any London sale yesterday evening with a £195 million ($241 million) sale of 54 lots of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art. Their estimate was £150/180 million. [Baer Faxt]

Speaking of the uber wealthy Pace Gallery broke ground in Chelsea yesterday as they begin construction on their new 8 story, 75,000 square foot building at 540 West Twenty-fifth Street. For reference, that’s a little under half the size of the Whitney Museum’s building on Gansevoort, which is 220,000 square feet. Unlike the Whitney, though, which is a museum built to house and display treasures that belong to the public, Pace is building a sales showroom and offices for the rich. [Baer Faxt]

Yesterday we expressed disappointment in the lack of artwork addressing the Trump regime in the Armory Show’s curated section. But apparently plenty of gallerists didn’t shy away from bringing politically confrontational work. Good. This is a trend that was evident at Zona MACO last month, and hopefully one that gains momentum through the art fair circuit. [ARTnews]

Lorna Mills gives good interviews. On the subject of accreditation and GIFs she says, “I wonder if any artists working online think so much about ownership. They tend to think more about credit for the things they have done. Ownership also suggests some sort of control over the work, and we know that isn’t always possible online. Transfer Gallery published a GIF catalogue of my work recently and I think that serves as a more official form of accreditation.” More Lorna Mills please. [Hyperallergic]

Ann Pfoser Darby, member of Queens Community Board 4, allegedly said during a meeting about safety improvements to 111th street, “Once Trump removes all the illegals from Corona, there won’t be anybody to ride bike lanes.” People are calling for Darby’s removal from the board. I’d like to point out that if all the immigrants left Queens, there wouldn’t be anyone to use any infrastructure in the borough. [Streetsblog]

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Friday Links: “Hotbeds of Liberal Radicalism and Degeneracy” The Right Wing Goes After Artist-Run Spaces

by Michael Anthony Farley on December 23, 2016

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Crap. The Right Wing is now targeting semi legal artist-run spaces, punk houses, etc. According to 4chan threads, they plan on reporting code violations to shut down “hotbeds of liberal radicalism and degeneracy.” We need to strategize about this one. [VICE]
Just when you thought Atlantic City couldn’t possibly be any more depressing, a group of tourist industry types is pitching the idea of a Donald Trump museum. They think it could bring visitors to the town, which is presently (ironically enough) blighted by various failed Trump enterprises. [NJ.com]
Speaking of dystopia, the new Blade Runner movie looks like it might actually be good? That would certainly be a relief to die-hard fans of the 1982 original, including myself. [NME]
From a flag for first-time Olympic team “Refugee Nation” to illustrators coping with David Bowie’s death, terrorist attacks, the election, and Brexit, Dezeen rounds-up the good design that came out of awful 2016. [Dezeen]
Hili Perlson’s “Meet Kaari Upson, the Artist Whose Mom Loved Pepsi Too Much” is one of the strangest pieces of art writing I’ve read in a while. I think that’s a good thing? Truth be told, I can’t tell if Upson’s solo show at Sprüth Magers (Berlin) is any good from reading this, but the review of a truly, singularly bizarre sounding exhibition definitely makes me want to go see it. [artnet News]
75 year old Chi-Tien Lui is the electronics repair shop owner who worked with Andy Warhol. Bruce Nauman, and most closely with Nam Jun Paik. Now, a new generation of art conservators is hoping to learn his magic touch, as cathode ray televisions and other obsolete technology show its age and need repairs. [The New York Times]
Wow. The past few years have been rough on NYC Galleries. Nate Freeman rounds up which ones bit the dust and which ones departed Chelsea in search of cheaper pastures. [ARTnews]
The totally bonkers story of how Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire basically ruined their then-friend Dale Wheatley’s life in the 1990s. The emerging actors starred in Wheatley’s black-and-white indie project Don’s Plum and then regretted it, going to great lengths to bury the film. It all sounds very petty. [Vanity Fair]

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Friday Links: Chelsea Still the City’s Art Center

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on September 11, 2015

“’Dismaland’ is spectacular, but its ideas are not everything you want a candidate for history’s largest work of conceptual art to be.” Dan Brooks argues that sarcasm is the new kitsch—the default tone of the internet and now an unfortunate end unto itself in the production of culture. “As with memes, Banksy asks us to substitute the sensation of recognizing a reference for the frisson of wit.” [The New York Times]

More galleries opened in the Lower East Side than any other neighborhood in 2015. Still, Chelsea is by far the capital of the city’s art scene, contrary to reports of a mass exodus in the face of rising rents. Surprisingly, Bushwick seems to not be living up to its hype as the new art destination: only three new galleries have arrived there this year, less than DUMBO and the Upper East Side. [Crain’s]

Where do famous artists teach? This piece could be handy for art-school-shopping, despite its unfortunate “listicle” format. SVA’s MFA candidates get one-on-one time with Fred Wilson and Marilyn Minter, while Ai Weiwei might be offering courses at Univeristät der Künste Berlin next month. [artnet News]

Does the drama surrounding Anish Kapoor’s “Dirty Corner” never cease? Versailles municipal councilor Fabien Bouglé has filed a complaint against Kapoor in response to the artist’s decision to not remove anti-semetic graffiti from the sculpture. Kapoor’s statement: “I think it’s a wonderful reversal; I’ll see him in court… It shows how insane the whole thing is.” Yes, it is insane. So why won’t he just let them power-wash it? [Artforum]

How many more Pablo Picasso shows can MoMA launch? Normally, isn’t a show that would begin to interest us, (we agree with Hyperallergic’s Benjamin Sutton, who describes Picasso as “the Steven Spielberg of European modernism — flashy, prolific, proficient at a vast range of genres, and overrepresented in the mainstream cultural canon.”) but it seems to be getting good reviews. Sutton says there are a number of surprising and inventive works. Roberta Smith at the Times loves the show so much she called the exhibition art. And then there’s the ridiculously titled Jerry Saltz review, “How Picasso the Sculptor Ruptured Art History”. We haven’t been able to bring ourselves to read that one—he makes the show sound like an injury that occurred during sex—but he clearly likes it. [The Internet]

This is really cool. The Hamabul Art Collective is opening the unofficial “Iranian Embassy in Jerusalem”. The group is made up of Israeli, Persian, and Arab artists who hope to spark dialog by highlighting Iranian art, film, and music in spite of their respective governments’ refusals to engage in diplomatic or economic relations. [The Art Newspaper]

Jane Rosenberg, the artist behind the infamously-bad courtroom sketch of Tom Brady, is now seeking legal action against unauthorized reproductions of the portrait. In the past few weeks, it’s showed up on T-shirts, mugs, and phone cases. If she ends up in a courtroom herself, she should cash in with a self-portrait. [The Boston Globe]

An incredible review by Michael H. Miller on Mike Kelley’s show at Hauser & Wirth. On the glass maquettes of Kandor, the capital city of Krypton, Superman’s home planet, Miller says the work makes him feel incredibly sad. “ Curators and dealers seem to be pushing for Kandor as a major part of Kelley’s legacy—or maybe the work is just easier to get on loan—but either way I find so much of it to be mediocre. “Kandor” seems to me to be the product of a man endlessly tinkering with an idea but never really getting it to arrive anywhere beyond Kelley’s general metaphor of alienation…” [ARTnews]

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