- More “Pepe” news: the Anti-Defamation League has reached out to artist Matt Furie in an attempt to reform the cartoon frog’s image to be less racist. Does anyone else feel like the whole supposed Pepe scandal is the media/ADL/internet hardcore trolling everyone? [The New York Times]
- Kader Attia is opening ”La Colonie,” a vaguely-defined art space near Gare du Nord in Paris. It’s not clear what exactly will happen in the new three story exhibition and event space, but knowing Attia’s work ethic, it will likely have programming that’s smart and politically-informed. [The Art Newspaper]
- I can’t watch documentation of this Sachiko Kodama installation and understand that what I’m watching is not CGI. Kodama magnetizes NASA’s ferrofluid rocket fuel, resulting in something akin to trippy visuals from some EDM subculture. [Atlas Obscura]
- With online platforms eroding lower-end sales, and mega galleries dominating the high-end market, middle tier galleries are dropping like flies in New York and California. And more and more gallerists are having to work “for” their artists less and focus on the secondary market, Christian Viveros-Fauné explains: “the against-all-economic-odds gallery once begun with boundless ambition and maxed out credit cards is no more. Here’s the same idea put differently: the era of undercapitalized, illiquid, labor-of-love galleries that rely mostly or exclusively on the primary market for sales is over.” [artnet News]
- Is new development driving up New York’s property values? Quite the opposite, it seems. Thanks to restrictive zoning in most of the city, new developments are bigger and more expensive where they can be—present zoning rules that favor lower densities make it impossible for most of the boroughs to create enough new housing units to absorb demand. [Curbed]
- Dogs like leaf blowers. [YouTube]
- Matthew Naimi built a house out of garbage and then blew it up, alarming his neighbors and bringing out the fire department. The project, described as a “Rube Goldberg chain-reaction contraption”, was designed to illustrate the connectivity of societal issues. [The Detroit News]
- A Saudi artist, currently working on her P.H.D. in Australia, was told by her native government that she needed to live with a male guardian in order to pursue her studies. She’s since created the #IAmMyOwnGuardian hashtag under the social media nom de plum Ms. Saffaa in protest. [PBS]
- Lite Brite Studios in Gowanus makes neon signs for businesses and artists. We want the field trip this reporter got! [Gothamist]
