Posts tagged as:

protest

The AFC Guide to Inauguration Resistance Actions

by Michael Anthony Farley on January 17, 2017

I think I have more Facebook invitations to different demonstrations in Washington D.C. and New York this Friday than I have friends. If you live within a hundred miles of either city, it’s likely you already have inauguration protest plans. For those of us not presently near the respective political and media capitals, it can feel like we’re left out of the party. But don’t fret: we’ve reached out to artists in seven cities where we have a large number of readers—Baltimore, the Bay Area, Berlin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Philadelphia—and got the scoop on where you can go while joining us in the #J20 art strike. It’s incredibly inspiring to see hundreds of thousands of RSVPs across the country and beyond. And after the demonstrations, we’ve found some fun nighttime activities to raise funds and solidarity for the long fight ahead.

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This Week’s Must See Art Events: What the World Needs Now is Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

by Michael Anthony Farley on November 14, 2016

Probably the most inspiring night of my life was Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s artist talk at MICA a few years ago. I’m likely paraphrasing here, but there was anecdote along the lines of “If you told me when we were pissing in a bottle as performance art in the Sixties that we’d end up saving dolphins in the Eighties, we wouldn’t have believed it. But now, in retrospect, we see that they’re all parts of the same process.” The message I took away from this: art is important. Working out our frustrations and tears and hopes now might lead to tangible victories in the future—even if they might be considered small in the grand scheme of things.

That’s why I’m personally exceptionally proud to have Genesis speaking on Wednesday night as part of our Strange Genitals exhibition at AICAD. This is a person of extreme wisdom, compassion, and rebellious spirit—qualities the world desperately needs right now. In a strange twist of irony, two events extremely dear to AFC’s interests are competing with the talk: a discussion about DICKS at Fortnight Institute, and a performance interpreting Dennis Cooper’s GIF novels at the New Museum.

There’s plenty of more overtly politically-minded art events for the rest of the week. Thursday night, Xaviera Simmons opens a mysterious solo show at Half Gallery, and Terence Gower talks US-Cuba relations at Simon Preston Gallery, followed by an unrelated LGBT anti-Trump rally in Washington Square Park. If you’re energized from that, meet with State Committeeman Ben Yee at Arts on Site Friday for a discussion on organizing resistance ahead of the midterm elections. We’re also excited for openings at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts and Vector Gallery, where some AFC reviews might just find their way into JJ Brine’s sculptures…

The weekend brings Pioneer Works’ conference on alternative art schools. I’d expect the conversations to be dominated by the election results rather than pure pedagogy. Saturday night, Michael St. John uses Walt Whitman to consider subjectivity in democracy at Andrea Rosen Gallery, and PS1’s Mark Leckey-centered Night at the Museum might just encourage us to dance our way through these trying times.

Don’t give up on art. You are so, so important.

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The Bronx’s “No Commission” Art Fair: Promising? Yes, but Not for Local Artists and Residents

by Elliott Brown Jr on August 17, 2016

The story of art’s role in gentrifying urban neighborhoods is not new. But plant an art fair in the Bronx—one of the more recent instances of skyrocketing real-estate—and throw in the involvement of big-name sponsors and developers, and you have the makings of an event that won’t please everyone. That isn’t to say that locals were not involved with “No Commission NY: Art Performs,” a four-day art fair hosted at a former piano factory in the South Bronx; the art fair was aided by the vision of a culturally respected Bronx native, Swizz Beatz, a rapper, music producer, art collector, and recently appointed Chief Creative for Culture at Bacardi Limited.

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Cleaners and Porters to Protest at Sotheby’s London

by Leighann Morris on June 25, 2015

In February of this year, cleaners and porters at London’s Sotheby’s auction house successfully campaigned to receive the London Living Wage of £9.15. The triumph was part of an extensive campaign by union United Voice of the World (UVW) to pressure both Sotheby’s and the contracted cleaning service Cleaning & Maintenance London (CCML) into negotiating several other terms for these employees, often migrant workers, who had complained of ill treatment—and unfair pay. But the victory of a living wage, among other gains, is now proving short-lived.

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May Day Protests Shut Down the Guggenheim

by Corinna Kirsch on May 1, 2015

As first reported on Hopes & Fears, art publications, and Instagram feeds everywhere, the Gulf Labor Coalition has temporarily closed down the Guggenheim.

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Friday Links: Dr. SnapChat

by Corinna Kirsch on April 24, 2015

Absolut Art. sells artwork in front of people’s faces.

Meet the newest online retailer for art, Absolut Art., brought to you by Absolut. [Absolut Art.]
Or, why not meet a doctor who’s addicted to social media, and SnapChats his surgeries? [VICE]
It’s painful to watch Chelsea Manning’s Twitter feed; still in prison, she’s seeking donations for her legal defense fund. [@xychelsea]
Artist Wim Delvoye’s career includes an array of materials: pig carcasses, fecal matter, and, as of 2014, a yoga mat. [Art Markit]
The Venice Biennale won’t open until May 9, but we already know who’s set to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, born in 1944. [ARTnews]
45 percent of men think it’s harder to be a man today than in their father’s generation. [Think Tank]
Why is that? “The Shriver Report,” from which Think Tank culled that statistic, contains responses indicating that it’s because of attaining a stronger position in the workplace, a stronger position financially, and greater gender equality. [A Woman’s Nation]
Protests continue at the National Gallery in London over the museum’s choice to outsource jobs to a private company; the decision would affect more than 400 current employees. [The Art Newspaper]
Brought to our attention via the Internet pipelines, a 2011 review of Open Engagement: “Is there a significant difference between what this street preacher is doing and what socially engaged artists do?” The more things change…maybe they don’t change—see our 2015 review of Open Engagement. [Portland Art]
Bitcoin is for dudes. [Fusion]
“[C]apitalism constitutes the horizon of possibility for artists and manufacturers alike, and must be reckoned with as such. The question then becomes: how far can artistic reflexivity go before becoming complicit with the economy it seeks to critique?” [DIS Magazine]
Chinese auction houses hope to bring in more local buyers through sales of Impressionist and Modern art. [South China Morning Post]

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Old Men, Little Girls, and Bad Paintings

by Corinna Kirsch on January 31, 2012

The internet might be run on cats, but this sea otter rap proves that all mammals are proper fodder for a meme. [Lair2000.net]
Guards at London’s National Gallery went on strike this past weekend to protest staff cuts, and they’re planning even more walk outs in the days to come. [The Guardian]
In preparation for the Guggenheim’s upcoming exhibition by teen prodigy Francesca Woodman, Cabinet‘s profile on another child genius, the poet Minou Drouet, provides some good background into the life and times of precocious youths. It’s filled with absurd stories – like how the French government locked “this little kitten” in a room to determine whether she wrote her own poems. [Cabinet]
This weekend, Tyler Green commented on NPR’s “oh-so-impressive art coverage” [MAN], an atrocious piece of journalism that asks that old and tired question, “Is Jackson Pollock really an artist?” Groan. [NPR]
Author Jonathan Franzen, that overly satirical writer about the failures of masculinity and the American dream, rants against ebooks, but ends up sounding like a whiny luddite who doesn’t understand kids nowadays with their new-fangled technology. [The Telegraph]
House arrest won’t prevent Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from hosting his own TV show. [New York Magazine]
So far, six people have completed the Gagosian Spot Challenge. And all they got was a lousy t-shirt. [other criteria]

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MoMA Security Confiscates Occupy Museums Banner: OM Poses Acquisition Terms [UPDATE]

by Whitney Kimball on January 20, 2012

During last week’s Occupy Museums protest at MoMA, a red and black banner was suspended by the crowd on the fifth floor landing into the museum’s atrium. Security quickly confiscated it, and has yet to return the piece. As Occupy Museums states, institutions nationwide are negotiating with OWS art groups to acquire archival materials, so in an open letter to MoMA, OM has declared terms for the artwork’s acquisition.

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protest

Old Men, Little Girls, and Bad Paintings

MoMA Security Confiscates Occupy Museums Banner: OM Poses Acquisition Terms [UPDATE]

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