- Ketterer Kunst is coming to the US. The German auction house has tapped auctioneer Stella Mchaelis to lead the expansion from its newly founded Los Angeles office. Even though they had an office in New York in the 1970s and 80s, they’re going West Coast because whereas NY is all about “the art market”, Angelenos as “more interested in the content”. Further, Ketterer will be the first major German auction house to expand outside the country in response to the government’s controversial cultural heritage legislation, which many have said could hurt the German art market. [artnet News]
- Related: Maxwell Williams weighs in with artist Peter Alexander and others on the mega galleries gold rush to Los Angeles. “People who have been in L.A. for a long time say that they’ve had these waves before, and that galleries will close again, and that it can’t be the next New York—it’s just not that kind of city,” says Karolina Dankow, co-owner of the Zurich-based Karma International, which just set up a LA outpost. “I have a feeling that this time it’s different, because honestly what’s going on in New York—the creative space is getting killed because it’s getting so expensive.” [Artsy]
- Stan Douglas is the recipient of the €110,000 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. [Canadian Art]
- “I’ve spent most of my life as a musician and a critic learning his work, forgetting his influence, avoiding him, relearning him and living in a world whose boundaries were his, for better and worse.” Sasha Frere-Jones eulogizes George Martin. [Los Angeles Times]
- Mandarin-speaking artists and curators! Registration is now open for the NYFA’s free Mandarin Doctor’s Hours programme on March 21. It’s first come, first serve, and you get a 30 minute one-on-one with a Mandarin-speaking consultant on your career. [NYFA Current]
- The National Film Board of Canada will now be directing half its production spending on female-directed films. [Variety]
- Established artist pays it forward: photographer Edward Burtynsky, recent recipient of the Governor General’s award, is creating an annual grant for emerging artists with the award’s $25,000 purse. [CBC]
- Totally off-topic, but apparently popping zits is referred to by dermatologists as “extractions”. [New York Magazine]
