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Turner Prize

Monday Links: Calgary Didn’t Like It, Shouldn’t Have Put a Ring on It

by Michael Anthony Farley on September 26, 2016

Inges Idee, “Travelling Light”

Residents of Calgary really hate “Travelling Light,” a public sculpture by art collective Inges Idee. It’s actually pretty confusing as to why anyone is vehemently offended by the piece—which simply comprises a street light atop a giant wheel—but apparently people think it’s a waste of taxpayer money in “economically distressed” times. [Calgary Herald]

Swansea Museum in Wales believed they had an 18th century copy of a Flemish master sitting in their storage room. Then historian Bendor Grosvenor “discovered” the piece and authenticated it as an original Jacob Jordaens, valued at almost $4 million. The painting is now going on display, which begs the question, is it solely the authorship of an artwork that makes it worthy of exhibition? What was wrong with the painting before it had a name attached? [artnet News]

NASA hasn’t had an artist in residence since Laurie Anderson’s position was terminated by Congress in the Culture Wars more than a decade ago. But now, the agency is using private grants to work with artists, including Justin Guariglia, who is photographing our disappearing ice sheets from NASA flights. [The New York Times]

David Hockney and Martin Gayford discuss their favorite art historical works. These guys really love a good painting. [The Guardian]

Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) it looks like the Second Avenue Subway’s opening date might get pushed back yet again. [Curbed]

The Turner Prize has opened to the public. Look forward to lots of sensationalized “BUT IS IT ART?” headlines from the British tabloids in the coming days. [BBC News]

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Tuesday Links: Vacant Buildings are Having a Glamorous Moment

by Michael Anthony Farley and Rea McNamara on December 8, 2015

What is it about the Turner Prize and its media circus that always brings up the tired “But is it art?” question. That’s arguably the dumbest and least relevant discussion an artwork can generate. This year’s winners, Assemble, are a collective of former architecture students who found fanciful uses for vacant buildings in Liverpool. The daily Telegraph’s art critic Mark Hudson didn’t agree with the selection: “Why bring it in as art? If you’re just looking for stuff that isn’t pretentious and is useful, why don’t you nominate B&Q or Oxfam? … It’s great if art can be useful. But just because it’s useful doesn’t make it art.” That’s a sentiment I’m generally inclined to agree with, but it’s really not applicable here. [BBC]
Brian Boucher shares his account of diving with artist Trevor Paglen. Paglen took a group of 10 art lovers diving 70 feet under the ocean to look at the fiber optic cables that run along the ocean floor. [artnet News]
Zachary A. Bennett visited the SATELLITE Show and shared this account of Open Space’s “Stupid Bar,” the rowdy “competition” across the hall from our space. [Huffington Post]
Controversy is brewing over the recent appointment of Bartomeu Marí as director of Seoul’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA). More than 340 artists—including 2015 Venice Biennale Silver Lion winner Im Heung-soon and media artist Park Chan-kyung—signed a statement questioning Marí’s record, especially in light of his handling of last spring’s censorship debacle at Barcelona’s MACBA Museum. The group is demanding reforms to protect artistic freedom, citing the South Korean government’s increasing bureaucratic restrictions on the arts. [The Korea Times]
Would you believe this? There’s video of a woman stealing a wreath off the front door of a Toronto home at 3AM. It was silver, sparkly, and worth $200. “It’s egregarious,” said detective Frank Olsen. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this and I’ve been doing this a long time.” [National Post]
Annette Kelm, the Berlin-based photographer who made the long list of the AGO’s AIMIA Prize, has won the Camera Austria Award for Contemporary Photographer. Upcoming shows include a Jens Hoffman-curated solo at Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art next year. [Artforum]
The Philadelphia Daily News probably has the most on-point cover today: Trump making a Hitler salute. [@CarlAnka]
Helpful career advice: “Dear Video Artists if you are going to have a section on your website called Current Work don’t make every single Vimeo link private?” [@MatthewLawrence]
Buyers remorse has hit Jean Nouvel’s 100 Eleventh Avenue. The Chelsea condo is less “vision machine” and more “wind tunnel”, allege residents. Woe be the problems of a mid-aughts-designed glass curtain wall. [Curbed]
An interview with artist Katie Rose Pipkin on her social media bots. [Furtherfield]
Last week I [Michael] thought Vector Gallery’s Satanic Suicide Hotline was a far more subversive take on an occult lounge than the Swamp of Sagittarius at Art Basel Miami Beach. Maybe I was wrong? It turns out an altercation in the Swamp of Sagittarius led to the infamous stabbing incident. Vector might have had portraits of Charles Manson and text inciting viewers to murder, but its competition inspired an actual attempted homicide. Obviously, this was a terrible thing and horrible for all parties involved, but noteworthy as yet another parallel between the two spaces. [Gothamist]

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Tuesday Links: Who the Hell Needs Round-the-Clock Art News?

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on December 2, 2014

Image courtesy of the Bass Museum

Hans Ulrich Obrist: get some sleep. You’re stressing us out, and your lifestyle justifies the existence of 24/7 art news. Nobody needs 24/7 art news. [New Yorker]
But for those who want 24/7 art news, UBS is introducing the BETA version of Planet Art, an app that delivers contemporary art news. We’re one of the sources, so we’re part of the problem? [Art Fix Daily]
Artists in Moscow are being kicked out of their studio spaces by the government, despite promises their leases would be renewed through 2025. No reason has been given for why the leases aren’t being renewed, but kudos to the Art Newspaper for being able to find a single dissenting voice. Anatoly Osmolovsky, an artist, curator and the rector of the Institute of Contemporary Art Basa says the spaces should be banned because they are a relic of Stalinism. [The Art Newspaper via: @mfortki]
Ruffles, teddy bears, and leaping should give you some cheer throughout the day. [Tanzcorps Colonia Rut Wiess]
Canada has a biennial right now at the AGO. “Biennial,” however, is loosely defined here as “a selection of recent acquisitions to the National Gallery of Canada’s Canadian Contemporary, Indigenous and Photography holdings.” [Art Gallery of Ontario]
An East Hampton dealer accused of making fake Pollocks and de Koonings, “and using some of the money to buy a submarine,” has pleaded guilty to wire fraud. [New York Times]
The culture wars drag on: Jacksonville City Council labels a photo of a nude pregnant woman “pornography”, and threatens to pull funding for MoCA Jacksonville for showing the image. [@Kriston Capps]
A beachside Nazi resort, “Hitler’s Hamptons,” is filling up with condos after years of debate. People are buying them like crazy. [Vocativ]
Duncan Campbell, of Ireland, has won the Turner Prize for a video about African art and Marxism. [BBC]
And a Virginia boy wins every merit badge there is. Vocativ has rounded up his weirdest achievements which include fingerprinting and truck transportation. [Vocativ]
Girl Scout cookies are going up for sale online!!! But how will the Girl Scouts earn their prizes? [Brightest Young Things]
A Husky stuck under a fence. [@HereBeHuskies]
Meanwhile, here’s a cute baby pitbull. [@dailypitbulls]
The St. Claire names AFC’s Panda Calendar a must-have for your Christmas list. Thaaanks guyyys. [The St. Claire]
The lighting district is coming to its certain end. Another hardware store closes after rent hikes. [Bowery Boogie]
Everything you need to know about mechanical pencils. [Metafilter]
A Vogue article argues that when it comes to manipulation anything goes, because people have been manipulating photos since the medium’s inception, and then changes its mind, arguing that manipulated photos immediately become illustration. The piece overlooks issues negative body image standards for women. It also liberally makes use of random formatting decisions and is full of typos, which I think is a commentary on what should be “fixed”. [Vogue]
Paddy Johnson will be heading down to Art Basel today. Check back for updates.

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Monday Links: Not From Aggregate

by Corinna Kirsch on October 6, 2014

Photo courtesy of The Guardian.

Will technology save us, or kill us all? In her latest on artnet News, Paddy Johnson takes a close look at Daniel Levya’s show at Interstate Projects, where he has created a technological heaven and hell. The show sounds beautiful, with cathedral windows, plinths for iPads and demonic, flapping angel wings. [artnet News]
Speaking of Paddy, tonight she will critiquing the finalists at ArtPrize, one of (if not, the) world’s largest art prize. Over livestream, Johnson and fellow experts will be reviewing 3D and time-based juried finalists, whom, as it turns out, were chosen by a mix of public vote and experts including Hyperallergic’s Hrag Vartanian. Will she approve of his choices? Tune in tonight at 7 PM for some debate! [Artprize livestream]
Tomorrow night at Judson Church, a public memorial for Feature Inc. founder Hudson. [Feature Inc.]
Life advice from Gwenyth Paltrow. [Twitter]
Sadly, “good urbanism” has come to mean introducing giant piano stairs, traffic mimes, and LED-mottled public art and architecture projects. [Domus]
John Powers adds a bit more controversy to the claim that the Star Wars logo was inspired by fascism. [Star Wars Modern]
Behold—a slideshow! The Guardian has the 2014 Turner prize nominee exhibition covered with reviews, video, and photos. Jonathan Jones’s review uses the word “anus.” Hee hee. [The Guardian]
This fall’s Rhizome commissions will involve an artist-opera, a smart city, and Chelsea Manning. [Rhizome]
It’s Spooktober, so time to take a trip down the scary side of America’s Funniest Home Videos. [Memory Hole]
For an elementary version of how curators get things done, look no further than this infographic of a curator in a brown suit. It’s like the art happens where the curator is! [Business World Weekender via Arden Sherman]
What’s trending today on Imgur? A dog and goat who are pals. [Imgur]

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Tuesday Links: Hell on Wheels in Miami

by Paddy Johnson Corinna Kirsch Matthew Leifheit on December 3, 2013

“Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz” will be the Chinese artist and former government detainee’s first exhibition to be held at a prison. [In the Air]
Greg Allen (@gregorg) reports on Miami’s Perez Art Museum and why local collectors have yet to show much support to the museum. Opening day is tomorrow. When it was announced that the museum would be named for developer Jorge Perez in the wake of a $35 million gift of cash and art, four board members resigned. While Perez chalks it up to racism, critic Tyler Green points out that the institution needs to improve its relationship with local collectors in order to grow its own collection. [NPR]
Laure Prouvost has been announced as this year’s Turner Prize winner, beating out David Shrigley, Tino Sehgal, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye for the £25,000 prize. She was the underdog. [BBC]
I love Ed Halter. Here he is, conversing with Lauren Cornell, talking about pop culture and art. “It’s like Pop Art in reverse: Warhol took the content of mass culture and brought it into art, while [Abramović and Lady Gaga] are using ‘art’ as content and spreading it through contemporary forms of mass media—but really they’re only producing a new form of kitsch, complete with mawkish sentimentality.” [Mousse Magazine]
Narcoleptic dogs are one reason why we know so much about the science of sleep. A breed of narcoleptic dogs was bred by Stanford scientists, and now there’s a range of poodles and dobermans who can fall asleep without more than the drop of a pin. [The New Yorker]
Kanye West is crazier than we thought. He thinks he’s more relevant than the President—because nobody cares what Obama wears. Hrag Vartanian points out this is untrue. (Paddy) [Hyperallergic]
Extravagant much? Matias Faldbakken, one of 24 artists chosen to display public art works at Miami Basel, is putting the Peterbilt big rig truck from Steven Spielberg’s hell-on-wheels film Duel (1971) in the sculpture park. [Channel 16 Florida]

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Thursday Links: Absurdity Is Happening

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on April 25, 2013

Alanna Martinez asks if Fab.com is selling an actual Carroll Dunham print at a 75 percent discount. [In The Air]
The Turner Prize shortlist is out. Tino Seghal (meh), David Shrigley (heh), Laure Prouvost (blah), and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (huh?). [The Guardian]
Peter Brant is more than just an art collector; he’s been a pal to artists. After Brant bought his first Warhol when he was just 21, Andy and Peter ended up taking trips together: to Aspen, Europe, and closer to home, Montauk. [Wall Street Journal]
This summer, the Met is coming out with yet another blockbuster fashion exhibition, Punk: Chaos to Couture. (That title probably sounds better when said aloud in a death metal growl.) We kid you not, there will be a CBGB bathroom installed in the Met. [New York Magazine]
Developers are currently digging up a few more blocks of High Line, north of 30th street, now to be added to the the existing park. [Curbed ; Crain’s]
Gross. Julia Halperin reports more museum woes, thanks to shoddy leadership. After this week’s news that MoMA plans to demolish the old Folk Art Museum building, the US Bankruptcy Court has ordered around 200 works seized from its collection. The works had been promised to the museum in 2005 by its former chairman, collector and jewelry merchant Ralph Esmerian, who later used the same work “as collateral to secure multi-million-dollar loans from Sotheby’s and Christie’s.” Esmerian never repaid his debts, and he’s currently in prison for wire fraud, so Sotheby’s will be selling them off this winter. Christie’s is upset because the work isn’t getting sold at Christie’s. Just drag it right through the mud. [The Art Newspaper]
Shoddy leadership is a plague. Felix Salmon explains how Cooper Union’s board mismanaged funds they were charged with overseeing, and must now, in direct violation of founder Peter Cooper’s vision, charge tuition. No one has been held accountable. [Felix Salmon]

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Monday Links! Failure and Success Edition

by Paddy Johnson and Whitney Kimball on December 3, 2012

It’s been a good couple of days for place outside of New York, as the Whitney Museum announced its 2014 curators: Chicago/Milwaukee artist Michelle Grabner, Philly’s ICA curator Anthony Elms, and Tate Modern curator Stuart Comer. We’ll have more on this soon. [NY Times]
From this round-up, Chicagoans seem happy (minus crabby artist). [Newcity Art]
Jerry Saltz phones it in. What the hell is up with “Clint and Chair” topping this year’s top art picks? We get it, it was a totally disturbing break from reality and definitely art, but we don’t need to read full four paragraphs on the subject when every other art pick—most of which launched in the last three months—gets one sentence. “Jaws dropped. Insight Ensued” is not a compelling argument for Bjarne Melgaard’s tiger show at Ramiken Crucible. In fact, it’s not an argument at all. [Vulture]
One “bold experiment” finished: The Daily is dead. [Mediabistro]
In a letter to its newsroom employees, the New York Times claims it will continue to invest in journalism as they cut 30 staff members. [NYTimes]
If the art and auction list is basically a race track condition book, then we’ve hedged our bets; #7, Kevin Ching (circle glasses and two Sotheby’s logos), #1 Alex Rotter (gel), #11 Simon Shaw (The Scream). [ARTinfo]
Jude Law will be keeping the Turner Prize sexy this year, giving Rob Pruitt a run for their money as he presents the award to one of four artists tonight. They are Elizabeth Price, Paul Noble, Luke Fowler, and Spartacus Chetwynd. [Independent]

UPDATE: Elizabeth Price wins. [BBC]

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Brian Eno’s 1995 Opening Speech for the Turner Prize

by Paddy Johnson on March 15, 2012

Back in 1995, Brian Eno’s opening speech at Turner Prize award ceremony caused all kinds of clamor. The speech lampooned the arts community for its lack of intellectual rigor, comparing the openness and public knowledge of scientific debates with the often-impenetrable discourse around art.

Eno, in his diary, recounts that at the ceremony, “various people looked at me like I was Satan, or with obvious pity.” The next day, he notes that he was stopped in the street and congratulated. When read today, however, the words sound as fresh and exciting as ever, and demand everything I often feel the fine art world lacks. As such, I’m reproducing the text in its entirety for readers below.

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Wednesday Links! Everybody’s Losing It

by Will Brand on December 7, 2011

Jerry Saltz tees off on the New Museum’s Carsten Holler show and the last five years of museum-friendly relational aesthetics. Highlight: “It would be impossible to imagine anyone getting anything from these works, except briefly distracted.” [NYMag]
Jonathan Jones tees off on the Turner Prize judges for not picking George Shaw, and particularly for accusing Shaw of conservatism. For reference, Shaw paints naturalistic, depopulated scenes from around his hometown. Highlight: “Art is now judged by criteria that are fundamentally pretentious and empty. I suppose it has to be, or all the pretentious and empty art that sells in galleries would lose its value.” [The Guardian]
In case you missed it, here’s an interview with Shaw that ran in the same paper back in February. Highlight: “I look at [my] work and its innate conservatism shocks me. When I was growing up, I thought I was going to be a really contemporary artist doing video and installation work, capturing the zeitgeist and all that, but”¦ Then, I realised I was just lying to myself.”” [The Guardian]
James Panero tees off on the Brooklyn Museum for bringing that veritable antichrist David Wojnarowicz (or the other billion artists in the show) to town. It’s three weeks old, but in our defense nobody we know reads the Post. Highlight: ‘Why wait for Black Friday to begin the tedious “War on Christmas”?’ [NY Post]
Apparently, some opera houses and theaters are now offering “tweet seats”, special marked-off areas where audience members are allowed to use their phones for the purpose of livetweeting. Ewwwwww. [LA Times]
The latest advance in cat memes is the Procatinator. Fear it.

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Friday Links

by Art Fag City on November 25, 2011

As LACMA plans to haul Michael Heizer’s “Levitating Mass” to the museum from its current residence in a Riverside County quarry, the quarry’s owners are planning a party for the night of the big move, selling T-shirts with the message: “Big ”¦ Rock ”¦ Move!” [LAT]
Hyperallergic editor and Occupy ally Hrag Vartanian has offered the group’s Arts and Culture committee a spot in Williamsburg for “studio space, rehearsals, concerts, storage, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, film screenings, art classes for children, sleeping, etc.” [The Art Newspaper]
As resale prices on eBay for tickets to “Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” have risen well above $200, London’s National Gallery offered this stern warning to scalpers: “Tickets that have been resold will be cancelled without refund and admission will be refused to the bearer. The National Gallery is currently contacting any companies or websites which are offering this facility in order to advise them of this and request they stop immediately.” [Museum site]
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has announced six finalists for its 2012 Hugo Boss Prize: Trisha Donnelly, Rashid Johnson, Monika Sosnowska, Danh Vo, Tris Vonna-Michell, and Qiu Zhijie. The winner will receive a $100,000 prize and an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. [NYT]
Banksy is running for the Turnip Prize, a parody of the Turner Prize awarded by patrons of a pub in rural Somerset for art showing the least talent and minimal effort. [Telegraph]
Danny Guthrie, an artist and associate professor at Michigan State, has been taking mostly nude photographs of himself and his students for quite a while. Now, a column written by a student calling the photographs “sexist” and “exploitive” has renewed debates about whether MSU’s art and art history departments should allow Guthrie to continue. [Detroit News]

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Turner Prize

Brian Eno’s 1995 Opening Speech for the Turner Prize

Wednesday Links! Everybody’s Losing It

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