Art Industry News: Celebrated YBA Artist Tracey Emin Announces That She Is Now Free of Cancer + Other Stories

Plus, very smart art people win 2021 Guggenheim fellowships, and Qatar arrests six people for vandalizing Richard Serra's desert sculpture.

Tracey Emin. Photo: Richard Young. Courtesy: The Artist and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know on this Friday, April 9.

NEED-TO-READ

Major Art Figures Among the New Guggenheim Fellows – The Guggenheim Fellowship has named the 184 members of its 2021 class, including artist Tourmaline, whose work focuses on Black and trans archives; Jesse Krimes, whose work was recently featured in MoMA PS1’s “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration”; Chicanx art historian Chon Noriega; curator Helen Molesworth; curator and artist Michelle Grabner; and artists Dread Scott, William Cordova, Jill Magid, Enrique Chagoya, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed. What a powerful lineup! (ARTnews)

Asian American Arts Workers Decry White Supremacy – Amid the rise in violence against Asian Americans, a group of Asian American arts workers has penned an open letter under the banner StopDiscriminAsian (SDA) to protest racism and xenophobia exacerbated by the pandemic; express support for marginalized communities; and call for the decriminalization of sex workers and for an alternative to policing. Signatories include Christine Sun Kim, Mai-Thu Perret, and Anicka Yi. (Artforum)

Tracey Emin Gets the All Clear for Cancer – Artist Tracey Emin, who revealed last year that she had been quietly battling bladder cancer, has now been given the all clear by her doctors. The artist said the positive news was a “big milestone,” but noted that she will live the rest of her life with a “major disability,” having had her bladder and urinary system replaced with an urostomy bag. Emin hopes she will have more energy to return to making art in the coming years. “I never realized how much I wanted to live until I thought I was going to die,” she told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast this evening. (Guardian)

David and Libbie Mugrabi Must Swap Art in Divorce – A judge has ordered divorcing mega-collectors David and Libbie Mugrabi to exchange artworks and cars by early May as part of their settlement. David had accused his ex-wife of dragging her feet on the order to return art to him by late November last year. The socialite must now return 16 artworks to her ex and, in exchange, he will return others, including an Andy Warhol. (Page Six)

ART MARKET

Ben Brown Fine Arts Opens Gallery in Palm Beach – Ben Brown Fine Arts is joining the growing number of blue-chip galleries and auction houses following the money to Palm Beach. The gallery, which has spaces in London and Hong Kong, will open its first U.S. location at 244 Worth Avenue. The first show presents a sampling of work by artists on the gallery’s roster, from Lucio Fontana to Alex Katz. (Press release)

Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Collection Heads to Auction – The private collection of the late artists will be sold to benefit their two foundations at Christie’s next month. The holdings, which include works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Richard Diebenkorn, Lee Bontecou, and Marsden Hartley, are expected to fetch as much as $7.4 million. Top works will be offered in a live auction on May 18; the rest will be available online from May 6–20. (ARTnews)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Forbes Reveals 2021 “30 Under 30” List – Forbes has revealed the annual list all over-30s dread. Notable art nods include artists Jadé Fadojutimi and Chiffon Thomas, Pace gallery director Sabrina Hahn, artist and author Chanel Miller, and historian and Artnet News contributor Aindrea Emelife. (Forbes, Forbes)

Eric Fischl and April Gornik’s Arts Center Opens – The Church, a new art center founded by artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik, will open in Sag Harbor on April 15. The artists say the center in a former Methodist church is “the culmination of the vision of a lifetime.” The first show there includes work by Kerry James Marshall and Awol Erizku. (NYT

FOR ART’S SAKE

Qatar Apprehends Richard Serra Vandals – Police in Qatar have arrested six people who vandalized Richard Serra’s East West/West East installation last year. Qatar Museums, which recently carried out a cleanup operation on the sculpture, said in an Instagram post that legal procedures are in process against the vandals. (Gulf Times)

England Rugby Star Organizes a Show About Black Histories – The England International Rugby player Maro Itoje has organized an exhibition at London’s Signature African Art gallery. “A History Untold” explores Black histories that are absent from the UK’s national curriculum, and includes work by six African and Diaspora artists. The show opens May 20 and 15 percent of proceeds will be donated to efforts to raise awareness of the gaps in the school curriculum. (Press release)


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