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 this Wednesday, August 15.
NEED-TO-READ
Darren Bader Gets the Profile Treatment – “Contemporary art is by its very nature kind of a tenuous proposition and category,” Bader says. The provocative and playful conceptual artist came to contemporary art through art history and experimental film, cutting his teeth as the art world was reaching its commercial zenith. His surreal and text-based work provides a kind of running commentary on contemporary-art culture that enables essentially valueless objects to command millions on the market, and forces you to ask what you think art really is. (T Magazine)
Carrie Mae Weems Photographed Spike Lee for the Cover of Time – Ahead of Lee’s film BlacKkKlansman that debuts Friday, the artist and 2013 MacArthur “Genius” Carrie Mae Weems has captured the filmmaker for Time‘s August 20th issue. The two collaborated before: prints from her iconic “Kitchen Table” series appear in a scene from his Netflix show She’s Gotta Have It. (TIME)
Art Critics on “Art Shaming” – The Observer talks to NYT critic Martha Schwendener and artnet News’s national art critic Ben Davis about Khloe Kardashian’s take on “art shaming,” after the reality star was mocked by her mother on TV for failing to recognize a work by Jeff Koons. For her part, Schwendener is not concerned that the art world is too elite. “If people want popular culture, or populist culture, our country and society are swimming in that,” she says. Davis thinks a little shame can go a long way if it prompts you to learn something new. (Observer) [Update: It turns out that the sculpture in question is not a Koons.]
Artist Withdraws Work From Anton Kern Show – Jamie Isenstein has pulled her two watercolors and a sculpture from a summer group show at Anton Kern Gallery in response to criticism around the show’s reference to a 1968 film The Party, where actor Peter Sellers is in brownface. Artists Ajay Kurian and Vijay Masharani critiqued the show, which was organized by the curator Ali Subotnick, in ARTnews. The two also specifically honed in on a quote about the film from Isenstein, calling her out for flattening Sellers’s racial caricature. (The Art Newspaper)
ART MARKET
Art Cologne Downsizes – The art fair will take place in two halls instead of its usual three in 2019, although organizers say this will not necessarily entail fewer participating galleries. Classical modernist and postwar art will be shown in one hall, while the young galleries in the Neumarkt sector will be lumped in with established galleries that sell contemporary art in the other. (Monopol)
EXPO Chicago Announces Special Programming – The artists taking part in EXPO Video, In/Situ, EXPO Sound, and In/Situ Outside at the 2018 edition of the fair have been announced. Highlights of the programs taking place between September 27 and 30 include In/Situ installations by Sam Durant, Judy Chicago, Bosco Sodi, and Oscar Murillo, plus outdoor work by Iván Navarro and Lawrence Weiner. (ARTnews)
New Health Photo Prize Launches – The Wellcome Trust charitable foundation has relaunched its international photography prize for images addressing issues of health, medicine, and science. With Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar hoping that powerful visual imagery can have an impact on the way the world reacts to health challenges, participants will address the global theme of “outbreaks” for the 2019 edition of the £15,000 ($19,000) prize. (Guardian)
Dealers in Last-Ditch Fight Against Ivory Ban – The British Antique Dealers’ Association took an ad out in the Antiques Trade Gazette asking others to join them in petitioning the government to increase the percentage of ivory permitted in antique objects exempt from the incoming ban on ivory trading, saying antiques “have no link to today’s poaching crisis.” The House of Lords is expected to debate the proposed bill on September 10. (Antiques Trade Gazette)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Baltimore Hires Three New Curators – The Baltimore Museum of Art has taken on Asma Naeem as chief curator, Virginia Anderson as its curator of American art, and Andaleeb Badiee Banta as senior curator of prints, drawings & photographs. The three join as the institution implements its new mission focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Art Daily)
Berkeley Museum Commissions Supergraphics Pioneer – Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, the Bay Area artist, graphic designer, and pioneer of the Supergraphics movement, has created a large-scale installation for the Berkeley Museum. The graphic mural wraps around the 63-by-30-foot and into the entrance of a nearby gallery. (Art Daily)
Walid Raad Wins €10,000 Prize – The biannual Aachen Art Prize 2018 goes to Lebanese artist Walid Raad, by a unanimous vote from the jury. The prize of €10,000 ($11,326) also comes with a solo exhibition at Aachen’s Ludwig Forum next year. (Monopol)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Backlash Mounts Against San Diego Museum’s Expansion – Some 75 architects have signed an open letter opposing the imminent $75 million expansion of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego because the plans include removing a postmodern façade and colonnade by the celebrated architects Venturi Scott Brown. The letter calls on that the museum “reconsider the value of its existing building.” The museum has defended the Selldorf Architects proposal, saying visitors have struggled to find the entrance under the current design, and specifying that although some element of the design will be removed, “the vast majority of the contribution will remain.” (Artforum)
Taiwan Unveils First Statue to “Comfort Women” – A bronze statue commemorating the forced prostitution of women during World War 2 by the Japanese military has been unveiled in Taiwan. The issue of the euphemistically termed “comfort women,” in Taiwan, South Korea, and other occupied nations, remains a point of tension between Seoul and Tokyo in particular. (Japan Times)
A Yayoi Kusama Movie Is Coming in September – The curtain is being raised on a spotty film in September, looking at the life, art, and legacy of Yayoi Kusama. “Kusama – Infinity” will be released on September 7 by Magnolia Pictures. (Hyperallergic Instagram)