Plus, a closer look at security risks in the NFT market, and Tokyo launches an art week with backing from Art Basel.
Artnet News
ShareShare This Article
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 Thursday, August 26.
How Security Risks Threaten the NFT Market – Watch out, folks: Scammers and hackers are taking advantage of the NFT boom, targeting less-than-tech-savvy artists and collectors who aren’t aware of security risks inherent in crypto-trading. Common scams involve the sale of fake NFT artworks and the creation of fake trading platforms to steal credit card information. While there are new security measures in development, once you get scammed there is really no way to undo it. (Wall Street Journal)
Oh No, the Art World Has to Stop With the Canvas Bags – With the return of in-person art events comes, inevitably, the return of the branded tote bag. But a new report in the Times has revealed that the canvas bags once heralded as a solution to the environmental scourge that is plastic waste could just be adding to the overall environmental crisis. Cotton production is a water-intensive process, not to mention its association with forced labor. Plus, the final products are difficult to dispose of in low-impact environmental ways. Sorry, everyone. (New York Times)
A New Art Week Is Coming to Tokyo – The Japanese capital, which has been looking to attract players in the art business with new tax incentives, is planning an inaugural art week from November 4–7. Around 50 venues across the city, including the Mori Art Museum and Blum & Poe, will participate, with “support” from Art Basel. The fair denied it has any intention of launching a Tokyo edition. (Ocula)
San Diego Museum Unveils $55 Million Overhaul – San Diego’s Mingei International Museum, which highlights folk art and design, will reopen on September 3 after three years of renovations. The museum’s $55 million revamp will debut with eight new commissions that fuse the Japanese mingei tradition with technological advances in crafting. (TAN)
Hilma af Klint Show Closes After 14 Days – An exhibition of the groundbreaking occultist and painter Hilma af Klint at the Art Gallery of New South Wales has shuttered after just two weeks as Sydney enters another lockdown. With no imminent plans for the museum to reopen, the show’s 129 works are heading to their next stop at Wellington City Gallery in New Zealand. (Sydney Morning Herald)
New Entry Added to Future Library – Author Tsitsi Dangarembga will be the eighth author to add her work to the Future Library, an ambitious project by Scottish artist Katie Peterson. Dangarembga’s submission joins manuscripts by seven other authors, including Margaret Atwood and Karl Ove Knausgård, that will be kept unread in a wood-lined room until the year 2114. (Guardian)
Kanye West Painted Donda Vest Fetches $20,000 – While Kanye West fans have been impatiently waiting for his next studio album, Donda, to drop, a tactical vest that the recording artist reportedly wore at his August 5 listening party in Atlanta sold for $20,000 at the luxury consignment store Justin Reed. According to the store, the vest—which Ye is said to have hand-painted with the album title—was gifted to a security guard. A major auction house was reportedly in on the bidding process. (Complex)
