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 9.
NEED-TO-READ
Crooks Posing as City Workers Steal Street Art – Equipped with the vague authority that comes with wearing a high-vis jacket and carrying a ladder, two thieves removed around 15 works by street artist Invader from the streets of Paris last week. They told passersby they were working for city hall—where a formal complaint has now been filed against them. (Hyperallergic)
Pope.L Raises Funds to Bottle Flint Water – The artist is raising funds on Kickstarter for his newest project, Flint Water, a six-week installation wherein performers will bottle contaminated water from the Michigan city and sell it as art at Detroit gallery What Pipeline. Proceeds will go to organizations that deal with water issues in Motor City. (ARTnews)
Artists Commissioned for Battersea Station – The first commissions to create outdoor works for London’s Battersea Power Station development have been awarded. Jesse Wine will create works inspired by Henry Moore’s reclining figures, while Haffendi Anuar will produce a site-specific series of columns. (Guardian)
L.A. Awards $3 Million to Cultural Nonprofits – Over the course of the next year, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs will give that much money in grants to some 258 organizations and festival producers. LACMA, the A+D Museum, and the Hammer Museum are among the beneficiaries. (Press release)
ART MARKET
Western-Themed Art Auctions Find Eager Buyers – Following the annual Coeur d’Alene Auction, which brought in $16 million in sales and had a 95 percent sell-through rate, Bonhams held a $2.27 million sale of California and Western Art on August 1. The top lot was a painting by Edgar Payne, which sold for $223,000. (Art Market Monitor)
Frieze Names Curatorial Advisors for New York – SculptureCenter’s Ruba Katrib and the Hepworth Wakefield’s Andrew Bonacina have been announced as the new curatorial advisors for Frieze New York’s Frame section, which is dedicated to young galleries. (Press release)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale Foundation Gets New President – The role has been given to comedian and actor Luca Bizzarri, a local celebrity whose lack of experience in the museum world is raising eyebrows. The Italian venue made headlines last month when 21 paintings suspected to be fakes were seized from its Modigliani exhibition. (Il Secolo XIX)
Participants in Ghetto Biennale Announced – Opening in November in Port-au-Prince, this year’s edition of the Haitian Ghetto Biennale, launched in 2009, will focus on mapping the city’s diverse cultural production, with works by international participants including Alberto Danelli, Raul Martinez, and Humberto Figueroa. (Biennial Foundation)
Duane Michals Gets German Photo Association Award – The American autodidact will be awarded the association’s prestigious Culture Prize, awarded annually since 1959, in a ceremony in Cologne on October 21. (Monopol)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Cara Delevingne Took a Figure-Drawing Class – As part of a promotional tour for her latest film, the model and actress tested her skills at Tribeca’s New York Academy of Art for a video with Derek Blasberg. Turns out, Delevingne has a knack for drawing male genitalia, which she doodles when asked for autographs. (Vanity Fair)
Germany’s New Photography Biennial Is a Steal – The first edition of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie (Biennial for Contemporary Photography), launching across three German cities—Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg—on September 9, has announced that visitors can pay what they wish at its seven exhibition sites. The recommended fee is €7. (Monopol)
Hirshhorn to Fête Yoko Ono With One-Night Performance – On September 17, a concert featuring an all-women lineup including Kim Gordon, Gang Gang Dance’s Lizzi Bougatsos, and Moor Mother will be held at the D.C. museum in honor of Ono’s pioneering work in sound and performance art. (Press release)
JR’s Work Crosses the Atlantic by Sea – A work by the street artist and photographer will serve as the sail of a 60-foot yacht when it races from France to Brazil in November. (Hyperallergic)