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 Tuesday, February 20.

NEED-TO-READ

Mark Bradford Unveils Epic New Body of Work – The artist’s latest paintings, on view at Hauser & Wirth in LA, are made of layered comic books and inspired by the classics he read as a child. The artist says that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman depict “civilization on steroids—and so it kind of fit with this moment.” (LA Times)

Inside Heatherwick’s Hudson Yards Tower – Now that Thomas Heatherwick’s giant staircase, Vessel, is nearing completion in Hudson Yards, the neighborhood’s billionaire property developer Stephen Ross has no doubt he picked the right man for the $150 million job. The British designer was up against Anish Kapoor and Jaume Plensa after Richard Serra declined. (New Yorker)

China Pushes for Harsh Punishment of Thumb Thief – Chinese officials are calling for “exemplary punishment” of the American man who allegedly stole a thumb from a Terracotta Warrior on loan to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, which organized the loans, could demand compensation and is sending experts to the US to assess the damage. (South China Morning Post)

Museum Invites Models to Speak About Araki – In the wake of the #metoo movement, New York’s Museum of Sex decided to include the voices of some of Nobuyoshi Araki’s models in its survey of the veteran Japanese photographer. Co-curator Maggie Mustard admits “there’s a lot to unpack” about the photographer-model relationship in his explicit work—particularly because Araki boasted of having sex with the women who posed for him. (Observer)

ART MARKET

COMINGS & GOINGS

Zaha Hadid-Designed Stadium to Open in Qatar – The late architect’s design for the Qatari stadium is on track to open later this year. The Al Wakrah stadium will be the 2022 World Cup venue and has the capacity to host 40,000 people. (Designboom)

Joan Mitchell Foundation Adds New Board Members – The nonprofit, which is dedicated to advancing artists’ careers through grants, residencies, and partnerships, has appointed arts administrator and curator Kemi Ilesanmi and artist and Hunter College professor Juan Sánchez to its board. (Artforum)

Hilma af Klint Foundation and the Moderna Museet Team Up – The two Swedish institutions have signed a long-term partnership agreement to ensure the continuous display of works by the pioneering abstract painter Hilma af Klint in Stockholm. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Toyin Ojih Odutola and Solange in Conversation – The Nigerian painter and performance artist talk shop in a conversation at the Noguchi Museum. Both seek to disrupt the white cube as a neutral space and strive to create a unique visual language in their work. Solange reveals that “the main issue I’ve encountered is the expectation of entertainment.” The images accompanying the article were shot by Awol Erizku, of Beyoncé Instagram fame. (Cultured Mag)

Debate Over Obama’s Portrait Reveals Americans’ Discomfort With Art – Seph Rodney examines why Kehinde Wiley’s painting of former President Obama has frustrated some Americans who were expecting a traditional presidential portrait and do not appreciate that contemporary painting has moved beyond pictorial realism. (NBC News)

Artist’s Burning Cathedral Stirs Controversy in Russia – A sculpture of a Gothic cathedral by artist Nikolay Polissky was immolated on Saturday at an artists’ commune south of Moscow as part of pre-Lenten carnival festivities. But the act is causing controversy after a video of the burning sculpture went viral. Some allege it targets Catholicism, while others believe it is fascist display of Russian nationalism. For the artist, however, “it is simply a bonfire built in the style of a Gothic building.” (The Art Newspaper)

National Portrait Gallery Shuts for Erdem Catwalk Show – Yesterday, visitors to London’s National Portrait Gallery—which typically welcomes around 5,000 people per day—were disappointed to find that the gallery had been closed by the fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu, who was using it as a catwalk. The publicly funded institution was rented out to offset funding cuts and generate revenue between exhibitions. (The Telegraph)