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 Friday, February 8.

NEED-TO-READ

The Artist Behind TIME’s New Cover – Adorning the cover of TIME’s new “Optimists” issue is a painting by the South African artist Nelson Makamo, whose work often deals with young children from his country’s rural areas who aren’t yet worn down by life’s hardships. Called Visions of a Limitless Future, the portrait was modeled on the artist’s 11-year-old cousin. Makamo says that discovering African artists made him fall in love with art, but now that he has gained international recognition he doesn’t think of himself in the same way. “That’s one of the exciting developments I’ve seen in the art world since I started,” he tells TIME. “There’s no longer really that line between the South American Artist, the European Artist, the African Artist.” (TIME)

Alicja Kwade Wins the Met’s Roof Commission – The Berlin-based artist will mount two abstract sculptures in an installation titled ParaPivot on the Met’s roof garden this summer. Kwade says the sculptures, set into large metal frames, will act as “a kind of planetary system” when the go on view April 16 through October 27. Met director Max Hollein says the site “presents a compelling site for Kwade, whose works offer an expansive view of the history of art and science.” Previously the Polish-born artist made time stand still in Central Park. (New York Times)

Glasgow to “Sell” Its Zaha Hadid-Designed Museum – Glasgow Council is selling off major venues including its Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum, and leasing them back in order to finance £548 million ($709 million) in claims for equal pay from thousands of women going back decades. Other buildings being mortgaged include Glasgow Museums’ open store, and a Norman Foster-designed hall. The council’s leader Susan Aitkin says the deal, which is expected to cost the city around £25 million ($32 million) a year for the foreseeable future, “starts to put right a wrong that has damaged the council, its workforce and the city for too long.” Claims will begin to be settled this summer. (Guardian)

Curator Philipp Kaiser Joins Marian Goodman Gallery – The museum veteran has been appointed chief executive director of artists and programs at Marian Goodman Gallery. The former Museum Ludwig director, who organized the Swiss pavilion in the Venice Biennale in 2017, has swapped the nonprofit public work for private work, and will oversee exhibitions at the gallery’s spaces in New York, Paris, and London. (ARTnews)

ART MARKET

Zona Maco Opens with Strong Sales – Dealers are selling middle-market works well at the art fair in Mexico City in spite of the new economic policies introduced by Mexico’s new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Gallerists at the 16th edition of the fair say its too early to know how the new initiatives will impact the art market. (The Art Newspaper)

Artcurial to Sell Famed French Collection – The Paris auction house is selling sculptures from the Fernand Lafarge collection as part of its Old Masters & 19th-century art sale on March 27. Some 60 works by artists including Clodion, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Aristide Maillol will be hitting the block. (Press release)

Ex-Christie’s President Joins LiveAuctioneers – Brook Hazelton is the new advisory board chairman of LiveAuctioneers. Christie’s ex-president for North and South America, he is a former Global CEO of Phillips. (Artfix Daily)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Brooklyn Museum Curator Discovers an African Costume Is Stolen – An intrepid curator at the Brooklyn Museum traveled to Nigeria to discover the origins of a Yorùbá costume. Kristen Windmuller-Luna learned that it had been stolen in 1948 but elders still gave their blessing to it going on display. “Persistence is always so important,” she says as she continues her research. (The Art Newspaper)

Diller and Scofidio Win the Royal Academy’s Architecture Prize – Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio of Broad Museum and High Line fame, have been awarded the 2019 Royal Academy Architecture Prize. Up and coming architects shortlisted for the RA’s Dorfman Award are: Fernanda Canales (Mexico); Alice Casey and Cian Deegan, TAKA (Ireland); Mariam Kamara, Atelier Masomi (Niger) and, Boonserm Premthada of Bangkok Project Studio. (Press release)

Jerwood Gallery Splits With its Founder – The Jerwood Gallery opened seven years ago by the Jerwood Foundation in the English seaside town of Hastings but now it is splitting from its wealthy benefactor. While the foundation plans to recall its collection of Modern British art and tour it across the UK, the flagship gallery is choosing a new name. (Museums Journal)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Pontormo’s Visitation Is the Getty’s Real Guest Star – Tom Hill’s Pontormo painting of a young man that London’s National Gallery badly wanted to buy has grabbed the headlines, but the star loan in Getty’s show is The Visitation. The Getty has conserved the Italian artist’s altarpiece, which rarely leaves a small church near Florence. (Los Angeles Times)

Opioid Spoon Comes to Rhode Island – Artist-activist Domenic Esposito has taken his Opioid Spoon Project to the Rhode Island campus of a Perdue Pharma owned company called Rhodes Pharmaceuticals. The artist first used his solid aluminum spoon to draw attention to the big-pharma scandal at Perdue’s HQ in Connecticut.(Press release)

Joel Mesler Releases His New Movie With Kenny Schachter – After a few tantalizing teasers earlier this week, the founder of East Hampton’s Rental gallery has now released the full film promoting upcoming booth at the inaugural edition of Felix in Los Angeles. The previews, affectionately called “Kenny & Me,” star both Mesler and Kenny Schachter as themselves, being the collaborating dynamo that they are. In a recent column on artnet News, Schachter, whose art output is represented by Mesler, referred to the gallerist as the “younger version of” himself. We are looking forward to what they cook up this time. (Press release)

KENNY & ME from Cultural Counsel on Vimeo.