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, June 30.

NEED-TO-READ

Jerry Saltz Calls For More New, Radical Art – In an essay for New York magazine, critic Jerry Saltz discusses how the art world is failing to present new types of art. He urges resistence to the current system, calling for everyone to collectively “fix it and make something.” (New York)

Inside Alejandro Iñárritu’s VR Room at LACMA – The award-winning director’s virtual reality installation, “Carne y Arena,” at LACMA immerses visitors in the world of Latin American migrants who risk their lives and freedom to cross the US-Mexico border. (LA Times)

Kate Middleton’s Art History Degree Comes In Handy – The Duchess of Cambridge studied art history at the University of St. Andrew’s, and she got a chance to revisit her passion for the subject at this week’s opening at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum’s Exhibition Road Quarter. (Architectural Digest)

See the Work of Art Star Pope.L in a Different Light – In the artist’s current show at New York’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery, 18 “Proto-Skin Set” paintings are on view, which highlight a different series that Pope.L began in the late 1980s or early ’90s. (New York Times)

ART MARKET

Phillips Makes a Strong Showing at June Contemporary Auctions – With Christie’s skipping June auctions in London, both Phillips and Bonhams had a chance to make strides—which they did. Bonhams took a total of £7.1 milion ($9.2 million), and Phillips even set a record with a Wolfgang Tillmans work, sold for £605,000 ($780,450). (artnet News)

TEFAF Releases Art Market Report Focused on Online Sales – The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht is looking at their online market in addition to the annual Art Market Report they released in March; the data confirms noticeable trends, including the fact that online purchases account for 8 percent of all art auctions. (The Art Newspaper)

Dadiani Gallery Is the First British Gallery to Accept Cryptocurrency – The London gallery, which opened in 2014, will be the first British gallery to accept BitCoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Ripple, Litecoin, and Dash, marking these currencies’ introduction into the British art market. (Press release)

LA’s Dem Passwords Gallery Moves to Ojai Valley – Dem Passwords, which was established in late 2010, has already changed locations four times in the past. With this move, they are relocating to Ojai Valley, a rural neighborhood in Ventura Country, California. (ARTnews)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Beatrice von Bormann Named Curator at Stedelijk Museum – The Dutch art historian will specialize in art produced between 1860–1960 at the Amsterdam museum. She had previously served as Head of Collections and curator at Museum der Moderne Salzburg since 2014. (Artdaily.com)

Heinz Mack Awarded Medal of Tolerance – The 86-year-old German artist and ZERO-Group co-founder was honored with the Moses Mendelssohn medal on Thursday for his artistic engagement with the fates of victims of fascism. (Berlin Morgenpost)

Terra Foundation Awards $2.5 Million in Grants – The American foundation announced yesterday that it has given 33 grants totaling $2.5 million to 31 organizations who are developing projects specifically for Art Design Chicago, which is a year-long initiative scheduled for 2018. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE 

Lucio Fontana’s Environments Will Be Reproduced for Milan Show – The non-profit foundation Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan is slated to host a fall exhibition dedicated to Fontana’s “environments.” Included in the reconstruction are works originally shown at the Walker Art Center in 1966 and Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum in 1967. (The Art Newspaper)

Russian Artist Arrested in Moscow for Wearing VR Headset – Artist Ekaterina Nenasheva was arrested earlier this month for her refusal to remove a virtual reality headset, which she was using as a tool to document images of Moscow for her ongoing project “Between Here and There.” (Artforum)

Are Galleries Now the Best Spots to Rave? – A lengthy article in The Guardian argues yes, citing the rise in parties held in LA at the Broad, LA MoCA, and LACMA, as well as in New York at MoMA PS1, which are “curated” by their own teams. (The Guardian)

Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Honors Five Americans – Madeleine Albright, David Ho, Bill T. Jones, Spike Lee, and Rita Moreno will all receive the Portrait of a Nation prize this November at the museum’s second biennial. All five have their portraits already hanging in the museum collection. (Press release)

Bill T. Jones by Robert Mapplethorpe (1985). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.