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, November 14.

NEED-TO-READ

Moscow Plans a Mega-Museum Storage Facility – The reserve collection of Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery and 26 other institutions are due to be housed in a vast storage center and exhibition space that will soon be under construction. The complex in the suburbs of the Russian capital will be larger than the Winter Palace that houses St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. The mayor of Moscow announced that construction is due to start in 2020. The complex, which is called Kommunarka, is on the site of one of Stalin’s killing fields from the 1930s. (The Art Newspaper)

New Software Tracks Art Museums’ Gender Inequality – A Spanish nonprofit is developing software that will reveal the gender bias of art museums. Mujeres en las Artes Visuales’s software has the potential to be a game-changer, showing how much money museums are spending on works by female artists compared to those by men. It will also compare how much space is dedicated to works by female artists and how long they are on display. The president of MAV, María José Magaña, told El Pais that she hopes museums will use it as a tool for self-improvement. (ARTnews)

Why the Must-Have Accessory for 2019 Is a Curator Boyfriend – It’s time for the previous celeb boyfriend archetypes—Banker, Silicon Valley Tech Guy, Artist/Freelance Videographer/Professional Plant Owner—to step aside. A curator boyfriend is now king of the dating pool, according to Elle magazine. The mag analyzes the art-bro phenomenon, providing a handy list of alpha-male curators ideal for Hollywood’s A-list singletons (and wannabes). The takeaway is clear: if you want to be the plus-one of a female celeb, you need to know your way around the art market. A Curator Boyfriend, the magazine notes, “is in touch with his emotions but also cares about wider social, geopolitical and cultural issues.” (Elle)

Looted Sculpture Will Be the First to Return to China’s Old Summer Palace – A Macau-based billionaire has donated to China a bronze horse’s head looted from the Old Summer Palace. Stanley Ho bought the sculpture in 2007 and publicly displayed it in Hong Kong and Macao. He has now decided to donate it to China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration, which has put it on display in Beijing. It joins six other zodiac heads looted by the British and French in 1860 that have already been reclaimed by China. The horse’s head will be the first to return to the palace. Five are still missing. (Xinhau)

ART MARKET

Amoako Boafo Nabs Rubell Residency – The Austria-based, Ghana-born painter has been named as the first artist-in-residence at the forthcoming expanded Rubell Museum. The collectors’ new Miami space is due to open on December 4. Boafo—creates vivid portraits of black people living in his adopted hometown—is represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery of Chicago and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. (ARTnews)

Allison Janae Hamilton Now Repped by Marianne Boesky – New York-based artist, whose multidisciplinary work revolves around the history of the American South, land, and the environment, has joined Marianne Boesky gallery. She will have her first solo show at one of the gallery’s Chelsea spaces in the fall of 2020. (Art Daily)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Prix Pictet Announces Winner – The Ivorian photographer Joana Choumali has won the eighth edition of the $100,000 Prix Pictet, arguably the most important photography award in the world. This cycle of the award was themed around “hope,” and Choumali was nominated for her series “Ça va aller (it will be okay),” captured three weeks after the Grand-Bassam terrorist attacks on the Ivory Coast in 2016. She is the prize’s first African winner. (Press release) 

Whitney Museum Acquires 88 Works by Biennial Artists – New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art has acquired 88 works by 40 artists who were featured in this year’s biennial. They are among 250 works the museum has added to the collection since April. The biennial acquisitions include a piece by Eddie Arroyo, one of the eight artists who asked to remove their works from the show in protest of controversial trustee Warren B. Kanders before he stepped down. (TAN)

Denver Art Museum Announces Campus Opening – The Denver Art Museum has announced it will be opening three new floors of art galleries, public and education spaces, as well as a restaurant and café in its $150 million, Gio Ponti-renovated Martin Building in June 2020. The June reopening will be the first of several phased openings, with the aim of inaugurating the full Martin Building to the public by the end of 2021 in time for DAM’s 50th anniversary. (Press release)

Paul Hamlyn Foundation Announces Awards – The UK-based Paul Hamlyn Foundation has announced the 10 recipients of its awards for artists, which provides visual artists and composers with £60,000 ($77,000), no strings attached, over three years. The five visual artist winners are: Larry Achiampong; Phoebe Boswell; Adam Christensen; Harold Offeh; and Ingrid Pollard. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Rhode Island Design School Opens a Color Lab – The Rhode Island School of Design has opened a new space for interdisciplinary research on the study of color called the Color Lab. The center is dedicated to educating students and faculty on the history, material dimensions, scientific properties, and cultural significance of color. (Press release)

A $15 Million Fund Will Support the Restitution of African Art – The New York-based Open Society Foundation has announced $15 million in grants to support the return of African art looted during the colonial era. Recipients will include African lawyers, archivists, and museum directors working towards restitution of objects in Europe and the US. (Press release)

Solange Debuts a New Visual Art Series at the Getty Center – Solange is officially unveiling her new visual art series, Bridge-s, over two days this weekend, but the artist treated VIPs including Tyler, The Creator, Dev Hynes (AKA Blood Orange), and Thundercat to a special preview on Monday. The series of performances, films, and talks explores the theme of “transitions through time” and includes a new site-specific performance choreographed by Gerard & Kelly as part of their “Modern Living” series, scored with original music composed by Solange and performed by Cooper-Moore. (Press release)

Solange Knowles speaks as she debuts a new site-specific performance “Bridge-s” at Getty Center Museum on Nov. 11, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

Solange debuts a new site-specific performance “Bridge-s” at Getty Center Museum on Nov. 11, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

Solange debuts a new site-specific performance “Bridge-s” at Getty Center Museum on Nov. 11, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)