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 Wednesday, October 27.
NEED-TO-READ
How Dasha Zhukova Reinvented Herself – Dasha Zhukova, the Russian-born philanthropist, collector, and entrepreneur, has embarked on a new art-inspired real estate venture with the inauguration of Ray, a development firm with a focus on cultural programming in residential buildings. Ray’s current projects include the reopening of the National Black Theater in Harlem and buildings in Philadelphia and Miami. The goal, she says, is to create “a new model for traditional industries to consider how they can impact people’s lives by inviting art and culture into the day-to-day environment.” (ARTnews)
David Lynch Gets on the NFT Train – The latest celebrity jumping on the NFT bandwagon is the famed film director and artist David Lynch. The Blue Velvet director is collaborating with Interpol (the New York band, not the international police) on a seven-part NFT series that will be sold on SuperRare. Seven unique NFT works will drop every two days for two weeks; the first is a short film called To Touch A Red Button Man. (Observer)
Will Princess Mako Join the New York Art World? – In a love story fit for a Netflix miniseries, Japan’s Princess Mako renounced her royal heritage to marry a commoner, the New York-based lawyer Kei Komuro. The couple’s next chapter may take place in the Big Apple. They’ll live off of Komuro’s salary at first because they turned down a $1.4 million royal dowry, but royal watchers wonder if the princess may take a job in the New York art world. She holds a master’s degree in art museum and gallery studies from the Britain’s University of Leicester and previously worked at a museum in Tokyo for five years. (New York Times)
Sam Francis’s Biographer on Art’s Boys Club – Author Gabrielle Selz, who has just completed the first full-length biography of American painter Sam Francis, explains why it was important for her, a 21st century woman, to write about a white male artist. Focusing on unknown women in the arts is not enough to make a difference in art’s boys club, she says: “Our ideas of greatness are based on fabulist creation stories mostly written by men. It is these ideas that need to be re-examined and questioned.” (Daily Beast)
MOVERS & SHAKERS
NFT Investor Meta4 Cleans Up at Sotheby’s Metaverse Sale – Sotheby’s latest “Natively Digital” sale, the first under the banner of its dedicated digital art platform Sotheby’s Metaverse, wrapped on Tuesday after nine days of bidding with a total of $18.6 million. The sale set a new auction record for a single Bored Ape as the newly launched investment firm Meta4 Capital (…get it?) picked up 8817 Ape by Bored Ape Yacht Club for $3.4 million. The firm also bought two more NFTs worth a combined $5.1 million. (Press release)
Frank Bowling to Receive the 2022 Wolfgang Hahn Prize – The London-based, Guyanese-born artist Frank Bowling has been named the winner of the 2022 Wolfgang Hahn Prize. The award will be presented on the eve of Art Cologne in 2022. As part of the prize, Bowling’s painting Flogging the Dead Donkey (2020) will be donated to the Museum Ludwig. It’s the first work by the artist to be acquired by a German public collection. (Artforum)
The Whitney Hands Over Andy Warhol Archive to MoMA – In a rare museum-to-museum transfer, the Whitney Museum of American Art is giving an expansive archive of Andy Warhol’s cinema to its uptown neighbor, the Museum of Modern Art. The move was to “ensure that information about his groundbreaking and now-iconic films will remain accessible to scholars,” said the Whitney’s director Adam Weinberg. (The Art Newspaper)
Kehinde Wiley Teams Up With Jeffrey Deitch for a Benefit Exhibition – The New York-based artist is curating “Self-Addressed,” an exhibition of self-portraits by contemporary African artists at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Los Angeles from November 6 to December 23. Proceeds will benefit Black Rock Senegal, Wiley’s artist-in-residence program in Dakar. (Press release)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Martin Margiela’s Art Comes to Paris – The famed “anti-fashion” Belgian designer has reinvented himself as a visual artist. His debut solo exhibition is on view now at Lafayette Anticipations, the Rem Koolhaas-designed foundation established by the family behind retail empire Galeries Lafayette. The show, which runs through January 2, features 20 sculptures, installations, collages, paintings, and films. (Press release)
VANITAS, an installation by Martin Margiela, is now on show at his debut art exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations. Courtesy of the artist and Lafayette Anticipations.