From the New California Gallery Rush to Snoop Dogg’s Bored Ape Snub: The Best and Worst of the Art World This Week

Catch up on this week's news, fast.

Snoop Dogg performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022 in Inglewood, California. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation.

BEST?

Holbein on the Mind –  The Morgan Library’s new Hans Holbein exhibition offers the rare chance to get to know the artist’s wondrous paintings in the U.S. 

The Wunderkind Dealer – Is 26-year-old L.A. gallerist Matthew Brown the breakout star of Frieze L.A.? Wet Paint’s Annie Armstrong gives the lowdown

A Long-Awaited Symbol of Resistance – At St. Paul’s in London, Nigerian-born artist Victor Ehikhamenor has installed an artwork that memorializes the 1897 sacking and looting of Benin City.

Famous Faces at Frieze L.A. – Sarah Cascone went on the lookout for Hollywood superstars, both friendly and wary, at Los Angeles’s marquee art event.

The Morgan Library’s Lost Visionary – This week, the Art Angle podcast delves into the life and legacy of Belle da Costa Greene, the Black art visionary who secretly built the Morgan Library.

Liz Larner Takes New York – With an incredible 30-year retrospective at Sculpture Center, Pac Pobric talks to the L.A. artist about her elusive and extraordinary sculptures.

Macklowe Glow – The star-studded Macklowe Collection returns to Sotheby’s this May for an encore performance.

Art Meets Politics – Ai Weiwei’s new exhibition “The Liberty of Doubt” at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge blends political truth with counterfeit art-making for a complex narrative

Go West, Dealers! – East Coast dealers are heading to L.A. in the art world equivalent of a California Gold Rush.

 

WORST?

Bogus Basquiats? – A Florida museum claims to be exhibiting hitherto unknown Basquiat works, but some experts say they’re not the real deal. (Hint: one work incorporates a Fed-Ex label that didn’t debut until six years after the artist’s death.)

No Stopping Picasso NFTs – Marina Picasso says she will continue to make NFTs of her grandfather’s work with her DJ son, despite familial backlash.

Renewed Pleas – North American officials are urging the Cuban government to release artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who has been detained for months without a trial. The artist has launched a hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment.

POC Arts Organizations Fight for Survival – A report published by Hue Arts NYC underscores the struggles faced by these organizations in New York City.

Outrage in Berlin – Leading European artists and museum directors are criticizing the funding of a new Berlin art center and its ties to the controversial figure of Walter Smerling.

Snoop Dashes NFT Superbowl Dreams– Bored Ape Yacht Club fans were eagerly awaiting an onstage shoutout from Snoop Dogg or Eminem but it never came.

Oh Shit! – Archaeologists have discovered the ancient Romans used certain terracotta pots as porta-potties.


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