News
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05/14/2010
Get a haircut! SF-based non-profit spearheading natural fiber recycling initiative to help oil spill cleanup.
From NPR: Workers in the Gulf of Mexico are using oil containment booms to sop up oil and protect coastlines from the approaching slick. Commercial booms are usually made of plastic. But an alternative source for the booms is found on the floor of salons across the country. As it turns out, hair adheres to oil pretty efficiently, which is why your hair gets greasy. Now salons are donating their discarded locks to help with the Gulf Coast cleanup. Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based group has been producing hair booms for nearly a decade now, made from nylon stockings stuffed with human hair and trimmed animal fur.
Full story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126536482
See also: "Gulf Spill May Far Exceed Estimates" at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126809525
For more info and ways to volunteer: http://www.matteroftrust.org/
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05/14/2010
Check out: Chinese artist Zhang Huan's monumental sculpture installed at the Civic Center.
From the LA Times: This week, Zhang flew into town from Shanghai for the dedication ceremony for "Three Heads, Six Arms": a 15-ton, two-story tall sculpture, considered the artist's largest to date, which has been installed in the plaza in front of City Hall. The San Francisco Arts Commission brought the work to town as part of its public art program and as a way of promoting a "sister city" alliance with Shanghai.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-zhanghuan-20100514,0,5937471.story
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05/13/2010
Bice Curiger named visual arts director for the 54th Venice Biennale.
From the Art Newspaper: Swiss curator Bice Curiger has been named as the visual arts director of the the 54th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, to be held in 2011. A graduate of the University of Zurich, Bice Curiger is an art historian, critic, and curator. Since 1993, she has been curator at the Zurich Kunsthaus. Bice Curiger is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Parkett, published in Zurich and New York since 1984; since 2004, she has also been publishing director of the Tate etc magazine produced by London’s Tate Gallery.
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05/12/2010
Check out article by Matthew Collings on Tate Modern's Tenth Anniversary.
From Modern Painters: "More than the Turner Prize and Charles Saatchi’s succession of private galleries, Tate Modern stands for a change in art’s status in U.K. society, its movement from the margins to the center. It’s not so much that contemporary art is now loved, as the educated used to love Piero della Francesca and Pierre Bonnard. Instead ordinary Brits have a relationship to it of alienated fascination. They want to absorb its lurid buzz."
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34332/happy-anniversary-tate-modern/?page=1
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05/12/2010
SFAI confirms President's departure; Bratton will take on dual position at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The San Francisco Art Institute announced yesterday that President Chris Bratton will resign effective Summer 2010. President Bratton has accepted a dual position as Deputy Director at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and President of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During his six-and-a-half-year tenure at SFAI, he presided over the expansion of SFAI’s curricular structure into its current form: the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and the School of Studio Practice. However, another legacy will be the controversial lay-offs of several faculty last year, opposed by many students, faculty, and alumni.
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05/11/2010
SFMOMA announces four architectural firms as finalists for design of expansion.
From SFMOMA's website: SFMOMA has selected Adjaye Associates, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Foster + Partners, and Snøhetta as finalists following a comprehensive international search for an architectural firm to partner with the museum to expand and improve its current facilities. The expansion will triple the museum's gallery and public spaces and showcase the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. The expansion will encompass additional gallery space and interior enhancements in the museum's Third Street building, and an extension with presence on Howard Street that will connect to the back of the existing museum along the southern facade.
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05/10/2010
California will face deep budget cuts; Schwarzenegger to release updated budget plan Friday.
From SF Gate: The governor is scheduled to release an updated budget plan Friday that will probably include even deeper cuts than those he proposed in January, when he called for reductions in health and human services, prisons, education and state worker pay, among other areas. Unexpected gains in state revenues that leaders hoped would significantly cut the deficit evaporated in the last few weeks. State Controller John Chiang reported Friday that revenues coming into state coffers from personal and corporate taxes fell $3.6 billion short of what was projected in April, the month when the bulk of revenues are collected.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/10/MNP71DBAHA.DTL
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05/08/2010
Take note Kaiser Permanente: Brooklyn hospital swaps health care for art.
From Wallet Pop: Among the sacrifices many artists make in pursuit of their passion is health care; it's simply too expensive for those struggling to live off of their creativity. However, Woodhull Hospital in the New York City borough of Brooklyn has come up with an ingenious plan to address this problem; allowing artists of all types to swap their art for health care. The artists provide a wide range of imaginative services; for each hour they devote to helping the hospital, they earn enough credits to pay for two medical visits. (Thanks to Theo Auer for this post.)
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/02/brooklyn-hospital-swaps-health-care-for-art/
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05/07/2010
Chris Bratton resigns as President of the San Francisco Art Institute.
An unnamed source confirmed to Art Practical yesterday that Chris Bratton, who has served as President of the San Francisco Art Institute since 2003, has resigned to take a position at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Bratton, a video artist, had previously served the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as dean and as chair of film and video department. During his tenure at SFAI, Bratton expanded the academic programs, and added several notable faculty, including Okwui Enwezor (2005-2009) and Hou Hanru. He was also at the center of the controversial layoffs of several tenured faculty, ostensibly due to budgetary constraints. No further details are available at this moment about Bratton's date of departure or an interim replacement.
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05/06/2010
Check out the interview with Red76 on Daily Serving, in conjuntion with CCA Curatorial Studies thesis exhibition.
Opening Thursday, May 6th, "We have as much time as it takes" is the final thesis exhibition of the Curatorial Practice program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The interview with Red76 was conducted for the exhibition catalog. It is the first in a series of interviews to be published at Daily Serving with artists from the exhibition. Red76 is a multi-artist collective founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2000.
The catalog is available as a free downloadable pdf at www.wattis.org/whamtait.
http://dailyserving.com/2010/05/we-have-as-much-time-as-it-takes-interview-with-red76/
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05/05/2010
Picasso's 1932 painting, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," sets record for any art sold at auction.
From NYTimes Artsbeat Blog: Whatever the state of the global economy, there’s always a ton of discretionary cash floating around looking for some place to land. Tuesday night at Christie’s a chunk of it — $106.5 million to be exact — landed on a Picasso painting called “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” setting the record for any art sold anywhere at auction up till now. Despite the high figure, the event feels a bit ho-hum. These days, there’s so much money in so many hands, and so many of those hands are after trophy art, that record-breaking has become routine, de rigueur.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/so-what-about-this-record-setting-picasso/
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05/05/2010
The alternative reality of hedge funds and auction houses, or "Why works make records in a recession."
From the Art Newspaper: While economists are quick to point to signs of recovery, the recession is by no means over. Perhaps part of the answer lies in who exactly is suffering in this downturn. While the homeless proliferate, and the middle-classes buckle down, the wealthiest seem to thrive. A recent list of the top hedge-fund managers revealed that 25 earned over $25bn, yet pay some of the lowest tax rates in the US. If just a couple decided to dress up their walls, the auction prices would again soar.
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05/03/2010
Los Angeles Mayor Anthoty Villaraigosa backs down from his plan to cut city's arts grants.
From the LA Times: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has backed away from his controversial plan to cut the city’s arts grants by $415,000 and give the money to four other cultural organizations he picked himself. Ben Ceja, deputy mayor for budget and finance, asked the budget and finance committee to restore the $415,000 to the Department of Cultural Affairs budget. Restoring the money to the $2.7-million arts grants program would mean that 35 organizations already approved through the standard application process in which panels of experts review and score each proposal will not lose their grants; 271 others would avoid 7% to 15% cuts.
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05/03/2010
Michelle Kuo has been named the new editor-in-chief of Artforum; Tim Griffin to become editor at large.
From Artforum: After seven years as editor in chief of Artforum International, Tim Griffin is leaving that post to become editor at large of the publication. As editor at large, Griffin will organize symposia and book projects, and will produce a special issue of the magazine in autumn 2011; he is also completing a volume of his own critical writing on contemporary art. Griffin will be succeeded by Michelle Kuo, who has been a senior editor at Artforum since March 2008. Kuo, a Ph.D. candidate in the history of art and architecture at Harvard University, has also contributed to many publications and to exhibition catalogues.
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05/01/2010
The newly renovated Oakland Museum of California reopens its doors with a 31-hour long celebration, May 1 and 2.
The newly transformed Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opens Saturday, May 1, with 31 hours of continuous, round-the-clock free programs and events until 6 p.m. Sunday, May 2. The festivities begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 1, on the street in front of the new Oak Street entrance with a Native American Ohlone blessing, a marching band, Project Bandaloop performing a spectacular aerial dance, and more.
For full schedule of events: http://museumca.org/calendar/opening-weekend-celebration
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05/01/2010
A municipal employee "castrates" statues in Brussels; states concern over exposure for nearby schoolchildren.
From Artforum: "A municipal employee has been 'castrating' statues at an art academy in greater Brussels. The unnamed employee castrated five statues at the city’s Académie des beaux-arts because he felt that the statues, all of which are copies of male nudes from antiquity, were obscene. After cutting away the stone genitalia, the employee then remolded the area into a small bump on the statues. One schoolgirl reportedly called the employee the 'emasculator.' Since the damage was discovered, the employee claims that he had intended to 'repair' the statues by reattaching heads and other missing members and ended up removing the genitalia with 'ease.'”
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04/30/2010
The Critical Sources Workshop, originally scheduled for May 1 and May 8, has been postponed.
Co-hosted by The Lab and Art Practical, Part II and III of the 3-part workshop will now be held in mid-September 2010. Bill Berkson, Clark Buckner, Whitney Chadwick, and Kevin Killian will remain the featured speakers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may create, and look forward to your participation in the fall.
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04/28/2010
The artists have been announced for the Sixth Berlin Biennale, which runs June 6 to August 8.
Curated by Kathrin Rhomberg, the Sixth Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is organized by the KW Institue for Contemporary Art and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. The venues include KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Alte Nationalgalerie, and in Berlin-Kreuzberg: Oranienplatz 17, Dresdener Straße 19, Kohlfurter Straße 1, and Mehringdamm 28.
For more details on events and programs: http://bb6.berlinbiennial.de/index.php?lang=en
For the full list of artists: http://artforum.com/news/
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04/26/2010
The 53rd annual San Francisco International Film Festival is underway.
Now through May 6, the San Francisco Film Society presents the 53rd annual International Film Festival. The longest running film festival in the Americas, the SFIFF features some 150 films and live events with more than 100 filmmakers in attendance and nearly two dozen awards presented for cinematic excellence. The Festival attracts an annual audience of more than 80,000.
To see flim listings and buy tickets:http://www.sffs.org/sf-intl-film-festival.aspx
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04/26/2010
Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, the first great international collector of postwar American art, died Friday at 87.
Read Christoper Knight's recollection in the LA Times of the interviews he conducted with Panza about his "life as a collector of some of the most significant art produced since the mid-1950s."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/04/giuseppe-panza-di-biumo-an-appreciation.html
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