News
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03/16/2012
Hammer Museum and LAXArt announce Made in LA 2012 artists and the Mohn Prize
from the LA Times: The Hammer Museum announced on Wednesday a new $100,000 award to a Los Angeles artist participating in its first biennial, Made in L.A. And, in a popular voting process familiar from reality TV, the winner will be chosen by people who see the exhibition, after a jury of art experts narrows the choice to five finalists.
The museum is also releasing its list of artists selected for the new biennial. Anne Ellegood and Ali Subotnick from the Hammer, working in partnership with Lauri Firstenberg, Cesar Garcia and Malik Gaines from LAX Art, have chosen 60 "emerging and under-recognized" artists from the L.A. area for the show, which runs June 2 to Sept. 2. Most of the 60 artists will be showing their work (or in some case performing) at the Hammer Museum, with others at the L.A. Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park.
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03/14/2012
San Francisco–based artist Eric William Carroll has won the Baum Photo Award.
from Artforum: "Eric William Carroll has been given the 2012 Baum Award for an Emerging American Photographer. The award includes a solo exhibition of his work at San Francisco Camerawork and a ten-thousand-dollar grant from the Baum Foundation. The San Francisco–based artist has previously shown at spaces including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Camera Club of New York."
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03/13/2012
Korean artist Choi Jeon Hwa's "Breathing Flower," a monumental red lotus flower with motorized petals, will take root in San Francisco's Civic Center plaza on May 18, coinciding with the artist's exhibition at the Asian Art Museum.
from The Huffington Post: "Timed to coincide with the Asian Art Museum's Phantoms of Asia exhibition, Civic Center Plaza will soon play host to Korean artist Choi Jeon Hwa's Breathing Flower sculpture--a 24-foot tall, bright red recreation of a lotus flower with motorized petals set up to open and close throughout the course of the day."
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03/13/2012
A survey published in a Finnish newspaper has revealed that 75 percent of Helsinki's inhabitants are against the construction of a new Guggenheim in their city.
from ARTINFO: "The project, which would cost an estimated €140 million ($184 million) to build and require more than €14.5 million ($19 million) running costs per year, is seen as inappropriate by the practical Finns, considering the city's economic situation. Helsinki has until the end of April to announce an official decision."
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03/12/2012
The city of New Orleans has selected a sculpture that will be reproduced around the city to mark evacuation spots, or places where people can gather to be transported out of town in case of a mandatory evacuation.
from the Los Angeles Times: "The sculpture, created by artist Douglas Kornfeld of Massachusetts, features the outline of a human form with a single arm raised. The Arts Council of New Orleans said that the artist will be paid $200,000 to create 17 sculptures to mark neighborhood pickup points. The project is a partnership between the city's Percent for Art Program and the volunteer group Evacuteer.org. The pickup points are designated by New Orlean's City Assisted Evacuation Plan, which is intended to help those who lack the ability to self-evacuate."
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03/09/2012
New York art dealer David Zwirner will open a new gallery in London in October with an exhibition of new works by Luc Tuymans.
from the New York Times: "Some would say that David Zwirner’s rapid gallery expansion is Gagosian envy. Others would simply call it a way to serve better a growing roster of artists, which includes Doug Wheeler, Marlene Dumas, Jason Rhoades and Neo Rauch. Mr. Zwirner is poised to open a second space in New York, just a block from his West 19th Street gallery in Chelsea. And by October he will have a major presence in London. 'I have many careers to worry about,' Mr. Zwirner said."
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03/08/2012
A coalition of 68 artist groups in Canada is seeking to change new copyright legislation before it heads to Parliament, arguing that the bill favors consumers so much that it will unfairly deprive artists of income.
from The Globe and Mail: "'It’s never happened before that in copyright you have so many people signing off on a decision,' said Alain Pineau, national director of the CCA, which spearheaded the coalition. 'The government may not like what it is hearing, but you can’t say we are all over the map'... the artists argue that the bill’s exemption for user-generated content is written so broadly musicians would not be able to license their music for third-party YouTube videos in the way they are currently doing in the United States, thus depriving them of potential income."
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03/08/2012
The self-taught photographer Paul Graham has become the first British recipient of the coveted Hasselblad Prize, given annually in recognition of major achievements in photography.
from the Guardian: "Graham, who had a major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in London last year, is a self-taught photographer. He was born in Buckinghamshire and discovered photography through the books of great American pioneers like Robert Frank, Walker Evans and Paul Strand...Graham first garnered critical acclaim with his early documentary work, including A1 – The Great North Road (1983) , a series shot in colour along the British motorway, and Beyond Caring (1985), which was shot in unemployment offices."
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03/07/2012
Guards rushed in shortly before the opening of an exhibition of feminist art in China to demand the removal of two paintings by artist Lan Jiny.
from the New York Times: "Feminist art in China, a country where very few women dare say they are feminists for fear of social ostracism, is still a tiny phenomenon. But, in fact, the show on Saturday didn’t need the censorship to have an impact. The artist’s actions were dramatic enough. And what they said was: The world’s attention may be transfixed by a handful of female Chinese billionaires, but the true situation of the country’s 653 million women is parlous."
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03/07/2012
Australian duo Ken and Julia Yonetani have designed a set of glowing green chandeliers made from uranium, to be shown in a group exhibition in Germany coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11.
from The Art Newspaper: "Ken and Julia Yonetani, artists based in Sydney, sourced vintage chandeliers and replaced the traditional crystals with thousands of uranium glass beads. They used UV light in place of normal bulbs, causing the uranium glass to glow green...The Yonetanis have applied a Geiger counter to the uranium glass chandeliers and determined that a reading slightly above the normal background radiation level is detectable up to 30cm from the works."
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03/06/2012
A plan to recreate a mural in San Antonio that was removed in the 1960s after Mexican-American activists protested its racist imagery is now generating protests of its own.
from Yahoo: "The controversy surrounds a proposal to recreate a mural that existed on the walls of the original theater that depicted Mexicans in what was at the time iconic images but are now considered offensive to many Hispanic Americans. One shows a stereotypical Mexican sitting asleep against a wall, his sombrero covering his head and face. The other shows another stereotypical Mexican posing with a burro. The images were removed in the 1960s under pressure from Mexican American activists who considered them racist."
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03/06/2012
As part of a worldwide urban beekeeping movement, the Whitney Museum is installing beehives on its rooftop.
from the New Yorker, via ARTINFO: "The Whit is not the only museum to join the craze — across the Pond, the Tate's roof honey is sold in its gift shop. Adam Weinberg, who also had beekeepers install hives on the roof of his own brownstone, has asked artist Kiki Smith to design a label for the Whitney's honey."
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03/05/2012
To celebrate the 2012 Olympics, Eddie Izzard is paying an artist £70,000 to recreate the final scene of the 1969 film "The Italian Job" by balancing a coach off a rooftop.
from ARTINFO: "Make no mistake, this is a patriotic gesture: The vehicle used in the exhibition will be painted in British team colors. 'By the end of 2012 I hope the word goes out from our country that not only do we run excellent world events, but also balance coaches on the edges of buildings like no one else ever could,' said Izzard. (The happening is also funded by Arts Council England and the Henry Moore Foundation.)"
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03/05/2012
The British paper the Observer has teamed up with the Anthony Burgess Foundation to launch a prize for arts journalism.
from the Anthony Burgess Foundation: "The purpose of the prize is to encourage promising new arts journalists. The prize will be for the best writing on brand new work in the arts which has not previously been published, whether in print or on the internet. The winning essay might take the form of an interview or profile of a writer, artist or musician; a piece on a new artistic movement or venture; or a review of a book, film, a concert, a ballet or a stage play."
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03/02/2012
Three Museum of Contemporary Art officials with key financial roles — the chief operating officer, fundraising director and a trustee who chaired the board's finance committee — have left MOCA in the last three months. They had been at their posts less than a year.
from the Los Angeles Times: "Meanwhile, since Jeffrey Deitch became MOCA's director in mid-2010, efforts have stalled to pay down large deficits the museum incurred from 2000 to 2008 by illegally raiding its endowment. A source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of MOCA's finances, said it has projected a deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30."
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03/02/2012
Arts programming was a factor leading to improved standardized test scores at three schools in Chicago over three years.
from the Chicago Tribune: "The study is just the latest calling for more arts education in Chicago Public Schools. With the district moving to a longer school day next year, the Chicago Teachers Union and parent groups like Raise Your Hand have called for more time devoted to enrichment classes like music and art and less time devoted to test preparation...The study found that fourth graders who started with the program in 2009 saw an 11.5 percentage point gain in composite test scores meeting or exceeding state standards by the time they finished the arts program in sixth grade in 2011."
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03/01/2012
Expo Chicago—the contemporary and modern art and design fair making its debut later this year—has announced that it will be developing a new program, IN/SITU, headed by writer and curator Michael Ned Holte.
from ARTFORUM: "IN/SITU will feature large-scale installations, as well as site-specific and performative works by a select number of artists. Holte is a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts whose writing has appeared in publications including Richard Hawkins—Third Mind (2011) and Roy McMakin: When is a Chair Not a Chair (2010). A frequent contributor to Artforum, Holte has also written for Afterall, Frieze, Kaleidoscope, and Pin-Up."
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03/01/2012
Qatar is rapidly becoming an international art hub for renowned artists from all over the world, but local artists are being weeded out in the process.
from the New York Times: "Critics of the Qatar royal family say it is behaving as a facilitator of the international art scene while at the same time using it for self-promotion. And rather than letting the art scene in Qatar grow naturally according to the needs of its people to express themselves, these observers say, the country is handpicking artists who are politically neutral. In such an atmosphere, most local artists do not stand much of a chance."
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02/29/2012
Last night, Sotheby's locked-out art handlers and members of Occupy Wall Street gathered to protest the Whitney Biennial at its VIP opening.
from Hyperallergic: "Tonight’s Whitney Biennial VIP Party brought together two sectors of the art world that continue to butt heads in this post-Occupy Wall Street world. Chic art world partygoers were lined up on Madison Avenue waiting to drink champagne at the Sotheby’s-sponsored Biennial, while a few dozen protesters and an inflatable cat were bringing attention to the museum’s association with the auction house that has locked out union art handlers since early August."
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02/28/2012
England's governmental art funding body will require the organizations it finances to measure and improve their energy use — a first in arts funding policy.
from the press release: 'Arts Council England has today announced that the Arts Council is the first arts funding body in the world to embed environmental sustainability into the funding agreements of its major programmes. As a minimum requirement, National portfolio organisations and Major Partner museums will need to measure and improve their water and energy use. The Arts Council is committed to embedding environmental sustainability into all of its funding programmes over the next three years. 'Our commitment is motivated by both ethical concern and economic imperative,' said arts chief Alan Davey."
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