News

  • Vincent Namatjira, Close Contact, 2018.
    May 24, 2019 at 11:00am

    Vincent Namatjira Awarded $68,800 Ramsay Art Prize

    Indigenous artist Vincent Namatjira has won the second iteration of the Ramsay Art Prize, a $68,800 biennial acquisition award established by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), Adelaide, in 2017.

    Namatjira’s winning work is Close Contact, 2018, a double-sided acrylic-on-plywood portrait depicting the artist on one side and the eighteenth-century British explorer Captain James Cook on the other. The format riffs on the cutout character boards that tourists can pose their heads in for a photo, offering the artist a playful way to allude to the legacy of colonialism and potential for

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  • The 2018 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photo: Tom Harris.
    May 23, 2019 at 3:29pm

    Chicago Architecture Biennial Reveals 2019 Contributors

    The Chicago Architecture Biennial announced today the eighty artists, architects, researchers, and cultural institutions that will contribute to its 2019 edition, “…and other such stories,” which will take place from September 19 to January 5, 2020. The exhibition will present projects addressing how architecture can address questions related to land, memory, rights, and civic participation.

    “Our 2019 contributors represent the diversity of thinking on architecture and spatial practice globally, each engaged in research and work that explores the potential and challenges of our everyday experiences

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  • The Berlinische Galerie. Photo: Noshe.
    May 23, 2019 at 3:27pm

    Berlinische Galerie Reopens Following Temporary Shutdown due to Structural Problems

    The Berlinische Galerie, the city museum dedicated to modern art, photography, and architecture, has reopened. The institution was forced to close its doors to the public in late April, when it discovered structural problems while planning to refurbish the building’s roof.

    The museum was supposed to reopen on May 15, but had to push the date back so that it could complete the necessary inspections. Following a meeting on Wednesday with the institution’s real estate management corporation BIM, which is in charge of several state-owned buildings, it received the green light to continue operations.

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  • May 23, 2019 at 2:48pm

    Storm King Announces 2019 Artists-in-Residence

    Storm King Art Center in partnership with Shandaken Projects has invited fifteen artists selected to participate in its artist-in-residence program. Recipients will be allowed to stay on Storm King’s grounds in Cornwall, New York, for periods of up to two, four, or six weeks. They will receive room and board, studio space, and a weekly farm share from the nearby Blooming Hill Farm. The residency begins June 3 and runs through September 22.

    The artists-in-residence were selected by a panel of art professionals from hundreds of applicants who responded to an open call. The panel comprised Kenyon

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  • Blair French. Photo: Daniel Boud for MCA, Australia.
    May 23, 2019 at 12:48pm

    Sydney’s Carriageworks Names Blair French Chief Executive Officer

    Carriageworks, a major multidisciplinary arts center in Sydney, has announced that Blair French, the director of curatorial and digital at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Australia, will join the venue as its new chief executive officer. He succeeds Euan Upston and will assume his responsibilities in August.

    Since arriving in Sydney from Aotearoa, New Zealand, in the mid-1990s, French has served as program manager at the Australian Center for Photography, associate director of Performance Space, and executive director of Artspace. During his tenure at MCA, Australia, French curated “Destiny

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  • Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Summer Celebration, 1991. Photo: Sotheby's.
    May 23, 2019 at 11:59am

    Sotheby’s to Hold First Major Aboriginal Art Auction in the US

    Sotheby’s has announced that it is moving its annual Aboriginal Art Auction from London to New York. The inaugural New York sale will take place this November, marking the first time that aboriginal art has been offered by an international auction house in the United States. The sales will be led by Tim Klingender, who has overseen all of Sotheby’s Aboriginal Art Auctions since they began in 1996—they have previously been held in Australia, from 1997 to 2009, and London, from 2015 to 2018.

    “Australian Indigenous Art has always been of global interest, with buyers in recent London sales

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  • Nalini Malani. Photo: The Fundació Joan Miró.
    May 23, 2019 at 10:58am

    Nalini Malani Wins 2019 Joan Miró Prize

    The Fundació Joan Miró and the arm of the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation that supports social work and various initiatives, has awarded this year’s Joan Miró Prize to Indian artist Nalini Malani. With a practice that encompasses film, photography, video art, and performance, Malani is the seventeenth recipient of the award, which comes with a cash prize of $78,000.

    Malani’s work is heavily influenced by her experiences as a refugee of the Partition of India. She often weaves references from various cultures across the East and the West in her pieces such as in her series “Stories Retold,” which

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  • Deng Chuanbin. Courtesy of Nanfu Wang.
    May 22, 2019 at 3:55pm

    Chinese Authorities Detain Filmmaker and Activist Deng Chuanbin

    Deng Chuanbin, an independent documentary filmmaker and activist who is also known as Huang Huang, was arrested in China on May 17. According to ArtAsiaPacific, hours before the authorities took him from his home in Yibin in the Sichuan province, he had tweeted a photo referencing the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which followed pro-democracy student protests in 1989.

    The image is of a person holding a bottle of liquor with a label that reads “64.” The number alludes to the month and day, June 4, when troops fired into crowds of people demonstrating in the square, killing hundreds. The type of

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  • William J. Carpenter. Photo: Courtesy of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art.
    May 22, 2019 at 2:50pm

    Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art Names William J. Carpenter Executive Director

    William J. Carpenter has been appointed the executive director of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Carpenter comes to SECCA from High Point University, where he was most recently professor of English and director of the Honors Scholars Program. Carpenter will take up the post on June 3.

    “Dr. Carpenter will bring renewed attention to SECCA’s contributions to the field of contemporary art by celebrating its history while emphasizing the multidisciplinary nature of art today and inviting reflection on the ideas that shape our time,” said Valerie

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  • Jenny Holzer. Courtesy of the artist.
    May 22, 2019 at 1:11pm

    Jenny Holzer to Receive University of Chicago’s Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal

    The University of Chicago has announced that it will award this year’s Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts to the pioneering conceptual artist Jenny Holzer for her ambitious text-based work. Widely known for her groundbreaking 1970s series “Truisms,” Holzer will be honored during the university’s convocation ceremony on June 15.

    Established in 1917 by Jesse L. and Susan Colver Rosenberger, the medal recognizes “achievement through research, in authorship, in invention, for discovery, for unusual public service or for anything deemed to benefit

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  • The LAXART building—featuring Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (it), 2018—in Hollywood. Photo: Ruben Diaz, courtesy of LAXART.
    May 22, 2019 at 12:58pm

    LAXART Welcomes Five New Board Members

    LAXART, the nonprofit organization and alternative arts space that was founded in 2005 to promote contemporary art, has added five new members to its board of directors: Kim Gordon, Zenas Hutcheson, Glenn Ligon, Olivia Marciano, and Conor O’Neil.

    They will work with executive director Hamza Walker and the rest of the board to further LAXART’s mission through various programming such as the upcoming exhibitions of Grace Wales Bonner, Liz Johnson Artur, and the collective Postcommodity.

    “These new members heighten our dynamism,” said Walker. “Whereas Gordon and Ligon are seminal figures (read rock

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  • BAMunion Twitter.
    May 21, 2019 at 6:15pm

    Brooklyn Academy of Music Employees Push to Unionize

    The administrative workers and cinema staff of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York are moving to unionize. In April, employees signed a petition to join Local 2110 UAW (United Auto Workers), which staffers at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Museum of Modern Art belong to and the New Museum voted to join in January.

    The plan to form a union has been in the works for more than a year and a half, following reductions in benefits such as health care and 401(k) matching, the conversion of full-time jobs into hourly part-time positions, and other changes in working conditions. An

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