News

February 22, 2019 at 5:35pm

Sotheby’s to Expand Its New York Headquarters

Sotheby’s announced today that it is planning a major redesign and expansion of its New York headquarters on the Upper East Side. The project will add twenty-three thousand square feet of exhibition space—the equivalent of two acres—to its longtime home, as well as three new two-story galleries that will be able to accommodate large-scale works.
The auction house tapped Shohei Shigematsu, of architect Rem Koolhaas’s firm OMA, to lead the project. Comprising forty galleries in total, the revamped headquarters will boast of a 150-foot-long gallery for the exhibition of full collections,

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February 22, 2019 at 3:22pm

Armory Show Forced to Move Exhibitors Due to Structural Concerns at Pier 92

The twenty-fifth edition of the Armory Show, which was scheduled to kick off at Piers 92 and 94 in New York on March 7, will have to relocate a third of its exhibitors. Artnet reports that the fair has been in crisis mode since Wednesday, February 20, when the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) informed its parent company, MMPI, that “significant portions of Pier 92 are not structurally safe.”
According to fair director Nicole Berry, the areas of the fair that will be impacted are its Focus, Insight, and Projects sections, which will feature around sixty galleries. She also said that

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February 22, 2019 at 2:28pm

Baltimore Art School Issues Statement to “Confront Its Racist Past”

Samuel Hoi, president of Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)—one of the oldest art schools in the US—issued an apology for the institution’s anti-black history on Thursday, February 21. The statement, an effort by the college “to confront its racist past” was made in response to “a powerful and moving” senior thesis exhibition by Deyane Moses, titled “Blackives.”
Moses’s show encompasses archival materials such as racist imagery from the college’s yearbook—including a caricature of a black MICA employee from the early 1900s. The artist also organized a demonstration

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February 22, 2019 at 2:16pm

Naima J. Keith to Leave California African American Museum for LACMA

Naima J. Keith, who has served as the deputy director and chief curator of the California African American Museum (CAAM) since 2016, will join the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as vice president of education and public programs on April 1.
Michael Govan, director of LACMA, said: “[Keith] brings a wealth of experience in engaging a broad range of audiences from her curatorial and educational projects and initiatives. We value our ongoing collaborations with CAAM.”
Over the course of her tenure at CAAM, Keith curated a number of exhibitions, including “Nicole Miller: Athens, California” (2018)

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February 22, 2019 at 11:26am

UBS Bank, a Major Sponsor of the Arts, Fined $5 Billion for Tax Fraud

A Paris court fined the Swiss banking giant UBS $5.1 billion for tax fraud on Wednesday, February 20—the largest fine ever issued for the crime in France, France 24 reports. Following a seven-year investigation, the bank—a major sponsor of Art Basel since 1994 and of institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, and the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland—was found guilty of tax evasion on an “industrial” scale.
French prosecutors claimed the bank would send representatives to concerts and sporting events

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February 22, 2019 at 7:55am

Artist Collective Ruangrupa to Curate Documenta 15

Documenta has selected the Indonesian collective ruangrupa, which was founded in 2000 by a group of artists in Jakarta, to curate its fifteenth edition, which will be held in Kassel over the course of one hundred days, from June 18, 2020 to September 25, 2020. The announcement marks the first time the artistic direction of the quinquennial will be led by a collective; the exhibition has also never before been helmed by a curator from Asia.
The collective, whose name loosely translates as “a space for art” or “a space form,” was represented by Farid Rakun and Ade Darmawan at a press conference

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February 21, 2019 at 2:09pm

Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum Evacuated Due to Bomb Scare

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg was evacuated on Thursday, February 21, after it received an emailed bomb threat. A museum spokesperson told Artnet that the Mariinsky Theater, a shopping mall, and a number of schools and universities were also targeted and reported similar threatening messages to the authorities.
The wave of threats follows the evacuation of about five thousand people from ten organizations across Moscow last week due to a bomb scare. According to TASS, the Russkoye Radio broadcaster, the Center-T shopping mall, a pre-trial detention center, and the Yaroslavsky

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February 21, 2019 at 1:24pm

New Gallery Dedicated to Social Impact to Open in Los Angeles

Brannan Mason Gallery (BMG), a new contemporary art gallery dedicated to social impact, will open a 4,500-square-foot-space in downtown Los Angeles’s arts district on March 2. Its inaugural exhibition, “CORNERSTONE,” will present work by French photographer Etienne Rougery-Herbaut and Haitian artist Samdi. Proceeds from the show will benefit the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
For owner Brannan Mason, the cofounder of the high-end ear-bud brand Noble Audio, the space will focus on supporting important causes and building community. It

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February 21, 2019 at 1:00pm

Bronx Museum of the Arts Expands Board of Trustees

The Bronx Museum of the Arts announced today that it has welcomed seven new members to its board of trustees. “They embody the tremendous resources our community has to offer, and will serve to help us continue realizing the potential of this museum through their range of skills and experiences,” executive director Deborah Cullen said.
The new members include the Puerto Rican artist Angel Otero, whose first New York solo show was organized by the museum; Dana Emmott, the owner of Elden Services Company and the partner of the museum’s former director Holly Block, who passed away in October 2017;

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February 21, 2019 at 12:00pm

Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces New Appointments

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has recently announced three new senior staff appointments. The institution has welcomed Inka Drögemüller as deputy director for digital, education, publications, imaging, and libraries; Sean Hemingway as curator in charge, Greek and Roman art; and Sarah E. Lawrence as curator in charge, European sculpture and decorative arts.
“It is with great pleasure that I announce these appointments, each of which involved intensive searches,” said the Met’s director Max Hollein. “These accomplished individuals bring unique strengths and experience to their respective

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February 21, 2019 at 11:50am

Kristina Buch Wins Germany’s Grand Hans Purrmann Award

The German city of Speyer in the Rhineland-Palatinate, announced on February 8 that the Düsseldorf- and London-based artist Kristina Buch has been awarded its Grand Hans Purrmann Prize and will receive around $22,600, reports Monopol. The award’s jury lauded Buch for producing work that creates unexpected dialogues between the cultural, natural, and social sciences.
Born in 1983, Buch earned her master of science degree in biology and studied Protestant theology before she began pursuing a career in art. She received her master of arts degree from the Royal College of Art in London and, in 2013,

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February 21, 2019 at 10:27am

Zimbabwe Announces Artists for National Pavilion at 2019 Venice Biennale

Zimbabwe has announced that four artists have been selected to represent the country at the Fifty-Eighth Venice Biennale, which kicks off on May 11: Neville Starling, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Georgina Maxim, and Cosmas Shiridzinomwa. The announcement comes on the heels of recent political turmoil in the country. Authorities and demonstrators clashed last month when President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a major fuel-price hike, leading to deadly protests and one of the largest crackdowns on dissent in recent years.
The four artists will be featured in the exhibition “Soko Risina Musoro,” which

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