News

  • Phase 2.
    December 13, 2019 at 8:23pm

    Phase 2 (1955–2019)

    Pioneering aerosol writer Lonny Wood, better known by his moniker, Phase 2, has died. He is remembered for his invaluable, media-spanning contributions to hip-hop and is acknowledged as the first artist to perfect the “softie” style of aerosol calligraphy, characterized by its marshmallow-like bubbled lettering.

    Born in the Bronx, New York, Phase 2 began tagging subway trains in the early 1970s, becoming one of the most widely emulated stylists of that moment. As his work matured, he progressively abstracted and complicated his calligraphy, “deconstructing the letter”—in the words of hip-hop

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  • US State Department, Washington, DC.
    December 13, 2019 at 3:10pm

    Filmmakers Sue Trump Administration over Social Media Vetting of US Visa Applicants

    Two documentary film organizations sued the Trump administration last week over its “extreme vetting” policy that visa applicants disclose their social media accounts across twenty platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Under the policy, introduced this May, foreign visitors’ information is able to be circulated both within the US government and abroad. The lawsuit was filed by the Knight First Amendment Institute, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett on behalf of Doc Society and the International Documentary Association (IDA).

    The

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  • Dmitry Rybolovlev.
    December 13, 2019 at 12:58pm

    Monaco Judge Drops Russian Billionaire’s Fraud Case Against Swiss Dealer Yves Bouvier

    The fraud investigation filed by the Russian fertilizer magnate and art collector Dmitry Rybolovlev against the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier has been dismissed by a court of appeals in Monaco, reports Artnet News. The legal feud began in January 2015, when Rybolovlev accused the dealer of swindling him out of nearly $1 billion by inflating the prices of thirty-eight art transactions—including Rybolovlev’s $128 million acquisition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in 2013.

    “All investigations were conducted in a biased and unfair way without the defendant being in a position to

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  • Annika Thiems, winner of the 2019 NEON Curatorial Award. Photo: Dan Weill.
    December 13, 2019 at 12:30pm

    Annika Thiems Wins 2019 NEON Curatorial Award

    Artist Annika Thiems, a recent graduate from the MFA Curating program at Goldsmiths College, London, has been selected as the winner of the 2019 NEON Curatorial Award, which aims to build links between emerging curators in London and Greece and is part of an ongoing partnership between the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and the Athens-based nonprofit NEON.

    Now in its eighth year, the annual prize invites emerging curators to devise an exhibition proposal that draws from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, which includes over five hundred contemporary artworks by 220 international and Greek artists.

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  • Noah P. Dorsky (Photo: Asya Gorovits) and Jamie Lawyer.
    December 13, 2019 at 12:00pm

    Rubin Museum of Art Appoints Noah P. Dorsky Board President, Jamie Lawyer Chief Experience Officer

    The Rubin Museum of Art in New York has elected Noah P. Dorsky as its new board president, effective January 1, 2020. It has also named Jamie Lawyer as its inaugural chief experience officer. Dorsky joined the Rubin’s board in 2014 and also serves as director of Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, a nonprofit gallery he cofounded in Long Island City. He succeeds Robert Baylis, who will continue to serve on the board of trustees.

    In her new role, Lawyer will focus on working across departments in order to “create experiences and multidisciplinary interpretative layers that are meaningful, inspiring,

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  • Installation view of Jody Paulsen’s work at SMAC Gallery, The Armory Show 2019. Photo: Teddy Wolff. Courtesy of The Armory Show.
    December 13, 2019 at 8:50am

    The Armory Show Announces 2020 Exhibitors, Charles Saumarez Smith to Depart Blain|Southern and More

    More than 170 exhibitors will converge on Piers 90 and 94 in midtown Manhattan for the 2020 edition of the Armory Show, taking place from March 5 through March 8. Representing thirty-one countries, the participating galleries include 303 Gallery (New York), Carbon 12 (Dubai), Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi (Berlin), Victoria Miro (London and Venice), and Yavuz Gallery (Singapore), as well as thirty galleries that will make their fair debut.

    For the first time, next year’s edition will convert an entire pier into a space for curator-led initiatives, which Nicole Berry, the Armory Show’s executive

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  • Kreuzberg, Berlin.
    December 12, 2019 at 4:05pm

    Berlin Art Fair Discontinued Amid Financial Setbacks

    Beset by financial uncertainty, the Cologne-based trade fair company Koelnmesse has canceled Art Berlin, the city’s foremost contemporary art fair. Koelnmesse, which runs around eighty trade exhibitions yearly and is also behind Art Cologne, acquired Art Berlin—previously known as Art Berlin Contemporary (abc)—in 2017. Its 2019 edition took place from September 12 to 15 on the fields of the inoperative Tempelhof airport. Organizers allegedly struggled to secure the venue and were unable to contract it for future editions. About 110 galleries participated in this year’s fair, which

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  • Iiu Susiraja, Hot Dog, 2019.
    December 12, 2019 at 1:14pm

    Iiu Susiraja Wins William Thuring Foundation Prize

    The Finnish Art Society has selected the Finnish artist Iiu Susiraja as the recipient of its $15,500 William Thuring Foundation Prize, which was established as an award for midcareer artists between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five. Susiraja, who was born in 1975 and lives in Turku, Finland, works primarily in photographic and video-based self-portraiture to make art that relates to feminine performance, psychoanalysis, and body humor.

    “It’s funny that people think that my purpose is to criticize beauty ideals or social issues,” the artist has said. “I have no such intentions. These things

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  • Aria Dean. Photo: New Museum.
    December 12, 2019 at 1:00pm

    Aria Dean Appointed Editor and Curator of Rhizome

    The New Museum in New York has promoted Aria Dean to the position of editor and curator of Rhizome, the New York–based nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and championship of born-digital art and culture. Founded in 1996, the platform has been an affiliate of the New Museum since 2003. Dean joined Rhizome’s curatorial team in 2016 as assistant curator of net art and digital culture. Since then, she has helped launch and program the online-only “Net Art Anthology,” an initiative that conserves and highlights a selection of significant digital artworks. The project published a catalogue, The

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  • Fabián Cháirez, La Revolución, 2014.
    December 12, 2019 at 12:25pm

    Nude Portrait of Emiliano Zapata Sparks Protest in Mexico City

    The Mexican painter Fabián Cháirez’s portrait of the Mexican revolutionist Emiliano Zapata astride a visibly aroused white horse, clad in nothing but a pink sombrero and a pair of high heels, has ignited protests outside of Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, where demonstrators are pressuring the cultural center to remove the painting, reports the BBC.

    The work, titled La Revolución, 2014, currently hangs in the exhibition “Emiliano. Zapata Después Zapata” (Emiliano. Zapata After Zapata), which celebrates the centenary of the revolutionary activist’s death. The show is meant to serve as a

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  • December 12, 2019 at 11:00am

    Hammer Museum Welcomes New Board Members

    The Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, has added Larry Jackson, a music industry executive who currently serves as global creative director at Apple Music, to its board of directors, the museum’s governing body. The addition of Jackson brings the number of board members to twenty-two.

    Collector and philanthropist Carla Emil, the founder of C Project—a nonprofit that strives to bring performance-based art experiences to San Francisco—and Joel Lubin, the cohead of the Motion Picture Group at Creative Artists Agency, have joined the institution’s board of overseers,

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  • Chris Newth.
    December 12, 2019 at 10:00am

    Chris Newth Joins Princeton University Art Museum as Associate Director for Collections and Exhibitions

    The Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey has named Chris Newth its new associate director for collections and exhibitions. Newth comes to the institution from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he has served most recently as senior director for exhibitions strategy and gallery display. In his new position, exhibition planning and execution, art conservation, collections management, and research and budget planning will be among his responsibilities. Newth will take up the post on January 27, 2020.

    “Chris’s deep experience in leading complex teams and projects in a leadership institution

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