News

  • Eric Golo Stone. Photo: Sidonie Loiseleux.
    August 20, 2019 at 12:35pm

    Künstlerhaus Stuttgart Names Eric Golo Stone Artistic Director

    Eric Golo Stone has been appointed artistic director of the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, a contemporary arts institution in Stuttgart, Germany, that was founded by artists in 1978. The artist, writer, and former curator of LAXART in Los Angeles will succeed Fatima Hellberg, whose five-year term will be up at the end of this year, and will take up the new post on January 1, 2020. Previous artistic directors of the Künstlerhaus include Adnan Yildiz, Axel John Wieder, and Ute Meta Bauer.

    Among Stone’s curatorial projects are “Contractual Situations We Live By” (2018) at the Kunsthalle Bern and “US Code:

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  • Rebecca Wei. Courtesy of Christie’s.
    August 20, 2019 at 12:09pm

    Rebecca Wei, Chair of Christie’s Asia, Steps Down

    After eight months of holding a top position at the auction house, Rebecca Wei, chairman of Christie’s Asia, has resigned. Wei was hired as general manager, Asia, in 2012 and came from the firm McKinsey & Company, where she worked for a decade as a management consultant. She became managing director, Asia, shortly after and was then promoted to president, Asia, in 2016 and to chair in December. Francis Belin, the former global managing director of Christie’s Asia who also previously served as a senior vice president in consumer goods for Swarovski, will succeed her as president.

    Wei’s leadership

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  • Jin Shiu and Yi Joungmin of artist group Okin Collective. Photo: MMCA.
    August 20, 2019 at 11:15am

    Artists Jin Shiu and Yi Joungmin, Members of the Okin Collective, Found Dead

    Jin Shiu and Yi Joungmin—two members of the Okin Collective, a South Korean artist group founded in 2009 to address forced evictions in Seoul’s Jongno District—were found dead on Saturday, August 17, from an apparent double suicide. That same day, several friends and colleagues of the artists received an email from them, which was shared with Artforum and in part reads: “We are both physically and mentally exhausted, but hereby summon our last remaining strength to bid farewell for the last time.” Jin was forty-four years old, and Yi was forty-eight.

    A decade ago, following the government’s

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  • Nora Burnett Abrams. Photo: Josie Skinner.
    August 20, 2019 at 10:54am

    Nora Burnett Abrams to Lead the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

    The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) announced today that Nora Burnett Abrams has been named its next director. Abrams previously served in various roles at the museum, including as associate curator for nine years and, most recently, as curator and director of planning. She will assume her new responsibilities on August 20.

    “After an extensive international search, the board was unanimous in selecting Nora,” said board chair Mike Fries. “Over the last ten years, she has been instrumental in bringing MCA Denver to where it stands today as one of the most important cultural institutions

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  • The Ghost Ship warehouse following the fire that killed thirty-six people on December 2, 2016. Photo: Jim Heaphy.
    August 20, 2019 at 9:40am

    Judge Dismisses Jurors in Trial over Oakland’s Deadly Ghost Ship Fire

    As the jury in the trial over a devastating fire that engulfed an abandoned warehouse—known as the Ghost Ship—and killed thirty-six people in Oakland, California, in 2016 entered its tenth day of deliberations on Monday, the judge presiding over the case dismissed three female jurors. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the women, who were excused for undisclosed reasons, were replaced with alternate jurors—two men and one woman—and now deliberations must start over again.

    Opening statements in the case, which will decide whether the defendants, Derick Almena and Max

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  • Left: Ylinka Barotto. Photo: David M. Heald. Courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Right: Frauke V. Josenhans. Photo: Tommy LaVerne. Courtesy of Rice University.
    August 19, 2019 at 1:15pm

    Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts Announces Curatorial Appointments

    The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston, Texas, has welcomed Ylinka Barotto and Frauke V. Josenhans to its curatorial staff. As associate curators, both Barotto and Josenhans will be responsible for the development and execution of exhibitions and other projects.

    “We’re looking forward to the creative contributions these two talented women will make in support of the Moody’s mission to foster interdisciplinary conversation through the arts,” Alison Weaver, the Moody’s executive director, said in a statement. “Through projects that engage both the Moody and Rice Public Art, we

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  • Tenth-century bronze sculpture of the god Revanta that Subhash Kapoor gave to the Met in 2003. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    August 19, 2019 at 11:49am

    The Met Investigates Provenance of Artworks Acquired from Dealer Suspected of Smuggling

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is reviewing objects in its collection that were purchased or gifted to the institution over the course of three decades from a now-disgraced dealer who has been accused of running one of the largest antiquities-smuggling rings in the world. According to the New York Times, around fifteen artifacts acquired by the museum were once in the possession of former Manhattan dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was charged with eighty-six felony counts—ranging from grand larceny to possession of stolen property and conspiracy to defraud—in a New York City

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  • Bernard Piffaretti, Untitled, 2013. Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, New York.
    August 16, 2019 at 3:34pm

    Betti-Sue Hertz to Lead Columbia University’s Wallach Gallery, Bernard Piffaretti Joins Lisson Gallery, and More

    The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University announced today that Betti-Sue Hertz will become its new director and chief curator. Hertz comes to Columbia from San Francisco, where she has served as a faculty member at the San Francisco Art Institute, director of visual arts at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and contemporary art curator at the San Diego Museum of Art. She succeeds Deborah Cullen-Morales, who stepped down in August 2018 to join the Bronx Museum of the Arts as executive director, and will take up the post on September 1.

    Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert now represents

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  • Robert Indiana, Love, 1973, at SFMoMA.
    August 16, 2019 at 10:30am

    Robert Indiana’s Caretaker Accused of Allowing Artist to Live in Squalor as Battle over Estate Continues

    More than a year after the death of sculptor Robert Indiana, James W. Brannan, the executor of his estate, filed court documents on Wednesday that accuse the artist’s caretaker of stealing more than $1 million in money and art from the Pop art icon while allowing him to live in filth and squalor in his Vinalhaven home in Maine, the Press Herald reports.

    “Beginning in or about 2016, Jamie L. Thomas took advantage of Indiana’s advancing age, isolation, frailties, and fame to develop a relationship of trust and control over the artist,” the lawsuit reads. “As the holder of Indiana’s healthcare and

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  • A ship owned by China Shipping Container Lines arriving in Felixstowe, England.
    August 15, 2019 at 3:05pm

    10 Percent Tariff on Chinese Art and Antiquities Will Take Effect September 1

    As the trade war between the United States and China continues, President Trump announced on Tuesday that he plans to delay the implementation of a new tax on a variety of Chinese-made consumer goods, pushing it back from September to December. However, art and antiquities—including paintings, drawings, and sculptures—did not make the list and will be hit with a 10 percent tax beginning September 1.

    “The US import tariff will apply to all Chinese art sourced anywhere in the world, not simply Chinese art imported from China,” New York–based dealer James Lally told the Art Newspaper. “[

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  • Hudson Yards in New York. Photo: Ajay Suresh.
    August 15, 2019 at 2:18pm

    Designers Withdraw from New York Fashion Week Show at the Shed over Trump Fundraiser

    Stephen Ross—the billionaire real estate giant behind New York’s mega-development Hudson Yards and a board member of the Shed, the contemporary arts center that opened in April—is facing further backlash over a fundraiser for President Trump that was held at his Hamptons home on Friday, August 9. The event, combined with a talk Trump gave at the residence of developer Joe Farrell later that day, raised $12 million for his reelection campaign.

    According to Women’s Wear Daily, the latest fallout over the fundraiser, for which Ross sold tickets for up to $250,000, is designer brand Rag &

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  • Antrepo 5, the future home of the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum. Photo: Alper Tuzunoglu.
    August 15, 2019 at 10:43am

    Former Warehouse Announced as New Location for Istanbul Biennial

    The Istanbul Biennial announced today that it has found a new location for its sixteenth edition, which is fast approaching. Organizers were forced to scramble to change exhibition venues for the majority of its programming after toxic asbestos was discovered at the Istanbul Shipyards, which was supposed to be the biennial’s main site.

    The exhibition will now be held at Antrepo 5, a former warehouse that is currently undergoing a major renovation. Located on the waterfront in the Tophane district of central Istanbul, the building is being transformed into a painting and sculpture museum that will

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