News

  • August 16, 2018 at 9:37am

    Caroline Fowler Appointed Associate Director of Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program

    The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has named Caroline Fowler associate director of its research and academic program. A specialist in early modern art and intellectual history, Fowler joins the Clark from Yale University, where she has served as the A.W. Mellon fellow in the physical history of art from 2016 to 2018 and has taught graduate seminars on history and conservation practice.

    “Caroline Fowler is an exceptional scholar who brings many different perspectives, and great vitality and intelligence to the Research and Academic Program,” said Olivier Meslay, director of

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  • August 16, 2018 at 9:30am

    Expo Chicago Names Artists Participating in 2018 Edition of Override | A Billboard Project

    Expo Chicago, the international exposition of contemporary and modern art, announced today the fourteen artists who are creating work for the third edition of its citywide public art initiative OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project. Titled “Interlude at Hand,” the program will feature works by Sam Durant, Judy Chicago, Theaster Gates, and Portia Munson, among others, and will be on view from September 17 to October 7.

    “The curatorial framework of the 2018 program interrogates various contemporary thematics that employ a hand-made gesture—from signs of protest, to texts, archives and modes of

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  • August 15, 2018 at 10:00am

    Martin Puryear to Represent the United States at 2019 Venice Biennale

    The US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Madison Square Park Conservancy announced today that Martin Puryear has been chosen to represent the United States at the 2019 Venice Biennale. The seventy-seven-year-old artist’s body of work spans more than three decades and often incorporates wood, stone, and metal in massively scaled but subtle works that address history, identity, and freedom. He will create site-specific pieces for the pavilion that will be exhibited from May 11 to November 24, 2019.

    “Martin is one of the most important artists working today,”

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  • August 15, 2018 at 6:43am

    Cuban Artists Protest New Legislation that Criminalizes Independently Produced Art

    Cuban artists and cultural figures are rallying against a new decree that will criminalize all independent cultural activity on the island. Issued by the government in July, Decree 349 aims to give the authorities total control over artistic production. Those affected include musicians, artists, writers, and performers, as well as the venues that allow creatives to host events that weren’t first approved by the Ministry of Culture. Those found in violation of the decree, which will be enforced starting December 1, will face fines, property seizure, and jail.

    According to artist Coco Fusco, “the

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  • August 15, 2018 at 5:33am

    Baltimore Museum of Art Announces Curatorial Appointments

    The Baltimore Museum of Art announced that it has hired three new curators. Asma Naeem will join the institution as chief curator; Andaleeb Badiee Banta as senior curator of prints, drawings, and photographs; and Virginia Anderson as curator and department head of American art.

    Naeem, a specialist in American art and contemporary Islamic art, comes to the museum from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, where she served as the curator of prints, drawings, and media arts. Two exhibitions she curated at the museum are still currently on view: “UnSeen: Our Past in a New Light, Ken Gonzales-Day

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  • August 14, 2018 at 4:15pm

    Frida Kahlo Exhibition in Budapest Criticized for Promoting Communism

    A major exhibition of work by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo at the Hungarian National Gallery is at the center of controversy in Budapest. “Frida Kahlo: Masterpieces from the Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City” has been accused of promoting communism by a right-wing pro-government newspaper. The backlash is part of a wider debate about Hungarian culture and cultural policy, which is currently being reshaped by the country’s new nationalist government.

    An uproar over the show began on July 14, after the newspaper Magyar Idők published an article titled “This Is the Way Communism Is Promoted Using

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  • August 14, 2018 at 11:16am

    Iran Bars Parviz Tanavoli from Leaving the Country

    The Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli has been banned from leaving Iran for the second time in the last two years. According to the Art Newspaper, Tanavoli tried to board a British Airways plane in late July, but after he checked in, his passport was seized by the Iranian authorities. They informed the artist that he was not allowed to travel because charges of “spreading disinformation” were brought against him.

    Tanavoli later learned that the travel ban was being enforced over an ongoing dispute he has had with the Tehran-based dealer Maryam Goudarzi. The artist thought that the case had been

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  • August 14, 2018 at 11:09am

    Chile’s Culture Minister Resigns Under Pressure

    Mauricio Rojas, Chile’s newly appointed culture minister, stepped down after comments he made in 2015 about a human rights museum in Santiago sparked a public outcry. The civic leader tendered his resignation on Monday, August 12, after only a few days on the job. Archaeologist Consuelo Valdes was named as his replacement.

    A Chilean Swedish political economist, Rojas is a member of Chilean president Sebastián Piñera’s center-right coalition. He came under fire from conservative and liberal politicians after an excerpt from a book Rojas coauthored began circulating in the Chilean press. In the

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  • August 14, 2018 at 8:45am

    Chelsea Manning to Make First UK Public Appearance at ICA London Event

    The American activist and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning will make her first public appearance in the United Kingdom this October. London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts announced today that it will host the high-profile technologist and network security expert at a donor event that will be held in her honor.

    Before the invite-only dinner, Manning will take part in a Q&A and is expected to discuss the rise of artificial intelligence, her advocacy for LGBTQ rights, and whether technology undermines or strengthens democracy. She will address topics ranging from the Panama Papers, the leaked

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  • August 13, 2018 at 4:45pm

    Busan Biennale Announces Artists Participating in Its Ninth Edition

    The Busan Biennale has announced that sixty-five artists and collectives from thirty-four countries are participating in its upcoming edition, which will run from September 8 to November 11. This year’s cohort was selected by artistic director Cristina Ricupero, curator Jörg Heiser, and guest curator Gahee Park, in collaboration with an advisory board.

    Titled “Divided We Stand,” the theme of the ninth edition revolves around the concept of split territories. The exhibition will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan and the former Bank of Korea in Busan. According to the biennial,

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  • August 13, 2018 at 4:25pm

    Architects Urge Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to Reconsider Expansion

    A $75 million expansion planned for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) has drawn opposition from seventy-five members in the architecture industry who have signed a petition imploring the museum to reassess the project weeks before the groundbreaking.

    At the heart of the controversy is the planned removal of elements from a 1996 expansion of its La Jolla campus at 700 Prospect Street. The addition is the only project by the postmodern architecture firm Venturi Scott Brown (VSB) in San Diego County. The petition, which was also sent as an open letter to MCASD director and CEO Kathryn

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  • August 13, 2018 at 12:29pm

    British Museum Returns Looted Artifacts to Iraq

    In a ceremony in London on Friday, August 10, the British Museum restituted several artifacts that had been looted from Iraq more than fifteen years earlier. Palko Karasz of the New York Times reports that the authorities seized the works from a local dealer, who has since gone out of business, in 2003 and only passed them on to the British Museum for analysis earlier this year.

    The eight works, some of which date back to five thousand years ago, are from the archaeological site of Girsu, a Sumerian city in Tello in southern Iraq. They include three fired-clay cones that feature cuneiform

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