News

  • Enda Bowe, Cybil McCaddy with Daughter Lulu, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
    October 14, 2019 at 1:18pm

    National Gallery of Ireland Awards Zurich Portrait Prize to Enda Bowe

    The National Gallery of Ireland has named artist Enda Bowe as this year’s winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize, an annual award that recognizes exemplary portraiture produced by artists from across Ireland. Bowe was selected for his photograph of a mother and a child in East London and will receive a cash prize of $16,500 and an additional $5,500 to create a new work for the gallery.

    Commenting on the work, which is part of the ongoing project “Clapton Blossoms,” the artist said: “This portrait traces the emotional connection between a new parent and her baby, evoking traditional compositions of

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  • Inseon Kim. Photo: Cheolki Hong.
    October 14, 2019 at 1:01pm

    Inseon Kim Appointed Artistic Director of 2020 Jeju Biennale

    The Jeju Museum of Art (JMOA) in South Korea has named Inseon Kim, the founder of the Seoul-based nonprofit Space: Willing N Dealing, as the artistic director of the second edition of the Jeju Biennale, which will kick off in May 2020. Kim will work with curator Leeji Hong to shape the curatorial vision for the event.

    “The preparation of the biennale has officially begun,” said JMOA director Jeong-ju Choi, who added that the biennial will pay homage to Jeju Island’s unique identity and serve as a platform for interdisciplinary artists. The inaugural biennial, which focused on tourism and how it

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  • Maria Berrio, The Oracles’ Silence, 2019. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
    October 14, 2019 at 12:24pm

    Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Acquires Thirteen Works

    The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) has added thirteen works to its collection, including paintings, works on paper, and collages that date from 1905 to 2019. Among the acquisitions are seven works by women artists, including Maria Berrio, Catherine Murphy, and Marie Watt, as well as PAFA alumnus Arcmanoro Niles, and the inaugural artist-in-residence at PAFA’s Brodsky Center, Jonathan Lyndon Chase.

    “The museum is focused on expanding the breadth and depth of our permanent collection with works that reflect the diversity of voices across American art history,” said director Brooke

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  • John Giorno. Photo: Marco Anelli.
    October 12, 2019 at 7:15pm

    John Giorno (1936–2019)

    John Giorno, whose kaleidoscopic work fused and furthered poetry, visual art, and activism, has died at age eighty-two. He is survived by his husband, the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. From the 1960s onward, Giorno was a vital countercultural force in postwar New York, where—from his legendary “Bunker” on the Bowery, his studio/loft for over five decades—he first collaborated with lovers such as Robert Rauschenberg, William S. Burroughs, and Andy Warhol, whose silent “anti-film” Sleep (1963) stars a naked Giorno. The artist recently enjoyed a late-career renaissance, in part for his

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  • National Gallery in Prague’s Fair Trade Palace building, which houses modern and contemporary art.
    October 11, 2019 at 5:11pm

    Anne-Marie Nedoma Named Interim Director of Prague’s National Gallery

    The Czech Ministry of Culture has appointed economist Anne-Marie Nedoma interim director of the National Gallery in Prague, Monopol reports. Nedoma will be responsible for managing the museum while it looks for the right candidate for its top post, which has been vacant since Jiří Fajt was dismissed in April. The search will be led by a newly formed advisory board, chaired by architect Josef Pleskot.

    Fajt, a German Czech art historian who helmed the gallery for five years, was unexpectedly fired by former minister of culture Antonin Stanek, who also dismissed Michal Soukup, the head of the Olomouc

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  • Bourse de Commerce in Paris.
    October 11, 2019 at 12:26pm

    François Pinault to Open Contemporary Art Museum in Paris in June 2020

    The French billionaire art collector François Pinault announced that his $170 million contemporary art museum in Paris is slated to open next June near the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou. The Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection will be housed in the city’s old stock exchange, in a building designed by the Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando, and is to host ten exhibitions a year drawing from Pinault’s collection.

    The plans for the venue were previously reported to encompass 9,850 square feet of exhibition space, a black-box theater, and an auditorium. Earlier this year, Pinault

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  • The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Photo: Lauren Cavalli.
    October 10, 2019 at 6:15pm

    Arts Professionals Demand MoMA Board Member Larry Fink Divest from Private Prisons

    As the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York prepares to reopen on October 21 following a $450 million expansion project, more than 220 artists, curators, and academics have submitted a letter to the institution’s board and director, Glenn Lowry, decrying the institution’s ties to private prisons and mass incarceration.

    The letter, which was circulated by the New Sanctuary Coalition, demands that the museum divest from Fidelity, which it uses for its pension funds, and that trustee Larry Fink, the CEO and chairman of the investment firm BlackRock, divest from “prison companies, the war machine,

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  • Vinnie Bagwell, Victory Beyond Sims (rendering). Photo courtesy the artist.
    October 10, 2019 at 4:30pm

    Sculpture by Vinnie Bagwell to Replace Controversial Public Monument in New York’s Central Park

    The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has commissioned artist Vinnie Bagwell to create a public work to replace the Central Park statue of J. Marion Sims, the nineteenth-century gynecologist who experimented on enslaved black women to achieve his medical breakthroughs.

    After the city unanimously voted to take down the Sims monument in April 2018, the department put out an open call for a replacement sculpture. The four finalists were Bagwell, Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, and Kehinde Wiley. On Saturday, seven city-selected panelists voted 4-3 in favor of Leigh’s proposal, a bronze figure

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  • Rendering of Firelei Báez’s installation by Nate Garner. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York.
    October 10, 2019 at 3:05pm

    Boston’s ICA Selects Firelei Báez for Third Watershed Commission

    The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, announced that artist Firelei Báez has been commissioned to create her largest sculpture to date for the ICA’s Watershed, a seasonal project space in East Boston, which reopens for its third season in May. Báez’s monumental work will be a reimagining of the ruins of the Sans-Souci Palace in Milot, Haiti. Built between 1810 and 1813, the palace was the residence of Henri Christophe I, a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first king of Haiti.

    Báez will create a fantastical, underwater version of the historic site that will appear as if “the sea had

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  • Doug Aitken; Ini Archibong; Gloria Kondrup; and Sterling Ruby.
    October 10, 2019 at 2:08pm

    ArtCenter College of Design Honors Doug Aitken, Sterling Ruby, and Others with Alumni Awards

    Doug Aitken, Sterling Ruby, Gloria Kondrup, and Ini Archibong will be honored at the thirteenth alumni awards dinner by the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, on November 16. The school is presenting the lifetime achievement award to Aitken (BFA ’91), the distinguished midcareer award to Ruby (MFA ’15), the outstanding service award to Kondrup (MFA ’93), and the young innovator award to Archibong (BS ’12).

    “Doug, Sterling, Gloria and Ini are, collectively, a vivid representation of the extraordinary breadth and depth of art and design created by our alumni,” said college president

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  • Courtesy of P.A.I.N.
    October 09, 2019 at 5:35pm

    Nan Goldin Urges Activists to Join Thursday Rally Against Sackler Settlement Offer

    Photographer Nan Goldin and the advocacy group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) are preparing to hold a rally tomorrow in protest of the terms of an agreement that would potentially settle thousands of cases against OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma over its role in the opioid crisis.

    According to the New York Times, shortly after the pharmaceutical giant, which is owned by the Sacklers—one of America’s wealthiest families and major patrons of the arts—filed for bankruptcy in September, its lawyers declared that the Sacklers may withdraw the $3 billion they pledged

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  • Toccarra A.H. Thomas. Photo: Kyleelise Thomas.
    October 09, 2019 at 12:35pm

    Toccarra A.H. Thomas Appointed Director of Joan Mitchell Center

    The Joan Mitchell Foundation has named Toccarra A.H. Thomas as the new director of its Joan Mitchell Center, where she will oversee a robust artist residency program, develop public programming and community engagement, and manage day-to-day operations at the New Orleans institution. Thomas previously served as inaugural general manager of Pioneer Works in Brooklyn and as inaugural managing director of SPACE, a nonprofit art organization in Portland, Maine. Veronique Le Melle has served as interim director of the Joan Mitchell Center since January.  

    “In concert with my own artistic practice, I

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