News

  • Talia Levitt, Studio Detritus, 2019. Courtesy of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation.
    September 30, 2019 at 5:45pm

    Rema Hort Mann Foundation Awards Grants to Eight New York Artists

    The Rema Hort Mann Foundation (RHMF) announced today that eight New York–based artists will receive this year’s $10,000 Emerging Artist Grants for demonstrating critical and rigorous work in the field of contemporary art and for committing to making substantial contributions to the arts in the future. The grantees are Ander Mikalson, Autumn Knight, Elizabeth Tubergen, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Rachel LaBine, Sharon Madanes, and Talia Levitt.

    The artists were selected from a pool of one hundred applicants who were nominated by New York–based arts professionals. An independent

    Read more
  • Steve White. Courtesy of the Royal Academy of Art.
    September 30, 2019 at 5:25pm

    President of London’s Royal Academy of Arts to Step Down

    The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London announced that its president, Christopher Le Brun, will step down in December after serving in the role for eight years. During his tenure, the institution experienced a period of significant growth. It completed an expansion, which connected the campus’s Burlington House with its Burlington Gardens and added new galleries and a theater; admitted artist collaborations such as Gilbert & George into the academy for the first time; and received some of the largest donations in its history.

    “Christopher Le Brun, as president, has been the driving force behind

    Read more
  • Wolfgang Tillmans. Photo: Seth Fluker. Courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
    September 30, 2019 at 4:04pm

    Wolfgang Tillmans Elected Chair of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts

    The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London announced today that artist Wolfgang Tillmans has been appointed as the new chair of its board of directors. Tillmans will be the first artist to lead the board in more than thirty years. He succeeds Hadeel Ibrahim, who helped develop a new governance structure for the institute, which promotes a more collective model of leadership. Ibrahim is relocating to Iceland to focus on climate justice.

    “Times like these are times for artists to lead,” said Stefan Kalmár, head of the ICA. “I could not be happier to have Wolfgang chairing the ICA Board.

    Read more
  • Robert Giard, 1985. Photo: Toba Tucker. Courtesy of the Estate of Robert Giard.
    September 30, 2019 at 2:00pm

    Queer|Art and Robert Giard Foundation Launch Grant for LGBTQ Photographers

    Queer|Art has partnered with the Robert Giard Foundation to revamp its signature fellowship. Established in 2008 to support the creation of new work by emerging LGBTQ photographers, the prize was awarded to artists Sonali Gulati, Molly Landreth, Carmen Oquendo-Villar, and Ka-Man Tse, among others. Applications for the new $10,000 grant can be found on QueerArt’s website| and will be accepted from September 30 to November 24. The recipients of the relaunched award will be chosen a panel of judges comprising Los Angeles–based artists Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Guadalupe Rosales; artist and Brooklyn

    Read more
  • Otobong Nkanga. Courtesy of the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Photo: Wim van Dongen. Courtesy of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.
    September 30, 2019 at 12:04pm

    Otobong Nkanga Wins Inaugural $100,000 Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award

    The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Sandvika, Norway, revealed today that the Nigerian-born multidisciplinary artist Otobong Nkanga has been named the recipient of the inaugural Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award. Established by the art center and the Lise and Arne Wilhelmsen family, the $100,000 prize supports midcareer artists whose work inspires social change. In addition to the monetary award, the museum will mount an exhibition dedicated to the artist in the fall of 2020 and will acquire one of Nkanga’s works for its collection.

    At an award ceremony at the Conduit in London on September 30, Tone Hansen,

    Read more
  • Henriette Huldisch. Photo: Liz Linder.
    September 30, 2019 at 11:00am

    Walker Art Center Names Henriette Huldisch Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs

    The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis announced today that Henriette Huldisch will be its next chief curator and director of curatorial affairs. Huldisch comes to the institution from the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Boston, where she has worked as director of exhibitions and curator since 2014. She will begin her new role on January 6, 2020.

    “Henriette has an interdisciplinary perspective, deep knowledge, and experience working with living artists,” said the Walker’s executive director, Mary Ceruti. “She will provide excellent leadership for our curators as we develop creative, experimental

    Read more
  • Tu Hongtao, 2019. Courtesy of Lévy Gorvy.
    September 30, 2019 at 9:23am

    Taipei Dangdai and NADA Miami Announce Exhibitors, Tu Hongtao Joins Lévy Gorvy, and More

    Taipei Dangdai has released the roster of ninety-seven galleries participating in the upcoming edition of the fair, which will take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, from Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19, 2020. The fair also announced that Robin Peckham has been named codirector. Peckham will be based in Taipei and will work alongside fair codirector Magnus Renfrew, who founded Taipei Dangdai in 2019 with Sandy Angus, Tim Etchells, and Will Ramsay.

    Among the new galleries joining the fair are SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (Tokyo), Artinformal Gallery (Philippines), Kaikai Kiki Gallery

    Read more
  • Palais de Tokyo.
    September 29, 2019 at 2:45pm

    Palais de Tokyo Community Leader Dismissed After Threatening Greta Thunberg

    Emma Lavigne, the president of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, has discharged the president of Amis du Palais de Tokyo, Bernard Chenebault, after he made threatening remarks on Facebook yesterday about the sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. Chenebault, whose role at Friends of the Palais de Tokyo involved overseeing a network of patrons and collectors—as well as spearheading community outreach on behalf of the institution, Europe’s largest center for contemporary art—called Thunberg a “madwoman” whom “we must shoot down.” He added: “I hope an off-center person shoots her,”

    Read more
  • Haig Aivazian and Ahmad Ghossein.
    September 27, 2019 at 6:08pm

    Beirut Art Center Appoints Haig Aivazian and Ahmad Ghossein Codirectors

    Lebanese artists and curators Haig Aivazian and Ahmad Ghossein have been named the new codirectors of Beirut Art Center (BAC).

    Ghossein is a filmmaker and artist who studied at the National Academy of Art in Oslo and the Lebanese University in Beirut. His work has been exhibited or screened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the New Museum, New York; the Sharjah Art Foundation; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Oslo Kunstforening, Kunsthall, Oslo; the SeMA Biennale Mediacity, Seoul; the Haus am Waldsee, Berlin; the Beirut Film Festival; the Berlinale Film Festival, Berlin; and the Dubai Film

    Read more
  • UOVO workers. Photo: Teamsters.
    September 27, 2019 at 5:27pm

    UOVO Workers Vote in Favor of Forming Union

    Employees of UOVO, a New York–based firm that provides transport and storage services for arts institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rubin Museum, gathered this week at the company’s Queens location to announce their intent to organize a union with Teamsters Local 814, New York’s union for professional movers. They are demanding negotiation for contracts that offer more affordable healthcare and a robust retirement plan.

    Brooklyn state senator Julia Salazar and Local 814 president Jason Ide were present as employees noted that management had refused to recognize the union,

    Read more
  • Michael Xufu Huang.
    September 27, 2019 at 5:21pm

    Michael Xufu Huang Departs M Woods, Plans to Open X Museum in Beijing

    Collector Michael Xufu Huang has resigned from his position at M Woods, the private contemporary art museum housed in Beijing’s 798 Art District that Huang and collectors Lin Han and Wanwan Lei founded in 2014. He plans to open a new institution, X Museum, with work from his own collection—including pieces by Amalia Ulman, Nicolas Party, Julie Curtiss, Alex Gardner, and James Turrell—in the Chinese capital in March of 2020, coinciding with Beijing Gallery Weekend.

    The new museum’s collection currently comprises about three hundred works, and Huang said its programming will be inflected

    Read more
  • Laura Aguilar, Three Eagles Flying, 1990. Photo: Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Accession No. 2019.15.1. Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
    September 27, 2019 at 4:53pm

    Getty Museum Acquires Laura Aguilar Photographs

    Thirty-five photographs by Laura Aguilar, the Los Angeles artist who died last year at the age of fifty-nine, have entered the collection of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles in the largest museum acquisition of Aguilar’s work to date. The artist was known for creating moving images that explored her identity as a queer Mexican American and that challenged traditional notions of beauty.

    “Laura Aguilar left us far too soon, but her powerful work remains as a testament to her vision and talent,” said museum director Timothy Potts. “It is important and appropriate that these photographs will stay in

    Read more