Animal “Art”
A couple years ago an artwork made by a chimp sold at auction for $25,000. Today, zoos around the world are making money selling paintings made by their animals. The eternal question, though: can it be called art? [The Washington Post]
Technological Art
The Tate Britain’s new exhibition, titled “Recognition,” employs machine learning technology to pair images of the museum’s artwork with up-to-the-minute Reuters news photography, based on various pattern-recognition tools. [Yahoo]
Simon Denny’s exhibit “Blockchain Future States” offers several takes on the potential future of Bitcoin technology and runs concurrently this week at New York’s Petzel Gallery and the Berlin Biennale. [The Wall Street Journal]
Functional Art
New York City is full of “functional public art,” apparently. Meet the artists who make them. [Observer]
“Why a growing number of museum veterans are crossing over to the commercial sector.” [The Art Newspaper]
Ruth Braunstein
Prominent San Francisco art dealer and gallerist Ruth Braunstein who championed the likes of Peter Voulkos, Richard Shaw and Robert Brady died Tuesday night following a short illness. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Exhibitions
Doug Aitken has a retrospective opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles this weekend. Or if diving is more your thing, you can go view his latest installation — three mirrored geometric “pavilions” suspended underwater in the marine preserve off the coast of Catalina Island. [The New York Times]
A look at the traveling show “Blow Up: Inflatable Contemporary Art” opening at the Elmhurst Art Museum this weekend. [Chicago Tribune]
Extras
Filmmaker Steve McQueen has been awarded the Johannes Vermeer Award: $112,000, which McQueen may use to fund a future project. [Artforum]
Deborah De Robertis, the artist known for exposing herself in front of Courbet’s Origin of the World at the Musée d’Orsay is at it again. This time, De Robertis chose to pose before an exhibition of photographs of tied-up nude woman by the Japanese photographer Araki at the Musée Guimet in Paris. [Le Figaro]