Friday, April 24
The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami Adds Three Trustees
The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami has added to its board of trustees Miami-based sculptor Christopher Carter; Daniel Salas, vice president and general counsel for real estate developer Sole Mia; and Sebastien Scemla, CEO of Scemla Realty Group. MOCA North Miami executive director Chana Sheldon said in a statement, “MoCA’s board of trustees is a representation of highly esteemed individuals who are deeply rooted in our region and dedicated to promoting the museum’s mission of bringing contemporary art to diverse audiences.”
Thursday, April 23
Mike Kelley Foundation Names 2020 Recipients of Artist Project Grants
The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts has revealed the recipients of its 2020 Artist Project Grants, which are awarded to Los Angeles–based artists and nonprofits. This year’s grantees include the Armory Center for the Arts; California Institute of the Arts/REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater); Fulcrum Arts/homeLA; Human Resources LA; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); Los Angeles Filmforum; Pieter; Vincent Price Art Museum; and Visual Communications Media. Grants are given in the amounts of $50,000, $45,000, and $25,000.
Wednesday, April 22
Renaissance Society Names New Executive Director
The Renaissance Society, a center for contemporary art at the University of Chicago, has appointed Myriam Ben Salah as its next executive director and chief curator. Ben Salah, who will join the institution on September 15, is co-curating the 2020 Made in L.A. biennial at the Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, and she previously worked as curator of special projects and public programs at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. She will be the Renaissance Society’s third director, succeeding Solveig Øvstebø, who has helmed the institution since 2013.
Tuesday, April 21
Trevor Schoonmaker Named Director of Nasher Museum
With its current director, Sarah Schroth, set to retire in May, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has named Trevor Schoonmaker as its new leader. Schoonmaker has been the museum’s chief curator since 2013, and he joined the Nasher as its founding contemporary art curator in 2006. In 2017, he organized the celebrated fourth edition of the Prospect New Orleans triennial. Schoonmaker will take the helm after Schroth retires on May 8.
Lesley Heller Gallery Announces Permanent Closure
New York–based dealer Lesley Heller revealed today that she would shutter her gallery after 10 years in business on the city’s Lower East Side. In recent years, it has staged exhibitions featuring work by Nicole Awai, Rachelle Dang, Fran Siegel, Keisha Scarville, and other emerging artists. In an email sent to friends and colleagues, Heller wrote, “I intend to continually strive to find new creative ways to work with, and support artists and the art community.”
Monday, April 20
Dannielle Bowman Wins 2020 Aperture Portfolio Prize
The 2020 Aperture Portfolio Prize, an annual award given to emerging and overlooked artists, has gone to New York–based photographer Dannielle Bowman, who is being recognized for her ongoing series “What Had Happened,” which focuses on her childhood home in Los Angeles. Bowman will receive a $3,000 cash prize and exhibition in New York, in addition to publication of her work in the Winter 2020 issue of Aperture magazine. Bowman and four runners-up will also be featured in an online gallery on Aperture’s website.
Painter William Bailey Is Dead at 89
William Bailey, who is known for still lifes depicting pottery and figurative paintings of women, has died at age 89. The artist reportedly died of complications related to a longterm illness. The artist’s work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, the Art Institute of Chicago, and other institutions. Bailey spent nearly 30 years as a faculty member at Yale University, which he joined in 1969. The Yale University Art Gallery opened a retrospective of Bailey’s work in fall 2019.
Advocacy Group Launches Emergency Fund for Persecuted Artists
The European advocacy organization Artists at Risk has launched the Covid-19 Emergency Fund for Persecuted Artists, a resource for artists facing financial and political peril during the coronavirus outbreak. “Undemocratic regimes are using the crisis to repress dissent, and that includes cracking down on artistic freedom,” said Ivor Stodolsky, cofounding director of the organization Perpetuum Mobile which runs Artists at Risk, in a statement. The organization has launched a crowdfunding page to help reach their goal of €100,000, which will be used to cover the living and relocation costs of at-risk artists. The campaign has received support from prominent international artists including British author Neil Gaiman, Syrian photographer and curator Issa Touma, and Maria Alyokhina, of the Russian feminist art collective Pussy Riot.