Friday, August 16, 2019
Please Enjoy This Video of a Kusama Pumpkin Being Whisked Away Ahead of a Typhoon
In preparation for Typhoon Krosa, which reached Japan this week, Yayoi Kusama‘s Yellow Pumpkin (1994) was moved from its usual location overlooking the shores of Naoshima Island, which is also home to treasures by James Turrell, Walter De Maria, and more. A video posted to Instagram on Wednesday shows a group of art handlers carrying the huge sculpture from its spot on a dock extending into the sea. Yellow Pumpkin was then placed in the bed of a truck and slowly driven to safety.
Artist Ja’Tovia Gary Wins Prize at Locarno Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, one of the most prestigious events of its kind in Europe, has named Ja’Tovia Gary as the winner of its Moving Ahead Award, which comes with 5,000 Swiss francs (about $5,100). Gary won for her film The Giverny Document, which screens on Saturday at the festival and focuses on the pain of black women in the past and present.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Spanish Businessman Buys Work Removed from Aichi Triennale
A controversial work that was removed earlier this month from the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Japan, has found a new home. Reuters reports that Spanish businessman Tatxo Benet has bought the sculpture in question, which is by Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung and deals with Japan’s history of ianfu, or comfort women—Asian women, many of them Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II. The work, which was taken off view following an outcry from local politicians, will now go on view “as early as next year” in the Freedom Museum in Barcelona, according to the report.
André Hemer Joins Hollis Taggart
Hollis Taggart gallery in New York now represents the New Zealand-born, Vienna-based painter André Hemer. It will present a selection of Hemer’s recent paintings at the Untitled art fair in Miami Beach this year and will stage a solo show of his work in 2020. The artist, whose exuberantly colored abstract paintings deals with the circulation and rendering of images in the age of the Internet and social media, is also represented by Luis de Jesus (in Los Angeles), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (London and Berlin), Yavuz Gallery (Singapore and Sydney), and Gow Langsford Gallery (Auckland). Hemer has previously exhibited work at COMA Gallery and Chalk Horse Gallery in Sydney, Art Shanghai Contemporary Fair, Art Basel, and the Manila Art Fair, among other venues.
Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Now Represents the Estate of Eduardo Paolozzi
The London-based gallery Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert has added the estate of Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), a pioneer of Pop art, to its roster. On October 17, it will open an exhibition of Paolozzi’s early sculptures, drawings, and collages that he assembled by splicing together bits of advertisements, magazines, and other materials in the 1950s. The show, which is curated by Judith Collins, a former senior curator at Tate and the author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Paolozzi’s sculptures, will be the first in a series of chronological presentations at the gallery focused on the Scottish artist.
Estate of Tom Fairs Heads to Van Doren Waxter
Van Doren Waxter in New York now represents the estate of the late English painter Tom Fairs. The Upper East Side gallery will present a show of some of his lesser-known paintings and works on paper from September 10 through November 2, in an exhibition titled “Tom Fairs in Color: Paintings and Drawings 1997–2007.” Fairs, who died in 2007 at the age of 81, was best known for his bewitching landscape drawings—he created intricate, impressionistic visions of the English countryside in seemingly every state, from snow-capped to sun-drenched. His work has also been shown at Kerry Schuss in New York, Karma in Amagansett, New York, and the Mercer Art Galley in Yorkshire.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Names 2019 Winner of Rappaport Prize
The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, has named Chilean painter and installation artist Daniela Rivera as the recipient of its 2019 Rappaport Prize for Boston-based artists. This year, following a $500,000 gift from the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation, the award comes with $35,000—about $10,000 more than in prior years.
Chrysler Museum of Art Makes Two New Hires
The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, has hired Allison M. Taylor as director of education and Heather Sherwin as director of development. Taylor is coming from Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, where she was head of education and community engagement. Sherwin most recently worked as vice president of advancement at the Central Carolina Community Foundation in Columbia, South Carolina. The two new staffers started in July.
Guggenheim Names New Deputy Director and Chief Advancement Officer
Leah E. Heister has been hired as the deputy director and chief advancement officer of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. She starts September 3. Heister was previously vice president of CCS Fundraising, a strategic consulting firm in New York City focused on the arts, education, healthcare, and social services. She has worked a consultant for the Guggenheim since 2016, and serves as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University in New York in its graduate nonprofit management program.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Arkansas Art Center Names New Executive Director
The Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, has named Victoria Ramirez as its new executive director. She comes aboard from the El Paso Museum of Art where she served as director since 2017. Ramirez joins the center in the midst of its $128 million fundraising campaign for a new building, which is slated to open in 2022. She has previously work as a deputy director of the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas, and as education director at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.
Team Gallery Now Represents Michael St. John
Team gallery in New York now represents Sheffield, Massachusetts–based artist Michael St. John. St. John’s work often involves the collaging of found images with trompe l’oeuil painting, and examines American history and the construction of various subcultures. He will have his first solo show at the SoHo gallery in 2020. The artist was previously represented in New York by Andrea Rosen Gallery, which closed in 2017, and had solo shows with Team in 1998 and 1999.
Drawing Center Hires New Director of Communications
Allison Underwood has been named director of communications at the Drawing Center in New York. She will begin early next month. Underwood joins the SoHo nonprofit space from the mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth, where she worked as communications manager for its two Manhattan locations. She previously worked in communications at the New Museum and Museum of Arts and Design in the city.
Brown University Gallery Taps New Curator
The David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, has named Kate Kraczon as its curator; she started this month. Kraczon joins the gallery following her time as associate curator at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. She had been at the ICA since 2008, organizing shows of work by Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson, Ree Morton, Karla Black, Becky Suss, and others.
Monday, August 12, 2019
Noguchi Museum Names New Assistant Curator
New York’s Noguchi Museum has named Kate Wiener as its new assistant curator, joining after serving as curatorial assistant at the New Museum in their department of education and public engagement. Aside from curatorial duties at the Noguchi, Wiener will also be charged with overseeing public programming.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation To Launch $100,000 Prize
The Washington, D.C.-based Cultural Landscape Foundation has created a $100,000 biennial award for international landscape architects—the first of its kind. The inaugural prize is to be given in 2021, and its purse is equal to that of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. Charles A. Birnbaum, the organization’s president and CEO, said in a statement, “Landscape architecture is one of the most complex and, arguably, the least understood art forms. It challenges practitioners to be design innovators often while spanning the arts and sciences in addressing many of the most pressing social, environmental, and cultural issues in contemporary society.”
Update 8/13/19, 1 p.m.: A previous version of this article misstated the frequency of the Cultural Landscape Foundation’s award. It is biennial, not biannual.