Friday, August 27
Von Bartha to Open Copenhagen Gallery
The Swiss enterprise von Bartha, which has spaces in Basel and S-chanf, will open a gallery in Copenhagen. Mamie Beth Cary has been tapped to lead von Bartha’s gallery in the Danish capital, which is due to open this winter with a group show. The Copenhagen space will “mark another unique site and city, where we are able to showcase the artists and estates in our programme,” said Stefan von Bartha, the gallery’s director.
Thursday, August 26
Nevada Museum of Art Names Senior Curator of Contemporary Art
The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno has appointed art historian and curator Apsara DiQuinzio as the senior curator of contemporary art, beginning November 1. DiQuinzio was most recently senior curator of modern and contemporary art at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive in California, where she had worked since 2012. She has previously held curatorial positions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York. The museum also announced that it had promoted Ann M. Wolfe to chief curator and associate director.
Bona Montagu to Step Down as Managing Director of Skarstedt
Bona Montagu has announced plans to end her nine year-tenure as partner and managing director of Skarstedt Gallery in London. According to a statement from Montagu, she will dedicate herself to expanding the business of her art advisor company, Montagu Arts, which she founded in 2013. Montagu joined Skarstedt in 2012 to develop and lead the strategy and vision of the gallery. Prior to joining Skarstedt, Montagu worked for 17 years at Dickinson gallery in New York, followed by a stint at Christie’s. She will continue to serve as vice chair of the Society of London Art Dealers.
MCA Chicago Appoints Laura Herrera as Senior Director of Communications and Content
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has appointed Laura Herrera as senior director of communications and content, a newly created position that involves overseeing the expansion of the museum’s marketing, press, and publication platforms. She will assume her new position at the MCA on September 13. Herrera was most recently the director of communications at the Chicago History Museum, where she increased audience engagement through redesigns of the institution’s brand identity and website. “Transitioning from a history museum to a museum dedicated to the work and ideas of living artists, I am excited to collaborate with the most relevant contemporary voices of our time and bolster the vibrancy of one of the most influential cultural institutions in the world,” Herrera said in a statement.
Wednesday, August 25
Longtime Taft Museum of Art Director to Step Down
Deborah Emont Scott will step down as president and CEO of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati next summer, following the completion of the Ohio museum’s extensive preservation project. After a transition period to assist the museum in finding her replacement, she will conclude her 12-year tenure and be named director emerita. Scott was named director in 2009 and has led the organization out of financial peril following the Great Recession and through the global pandemic. Her accomplishments include enhancing outreach opportunities with award-winning programs, including an artist-in-residence initiative. “Not only has Scott invested in the museum and its collection, but she has also put special emphasis on the board, staff, and community—paying special attention to growing the diversity of the organization,” Gerald H. Greene, Jr., chair of the museum’s board, said in a statement.
Al Capone’s Personal Effects Head to Auction
The estate of infamous mobster Al Capone will be auctioned off this October in California, seven decades after his death. Capone’s three granddaughters are parting with the Chicago outfit boss’s personal effects, which include family letters exchanged during Capone’s prison sentence, a diamond-encrusted matchbox, and a 1911 semi-automatic pistol. The 174-lot line-up is estimated to fetch $715,000. The auction will be staged by Sacramento’s Witherell’s auction house. Capone was believed to have orchestrated the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and other killings during his stint as head of a Midwestern Prohibition-era gang.
Tuesday, August 24
Katherine Bradford Awarded 2021 Rappaport Prize
Katherine Bradford is the winner of the 2021 Rappaport Prize, which is presented annually to an outstanding contemporary artist with strong ties to New England. The annual prize is administered by the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln and carries a $35,000 cash prize. Bradford, a self-taught artist who lives and works between New York and Brunswick, Maine, is known for her luminous paintings that often featuring ships or figures that are shown swimming or floating through space. She has exhibited widely at institutions such as MoMA PS1 in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and her work is included in collections nationwide, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Menil Collection.
Aichi Triennale Names First Batch of Participants for 2022 Edition
Japan’s Aichi Triennale has revealed the first group of artists lined up to participate in its forthcoming show, which is due to open in July 2022. Taking the theme of “STILL ALIVE,” in reference to a work by the artist On Kawara, who was born in Aichi, the triennial will this time be curated by Mami Kataoka. Among set to show there are Kate Cooper, Kaori Endo, Byron Kim, André Komatsu, Aki Sasamoto, and Chiharu Shiota. The full list of the first group of artists can be found here.
Monday, August 23
Kavi Gupta Now Represents Tomokazu Matsuyama
Tomokazu Matsuyama, a New York–based painter known for his fantastical images of youths in natural environments, has joined the roster of Chicago’s Kavi Gupta gallery. Matsuyama’s art draws on visual traditions from his home country of Japan, in particular works from Edo and Meiji periods, and combines them with styles associated with the Italian Renaissance. In bridging Asian and European modes, Matsuyama aims to reflect “the struggle of reckoning the familiar local with the familiar global,” as the artist had previously said.
Proyectos Ultravioleta Adds Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Edgar Calel to Roster
Proyectos Ultravioleta in Guatemala City now represents Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme and Edgar Calel. Abbas and Abou-Rahme work together across sound, image, installation, and performance, and engage the intersections between each genre and the body. Their joint investigations highlight the material and political possibilities of the mediums, and performances often incorporate text, image, and sound. Abbas and Abou-Rahme are currently having a solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago; they are also set to debut a new work co-commissioned with the Dia Art Foundation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Calel works in multiple mediums to explore the complexities of the Indigenous experience, drawing a link between Mayan tradition and spirituality with the prejudices faced by the Indigenous peoples of Guatemala today. His work appeared at the Berlin Biennale last year, and was recently acquired for the permanent collection of Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.