Friday, July 10
Queer|Art Launches Grant for Black Trans Women Artists
The New York–based nonprofit Queer|Art has created the $10,000 Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists. Developed in partnership with artists Mariette Pathy Allen, and Serena Jara, along with consultant and writer Aaryn Lang, the grant will be awarded annually. Judges for the inaugural cycle are Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and artists Juliana Huxtable, Texas Isaiah, and Kiyan Williams. Applications for the grant will remain open through August 30, with an awardee to be named in November.
Thursday, July 9
Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing Partner for Exhibition at the Noyes House
A collaborative exhibition among the galleries Blum & Poe and Mendes Wood DM and the art and design fair Object & Thing will open on September 15 at the historic modernist home of architect Eliot Noyes in New Canaan, Connecticut. Running through November 28, the show will include works by Sonia Gomes, Lynda Benglis, Mark Grotjahn, Kazunori Hamana, and others.
Wednesday, July 8
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Names New Deputy Director
Artist, curator, and gallerist Janice Bond, who founded the consulting practice Bond Creative Advisors, has joined the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in Texas as deputy director. Bond, who was previously based in Chicago, has formerly served as director of arts and culture at Chicago’s nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network and as a member of the Chicago Cultural Plan Advisory Council and Navy Pier Arts Working Group. In 2016, Bond was an artist-in-residence and lecturer at the Mark Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia, where her work is part of the permanent collection.
Momentum Biennale Appoints Curators for 2021 Edition
The Momentum Biennale in Moss, Norway, has named Théo-Mario Coppola as curator and Håkon Lillegraven as associate curator for its 11th edition next year. Coppola, a critic and curator, has curated the 2018 edition of the Nuit Blanche festival in Rome, and he served as artistic director of Primo Piano and Intermezzo in Paris. Lillegraven served as curatorial assistant for the osloBIENNALEN in 2018. Titled “House of Commons,” Coppola and Lillegraven’s 2021 exhibition will explore the ways in which “a paradigm shift is needed to change how current and historical forms of domination resulting from capitalism, colonialism, racism, patriarchalism, and gender normativity have impacted our lives,” according to a release.
Tuesday, July 7
Hales Gallery Now Represents Chitra Ganesh
Hales Gallery, which has locations in London and New York, has added visual artist Chitra Ganesh to its roster. Hales will represent Ganesh in partnership with Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco and Gallery Espace in New Delhi, India. Ganesh’s drawing-based practice is inspired by historical texts, popular culture, and Hindu and Buddhist iconography, and explores themes related to gender and sexuality. Her work has previously been shown at New York’s Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, and Gothenburg Kunsthalle in Sweden, among others. The artist’s first solo exhibition with Hales will take place in New York in 2021.
Monday, July 6
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Makes Appointment to Newly Created Director of Curatorial Division Post
Mary-Dailey Desmarais has been named director of the curatorial division at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Desmarais joined the institution in 2014 as associate curator, and she has since worked as curator of international modern art and curator of international contemporary art at the museum. Some of her recent curatorial credits include “Paris in the Days of Post-Impressionism: Signac and the Indépendants” (2020) and “Once Upon a Time… The Western: A New Frontier in Art and Film” (2018).
Kamel Mennour Names New Director
Kamel Mennour, which maintains spaces in Paris and London, has appointed Olivier Belot as a director. Belot, who has previously worked for the since-shuttered Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris and cofounded the now-closed Until Then gallery in Paris, will take on his new position at Kamel Mennour in September.
LA Art Workers Relief Fund Announces First Round of Emergency Grants
The LA Art Workers Relief Fund, an emergency relief fund designed to aid Los Angeles–based art organizations and workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, has awarded $1,000 emergency grants to 60 grantees in June. Since the launch of the project, 160 donors raised a total of $70,978. For the next round of grant-giving in September, the LA Art Workers Relief Fund hopes to raise at least $50,000 to distribute among 60 more grantees. This round of grantees was supported by a range of high-profile figures and spaces within the city’s art scene, including artists Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Andrea Bowers and the gallery Blum & Poe.