Friday, June 18
Angela Su to Represent Hong Kong at 2022 Venice Biennale
Hong Kong’s M+ museum and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council have announced that Angela Su will represent Hong Kong at the 2022 Venice Biennale, which is due to open on April 23. This marks the first time a Hong Kong–based female artist will have a solo presentation at the exhibition. Su is best known for her research-based practice that spans drawing, installation, performance, and video. “It is a deep honor to represent Hong Kong, my hometown, and a place that has shaped my practice over the years,” Su said in a statement. “It is particularly meaningful to me to show in Venice having lived through these turbulent years in Hong Kong and to connect with a global audience through my participation in the international Biennale.”
Thursday, June 17
Skarstedt to Open Paris Gallery
As momentum driven in part by Brexit causes the Paris art scene to rise in prominence, Skarstedt, a gallery that currently has spaces East Hampton, London, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, has revealed plans to open in the French capital. Located at 2 Avenue Matignon, the space is near the Grand Palais, and it will open in October. Maria Cifuentes has been hired as the gallery’s senior director. “I am excited for the gallery to engage in this moment of renewal and growth within this historic art capital and its community,” dealer Per Skarstedt said in a statement.
Wednesday, June 16
Xavier Hufkens Now Represents McArthur Binion
Xavier Hufkens in Brussels has added Chicago-based artist McArthur Binion to its roster. The artist will continue to be represented by Lehmann Maupin, Massimo De Carlo and Richard Gray. Over the course of 40 years, Binion has gained recognition for his work as an artist and writer. He was the first African American to obtain an M.A. in fine arts in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1973, and he has since developed an oeuvre that applies Minimalist techniques to biographical material. His works were featured prominently in the 57th Venice Biennale and solo exhibitions have been presented at Museo Novecento in Florence and the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston. Binion’s paintings will be included in a group exhibition at Xavier Hufkens this summer; his first solo exhibition there will follow in fall 2022.
Guggenheim Foundation Adds Lisa Baker to Board
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has elected Lisa Baker to its board of trustees. In 2017, Baker founded BakerIE (Baker International Exhibits), a nonprofit organization centered on supporting artists in the creation of large-scale projects. She serves on several boards and committees, including ones at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and the Guggenheim’s Photography Committee.
Tuesday, June 15
Speed Art Museum Names New Director
The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, has appointed curator and art historian Raphaela Platow as its new director. For the past 14 years, Platow has served as director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. At CAC, she oversaw the implementation of new diversity measures, the renovation of the institution’s physical space, and the expansion of the museum’s community engagement programs and outreach. Prior to joining the CAC, Platow served as chief curator and acting director at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, and as international curator at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has also held positions at the Kunstforum München and Projektraum Berlin.
Four Curators to Receive Fellowships Honoring Okwui Enwezor
Independent Curators International has named the four curators receiving its inaugural Curatorial Research Fellowships, which are open to curators who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color. Intended to commemorate Okwui Enwezor‘s legacy, the fellowship program was founded earlier this year in collaboration with Marian Goodman Gallery and artist Steve McQueen. Each fellowship comes with $10,000. The curators receiving fellowships this year are: Anaïs Duplan (Brooklyn/Iowa City), Negarra A. Kudumu (Seattle), Marie Hélène Pereira (Dakar, Senegal), and Ronald Rose-Antoinette (La Trinité, Martinique).
Blum & Poe Now Represents Kazunori Hamana
Blum & Poe, which maintains spaces in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo, now represents Japanese artist Kazunori Hamana. A self-taught ceramicist, Hamana draws from Japanese’s rich ceramic tradition while developing techniques to create vessels out of clay sourced from Shiga Prefecture in Japan’s southern central Kansai region. Ranging in size from large-scale to intimate pieces, his art often bares geometric and organics forms, symbols, and language. A solo exhibition of Hamana’s work will open this September at Blum & Poe’s L.A. location, marking his third presentation with the gallery.
Monday, June 14
Orange County Museum of Art Will Relaunch California Biennial in 2022
The Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa, California, will bring back its acclaimed California Biennial, which staged its first edition in 1984. The 2022 California Biennial will be the inaugural exhibition at OCMA’s new 53,000-square-foot at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts when it opens in October of that year. The forthcoming biennial will be curated by independent curators Elizabeth Armstrong and Essence Harden, and Gilbert Vicario, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Phoenix Art Museum. In a statement, OCMA director Heidi Zuckerman said, “California has long been a wellspring of innovation and creativity and CB22 once again gives us an opportunity to explore the richness of the state’s expansive and diverse creative communities.”
High Museum of Art Appoints Curator of Photography
The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has appointed Gregory Harris as its curator of photography. Harris, who joined the museum in 2016, has served as the associate curator of photography since 2018. He will assume his new role on August 2. Throughout his tenure at the High Museum, Harris has overseen the acquisition of works Dawoud Bey, Evelyn Hofer and Mickalene Thomas, among other artists. He has also curated more than a dozen exhibitions including “William Christenberry: Time & Texture” (2018) and “Amy Elkins: Black is the Day, Black is the Night” (2017).
Nara Roesler Now Represents Heinz Mack in the Americas
Nara Roesler, which has gallery locations in São Paulo, Rio de Janiero, and New York, will now represent German artist Heinz Mack in the Americas. Nara Roesler will represent the artist alongside his other gallery Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art (in Düsseldorf), Galeria Parra & Romero (Madrid and Ibiza), Cortesi Gallery (Milan, Lugano, and London), Galerie Geiger (Konstanz) and Ben Brown Fine Arts (London and Hong Kong). A cofounder of the Zero group, Mack is best known for his large-scale installations that look at the interplay between light, movement, and space. In a statement, the gallery’s founder Nara Roesler said, “Heinz Mack is a visionary in understanding the essence of light, having created unique and disruptive intertwinings between natural and constructed elements.”
Company Gallery Now Represents Women’s History Museum
Women’s History Museum, an artist group formed by Mattie Barringer and Amanda McGowan in 2015, is now represented by New York’s Company Gallery. Their art combines techniques culled from sculpture, fashion, film, painting, photography, and performance in search of finding ways of creating new histories. Women’s History Museum, which often works collaboratively with other artists, relies on fashion “as a medium that has the potential to exist beyond regurgitative spectacle and the ability to change the fabric of reality,” Company said in a release.
Various Small Fires Now Represents Ashley Bickerton
Various Small Fires, which maintains spaces in Los Angeles and Seoul, has added Ashley Bickerton to its roster. The Bali-based artist is best known for his multimedia paintings and sculptural work which share a critique of consumerism, the commercialization of art, and the destruction of the natural environment. Over the past 25 years his work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York, Tate Modern in London, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and Vancouver Art Gallery, among other venues.
