Friday, November 29
Shanghai Biennale Names Chief Curator for 13th Edition
The Shanghai Biennale has appointed Andrés Jaque as chief curator for its 13th edition, which will open in November 2020 at the city’s Power Station of Art. Jaque, who is an architect, writer, and curator, serves as director of the Advanced Architectural Design Program at Columbia University in New York. He said in a statement, “It will be my priority that the city of Shanghai is not only a venue but also a fundamental actor in the discourse, content, and experience of the Shanghai Biennale.”
London’s Modern Art Gallery Adds Third Location
The Modern Art gallery in London will expand its footprint in the British capital to include a third space, in the posh Mayfair district, which is home to many blue-chip galleries and auction houses. (Its other two locations are in East London.) The new location on Bury Street will add 1,200 square feet of exhibition space and will allow for more “intimate” shows than the gallery puts on at its two other locations on Helmut Row and on Vyner Street, according to a release. The new venue will open next spring with an exhibition of Austrian painter Martha Jungwirth; shows of work by Richard Tuttle and Sanya Kantarovsky are also on tap for the Bury Street space. “Over the last several decades the area has also become a destination for leading contemporary galleries, making it an ideal situation for Modern Art to position itself within central London,” Modern Art’s founder, Stuart Shave, said in a statement.
Investigators Reveal Details of Dresden Theft
Following a break-in at the Green Vault of Dresden’s Royal Palace on Monday, crime-scene inspectors have determined exactly what was taken. Among the missing items are three sets of diamond jewels dating to the 18th-century, which were removed from a display case along with a group of rock buttons. Further details about the targeted objects can be found here.
Wednesday, November 27
ICA Miami Acquires Over 100 Works
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, has added over 100 artworks to its collection, including pieces by John Baldessari, Arthur Jafa, Cindy Sherman, and Anicka Yi. The museum has also acquired its recent commissions from Allora & Calzadilla, Paulo Nazareth, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Manuel Solano. ICA Miami’s artistic director, Alex Gartenfeld, said in a statement, “We’re grateful to our community in Miami and supporters around the world, who have recognized the value of our mission in providing a platform for diverse, influential, and educational voices in contemporary art.”
Outsider Art Fair Names 2020 Exhibitors for New York Edition
The 2020 Outsider Art Fair in New York has revealed its exhibitor list, with 60 galleries lined up to participate. Set to run from January 16 to 19 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, the fair will include booths by Howard Greenberg Gallery, Fierman, and Andrew Edlin Gallery. Alongside these booths will be sections curated by Brett Littman, the director of the Noguchi Museum, and critic and curator Paul Laster, as well as a talks series organized by Bill Arning, the former director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. A full exhibitor list is available on the fair’s website.
Tuesday, November 26
Garth Greenan Gallery Adds Melissa Cody to Roster
Los Angeles–based artist Melissa Cody is now represented by New York’s Garth Greenan Gallery. Cody, who was included in ARTnews’s 15 Los Angeles Artists to Watch list in 2018, is a fourth-generation Navajo weaver and textile artist whose work combines traditional elements and imagery of Navajo textiles with poetic texts that reflect on her life, as well as the struggle and collective losses of her people. Her work was included in the 2018 edition of the SITElines biennial at SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico, and is currently on view in the group exhibition “Àbadakone | Continuous Fire | Feu continuel” at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Cody will have her first show at the gallery in February 2021. —Maximilíano Durón
Dorothy Seiberling, Noted Art Editor, Dies at 97
Dorothy Seiberling, who commissioned some of the first major profiles of Abstract Expressionist artists when she was the senior art editor at Life magazine, died on November 23 in Wilmington, Delaware, at the age of 97, according to the New York Times. Seiberling, whose first marriage was to art historian Leo Steinberg, helped publish important pieces about Jackson Pollock and Georgia O’Keeffe, and she built up an important collection of prints, some of which were donated to the University of Iowa Museum of Art. Her papers are currently held in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
on canvas. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
Monday, November 25
María Berrío Joins Victoria Miro
Victoria Miro, which has galleries in London and Venice, now represents María Berrío, whose work will figure in its presentation at Art Basel Miami Beach next month. Berrío will have a solo exhibition at the gallery’s space in the British capital in June 2020. The artist, who will continue working with Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, is known for her large-scale mixed-media works on Japanese paper that meditate on experiences of migration and notions of refuge. Her work has been shown at the Prospect. 4 Triennial in New Orleans, and can be found in the collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other institutions.
Nairy Baghramian and Maria Hassabi Win Performa Prize
Performa, the New York–based performance art biennial that came to a conclusion yesterday, named Nairy Baghramian and Maria Hassabi the winners of its Malcolm McLaren Award, which goes to “a visual artist who demonstrates strong potential through an innovative and thought-provoking live performance” in the show. The prize comes with $5,000, funded by streetwear brand Supreme. For the biennial, the two artists debuted Entre Deux Actes (Ménage à Quatre), which paired Baghramian’s sculptures with Hassabi’s trademark slowed movements and moments of stillness in a Fifth Avenue town house. Éva Mag also received a special mention from the jury, which included curators Nikki Columbus, Ana Janevski, and Lumi Tan.
Ai Weiwei Joins Public Art Fund Board
The New York–based nonprofit Public Art Fund has appointed four people to its board of directors: artist Ai Weiwei, goldsmith and jewelry designer Ellen Celli, collector Andrea Krantz, and finance adviser Ruthard C. Murphy. Nicholas Baume, Public Art Fund’s director and chief curator, said in a statement, “We’re thrilled that these four thoughtful, passionate, and engaged members of our community will work with us to further our vision to present boundary-breaking art experiences to all, for free.”