To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.
The Headlines
ARTIST ACTION. With T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Peter Halley discussed six pieces of art and design at his Connecticut studio (by Ettore Sottsass, Robert Morris, and others). With Frieze, Laura Owens chatted about her show at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles in France, which pairs her works with his . “His painting is—I hesitate to use the word—anal,” she said. Ai Weiwei penned an essay for the New Statesman about the “environmental costs of authoritarianism, capitalism, nationalism and corporatocracy.” And the New York Times profiled Petrit Halilaj, who currently has a show at Tate St. Ives in Cornwall, England, that includes enlarged versions of drawings he made as a teenager in a refugee camp in Albania after fleeing the war in Kosovo. Returning to them recently, he said, “I saw all these birds—peacocks and doves—and they were as big as the soldiers, as happy and proud.”
Related Articles
NEW RULES. Hong Kong’s government passed a law on Wednesday that lets officials ban films that are deemed threats to national security, the AFP reports. It is the latest step in an ongoing crackdown on free speech by the Chinese government in the region. The maximum fine for screening an unlicensed movie has been set at HK$1 million (about $130,000) and three years in prison. Given the political turmoil in the city, some have questioned whether it can continue to maintain its key position in the art world. In other news from the Fragrant Harbour, the long-awaited M+ museum opens next month. [AFP]
The Digest
Six far-flung dealers are uniting to stage shows that will present 30 years of work by artist Rochelle Feinstein. They are: Candice Madey and Bridget Donahue in New York, Hannah Hoffman in Los Angeles, Nina Johnson in Miami, Campoli Presti in Paris, and Francesca Pia in Zurich. [Financial Times]
After being being taken off view to undergo close study, a roughly 1720 portrait of Elihu Yale (the namesake of the university) with an enslaved boy and other people is back on view at the Yale Center for British Art. Researchers have been attempting, so far unsuccessfully, to identify the child. [Associated Press/Bloomberg]
Alex Greenberger picked eight highlights from the 2021 edition of the New Museum Triennial, which opens to the public today. Curated by Margot Norton and Jamillah James, the exhibition includes 40 artists and “meets the chaos of the moment with stoicism and serenity,” Greenberger writes. [ARTnews]
A new dig at an ancient Roman amphitheater first identified in 1849 in Richborough, England, has led to the discovery of a holding cell (a carcer, to be precise) where gladiators and criminals were kept before facing death in the arena. On a happier note, a pet cat was also unearthed. [The Times of London]
Fort Worth, Texas, said that it will build a National Juneteenth Museum on land that is home to the Fort Worth Juneteenth Museum, which was started by Opal Lee, the 95-year-old woman who successfully lobbied for June 19 to be named a federal holiday to mark the the end of slavery in the United States in 1865. [Associated Press]
A new venue for gallery dinners is on deck in Beverly Hills: The luxe Cipriani group, which has boîtes from Las Vegas to Venice, is planning to open a restaurant on Camden Drive, not far from branches of Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Gagosian. [The Hollywood Reporter]
The Kicker
SHOWTIME! After spotting artist Maria Kreyn’s work in Vanity Fair, theater king Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned her to create paintings for his Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which has undergone a £60 million (about $82.5 million) renovation, the Art Newspaper reports. Kreyn responded with eight dramatic works that channel scenes from Shakespeare . It appears to be an ambitious display, but their fruitful partnership could have been derailed before it began. The artist admitted, “I thought the email was spam when he first reached out to me.” [The Art Newspaper]