COURTESY THE UFFIZI GALLERY
Forces of Nature
A bolt of lightning struck the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, as the New York Post tells us. Thankfully, no damage was done, and its innumerable masterpieces were unharmed. [The New York Post]
Welcome to Miami
Next week, dealers and collectors will head to Miami Beach, Florida, for the Art Basel fair and a number of satellite operations. As Brett Sokol at the New York Times notes, the city of Miami has a newly bolstered contemporary art infrastructure, strengthened by the reopening of the Bass and the ICA Miami. [The New York Times]
What’s more, there’s a host of new restaurants and food happenings in Miami to feed the incoming masses. The Miami New-Times helpfully breaks down the new offerings. [The Miami New-Times]
Of the new places to snag a reservation during Art Basel Miami Beach, perhaps the most appropriate would be Nusr-Et Miami, the spot run by Salt Bae, the muscle-clenching, sodium-spraying meme come to life. As Annaliese Griffin writes in Quartz, “If it’s performance art you’re after, you may have a chance to see the Salt Bae himself in action at Nusr-Et Miami.” [Quartz]
The Miami Herald answers a few questions about Art Basel Miami Beach. One question posed is, “If I’m not an art collector or art aficionado, why would I want to go?” The Herald answers, saying, “A couple of reasons. One is that it’s fun.” [The Miami Herald]
Emon Reiser in the South Florida Business Journal reminds us that, despite the glamorous offerings set to be on display, the damage from Hurricane Irma in September is still quite visible. A slew of hotels that often host events during Art Basel Miami Beach, such as the Ritz-Carlton and The Raleigh, are still closed. [The South Florida Business Journal]
In Travel + Leisure, Cailey Rizzo has another story about the ICA Miami, and reminds readers of a crucial fact about the city’s newest contemporary art museum: It is free and open to the public. As Rizzo writes, “Unlike most of the other art week events, this one is committed to being open and accessible to all.” [Travel + Leisure]
Around the Country
Good news from Ohio. The Knight Foundation, the J.M. Smucker Company, and other benefactors supported an endeavor at the Akron Art Museum called the #GivingBACKTuesday campaign, where locals could sign up for a free annual membership November 28. As the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports, more than 10,000 people claimed museum memberships during the day-long campaign. [The Cleveland Plain-Dealer]
Ryan A. Huey of the Lansing State Journal has a report on the opening of “Michigan Stories: Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw” at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. Both Kelley and Shaw were Detroit natives who were in the beloved proto-punk outfit Destroy All Monsters, and the show features a host of work by both artists in a variety of media. At the opening, Huey describes how Shaw “was chanting into a microphone while plinking touchscreen piano keys on an iPad” and said that, as that happened, “deep electro-drones bellowed from a Moog synthesizer.” [The Lansing State Journal]
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond has in its collection Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis (1963), and it is loaning the work to a show at the Mississippi Museum of Art, “Picturing Mississippi.” The show is celebrating the state’s bicentennial, and it got the work on loan because, as Katie Eubanks of the Clarion-Ledger points out, Elvis Presley is Mississippi’s “most beloved son.” The King was born in Tupelo. [The Clarion-Ledger]
At the Movies
The actor and occasional artist James Franco is earning accolades for directing and starring in The Disaster Artist. To briefly sum up the film, Franco plays real-life oddball Tommy Wiseau, an aspiring film auteur who spent a fortune making a horrendous film that, somehow, became a cult classic. Of The Disaster Artist, Justin Chang, the film critic for the Los Angeles Times, writes, “Franco, an excellent if erratic actor, also happens to be one of the most prolific American independent filmmakers under 40. In both taking the directorial reins and stepping into the role of Wiseau himself, he has hit a kind of meta-moviemaking sweet spot and ascended to his own levels of all-consuming Wiseauean commitment.” [The Los Angeles Times]
The artist Harmony Korine is also a fan of James Franco, having memorably cast him in his last film, Spring Breakers. That was way back in 2013, and Spring Breakers has since been acquired by MoMA for its permanent collection—but thankfully Korine is making a new film, called The Beach Bum, and the first shots of its set were published by TMZ. Matthew McConaughey is starring, and in the leaked pictures he’s wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts that match his Hawaiian shirt and palling around with Jimmy Buffett. [TMZ]