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Archive of Leighann Morris

Leighann Morris is a London based writer, who moved to New York because blogging in London got boring. She has a degree in Art History and Visual Studies from The University of Manchester, and wrote her theses on Joseph Beuys. She spends more time on Twitter than with humans.

Leighann has written 21 article(s) for AFC.

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Leighann Morris

Wednesday Links: #MittRomneyHatesArt

by Leighann Morris on September 26, 2012

  • If you were anywhere near Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday, you would have seen graffiti artist Saber flying five planes in formation across sunny Sunday skies with messages reprimanding presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his plans to kill funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and other much needed arts organisations (which is really funny, considering the Romney plane window comments that flooded the internet today). Anti-Romney messages included “#MittRomneyHatesArt” and “#DefendTheArts”. We’re not quite sure hashtags work on clouds, but you can watch a video of the spectacle here. [HuffPo]
  • Oh no, someone is putting on an exhibition inspired by “Lost”.  ”Lost (in LA)”, curated by the former director of Paris’s Palais de Tokyo, Marc-Olivier Wahler, is due to take place at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Art Park (1 December-27 January 2013), with works by Tatiana Trouvé, Oscar Tuazon, and Thomas Hirschhorn, among others. [The Art Newspaper]
  • NADA’s released its exhibitor list for Miami Beach 2012, and ArtINFO has the breakdown. Over half are new additions. [ArtINFO]
  • The Warhol Foundation announced this month that it had settled a deal with Christie’s to liquidate all of its remaining art holdings, aiming to raise money for more grants. Christine J. Vincent assesses Warhol’s philanthropic legacy. [The Art Newspaper]
  • This week marks the beginning of the Gwangju Biennale. Overseen by six female curators from the Middle East and Asia, the Biennale explores themes of civic protest with artworks that deal with resistance campaigns from South Korea all the way to the global Occupy movement. [The Guardian]
  • Can the art world go a day without talking about Andy Warhol? I thought I’d left it all behind after reading all the reviews of Regarding Warhol at the Met, but now news is in that the British Royal Collection has bought Warhol’s screenprint portraits of the Queen. They will be in an exhibition this year. Warhol did say that one day he wanted to be as famous as the Queen of England? [Artdaily]
  • Was Expo Chicago a success? Hard to know from Julia Halperin’s mixed report, but sales don’t appear to be overwhelmingly strong. Dealer spin for this fair? “Chicagoans are a little more cautious.” [ArtInfo]
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Who likes Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years at the Met?

by Leighann Morris on September 24, 2012
Thumbnail image for Who likes Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years at the Met?

Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years just opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and boy, have critics had a field day, almost universally panning it. With almost 50 works by Warhol and nearly 100 works by artists who have responded to Warhol in some way, the show was bound to cause a stir because really, which artist hasn’t been influenced by Andy Warhol? With this in mind, critics ask: is Regarding Warhol an intelligently curated retrospective that explores important aspects of Warhol’s work, or is Regarding Warhol a celebrity driven, gimmicky attendance boost?

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Susan Philipsz’s The Distant Sound: Really Moving, If You’re An Austrian Composer

by Leighann Morris on September 17, 2012
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In 2010, Susan Philipsz recorded herself singing three different versions of the 16th century Scottish lament Lowlands Away, and installed speakers beneath three bridges over the River Clyde in her native Glasgow to play them. It made Philipsz the first Turner Prize nominee to use sound installation, and accordingly, Lowlands’ placement in the Turner prize exhibition was followed by an onslaught of negative criticism. The Independent’s Michael Glover called Lowlands “hype-cum hogwash,” and The Telegraph’s Richard Dorment condemned those who enjoyed the piece to “the ninth circle of art hell.”

We think those critics are wrong. The reason why they got it wrong, though, also cripples Phillipsz’s current exhibition The Distant Sound, at Tanya Bonakdar.

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GO Brooklyn: Greenpoint & Williamsburg

by Leighann Morris on September 11, 2012
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When the Brooklyn Museum announced GO, a chance for artists in Brooklyn to share their work with the public and win a chance to exhibit at the museum, I got pretty excited. I’m British, and have only been in New York for under three months, so it seemed like a good chance to get introduced to the local arts scene. Chelsea can only tell a critic so much about artists in New York.

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Thursday Links!

by Leighann Morris on September 6, 2012
  • Warning! It’s fashion week again. Previously acceptable areas of Manhattan will be flooded with unacceptable fashionistas. Avoid. [HuffPo]
  • AFC’s Paddy Johnson is teaching a class! Do you want to write about art? Enroll, and she’ll teach you. [tumblr]
  • Apparently no fewer than 128 people completed Damien Hirst’s “spot challenge” back in January. 128. They’ll get their prints soon, but more importantly, what the hell, people? [The Art Newspaper]
  • Photographer Juozas Cernius, who’s taken his share of pretty pictures for this blog from around the world, is looking to fund a project documenting the work of aid groups in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. He’s raising the money through IndieGoGo, and then giving the proceeds back to aid organizations. It’s a good thing to do for the world, and maybe you should help him out. [London Free Press]
  • This week, AFC’s Paddy Johnson will be at the Toronto International Film Festival. In anticipation of TIFF, Indiewire have realised 25 films they are looking forward to. Are you excited about seeing Keira Knightley trying to do Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina justice? Us neither. We’re looking forward to The ABC’s of Death, comprised of short horror films by 26 directors. Each was assigned a letter of the alphabet and accompanying word, leaving it up to the director to come up with a short story of death. GNARLY. [Indiewire]
  • Anyone going to TIFF must watch the premiere of Reincarnated, an Andy Capper documentary made about Snoop Dogg embracing rastafarian culture/smoking lots of weed in Jamaica. Anyone not going must watch this trailer. [YouTube]
  • Wanna see Putin in a little white suit, hand-gliding over Siberia to “help endangered cranes begin their migration to wintering grounds in Iran and India”? Now you can! [Animal New York]
  • The Walker had an Internet Cat Video Festival and we were really excited. The “people’s choice” cat video winner was revealed last week, and now we’re disappointed. Existential feline Henri 2, Paw De Deux won out of the thousands of entries, that included Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat. AFC’s Paddy Johnson has something to say about the unexpected result. [Today]
  • James Panero writes about how punk rock influenced Pussy Riot and Ai Weiwei. In a nutshell: “While at times misused within Western culture, … when employed against oppressive regimes [punk] can be potent.” [The Wall Street Journal]
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This Week’s Art Events at the L Magazine

by Leighann Morris on August 27, 2012
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This week, we’ll be thrown into the dark for the Bushwick Blackout, we’ll take a trip to Governors Island, and we’ll have a free artist therapy session.

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I Guess Pratt Is Having an Art Store War?

by Leighann Morris on August 23, 2012
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Pratt students thought they had sufficient art supplies when the Pratt Store opened in 2005, but then, this March, Utrecht opened up one of its mammoth chain art supply stores just a few doors down. Since then, Utrecht has polarized the Pratt community, and some worry that it will run the Pratt Store out of business. We spoke with staff at both stores, and the local community, and man, have we got a scoop. Sort of.

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Reflections on the Afterlife: The Post-Olympic City at Storefront for Art and Architecture

by Leighann Morris on August 13, 2012
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Do remnants from former Olympic sites turn its hosting cities into post-event time warps, or can leftovers have a useful afterlife?

This question occurred to photographer Jon Pack, when watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, recently described by Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei as an “elaborate costume party with the sole intention of glorifying the country”. Collaborating with Gary Hustwit, director of critically acclaimed documentaries Helvetica, 2007, Objectified, 2009, and Urbanized, 2011, Pack’s desire to document the troubling relationship between former Olympic sites and their hosting cities gave birth to ongoing collaborative photography project The Olympic City.

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Outspoken Critic, Robert Hughes, dies aged 74

by Leighann Morris on August 7, 2012
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Celebrated critic, scholar, and cultural commentator Robert Hughes died on Monday aged 74, at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx after a long battle with illness.

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BATTLE AUGUST at Postmasters Gallery

by Leighann Morris on August 7, 2012
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We’re excited about ARTyleria’s latest project: BATTLE AUGUST, at New York’s Postmasters Gallery. A curatorial venture by Paulina Bebecka and Robert von Leszczynski, BATTLE AUGUST showcases two battle-style performances that incorporate everything from image-rigged turntables, to dance battles supported by YAK films.

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