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Marina AbramoviÄ‡

Monday Links: Anti-Trump Artist Threatened

by Michael Anthony Farley on March 20, 2017

Thomas Gainsborough, “Mr. and Mrs. William Hallett,” aka “The Morning Walk.”

Marina Abramović, Laurie Anderson, Jasper Johns, and Cindy Sherman are among the artists who’ve signed a petition against the Trump administration’s proposed federal budget. Under Trump’s plan, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would be totally defunded. [artnet News]
This is scary. Artist Karen Fiorito has received multiple death threats since creating an anti-Trump billboard. It was commissioned by Phoenix art gallery La Melgosa, and alludes to Nazism. [The Independent]
Also scary: German police now suspect a Belgian man killed Berlin-based artist Ewa Kowska in a sex game gone wrong. The artist’s body was found with multiple stab wounds, which the killer tried to cover up by setting fire to her apartment. [The Local]
Oh man, I have to see this. Apparently the finale of Tracey Ullman’s Show features a wine-swigging “troubled artist” character inspired by Tracey Emin. [Mirror]
The Lower East Side’s 100 Gates Project, which pairs artists and small businesses for murals on bodega shutters, is heading to East Harlem and Staten Island. Will the Instagrammers seeking street art selfie backdrops follow? [Curbed]
For some reason, 63 year old Keith Gregory attacked a 1785 Thomas Gainsborough painting (above) with a sharp object in the National Gallery in London. [The New York Times]
Kerr Houston’s writing about Penelope Umbrico make me like Penelope Umbrico. [BmoreArt]

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Highlights From the Armory

by Molly Rhinestones on March 4, 2017

The Armory Show opened this week, creating a theme park for art collectors and lovers from across the globe. Over 200 galleries and site specific installations are on view at Pier 92 and 94 on the Hudson River. This year features a welcome overhaul of the fair’s floor plan, spearheaded by the new director, Benjamin Genocchio. The delineation of a “Modern” section, usually on view at Pier 92, has been phased out, relocating 17 dealers from the “Galleries” section and the “Focus” artists upstairs. In past iterations of the fair it seemed highlights were positioned in high traffic areas near the entrance and by the time the fair fatigue hit you found yourself stuck at a dead end inside labyrinth of the dullest booths. The new design features wider aisles and better traffic management, making for a vastly more pleasant experience. This year’s a hit folks—at least in terms of visitor experience.

In particular, the Armory’s special “Focus” section, curated by Jarret Gregory, stood out. The section culled 10 artists from around the world together to examine a question taken from 19th Century Russian Socialist Writer Nikolai “Chernyshevsky, “What Is To Be Done?” (a breath of fresh air when at times the theme of the fair seems to be “How Many Yayoi Kusama and Marina Abramovic Works Can We Fit Into This Pier.”).

My highlights and commentary below.

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The 10 Weirdest AFC Stories of 2016

by Michael Anthony Farley on December 30, 2016

Equal parts surreal and horrifying, 2016 was basically an Hieronymus Bosch painting come to life. Given how apocalyptic and strange every headline from the mainstream news media has been this past year, it’s easy to overlook all the weird shit that went down in the art world.

But this year was chock-full of crazy art world stories, often that intersected with politics. (Remember a few weeks ago, when Madonna charged Art Basel visitors thousands of dollars to watch her grind on a chair while dressed as a clown, covering Britney Spears’ “Toxic” in front of a giant projection of Donald Trump?) It’s hard to even pick a “top 10”, but here’s our best effort to round-up the weirdest art stories we reported on in 2016:

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Nightmares Before Christmas

by Michael Anthony Farley on December 12, 2016

This week there’s not a lot of art stuff happening beyond holiday parties and craft fairs. One could say NYC’s taken an unexpectedly Middle-American turn in that regard, were it not for how morbid so much of the week’s happenings are. Tuesday night, scholars Sam Tanenhaus and Richard Wolin perform a post-election autopsy on the American Republic and speculate about its afterlife (hint: It’s not looking good) at CUNY. For a slightly less depressing evening, head to Ubu Gallery where German artist Heide Hatry is opening a new series of drawings made with the ashes of human remains. If that’s not enough mortuary holiday cheer for you, Con Artist Collective is throwing a fake memorial art show for the comedian Bill Murray (one of the few national treasures that hasn’t died in 2016). Thursday night we’re looking forward to a subversive holiday group show at Kate Werble Gallery, and a six-hour night of discussions about Art After Trump at Housing Works.

Friday night, things get a little less bleak city-wide. P! and Beverly’s are hosting events for a Bard CSS project that sprawls across Chinatown and continues with satellite events all weekend. At Brooklyn’s Orgy Park, a group show invites painters to make something collaborative, and in Queens, MoMA PS1 is throwing a holiday party for artists that looks totally bonkers. Have some spiked hot chocolate. After a week of thinking about Trump and death, you’re going to need it.

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Wikileaks: Marina Abramović Invited Clinton Campaign Chair to Satanic Menstrual Blood & Sperm Fest?

by Michael Anthony Farley on November 4, 2016

Halloween may be over, but this shit-show of an electoral haunted-hay-ride just got a little spookier.

Wikileaks has released an email purportedly hacked from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s inbox from none other than performance art star Marina Abramović. The email had been forwarded from his brother, lobbyist Tony Podesta last June, inviting John to join him at a “Spirit Cooking” party hosted by Abramović in New York, at the artist’s request.

email-marina

“Spirit Cooking” is an Abramović piece supposedly inspired by famous Satanist Aleister Crowley’s occultist rituals. It involves the artist painting the walls with menstrual blood, breast milk, and other bodily fluids.

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Thursday Links: New Use for Ground Up Mummies—Paint Pigment

by Paddy Johnson on October 13, 2016

Martin Drölling, “L’intérieur d’une cuisine” (1815), believed to have been painted with Mummy Brown (via the Louvre)

Painting/art history nerds will like this one. It’s a round-up of pigments from yesteryear that we no longer use. The weirdest one is undoubtedly “Mummy Brown,” which, as it’s name suggests, is made out of ground-up mummies. Gross? [Hyperallergic]
Jean-Michel Basquiat fans rejoice. A new, never before exhibited drawing will be on view at Brooklyn’s Bishop Gallery during Art Basel Miami. The gallery is part of the satellite fair X Contemporary. Not to sound too dismissive, but the drawing doesn’t look remarkably different or better than anything else he’s done. [ARTnews]
Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Nice to see musicians getting their due. [The New York Times]
Here’s a page that allows a user to distort an image by shrinking or enlarging it. Sometimes new images appear, but generally, I don’t get this “pixel art”. How is this any different than using the distort tool in Photoshop? [Essenmitsosse]
The Artists and Writer’s Cookbook is out. Recipes from James Franco (pb and jelly), April Gornik (salad), and Swoon (ratatouille). Those recipes are all pretty traditional compared to Marina Abramovic, though, who submits a breast milk and sperm recipe that is to be eaten on top of a volcano. That’s one place I’m not going to travel for art or dinner. [Artnet news]
And in the news world of “no shit”, Brooklyn and Queens have never been this expensive. [Curbed]

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Monday Links: Don’t We All Want a Dyke for President?

by Michael Anthony Farley on October 10, 2016

i-want-a-dyke-for-president

Zoe Leonard’s 1992 poem “I Want a Dyke for President” is justifiably having a moment. The piece has been blown up and installed underneath the Standard Hotel, and has recently gone viral as a video featuring Mykki Blanco reciting the poem. Basically, we have the two most unpopular major-party candidates ever, and “I Want a Dyke for President” sums up so many frustrations. [The Creators Project]

After jilted Marina Abramović collaborator Ulay was awarded a quarter million Euros a few weeks ago in the largest conceptual art lawsuit ever, Noah Charney tries to figure out just how much Abramović made and how. Unfortunately, he never really gets to the bottom of which works sold for how much and to who, but it’s a decent intro to the commodification of performance art. [Salon]

Creative Time director Nato Thompson describes Doomocracy as “less like hanging art in a museum and more like ‘putting on an opera at the Met.’” The Pedro Reyes installation spans multiple rooms of a derelict warehouse, and tackles issues from school shootings to climate change in the style of a haunted house. We can’t wait to see it. [artnet News]

Speaking of giant creepy abandoned buildings, this VICE documentary about Ohio’s sprawling “Ghost Malls” is amazing. Journalist Rick McCrank interviews photographers and ameature filmmakers who explore abandoned malls, and you come to realize how absurd and tragic the typology of the shopping center is—it’s the closest thing many suburbanites have to public/civic space, but since it’s privatized, its fate is tied to the whims of the market. [VICE]

Reflecting on Thomas Heatherwick’s $150 million “Vessel” slated for Hudson Yards, Aaron Betsky muses that spectacle-driven installation art has supplanted grandiose architecture as site of collective experience. I’m not entirely sold on that argument—the truth within that statement might have more to do with economics. It seems that the private sector is increasingly more likely to fund expensive art than the public sector is to fund expensive architecture. Most civic buildings are now designed by budget and zoning, but plenty of contemporary high-end private property still has a sense of whimsy (I’m thinking of Herzog & de Meuron’s cathedral-like Miami Beach parking garage). And many museums strive for both. [Dezeen]

Rob Goyanes is the best. Here’s his take on accelerationism, late capitalism, and environmental disaster as they manifest (/in) Miami. [Temporary Art Review]

An interview with East New Yorker Patrick Eug‎éne, who uses abstract expressionist painting to discuss gentrification. [PBS]

This is such a good idea. In many gentrifying cities, there’s paradoxically a surplus of school buildings due to closures or replacements. St. Louis is considering turning a former school into workforce housing for teachers. [Education Dive]

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Thursday Links: Marina Abramović Owes Ulay €250,000

by Michael Anthony Farley on September 22, 2016

Sun Mu, “Jesus of Chosun,” oil on canvas, 2009

North Korean defector Sun Mu has been stirring up controversy with his parody Socialist Realism paintings. Apparently some South Korean audiences don’t see the irony in his work… which is hard to believe. [The Guardian]
Famously a fan of midcentury modernism, the musician Moby really hates this hotel room designed by the late Zaha Hadid. [Dezeen]
Ulay sued his ex Marina Abramović for royalties over their collaborations, and has been awarded €250,000 by a Dutch court. Cue Simpsons-style “HA HA.” [artnet News]
There’s a huge resurgence of interest in 20th century art dealers who defined movements’ aesthetics. Is this because we’re nostalgic for charisma in the age of global mega galleries and a sometimes faceless business? There are books, exhibitions, and more in the pipeline celebrating legendary gallerists Virginia Dwan, Richard Bellamy, Leo Castelli, and others. [ARTnews]
Former students of NYU’s defunct Tisch Asia art school in Singapore are suing the university, alleging a sub-par education and lack of networking opportunities that left graduates saddled with debt. [New York Daily News]
The listicle “10 Things You May Not Know about Tracey Emin” isn’t all that revelatory, with a few exceptions. Kate Moss once bought one of Emin’s works and it ended up in a London dumpster, found by a lucky passerby. Also, she has a twin and “very bad herpes.” [Sleek]
Here at AFC we’re equally baffled and delighted by the current obsession/trend of houseplants everywhere, particularly in the art world. Kate Losse theorizes our society’s sudden, collective love of all things potted might be rooted in environmental anxieties and the popularity of plant-centric midcentury modernism. [Curbed]
I love how VICE can cover anything from a protest camp in the Amazon to a heroin den in the Midwest and make it seem like the coolest place to be. Mostly for that reason, here’s their coverage of PS1’s NY Art Book Fair. [VICE]

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Wednesday Links: No One Likes Your Blood Art or Thinks Soylent Is Cool Anymore

by Michael Anthony Farley and Corinna Kirsch on August 17, 2016

“My Little Edward Scissorhands” by Jvermillionaire

Robot taxis? Ford Motor Company announces plans to unveil a driverless vehicle for use in commercial ride-sharing by the year 2021. No plans yet as to whether the company plans to partner with Uber, Lyft, or any other commercial ride-sharing services yet. So what will happen when taxi drivers go the way of the dinosaur? Taxi drivers who fear losing their job to robot cars were not interviewed for this article. [Reuters]
Speaking of cold-blooded creatures: Aborigines “look like dinosaurs,” according to Marina Abramović. “They are really strange and different,” she wrote in her diaries in the 1970s, “and they should be treated as living treasures.” O_o [Hyperallergic]
And then, this morning comes the news that that line about dinosaurs will be removed from an upcoming publication of Marina Abramović’s memoirs. Delete doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. [The Guardian]
Art dorks rejoice because you can now hike up your pants and show off your love of Edouard Manet’s “Luncheon on the Grass” with a pair of socks. Also available: Mona Lisa, Nefertiti [Google Ghost Press]
CIA releases hundreds of declassified papers on UFOs. Also incredible: the CIA gives tips on how anyone can investigate flying saucers. [Open Culture]
Anthony Antonellis’s new series for Electric Objects speeds up the slow process of “wear and tear” on tech, by burning, breaking, and busting open iPhones, desktop monitors, and printer cartridges. [Electric Objects]
David Mermelstein argues that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s At Home With Monsters—a show that sprinkles the museum’s collection amongst that of horror director Guillermo del Toro—is kitsch masquerading as art. I haven’t seen the show, but I hate that stance, even though the show does sound kind of terrible. [The Wall Street Journal]
Clayton Chowaniec’s net game That Pokeyman Thing allows users to play as an old person struggling to understand what the hell Pokémon Go is. It’s hilarious, and weirdly fun. [Kill Screen]
Johnny Depp apparently made paintings with his own blood to get over a divorce. To demonstrate that this is gimmicky instead of shocking, Dan Duray outlines a short history of artists using blood as a medium, from the seminal to the schlocky. It’s a funny, quick read. (Yes, the Edward Scissorhands My Little Pony nods to Johnny Depp.) [The Guardian]
Feel the wrath of the surveillance society, where corporations know more about you than your boyfriend does, with this fake name generator. Sure! Sounds like fun. No it’s not. It’s terrifying: it generates social security card numbers, passwords, usernames, addresses, and credit card numbers. [Fake Name Generator]
Johnny Cash’s Tennessee ranch, replete with general store and music venue has been reopened as the Storytellers Museum outside of Nashville. Only a 14-hour drive, for those of us in the northeast! [artnet News]
The federal agency of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is being lambasted for efforts to desegregate affordable housing. The HUD proposal would de-concentrate vouchers in low-income neighborhoods and encourage more Section 8 recipients to move to wealthier areas. The problem, according to NYC officials and advocates, is that there’s simply not enough vacant rental housing stock in the city’s wealthier neighborhoods. Maybe the sudden influx of federal subsidies for low-income renters could be used as an incentive to build more? [Curbed]
Move over Soylent, there’s a new performance-enhancing non-food in town. Nootropics, which have been popular for some time, are now making their way into a more public eye through the help of several startups selling pre-mixed “artisanal brain boosters.” [The Baffler]

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