![Post image for Andrea Bowers Protest Letters Taken Down Overnight at Frieze [UPDATE]](http://hyperallergic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/backup1.jpg)
The labor headache continued apace on Randall’s Island this morning, as Susanne Vielmetter arrived at her eponymous gallery to find Andrea Bowers’s much-discussed protest letters taken down and the entrance of her cube cordoned off by a white string. “I’m shocked,” she told Hyperallergic, “I never expected this would happen.” Though she says it isn’t clear who is responsible for this action, Vielmetter was particularly dismayed as she had spoken with Frieze co-head Matthew Slotover in the run up to the fair, and he had subsequently engaged both her and Andrea Bowers in a “long conversation” assuring her of the right to display the letters and clarifying the Frieze position that they are not in a labor dispute of any kind.
Continue Reading → 
A proposed declassifying of crafting as a creative industry in the UK has the the country’s cavalcade of craft makers bristling. The broadly and ridiculously named Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) released a paper in late April directed at evaluating the creative industries, including the elimation of “crafts” as one of the accepted creative industries categories.
Continue Reading → 
According to documents received by Hyperallergic, the Teamsters have decided to renege on their announcement, made at last month’s City Hall press conference, to not target Deutsche Bank in their ongoing challenge of Frieze New York’s labor practices.
Continue Reading → ![Post image for BREAKING: Students Occupy Office of Cooper Union President [UPDATE 5]](http://hyperallergic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/466091_465977830149707_1579715782_o1.jpg)
At roughly 11 am today, a group of 30 students occupied the offices of embattled Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha. Bharucha himself is not present, however, and unlike the previous occupation, the students have not barricaded themselves in and are being allowed to freely enter and exit the building. Black banners signifying the takeover have also been unfurled from the second floor windows of the Foundation Building.
Continue Reading → 
Occupy Museums thinks the art fair model needs to be reworked. Occupy Wall Street’s art offshoot has announced a new initiative, DebtFair, which seeks to radically deconstruct the commercial art fair. After essentially sunning themselves in a distant corner of Frieze New York last May, distributing flyers for Un-Frieze and other protest literature, the activists have decided to go for a more radical overthrow of the heavily commodified fair model. Whether or not this alternative has legs remains to be seen.
Continue Reading → 
In a memorable appearance at St. Mark’s Bookshop in the fall of 2011, Slavoj Zizek held forth on the importance of saving the bookstore from its then-impending eviction from a Cooper Union-owned building, referring repeatedly to the predatory landlord as “the Union Cooper.” The mangy Slovenian’s malapropism seems downright prescient these days, as the university’s community of students, faculty, and alumni looks inward to rebuild the century-old promise of their institution.
Continue Reading → 
Earlier this month, Complex covered Supreme’s hitting Leah McSweeney of clothing line Married to the MOB with a $10 million lawsuit for copyright infringement, as McSweeney did a parody of the streetwear label’s logo as “Supreme Bitch.” Rightly, Complex wondered what the conceptual artist who inspired the logo in the first place thought about it, namely Barbara Kruger with her red and white sans serif text work. Here’s her response.
Continue Reading → 
The architecture of Thorncrown Chapel, with its soaring windows inviting the verdant depths of the Ozarks, is a study in instilling peace. Yet a new plan may shatter the tranquillity by installing invasive power transmission lines just outside its pine and glass walls.
Continue Reading → 
Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was denied early release from prison last Friday, with a Russian judge saying that Tolokonnikova had “not always followed the rules of behavior” in custody, according to the AP.
Continue Reading → 
Police in Torquay, England are investigating a local branch of the Triton Gallery, the Independent reports, after their windows were smeared with black paint early Tuesday morning. The work on display included paintings by Rolf Harris, an 83-year-old Australian painter best known for his work as a television entertainer, who was arrested and questioned last month as part of a series of inquiries into allegations of sexual abuse against the late television presenter Jimmy Savile.
Continue Reading → 
