Week in Review is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world. Subscribe to receive these posts as a weekly newsletter.
Museums
In an impromptu performance at MoMA PS1, Yali Romagoza asked difficult questions about the museum’s representation of Latinx artists.
The San Francisco art community expressed disbelief and outrage after SFMOMA cut several programs, including film, saying they were some of few community-centered events at the museum.
Human Rights
A comprehensive project by Forensic Architecture is tracking the surveillance of activists and journalists worldwide.
PEN Belarus is one of 50 civil rights organizations facing closure due to to a government crackdown on the cultural sector.
Occupied Palestinian Territories
A public art project in a Jerusalem neighborhood is drawing attention to the displacement of residents through a series of large-scale murals depicting the eyes of famous philosophers, activists, and artists.
Citing pro-Israel ties, 25 artists disaffiliated from the London-based Zabludowicz Collection.
In Other News
The British Museum will restore ancient Roman and Islamic vessels damaged during the 2020 Beirut explosion.
A looted 10th-century Cambodian sandstone statue of the Hindu war deity Skanda is finally heading home.
Artists are concerned over Instagram’s new “sensitive content” controls.
These AI-generated cats seem a bit too real.
Awards & Accolades
- The Getty Foundation has announced its latest round of grants for Curatorial Innovation in Prints and Drawings. | Hyperallergic
- The Apollo Theater announced the recipients of the 2021 Harlem Entrepreneurial Micro-Grants. | Reniscow
- The recipients of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grants are Sam Ainsley, David Sandow Birk, Krishnaraj Chonat, Jenny Dubnau, Moustapha Elafrougui, Brenda Garand, Takuji Hamanaka, Anna Hepler, Perla Krauze, Nicolas Lara, Sarah Leonard, David Niec, Oscar Oiwa, Agustin Pozo, Sukumaran Pradeep, Federico Silva Lombardo, Rehab El Sadek, Sajal Sarkar, Kakhaber Tatishvili, and Jordan West.
- Mary Baxter, Maria Gaspar, and Dread Scott were awarded the inaugural Frieze Impact Prize, awarded in partnership with the Art for Justice Fund and Endeavor Impact. | Frieze
Transitions
- Aaron Berger was named executive director of the Neon Museum.
- Mire Lee is now represented by Tina Kim Gallery.
- Sarah Rifky was appointed senior curator and director of programs of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (the ICA at VCU).
- Bilphena Yahwon was named Washington Project for the Arts’s Artist-Organizer-in-Residence.
In Memoriam
- Alice Clark Brown (1952–2021), circus performer | New York Times
- Dusty Hill (1949–2021), bassist for ZZ Top | CNN
- Joey Jordison (1975–2021), drummer and co-founder of Slipknot | Variety
- Elliot Lawrence (1925–2021), conductor | New York Times
- Bob Moses (1935–2021), civil rights activist and educator | Washington Post
- George Rhoads (1926–2021), sculptor | New York Times
