Historically, the island — the world’s largest tax-funded cemetery — has operated under the purview of the Department of Corrections, which pays Rikers Island inmates $1 an hour to handle the area’s many bodies.
Kate Gill
Kate Gill is a writer, editor, and filmmaker based in Brooklyn.
Posted inIn Brief
Chile’s Art World Joins Massive Santiago Protests
The Contemporary Art Fair of Chile has been postponed, galleries are temporarily shuttering, and an artist-led organization is crowdfunding for legal and medical aid for protesters.
Posted inOpinion
In Mark Zuckerberg’s World, “Provenance” Means Nothing
The tech entrepreneur’s use of the word provenance serves to erase its weighty history as an art historical term — and Facebook’s complicity in spreading “fake news.”
Posted inNews
Amazon Facial Recognition Falsely Links 27 Athletes to Mugshots in ACLU Study
Massachusetts’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter revealed Amazon’s “Rekognition” technology falsely linked the faces of 27 professional athletes in New England to mugshots in a criminal database.
Posted inNews
Monument to Seneca Village Family Rushed and Historically Inaccurate, Experts Say
The monument to the Lyons family from the historic 19th-century village of mostly Black residents will be placed nearly 20 blocks uptown from its original location in Central Park.
Posted inNews
Instagram Held a Private Meeting With Artists About Its Nudity Policies
Just hours later, ironically, one of the participating artists, Micol Hebron, had her account suspended for posting a topless photo outside of Instagram headquarters.
Posted inIn Brief
A Hollywood Executive Sues Dealer for $10M Over Alleged Mark Rothko Forgery
Ron Meyer bought the work for $900,000 in 2001 from Susan Seidel. It hung in his home for nearly two decades, when he began to suspect the work was a fake.
Posted inNews
Artist Pravin Mishra Files Defamation Lawsuit Against His Sexual Assault Accuser in India
Pravin Mishra has filed civil defamation charges against an independent journalist, following a number of similar suits as the #MeToo movement grows in India.
Posted inIn Brief
NYC Mayor De Blasio and Governor Cuomo Face Off Over Mother Cabrini Statue
The rivalry between the political opponents was cemented after Cuomo announced he would bypass the mayor and fund the polarizing Mother Cabrini statue with state money.
Posted inIn Brief
Thief Steals Dalí Print in Under a Minute
An audacious thief managed to snatch a Salvador Dalí etching off an easel at a San Francisco art gallery.
Posted inIn Brief
UK Cultural Institutions Get a Major £250 Million Boost
The development fund for cultural institutions — including libraries, museums, and “creative industries” — is the government’s biggest-ever investment in the cultural sector.
Posted inNews
In South Africa, Activists Campaign to Remove Artwork by Convicted Murderer of a Sex Worker
In a public gesture of solidarity, artist Candice Breitz asked that her video installation, on view in a separate exhibition at the same art center, be removed and replaced by a #SayHerName sign.