This Friday, January 14, Williamsburg art galleries will be open late for art lovers and fans to crawl through the bodacious borough of Brooklyn’s hipster-est neighborhood on earth. Dozens of art galleries and spaces will be open from 6-8pm to ensure that you can wander around and discover new talent and art from some familiar faces.
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Ai Weiwei’s Shanghai Studio Now Demolished
In Fall of 2010, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was requested by government officials to vacate his newly built Shanghai studio so that it could be demolished. The weird thing is that the Shanghai city government were the ones to ask Ai to build the studio. Following a blow-out demolition party on November 7, the studio has been emptied and demolished.
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Museum Files $2 Million Suit Against Photographer for Posting Photos
Photographer Thomas Hawk visited the World Erotic Art Museum in South Beach took photos, he claims he didn’t see the no photography sign. Now the South Florida institution filed “fradulent” DMCA notice with Flickr and Yahoo, which owns Flickr, has threatened Hawk’s entire account with permanent deletion without future warning.
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Clowns of America Speechless at Koons Balloon Suit
The art world presents an overwhelming threat to clowns everywhere as Jeff Koons sues San Francisco store Park Life and Toronto creators imm Living for producing and selling balloon dog bookends that look only slightly similar to the famous artist’s balloon dog sculptures in that they both look like puffy dogs. A cease and desist letter from Koons commanded that the bookends no longer be sold and the objects are now removed from Park Life’s shelves. If Koons should succeed in his suit to have utter dominion over all the balloon dogs he surveys, we all know who would be hurt the most: clowns, America’s greatest balloon dog producers.
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Banned NPG Protesters Plan Museum of Censored Art
Kriston Capps reports that the iPad protesters previously banned from the Smithsonian are returning to the site of their crimes. This time, artists Michael Blasenstein and Michael Iacovone will stage a fully legal protest by parking a trailer outside the National Portrait Gallery and screening Wojnarowicz’s censored video inside.
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Artists & Veterans Protest Deitch at MOCA Geffen [UPDATED]
Even if LA MOCA thinks the Blu Mural Censorship controversy is going to go away, it isn’t. The institution has not responded to Hyperallergic’s requests for comments on the issue or an unedited interview on the topic of the Blu mural censorship. And now, LA Times‘s Culture Monster reports on the latest action by some street artists, including Chicano artist/Vietnam War veteran Leo Limon and Joey Krebs (aka The Phantom Street Artist), equipped with projectors at the MOCA Geffen Contemporary wall.
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Colorado Christo Still Wrapped in Environmentalist Worries
In the latest of a long series of environmental mishaps that have attended the artist’s environmental installations, Christo’s “Over the River” project continues to be plagued by worries that the planned piece will harm its surroundings. This time, the concern is that the installation will interrupt the migration and mating patterns of animals that make their home in the Arkansas River, Colorado setting.
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Smithsonian’s Censorship Gaffe Continues to Snowball
Two new developments in the Wojnarowicz Censorship case since we last reported on the Hide/Seek show and its problems with government censorship and a Smithsonian Secretary who just can’t say sorry … Washington Post‘s Philip Kenicott is asking for Secretary G. Wayne Clough to resign … collector Jim Hedges wants his work by Jack Pierson out of the show …
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Kiefer Protest Met With Conflict, But Not For Protesters
At Gagosian gallery on December 23rd, black-shirted figures stood in front of Anselm Kiefer’s enigmatic, monumental sculptures. Wearing shirts inscribed with “Next year in Jerusalem,” the protesters were attempting to continue Keifer’s political dialogue. Gallery employees didn’t agree and tried to force them out. Unfortunately, an innocent bystander got caught in the middle and was injured in the process, The New Yorker reports.
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Museum of Arts & Design Lifts Photo Ban, Will Others Follow?
Another New York museum has removed its photography ban in galleries. This time the Museum of Arts and Design (aka MAD) is the latest institutions to join the ranks of MoMA and other major art institutions that welcome photography in their galleries, though some restrictions may apply to specific works or exhibitions. I asked Marisa Bartolucci, MAD’s director of public affairs, about the policy change and why it happened …
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Wojnarowicz Update: Catholics United Fights Back, AA Bronson Still Rebuffed, Patti Smith Talks
Fighting the perception that all Catholics are as conservative as those espoused in William Donohue’s Catholic League call for the Smithsonian to remove David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly” from Hide/Seek, Catholics United has begun a petition calling for closer scrutiny Donohue’s organization. Specifically, they target his high salary and his claim to represent the wishes of all Catholics. In the meantime, artist AA Bronson has repeatedly been denied his request to have his “Felix, June 5, 1994” removed from the exhibition, and Patti Smith spoke at the Smithsonian despite controversy.
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Gallery Hangings Gone Wrong at Boston MFA’s New Wing
At the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ new Wing of the Americas, the story of American art is told over the course of four floors, ranging from colonial and indigenous art through modernism. Stopping before contemporary, the third floor above ground level is the home of American modernism. The opening gallery of the floor tells a story that’s neither comprehensive nor diverse, instead presenting a kind of multifaceted, unfocused face to greet the public. How does this hanging impact the works on view in the gallery, and museum-goers’ experience of the art?
