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Asian Art Guide: Gwangju and Asia’s Oldest Biennial

BEIJING — It’s a four hour train from Seoul — two trains, to be precise, as a transfer is necessary. With a population of a little over a million people, it’s the sixth-largest city in South Korea. That city is Gwangju, whose name means, literally, the bright province. It’s a city of flashing neon lights, love motels, high-energy dance clubs and some of the best restaurants in Korea. Amongst international creative circles, it’s also known as the home of Asia’s oldest art biennale, the Gwangju Biennale.

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Do You Know What It Means To Dream About New Orleans?

By the ordinary way of reckoning such things, there are considerably fewer artists participating in this year’s Prospect.2 biennial in New Orleans than in the event’s first iteration three years ago. But if artist and provocateur William Pope.L’s piece for the exhibition turns out according to schedule, there will be a lot more artistic visions on view around New Orleans this fall than the smaller number of artists might lead you to expect.

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Bronx Calling: The First AIM Biennial

The Bronx Museum’s Artists in the Marketplace (AIM) program has helped emerging artists in the New York area navigate the business side of art since the 1980s. AIM is now celebrating its 30th anniversary with two joint exhibitions at the Bronx Museum and Wave Hill: Bronx Calling: The First AIM Biennial features 72 participants from the 2010-2011 program and the smaller Taking AIM on the program’s history. I recently journeyed up to the Grand Concourse for the Bronx Museum component of the show.

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Prospect 2: Now With 66% Less Art!

New Orleans is a city of excess: we eat more good food, show more skin (at least during Carnival season), and have more fun than just about any other city in the United States, or anywhere. And when the Prospect.1 art biennial rolled into town in the fall of 2008, we could add “see more great art” to that list as well. Hopes were high that the followup would match or even exceed the scope and ambition of curator Dan Cameron’s first installment (81 artists! 39 countries! 22 venues!). But it’s not 2008 any more, and Prospect New Orleans has become subject to the New Austerity too.