Friday, January 29
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Awards 2021 Artist Grants
The New York–based nonprofit Foundation for Contemporary Arts has announced its 2021 grants to artists, which comprise 20 unrestricted awards of $40,000 each. The categories for the grants include dance, music and sound, performance art and theater, poetry, and visual arts. Among the visual arts grantees are Candida Alvarez, Ian Cheng, Amie Siegel, and Constantina Zavitsanos. The full list of grantees can be found here.
Colby College Museum of Art Acquires Work by Hew Locke
The Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, has acquired the 2018 mixed-media work Souvenir 1 (Queen Victoria) by artist Hew Locke. The piece comes from the artist’s “Souvenirs” series, which examines the history of ceramic Parian Ware and the myth-making involved in the creation of nations. The work was exhibited in Locke’s 2020 solo exhibition at the museum and has previously been shown at Ikon Gallery in the United Kingdom and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City.
Thursday, January 28
Miles McEnery Gallery Opens Third New York Space
New York’s Miles McEnery Gallery will open a third space in the city. Like its other two spaces, this one will be be located in Chelsea; its address will be 511 West 22nd Street, the former home of Danese/Corey gallery. To help lead it, the gallery has named a managing director: Peter Luke Colon, who previously worked as a director at DC Moore Gallery. He begins in his new position in February.
New York’s Miles McEnery Gallery will open a third space in the city. Like its other two spaces, this one will be be located in Chelsea; its address will be 511 West 22nd Street, the former home of Danese/Corey gallery. To help lead it, the gallery has named a managing director: Peter Luke Colon, who previously worked as a director at DC Moore Gallery. He begins in his new position in February.
Magenta Plains Adds Martha Diamond to its Roster
Magenta Plains galleryin New York now represents painter Martha Diamond. For much of the past five decades, Diamond has created abstract cityscapes. Her bold colors and broad, thick brushstrokes draw on the look of work by New York School artists and Neo-Expressionists. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions.
Magenta Plains galleryin New York now represents painter Martha Diamond. For much of the past five decades, Diamond has created abstract cityscapes. Her bold colors and broad, thick brushstrokes draw on the look of work by New York School artists and Neo-Expressionists. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions.
Wednesday, January 27
Castello di Rivoli Acquires Works by Giuseppe Penone
The Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Italy has received a donation of 219 works on paper and archival materials of Giuseppe Penone. The artist was a major force in the Arte Povera movement, and he is best known for his sculptures incorporating natural materials like tree trunks. In a statement, the museum said that the donation from the artist “provides an unprecedented opportunity to study Penone’s artistic practice and will be conserved at the CRRI (Castello di Rivoli Research Institute).”
Tuesday, January 26
Thaddaeus Ropac Now Represents Megan Rooney
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, which has spaces in Paris, London, and Salzburg, has added Canadian artist Megan Rooney to its roster. Rooney’s practice integrates painting, sculpture, poetry, and performance to tell loose narratives often centered on the female body and experience. Her works range from small-scale installations populated by real-life characters to monumental murals. She has previously shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, among others. An online presentation, including three new works, is on view on Thaddaeus Ropac’s website, and her first solo exhibition is slated to take place at the gallery’s London location in fall 2021.
Arkansas Arts Center to Reopen in Spring 2022 with New Name
The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, which is currently undergoing a $142 million redesign and expansion by Studio Gang Architects and SCAPE Landscape Architecture, will reopen in spring 2022 as the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. The building project will add nearly 50 percent more interior space to the museum and 10 acres of new grounds. The institution’s executive director, Victoria Ramirez, said in a statement, “The new building allows us to elevate the extraordinary strengths we already have and confirm AMFA as the great cultural institution our community and our state deserve.”
The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, which is currently undergoing a $142 million redesign and expansion by Studio Gang Architects and SCAPE Landscape Architecture, will reopen in spring 2022 as the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. The building project will add nearly 50 percent more interior space to the museum and 10 acres of new grounds. The institution’s executive director, Victoria Ramirez, said in a statement, “The new building allows us to elevate the extraordinary strengths we already have and confirm AMFA as the great cultural institution our community and our state deserve.”
Wave Hill Names Gabriel de Guzman Chief Curator
Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx, has named Gabriel de Guzman as its director of arts and chief curator. De Guzman joins Wave Hill from Smack Mellon, a nonprofit arts organization in Brooklyn, where he served as curator and director of exhibitions for the past three years. He previously worked at Wave Hill for seven years as curator of visual arts, following a stint in the curatorial department of the Jewish Museum in New York.
Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx, has named Gabriel de Guzman as its director of arts and chief curator. De Guzman joins Wave Hill from Smack Mellon, a nonprofit arts organization in Brooklyn, where he served as curator and director of exhibitions for the past three years. He previously worked at Wave Hill for seven years as curator of visual arts, following a stint in the curatorial department of the Jewish Museum in New York.
Fowler Museum Receives $1.38 Million Grant
The Fowler Museum at UCLA has received a $1.38 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support a three-year initiative called “Engaging Lived Religion in the 21st Century Museum.” The program will focus on religious and spiritual traditions in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and it will include new digital learning activities, exhibitions, and public programs.
The Fowler Museum at UCLA has received a $1.38 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support a three-year initiative called “Engaging Lived Religion in the 21st Century Museum.” The program will focus on religious and spiritual traditions in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and it will include new digital learning activities, exhibitions, and public programs.
Monday, January 25
Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center Creates Asian American Art Initiative
The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in California has established the Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI) as part of an effort to acquire, preserve, exhibit, and study art related to Asian American and Asian diaspora artists. The initiative’s founding co-directors are Aleesa Alexander, assistant curator of American art at the Cantor, and Marci Kwon, assistant professor in Stanford’s department of art and art history. It is anchored by the museum’s acquisition of 233 ceramic masks by Ruth Asawa and 141 pieces from the Michael Donald Brown collection of works by Asian American artists from 1880 to 1996.
Austrian Painter Arik Brauer Has Died at 92
Arik Brauer, an Austrian artist celebrated for his painting, architecture, and music, has died at age 92. In 1946, while studying at Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Brauer cofounded the influential Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, whose purveyors combined the techniques of Flemish Old Masters with surrealist imagery. A Holocaust survivor, Brauer settled later in Israel, where he undertook architectural projects such as series of murals on a shopping mall in Haifa. His design projects also include what became known as the Brauer House in Vienna.
Marian Goodman Gallery Appoints Director of Books and Multiples
Marian Goodman Gallery, which maintains spaces in New York, London, and Paris, has named Dagny Corcoran as its first-ever director of books and multiples. In this position, Corcoran will collaborate with the editorial teams in New York and Paris to expand the gallery’s presence in publishing, including the sale of historical and rare books. Previously, Corcoran worked as a gallery assistant at the Multiples Gallery in Los Angeles, before founding the Art Catalogues, an independent bookstore specializing in contemporary and out-of-print museum and gallery exhibition catalogues and books on modern art, architecture, and photography.