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DESIGN MIAMI / BASEL GOES ONLINE
A preview of Design Miami / Basel, June 3-5, 2008, is now available online at www.designmiami-artnet.com. The two-year-old art fair specializing in 20th-century and contemporary design, mounted at the Markthalle in Basel in conjunction with Art 39 Basel, presents 28 dealers, from Albion (London) and Antik (New York) to Vivid Gallery (Rotterdam) and Yoshii Gallery (New York). The online presentation of the fair, which remains on view till Sept. 5, 2008, features designs and artworks listed by gallery and designer or artist, as well as a floorplan of the show.
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SLA CLAMPS DOWN ON ART OPENINGS?
Will East Hampton mayor Paul Rickenbach go down in history as the man who ended the practice of serving white wine at gallery openings? Rickenbach had longtime East Hampton art dealer Ruth Vered hauled off in handcuffs after she refused a police order to stop serving drinks at her gallery opening of a show by fashion photographer Steven Klein on Saturday, May 24, 2008. According to Rickenbach, State Liquor Authority regulations require commercial establishments to apply 15 days in advance and pay $31 for a one-day permit to serve liquor. Vered said she has offered alcohol at her openings for more than 30 years and never had any trouble before. Rickenbach claimed otherwise, however, telling a bold-faced lie to the Daily News. "It’s not something that’s new and out of the blue at all," he said.
DE MONTEBELLO TO ABU DHABI, NYU’S IFA
Say it ain’t so! Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello, who is scheduled to retire from his post at the end of 2008, has fallen prey to the irresistible lure of Middle Eastern petrodollars! The patrician de Montebello has announced that, following his departure from the Met, he will serve as "special advisor" to NYU Abu Dhabi, the new campus planned by New York University for the gulf emirate, which has promised to foot the bill for the whole thing (no price has yet been set, but Abu Dhabi promised the Louvre $1.3 billion just to borrow some artworks). De Montebello has also been named as the first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.
In the meantime, what’s it look like as far as the Met succession? According to press reports, Cleveland Museum of Art director Timothy Rub is on the short list of candidates to become the Met’s new director. One problem -- Rub told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he’s not a candidate. "I’m happy in Cleveland," he said. Another supposed candidate for the post, Art Institute of Chicago director James Cuno, told ace art reporter Kate Taylor of the New York Sun that he hadn’t been contacted by the Met either.
TURNER PRIZE SHORTLIST FOR 2008
Tate Britain has announced the four artists who have been shortlisted for the 2008 Turner Prize. The nominees are the Bangladesh-born London-based film- and videomaker Runa Islam; pop-culture dandy Mark Leckey, known for installations and performances; Polish-born installation artist Goshka Macuga, who has been called a "cultural archeologist"; and Belfast-born, Glasgow-based sculptor Cathy Wilkes.
For the first time in ten years, women outnumber men on the list, though the 43-year-old Leckey is said to be the favorite. The jury members for the prize are architect David Adjaye, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste director Daniel Birnbaum, Modern Art Oxford senior curator Suzanne Cotter, Frieze magazine editor Jennifer Higgie, and Tate Britain director Stephen Deuchar. The exhibition of works by the shortlisted artists opens at Tate Britain on Sept. 30, 2008. The winner of the £25,000 prize is announced on Dec. 1, 2008.
JEAN-HUBERT MARTIN FOR 3RD MOSCOW BIENNALE
Jean-Hubert Martin, director of the Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf, has been selected as the curator of the third Moscow Biennale, slated to open in the beginning of 2009. According to IZO.com, Matthew Bown’s Russian art blog, Martin plans to bring "little-seen art from Africa, Asia, Oceania" to the show.
"SOLO PROJECT" IN BASEL
Add one more art fair to the lineup for next week in Basel, Switzerland -- the Solo Project 2008, June 2-8, 2008, a presentation of 25 galleries at the Basel Voltahalle, not far from the Messeplatz, home to Art 39 Basel. Organized by the Paul Kusseneers Gallery from Antwerp, the fair bills itself as "a series of gallery-type shows" where the artworks can be considered as "a body of work rather than as loan pieces." Featured artists include Massimo Vitali (BrancoliniGrimaldi, Rome), Sebastiaan Bremer (Hales Gallery, London), Alexander Kosolapov and Assume Vivid Astro Focus (Galerie Hussenot, Paris), Barbara Probst and Oliver van den Berg (Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin), Sze Tsung Leong and Kohei Yoshiyuki (Yossi Milo Gallery, New York), Esko Männikkö and Hellen van Meene (Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York), and Brad Spence (Shoshana Wayne, Santa Monica). For more info, see www.the-solo-project.com
SCANDAL SHAKES ANTIQUES WORLD
An astonishing scandal has shaken the high-end antiques world after the London antiques dealer John Hobbs was accused of selling fakes by his own restorer, Dennis Buggins. According to a report in the New York Times, the revelations -- sparked by a financial dispute between the two parties -- "suggest deception and audacity on an extraordinary scale." Buggins claims that his workshop has handled 1,875 items for Hobbs since 1992, with "more than half" involving "major alterations or outright inventions." According to the story, Buggins would make pseudo-antique pieces from scratch, using old wood, or transform plain but old pieces into high-end antiques. Buggins claims he didn’t know that Hobbs was misrepresenting his handiwork as genuine antiques.
The suspicions have since extended to New York dealer Carleton Hobbs, John Hobbs’ brother and former partner, as well as to items with a John Hobbs provenance that were sold at Christie’s auction house. "Every rich person was buying things from John or Carlton or both," said a New York antiques dealer. An unnamed decorator suggested that one of the secrets of the business was snob appeal. "John Hobbs puts on an incredible show -- no one else came close. . . ."
CANDYASS MULTIPLES AT PRINTED MATTER
You can do it all, baby! Artist Cary S. Leibowitz, also known under his nom d’artiste as Candyass, opens an exhibition of his collected multiples at Printed Matter in Chelsea, May 28-Sept. 6, 2007. The show comes only a week after the successful debut auction of prints and editions at Phillips, de Pury & Co. on May 21, 2008 [see "Art Market Watch," May 22, 2008], which Leibowitz organized as co-head of the new editions department at the upstart auctioneer. The exhibition at Printed Matter features autograph Candyass coffee-mugs, ski hats, teddy-bears, car window screens, Frisbees, ice-cream scoops and dust shovels, Yarmulkes, scarfs and waste paper baskets, and is accompanied by a catalogue in the form of T-shirts.
WHITE BOX MOVES TO BOWERY
White Box, the eight-year-old Chelsea nonprofit overseen by the indefatigable Juan Puntes, is moving to Manhattan’s new art neighborhood on the Bowery. White Box Bowery, as it is dubbed, is slated to open at 329 Broome Street (between Bowery and Christie Street) this coming fall. In the meantime, "New Ukrainian Painting" is on view at White Box at 525 West 26th Street until May 31, 2008, with a show of recent U.K. art school graduates, "SaLon at WHITE BOX," slated to open June 12-July 5, 2008.
SALOMON CONTEMPORARY OPENS FOR THE SEASON
Salomon Contemporary Warehouse opens for the summer season at 6 Plank Road in East Hampton on June 1, 2008, with an exhibition of new sculpture by the Hamptons-based artist Mike Solomon. The "layered net and fiberglass sculptures," the gallery says, "are made to allow light to penetrate thought the material, evoking qualities of a liquid -- transparency, reflection and refraction." Next up at the gallery, which is operated by James Salomon, a director at Mary Boone Gallery in New York, is "More than This," a group show organized by Andrea Salerno, opening July 5, 2008. For more details, see www.salomoncontemporary.com.
MANIFESTA 7 SET FOR SOUTH TYROL
Manifesta 7, the "European Biennial of Contemporary Art," July 19-Nov. 2, 2008, is coming to Italy for the first time, encompassing venues in four cities in the mountainous Trentino / South Tyrol province in Northern Italy -- Fortezza, Bolzano, Trento and Rovereto. The four exhibitions include 188 artists, architects, writers and other experts:
* "The Soul," organized by Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg at the Palazzo delle Poste building in Trento, includes Nader Ahriman, Maria Thereza Alves / Jimmie Durham / Michael Taussig, Tamy Ben-Tor, Attila Bruni, Beth Campbell, Fabio Campolongo, Marcus Coates, Peter Coffin, Keren Cytter, Jos De Gruyter / Harald Thys, Massimiliano & Gianluca De Serio, Brigid Doherty, Omer Fast, Peter Friedl, Stefano Graziani, Tom Holert / Claudia Honecker, Karl Holmqvist, Hannah Hurtzig, Joachim Koester, Andree Korpys / Markus Löffler, Kuehn-Malvezzi, Daria Martin, Angela Melitopoulos, Xisco Mensua, Valérie Mréjen, Rabih Mroué, Andreas Müller, Sina Najafi, Rosalind Nashashibi, Luigi Ontani, Ria Pacquée, Bernd Ribbeck, Pietro Roccasalva, Roee Rosen, Christoph Ruckhäberle, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Florian Schneider, Eyal Sivan, Josef Strau, Javier Tellez, Althea Thauberger, Ann-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Barbara Visser, Klaus Weber and Eyal Weizman.
* "Scenarios," organized at the Franzensfeste / Forezza fortress on the highway between Bolzano / Bozen and the Brenner pass, is organized by Adam Budak, Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg, and the Raqs Media Collective. Contributors include Shahid Amin, Hélène Binet, Brave New Alps, Adriana Cavarero, Mladen Dolar, Harun Farocki, Martino Gamper, Karø Goldt, Larry Gottheim, Renée Green, Ant Hampton, Hannes Hoelzl, Timo Kahlen, Karl Kels, Thomas Meinecke, Glen Neath, Margareth Obexer, Philippe Rahm, Arundhati Roy, Saskia Sassen, Michael Snow and Saadi Yousef.
* The Rest of Now," organized by the Raqs Media Collective, at the Alumix industrial building in Bolzano, includes works by David Adjaye, Stefano Bernardi, Kristina Braein, Yane Calovski, Candida TV, contemporary culture index, Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska, Harold de Bree, Latifa Echakhch, Marcos Chaves, etoy corporation, Anna Faroqhi, Ivana Franke, Matthew Fuller, Francesco Gennari, Ranu Ghosh, Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, Anawana Haloba in collaboration with Francesca Grilli, Graham Harwood, Nikolaus Hirsch & Michel Müller, Hiwa K, Emre Hüner, Helen Jilavu, Sanjay Kak, Zilvinas Kempinas, Reinhard Kropf and Siv Helene Stangeland, Anders Krueger, Lawrence Liang, Charles Lim Yi Yong, m-city, Teresa Margolles, Walter Niedermayr, Jorge Otero-Pailos, Martin Pichlmair, Piratbyrån, Jaime Pitarch, Prof. Bad Trip, Kateřina Šedá, Dayanita Singh, TEUFELSgroup, Meg Stuart, Melati Suryodarmo, Jörgen Svensson, Hansa Thapliyal, Alexander Vaindorf, Judi Werthein, Graham Harwood, Richard Wright, Matsuko Yokokoji and Darius Ziura.
* "Principle Hope," organized by Adam Budak at the Ex Peterlini and the Manifattura Tabacchi in Rovereto includes works by
* Plus, "Auditory Epode," curated by Tobi Maier and including Florian Hecker, Anna Ostoya, the next ENTERprise, Chris Watson and Zafos Xagoraris); "manifestation," curated by Office for Cognitive Urbanism, Andreas Spiegl and Christian Teckert, and including Azra Aksamija, Andreas Duscha, Sonia Leimer, Christian Mayer, Kamen Stoyanov, Adrien Tirtiaux and Anna Witt; "Matter of Fact," curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen and including Jeremiah Day, Renzo Martens, Adam Pendleton, Falke Pisano / Will Holder, and Ricardo Valentim; and "Social Art Praxis," curated by Cornelia Lauf and including Airswap, Aspramente and Publink.
For more info, see www.manifesta7.it
CORNELL CAPA, 1918-2008
Cornell Capa, 90, photojournalist and founding director of the International Center of Photography, died in New York on May 23. Born in Budapest, Capa moved to New York in 1937. He worked for Life and other publications, and served a stint in the U.S. Air Force photo-intelligence unit during World War II. He joined the Magnum Photo Agency in 1954. The brother of celebrated photojournalist Robert Capa, Cornell Capa founded ICP in 1974. His own photographs were recently on view in "JFK for President: Photographs by Cornell Capa" at the ICP and museums in Moscow and Arles.
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