Category: visual

Antonio DiMarco, an interior designer from Broward County, and New York art consultant Joakim von Ditmar have been charged with identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud: they allegedly bid $7.5 million for a Rothko and an Ad Reinhardt under the name of an 80-year-old client of DiMarco’s.

“Major museums across Europe have agreed to loan important artifacts back to Nigeria for a new museum the country plans to open in 2021. The African nation’s Royal Museum will house a rotating display of artifacts, including the Benin bronzes that were looted during the Benin Expedition of 1897. The agreement marks a significant step after years of negotiations among European institutions and Nigerian authorities.”

This artist makes ink from the things he finds outside, in the city. That’s right, he’s an ink forager. “Logan doesn’t just focus on nature in his foraging; he also makes ink from the detritus. … He stops suddenly, picks up a rusty nail and puts it in his pocket. Rust, he says, can make yellow, red, orange or black.”

John McKenna might not have made it in accountancy, but as a sculptor, he knows that the money he makes as an artist is always in flux. “It’s a precarious existence. Some years are lean and some hectic, but it’s always hard to save – the profits from the good years go on servicing the debts and repairs from the bad.”

Brexit, and all of the uncertainty surrounding it, might be giving Paris an edge. “President Emmanuel Macron of France seems to scent an opening. The president was scheduled to give a cocktail reception at the Élysée Palace on Friday ‘in honor of artists and creation’ on the occasion of FIAC 2018 including fair exhibitors. No French president has hosted such an event since 1985.”

Well, some of the skull, anyway. “On Friday the museum’s director announced that 80% of Luzia’s skull fragments had been identified. … The museum staff said they were confident they could recover the rest of Luzia’s skull and attempt reassembly.”

She lived in community wherever she was, but truly found a home in Taos. “As a poor, queer female artist who suffered from schizophrenia, Martin existed on the margins of society for most of her life. After spending the 1950s living in poverty, she achieved critical success in the 1960s and commercial success thereafter. In the 1990s she had made millions off her art and was eager to repay the kindness her community had showed her during her own years of struggle.”

In the Kuba Kingdom of the 17th and 18th centuries, before European colonialism, “royal ceremonies and parties sometimes had the feel of a runway showdown, with elites competing to see whose patterns were most unique and impressive. … Designs needed to scream and to be heard from a distance. They were engineered to capture the eye and not allow it to rest. “

Guadalupe Rosales started with some 1990s photos of friends, photos called “star shots” from mall photography studios. From there, her work became an Instagram archive to catalogue the history of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. “‘I’ve gotten so many emails, people thanking me, saying, ‘I’m so glad that there is something out there that is representing a part of our culture,’ Rosales says of her Instagram accounts. ‘It’s nice to hear that. It validates that there was something missing — part of history.'”

“With a head like a turtle, a body like a giant cetacean and ten bulbous, hanging breasts, one thing is certain: It is hard to ignore the Skywhale. When the hot-air balloon debuted in May 2013, looming over Canberra for the Australian capital’s centenary celebrations, critics said the ‘floating sculpture’ created by Patricia Piccinini did not represent the city. Some blushed at the scale of its udders and at its six-figure cost. … Well, get ready, Australia. It’s back.”