"The culture wars are back"

The National Portrait Gallery's Hide/Seek exhibition has closed but the controversy around Smithsonian director Wayne Clough's decision to remove a work by David Wojnarowicz from the show lingers on. The Smithsonian has said it will host a forum on the lessons learned from the dispute in April, but the details have yet to be released. Meanwhile the Corcoran Gallery of Art has hosted an all-day symposium on the issues raised by the affair titled Culture Wars: Then and Now. The keynote speaker was Robert Storr, who declared that "the culture wars are back" according to the Washington Post.

Recently the advocacy group People for the American Way also put out a lengthy report proposing lessons for museums gleaned from the Hide/Seek affair titled How Not to Respond to Political Issues: Lessons from the Smithsonian's Response to the Manufactured Right-Wing Controversy over Hide/Seek. The new report seeks to address the sense that the Smithsonian is trying to sweep the issues raised by censorship under the carpet.

The report offers five helpful bullet points for museums seeking to respond to future flare-ups:

• Don't panic: have a plan and follow it (a piece of common sense Clough has a history of ignoring);
  
• Defend core principles (of which freedom of expression should be a core one)
  
• Understand and expose your opponents (exposing extremist records, anti-freedom agendas and general disregard for truth demonstrated by right-wing culture warriors can undermine the impact of their attacks);
  
• Embrace debate (the best response to irresponsible speech is more speech... Short-circuiting debate by trying to avoid controversy prevents arts institutions from having a potentially transformative impact on public debate);
  
• Demonstrate accountability (ie Clough should have been fired for his admitted mismanagement).

You can read our earlier posts on the controversy here.

Image: The temporary Museum of Censored Art located outside the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery to show David Wojnarowicz's video A Fire in My Belly

Jae Hoon Lee in the lineup for the Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts 2011

The fourth in the series of biennial Anne Landa Award exhibitions that began at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2004, this year's edition is guest curated by Christchurch-based curator and author Justin Paton and features the artists Rachel Khedoori (Australia/USA), David Haines and Joyce Hinterding (Australia), Jae Hoon Lee (Korea/New Zealand), Charlie Sofo (Australia) and Ian Burns (Australia/USA). 

All artists re eligible for the the acquisitive award of AUD$25,000, which sees the winning work enter the Gallery's collection.

Image: Jae Hoon Lee, Hadjodae (2010), digitally collaged photograph, 1500 x 2000mm

Five British figures respond to the new dominance of the Chinese art market

According to The Global Art Market in 2010, a study commissioned by the Netherlands-based European Fine Art Commission, last year China became the second largest art market in the world with a global share of 23%. The US remained in first place with 34%, with Britain downgraded from second to third position with 22%. These figures were them questioned by the analysis of Artprice , which - focusing only on sales at public auctions (the European Fine Art Commission's study included gallery sales) - declared China to be the dominant art market in the world with 33% of the global sales.

To guage the Bristish art world's reaction to this shift, ARTINFO UK sounded out five prominent figures: Alexander Branczik, Director, Contemporary Art, Sotheby's London; Philip Dodd, Director of Made in China and Advisory Board Member of ART HK; Alex Sainsbury, Collector and Founding Director of Raven Row; Gavin Turk, Artist; and Neil Wenman, Director, Hauser & Wirth Gallery. You can see what they had to say here.

Image: Lichtenstein's "Ohhh... Alright" at a Christie's auction preview in October 2010

Eli Broad at home with art

In a recent edition of the Los Angeles Times, Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad talks to Jori Finkel about how he built his collection and artists he's known along the way. Read more...

Grayson Perry is a Royal Academician

Grayson Perry, who rose to fame with his urns decorated with images of sex and child abuse, has been made one of 80 living Royal Academicians at Royal Academy of Art, joining the ranks of Academicians such as Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor. He will now be able to put the initials RA after his name ands help govern the Academy. Perry collected the Turner Prize in 2003 as his flamboyant femine alter-ego Claire.

Leigh Davis Flag Poems in Time, Text & Echoes

Image: Leigh Davis, A Flag Compared and Madonna of Cabinetry, flag poems presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010-2011), a sequence of ten-day hoists over 300 days, New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland, NZ

Jake Chapman-led campaign: "Can't pay your fees?" We'll pay your fines!"

For months, students in the UK have been protesting the coalition government's attempt to raise annual tuition fees at universities. Now a coalition of more than 90 artists, musicians and creative figures have come together to make a statement of solidarity with young protesters and to offer cash to pay fines for civil disobedience convictions. The coalition list includes Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn and Rachel Whiteread; Clash's Mick Jones, Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie, and Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes; and fashion designer Stella McCartney. 

The campaign, taking the name "Can't pay your fees? We'll pay your fines!", has been spearheaded by Jake Chapman who says: "I don't really believe it's an austerity measure. I think it's at the very root of right-wing thinking which is to disempower social mobility."

Chapman is realistic about the meaning of the gesture: "if paying the fines mocks the judicial system and the Government, then it is worth doing it," he says. "And there is no other reason. If you think about it, we can't expunge those kids criminal records, so the fine is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the effect on their futures. But for people like me who believe in state education, and education for all as an absolute fundamental principle, there is nothing else I can do other than support it in this way."

You can read a feature on Chapman in the Evening Standard here.

Seung Yul Oh at Sydney's 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art

Seung Yul Oh is represented in Constellation, an exhibition at 4A Centre of Contemporary Asian Art that brings together four Korean artists who live and work outside Korea. You can read the 4A exhibition release here.

The show runs at 4A to 30 April 2011.

Images: View from the street of Seung Yul Oh's installation in Constellation at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asia Art, Sydney

Bubble trouble in China's financial art market

The Chinese art market's headlong growth over the past few years has left some awaiting what seems an inevitable bursting of the bubble. The emergence of China as a pioneer of the art stock exchange - a new mode of investment that it beginning to pop up around the globe - has only led to greater worries of sustainability. Now Reuters reports that the country's Tianjin Cultural Artwork Exchange, which was launched in January, has brought trade on its two top artworks to a halt, fearing that runaway over-evaluation that caused shares to rise by 1,700 percent would endanger investors. Read more...

Others will be more concerned about the phenomenon of art being presented as an investment vehicle and the effect speculative money has on the art market, fearing it will push prices beyond their long-term, intrinsic art historical value and increase the risk of boom and bust as speculators reposition art as a financial rather than a collectable asset.

China now the world's second largest art market

Bloomberg reports that China has overtaken the United Kingdom to become the world's second largest art market after the United States. Auction and gallery sales in China totalled the equivalent of US$8.3 billion giving the country a 23% share of the global market.

The 2011 Singapore Biennale: moving away from big-picture themes

Artistic director Matthew Ngui has taken a different tack with this year's Singapore Biennale, aiming to make it a platform for experimentation by moving away from big-picture themes and throwing the focus on the artistic practice and daily life influences. He says: "Open House is not strictly a theme, but more of an attitude and way of thinking. It is not so much about identifying works that talk about space, but rather identifying artistic processes and practices, and the way they work in specific spaces and interact with them."

One of the first responses to the change of tack comes from Pauline J. Yao in a piece published by art agenda.

"Perhaps it comes as no surprise to that Singapore would present a polished exhibition so safe and measured that it not only obviates any stance or statement but leaves very little room for critique. Given the congenial tone and and aesthetically pleasing yet neatly understated works, one could almost forget that it was a biennale at all. In fact as I wandered through the show, I kept finding myself wondering in what sense this show constitutes a biennale; and now, given the task of writing about it, I am forced to consider on what terms it is to be judged." Read more...

Image: Shao Yinong & Muchen, "1990 100 Chinese Note (Four leaders)", 2004 - 2010, silk embroidery 280 x 380cm

Upstairs at Starkwhite

Image: Gavin Hipkins, Romance (Tiger) 2004, c-type print, 900 x 1500mm

Living Room 2011 - Metropolis Dreaming

Living Room, Auckland's annual 10-day public art event, kicks off again in April. It will present a mix of installations, performances, sound art, video projections and a poster project by international and New Zealand-based artists.

Curator Andrew Clifford says: "In 2011 Living Room is titled Metropolis Dreaming. The planned artworks will will encourage us to re-imagine our day-to-day urban surroundings, rediscovering ordinary, overlooked and hidden details of the city. Metropolis Dreaming spotlights the actual mechanics of a city's systems, transforming its functional everyday structures from a routine backdrop into imaginative possibilities. It is a celebration of post-industrial life and takes its inspiration from the excitement of the Italian Futurist movement felt at the start of the 20th century for the clamour and bustle of the new, kinetic environment of the machine age. 100 years later, Living Room announces that the city is both a cultural and technological hub, so will include projects that highlight the human dynamics of urban life."

Metropolis Dreaming runs from 8 - 17 April 2011 and you can see the lineup of artists here.

Artists boycott Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project

The Guggenheim's Abu Dhabi outpost faces a boycott from a group of 130 international artists, curators and writers who say they will refuse to cooperate on the project until working condition for labourers building the $800m museum are improved.

The petition, published online and and addressed to Richard Armstrong, the director of the Guggenheim Foundation and also its New York museum says: "Human rights violations are are currently occurring on Saadiyat Island, the location of the new museum." Read more...

Image: A model of Frank Gehry's planned Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

The 15th Tallinn Print Triennial: FOR LOVE NOT MONEY

Billy Apple and Jim Speers are represented in the 15th Tallinn Print Triennial, FOR LOVE NOT MONEY which runs at the Kumu Art Museum in the city of Tallinna, Estonia to 8 May 2011.

In his introduction to the exhibition, co-curator Simon Rees says: "While 'love' and 'money' are universal concepts their meanings are contextual and relative to the time in which they are encountered. History - to be understood in its individual versus collective, private versus public, and personal versus national manifestations - is a major determinant of perceptions of love and money (and their relationship). The location of the exhibition in Tallinn, a former communist territory and recently returned to capitalism and representative democracy, offers a special historical perspective."

Images: Billy Apple's billboard work THE ARTIST HAS TO LIVE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE, here located opposite Central Station Rotterdam, on the corner of Weens and Kruisplein: and Jim Speers, Untitled (Crystal Spirit series), 2009, digital/screen print

Francois Pinault hones his Venetian art project

This year Francois Pinault is using the Palzzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana to stage exhibitions that reflect his vision for the future use of the spaces. Caroline Bourgeois will curate two exhibitions: The World Belongs to You, which will present work including commissions and site-specific installations by international artists who reflect a globalised world "now characterised by proliferation, multiplicity, movement and nomadism", and In Praise of Doubt which will present "another reassessment of the traditional limits of geography of art, and how we relate to others and the world."

Timed to coincide with the Venice Biennale and drawn from Pinault's collection, the exhibitions foreshadow a new phase in the French billionaire's Venetian art project. Under the direction of Martin Bethenod, hired last year to manage both spaces, the Palazzo will become a kunsthalle-like space for changing exhibitions while the Punta della Dogana will become a permanent home for Pinault's collection that will operate more like a traditional collection-based museum.

Images: Venice's Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana 

Carlos Slim's Soumaya Museum

Carlos Slim, the world's wealthiest man, will open his own art museum in Mexico later this month. Designed by his son-in-law, Fernando Romero, the building will house and present works from his collection of 66,000 items, which includes works by Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera as well as European masters.

Described as a shimmering aluminium-clad structure resembling a saddle horn, the Soumaya Museum (named after his late wife) will tower 150 feet into the air with five stories of exhibition space totalling 183,000 square feet. Read more...

Image: Slim Carlos' new Soumaya Museum, Mexico

Venice Biennale releases artist list for Bice Curiger's ILLUMINations exhibition

The Venice Biennale has released the list of artists for Bice Curiger's international pavilion show ILLUMINations. Curiger says her show will focus on "the intuitive insight and illumination of thought that is fostered by an encounter with art and its ability to sharpen the tools of perception". You can see the list here.
Image: Venice's Arsenale

Upstairs at Starkwhite

While the exhibition IF SAMENESS IS IN THE CENTRE, THEN DIFFERENCE IS ON THE PERIPHERY is showing downstairs, we are presenting works by represented artists upstairs, including: Whitney Bedford, Phil Dadson, Trenton Garratt, Gavin Hipkins, Jae Hoon Lee, John Reynolds, Layla Rudneva-Mackay and Grant Stevens.

Image: Trenton Garratt, Sunbeams (2011), oil on plastic film (painted on reverse side), 720 x 540mm

Leigh Davis Flag Poems in Time, Text & Echoes

Image: Leigh Davis, Heloise & Abelard's Ordinary Life, flag poem presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010-2011), a sequence of ten-day hoists over 300 days, New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland, NZ

Showing at Starkwhite

IF SAMENESS IS IN THE CENTRE, THEN DIFFERENCE

IS ON THE PERIPHERY

ALICIA FRANKOVICH (NZ), LARESA KOSLOFF (AUS), RUTH PROCTOR (UK)

This exhibition continues to 2 April 2011. You can read our

exhibition release here.

Image: Ruth Proctor, Let's Dance (transcription via google and Columbian
typist), 2010

Singapore Biennale opens tomorrow

The 3rd Singapore Biennale Open House will be launched tomorrow at the old Kallang Airport, which opens its doors to the public for the first time after over 5 decades.

Led by artistic director Matthew Ngui and curators Russell Storer and Trevor Smith, Open House will be presented across four exhibition venues, each with their own particular character, that draw upon emblematic spaces in Singapore: Housing Development Board flats (Singapore Art Museum and 8Q), shopping centres and night markets (National Museum of Singapore) and international air and sea ports (Old Kallang Airport).

The Biennale will feature over 150 works by 63 artists from 30 countries. Over half the artists are creating new commissions or premiering new works. They include Dane Mitchell who has installed his work in the old airport building.

You can read more about the exhibition and lineup of artists at the Singapore Biennale website.

Open House runs from 13 March - 15 May 2011.

Image: Singapore's Old Kallang Airport, one of the venues for the Singapore Biennale Open House 2011

Artists donate Artangel collection to the Tate

A collection of film and video artworks by artists including Jeremy Deller, Douglas Gordon, Steve McQueen and Catherine Yass is to be donated to the Tate.

Artangel, which this year celebrates its 20th birthday, announced the creation of the Artangel collection, which will be looked after by the Tate and made available to galleries and museums across the UK. Read more...

Image: Still from Catherine Yates' film High Wire which features the French high-wire artist Didier Pasquette

Tatzu Nishi's The Merlion Hotel at the Singapore Biennale

For the 2011 Singapore Biennale, Tatsu Nishi has created a luxurious temporary hotel room around the city's iconic Merlion, staging an uncanny encounter with a public landmark in the intimate space of a hotel room. During the day visitors can visit The Merlion Hotel, while each evening a guest will check in and spend the night. Guests will enjoy a luxury hotel stay with a hospitality team from the Fullerton Hotel providing a full service, which includes personalised room check-in and Merlion Hotel Butler service. The Biennale reports that the 32 available nights were fully booked just one hour after the reservation lines opened.

The Singapore Biennale Open House opens on 13 March and runs to 15 May 2011.

Images: the Merlion and Tatzu NIshi's The Merlion Hotel 2011 (artist's rendering)

Norman Foster to design the $2.8 billion Cultural District in Hong Kong

Norman Foster's "City Park" has been selected for the $2.8 billion West Kowloon Cultural District. According to a statement on the Foster + Partners web site, the 100 acre project is the largest cultural initiative in the world today. It will include a contemporary art museum, theatres, arts education centres, galleries, studios and commercial space, along with a 57-acre public park.

The art contemporary museum on the site, M+, is led by Lars Nittve, the first director of the Tate Museum. M+ will open in 2016.

Images: architect Norman Foster and the skyline of Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District

Group show opens tonight at Starkwhite

IF SAMENESS IS IN THE CENTRE, THEN DIFFERENCE

IS ON THE PERIPHERY

ALICIA FRANKOVICH (NZ), LARESA KOSLOFF (AUS), RUTH PROCTOR (UK)

Opens tonight at 5.30pm

Image: Laresa Kosloff, New Diagonal, Production still: Alex Martinis Roe,

Digital Video (3 mins), 2007

Leigh Davis Flag Poems in Time, Text & Echoes

Image: Leigh Davis, Mulberry Tree and Nothing will keep, flag poems presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010-2011), a sequence of ten-day hoists over 300 days, New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland, NZ

Video live performance tonight at ST PAUL ST Gallery

Tonight at 7.30pm St Paul St presents a performance by Ko Nakajima working with Phil Dadson and other musicians and dancers to create a live performance work responding to and activating his work Tao installation in the exhibition Video Life. Kentaro Taki will also present a live video performance combining analogue and digital processes. Informed by an idea of finding a path to an artwork through a process rather than becoming attached to an outcome, Taki will attempt to find his way through a barrage of media to create his performance.

Hector Zamora's White Noise moves from Bethells Beach to the city

Following the first stage of the project at Bethells Beach, Hector Zamora's White Noise reappears tomorrow to Shed 6, 90 Wellesley Street (from 11.30am) and the Elam projectspace, Elam School of Fine Arts, Whittaker Place. White Noise is part of the visual arts programme for the Auckland Arts Festival 2011. Read more...

Image: Hector Zamora, White Noise (2011), public installation at Bethells Beach, 26 February 2011. Photo courtesy of the artist and the Auckland Arts Festival 2011

Dane Mitchell at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

Coming up at Starkwhite

IF SAMENESS IS IN THE CENTRE, THEN DIFFERENCE
IS ON THE PERIPHERY

ALICIA FRANKOVICH (NZ), LARESA KOSLOFF (AUS), RUTH PROCTOR (UK)

This exhibition, which is part of the 2011 Auckland Festival, opens
Monday 7 March at 5.30pm and runs to 2 April 2011. Laresa Kosloff
and Ruth Proctor will be in Auckland for the opening.

Image: Alicia Frankovich, Trajectory, 2008-09, video projected onto found
technologies, installed at Artspace, Sydney

Billy Apple's charity entry to the Auckland Cup

Billy Apple's entry in the Resene Fastest Art Exhibition Horse charity auction is currently on display at the Mini Garage on Auckland's Ponsonby Road. The horse stands 15.3 hands high and the reserve is $15,750. The auction is taking place on trademe and the current bid is $10,000.

Billy Apple's nominated charity of choice is the NZ Native Forests Restoration Trust, which is dedicated to the forest restoration. Since its establishment in 1980, the Trust has acquired land at the rate of 200ha a year to protect important species, restore their habitats and improve the quality of waterways. It now has 30 reserves with a total of more than 6,000ha of protected native forests.

The artist's horse, named Billy, is the latest piece in his community art series, with earlier works going to charitable auctions for the Aids Foundation, Women's Refuge, TYLA (Turn Your Life Around Trust), amongst others.

Image: Billy Apple's entry to the Auckland Cup Week Charity Auction Resene Fastest Art Exhibition Horse (2011).

Christchurch art community news

OVER THE NET AND ON THE TABLE  has posted a list of people in the Christchurch art community that have been contacted or sighted after the earthquake. You can see the OTN list here.

Image: The Christchurch Cathedral following the 22/3 earthquake