July 31, 2014: Damien Hirst’s Town Approved, Metropolitan Opera Nears Deadline for Labor Disputes, and Jean Dubuffet’s Birthday

Daily Digest: Top Art News
Jul 31, 2014 5:18PM

Opening Tonight

In New York, Michael Massaia, Alan Chimacoff, and Jenny Montgomery open at J. Cacciola Gallery, and Stephen McClintock opens at Louis B. James.

In London, “Slow Learner” opens at Timothy Taylor Gallery.

Closing Tonight

In New York, Huguette Caland, Sarah Dwyer, Rosa Loy, and Dannielle Tegeder close at Lombard Freid Gallery, “You are all so tired” closes at Swiss Institute, and “Chris Doyle: Midnight Moment, Bright Canyon,” has its final night in Times Square Arts.  

In London, Sam Francis closes at Bernard Jacobson Gallery.  

Today’s Notable Art News

The North Devon council has approved Damien Hirst’s plans to build an entire town in Ilfracombe, United Kingdom. The project, known as the Southern Extension, will include 750 homes, a school, playgrounds, offices, and retail stores. His bronze statue of a pregnant woman, titled Verity, already sits on the town’s harbor where it was installed in 2012.

Metropolitan Opera management has set a deadline of midnight, Friday morning, for negotiations over labor contracts to end, or it will enforce a lockout of unionized employees, possibly suspending the start of the new season.

New York’s SculptureCenter has hired Ben Whine as associate director. Whine has previously worked at the Guggenheim and New Museum.

Christopher Williams met with Time Out New York to discuss his traveling retrospective, “The Production Line of Happiness,” which has just opened at the Museum of Modern Art.

Filmmaker and video artist Harun Farocki passed away at 70 years old.

Good Reads

Made in L.A. 2014: Jennifer Moon continues phoenix rise at Hammer(via Los Angeles Times)

A First Look at the New SITE Santa Fe Biennial” (via Hyperallergic)

The Anti-Koons”: A story about the retrospective of Christopher Williams at the Museum of Modern Art and its polarity to the bubbly Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney Museum. (via The New Yorker)

Best of Instagram

Joey Lico, director of strategic planning at ICI, shared this photo from the Maison Martin Margiela showcase at the Joan Mitchell show at Cheim & Read last night.

Artist of the Day

Jean Dubuffet, a pioneer of the Art Brut movement, was born on this day in 1901. Dubuffet’s rough compositions were inspired by his interest in the art of children and the mentally ill. His compositions, created with violent strokes and vivid color, included unconventional materials such as sand, plaster, tar, gravel, and ashes. Dubuffet’s approach to art shunned traditional aesthetics and instead embraced what he believed was a more genuine and raw style.

Newlin Tillotson

Daily Digest: Top Art News