March 18, 2015: National Gallery in London Names New Director & Iraq’s Venice Biennale Pavilion Takes Shape

Opening

In New York … “Anthony Boone, Danielle Siegelbaum, Juna Luna, Mondo Morales, Uday Dhar: Consistent Changes” opens at Art in FLUX; “Giuseppe Penone: Indistinti Confini” opens at Marian Goodman Gallery.

In Los Angeles … “Katy Fischer: Finders, Keepers, Losers and Weepers” and “Ben Vida: Slipping Control (West)” open at 356 Mission.

In London … “Rä di Martino, Fatma Bucak: Staging the Screen” opens at The Ryder Projects; Ed Atkins discusses his work at the Contemporary Art Society at 7 p.m..

In Paris … “Claire Adelfang: Le Hameau de la Reine” and “Nick Oberthaler: Pièce dérivée” open at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac; “Maryam Jafri: The Day After” opens at Bétonsalon - Centre d’art et de recherche; “The Tudors” opens at Musée Luxembourg; “De Carmen à Mélisande” opens at Le Petit Palais.

In Berlin … “Dance of the Ancestors: Art from the Sepik of Papua New Guinea” opens at Martin-Gropius-Bau.

In Beijing … “Jun Jun Hu: Living with Impermanence” opens at Beijing Tokyo Art Projects.

Today’s Notable News

Today, in an attack possibly designed for the nearby Parliament, gunmen in military fatigues opened fire and held hostages at Tunisia’s National Bardo Museum, killing two Tunisians and 17 foreign visitors and injuring up to 22 more. (via the New York Times)

London’s National Gallery has named its new director, Gabriele Finaldi, who was curator for the institution for a decade and is currently deputy director at the Prado. Finaldi will take over the post in August. (via The Guardian)

The five contemporary artists who will represent Iraq at this year’s Venice Biennale have been announced. The country’s exhibition—curated by Philippe Van Cauteren of Ghent, Belgium’s Museum for Contemporary Art—will also feature some 500 drawings by refugees in northern Iraq, some of which will also make an appearance in a publication presented by Ai Weiwei. (via ARTnews)

LACMA and MoMA are among several U.S. museums campaigning to preserve the area around the monumental, long-in-progress earthwork project City, by Michael Heizer. (via The Art Newspaper)

Designjunction has announced the designers and companies who will headline the fourth edition of its designjunction edit Milan exhibition next month. (via Dezeen)

Stuart Croft—who founded the Royal College of Art Moving Image Studio, lectured at Parsons and Goldsmiths, and exhibited his work at the Tate Modern—has passed away. (via Artforum)

Best of Instagram

Via @gardnermuseum: “Today marks 25 years since 13 works of art were stolen from the Gardner. But how did those works come to be part of Isabella Gardner’s collection? If you haven’t already, take our virtual tour on the Google Art Project to learn more about them. Clicking through the link in our profile, or go to gardnermuseum.org/visit/theft for more. #ISGMtheft25. Image: historic photo of the Dutch Room showing”