May 1, 2015: Protesters Shut Down the Guggenheim & Two Countries Cancel Their Venice Biennale Pavilions

Opening

In New York …

“Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence” opens at Brooklyn Museum; “Scott Treleaven: Animal Chapel” opens at Invisible-Exports; “America Is Hard to See” opens at Whitney Museum of American Art.

On Saturday, May 2nd, Alex Katz opens at Gavin Brown’s enterprise; “Dan Colen: Viscera” opens at Venus Over Manhattan; “David Goodman: Apparatus” opens at Jack Geary Contemporary.

On Sunday, May 3rd, Michael E. Smith and “Erika Verzutti: Swan with Stage” open at SculptureCenter; Dean Levin opens at Boesky East; Jessica Dickinson opens at James Fuentes LLC.

In Los Angeles …

Paris Photo L.A. 2015, with booths from Sous Les Etoiles, Dillon Gallery, Gallery Paule Anglim, Diane Rosenstein, and Luis De Jesus, among others, opens at Paramount Pictures Studios at runs through Sunday, May 3rd.

“Genevieve Gaignard: A Golden State of Mind” opens at Diane Rosenstein.

On Saturday, May 2nd, “Speedy Graphito: Artificial Paradise” opens at Fabien Castanier Gallery; “MIRROR | MIRROR: Introspective Reflections” opens at Laura Korman Gallery; Mark Grotjahn opens at Blum & Poe.

On Sunday, May 3rd, Wendell Dayton opens at LA Artcore.

In London ...

“Idris Khan: Conflicting Lines” opens at Victoria Miro; “Lionel Smit: Origins” opens at Rook & Raven; “Keith Coventry: Junk” opens at Paul Stolper Gallery; “Todd James: Fantasy Island” opens at Lazarides; “Angela Bulloch: New Wave Digits” opens at Simon Lee Gallery; “I Hardly Ever Thought of Flowers” opens at Gallery FUMI.

In Berlin ...

“Ruud van Empel – Souvenir” opens at Galerie Wagner + Partner; “Klaus Jörres – 15” opens at Dittrich & Schlechtriem; “Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen: Trace” opens at Galerie Isabella Czarnowska; “Athena Papadopoulos: ‘Rancho Rat–King–Cougar’” opens at Supportico Lopez; Richard Mosse, Maria Taniguchi, and Asta Gröting open at carlier | gebauer.

On Saturday, May 2nd, “Katharina Grosse: The Smoking Kid” opens at König Galerie.

In Milan ...

On Sunday, May 3rd, “Simon Dybbroe Møller: Buongiorno Signor Courbet” opens at Francesca Minini; “Giovanni Anselmo, Wolfgang Laib, Ettore Spalletti” opens at Lia Rumma; “Elmgreen & Dragset: Stigma” opens at Massimo De Carlo; “Francesco Garbelli: ‘Iconologie Urbane’” opens at Galleria Monopoli.

In Beijing …

Art Beijing opens at New Hall, National Agricultural Exhibition Center, and runs through Sunday, May 3rd.

On Saturday, May 2nd, “Fu Xiaotong & Wang Fengge: Land of Serenity” opens at Chambers Fine Art.

Today’s Notable News

Today a group of protesters organized by the Gulf Labor Coalition—who will participate in Okwui Enwezor’s Venice Biennale exhibition, which opens next week—assembled in the Guggenheim to express disapproval of working conditions at the museum’s in-progress Abu Dhabi campus, calling for the institution to “Meet Workers’ Demands Now” and dispersing On Kawara-inspired flyers. The protest, coinciding with workers’ holiday May Day, caused the museum to shut down to the public for the remainder of the afternoon. (via ARTnews)

Two countries have now cancelled their national pavilions at the Venice Biennale. The Kenyan government officially decided not to present its national pavilion, the Biennale announced on April 23rd. The planned exhibition, however, will still be mounted, but without the country’s flag or any affiliation with the Biennale. Costa Rica also pulled out, on March 30th, due to controversy around a possible artist swap. (via The Art Newspaper)

The Metropolitan Opera will receive gifts of artwork from 14 leading artists—including Cindy Sherman, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Genieve Figgis—which will be featured in a selling exhibition to raise money for the financially ailing institution. (via the New York Times)

NADA New York has announced the lineup of programming and special projects that will feature in the fair when it opens on May 14th. This year’s edition will inaugurate NADA Presents, a program of public talks and performances. Highlights from the Special Projects include a live dog that will wander the fair playing foreign-language content from a speaker attached to its body, by Hayley A. Silverman; and by Melissa Brown, an off-site poker game whose winner will receive a trove of artworks. (via ARTnews)

In light of the recent earthquake in Nepal, the Rubin Museum of Art will launch “Honoring Nepal,” a program including an exhibition of the same name with some 600 objects from the country (opening May 4th), educational tours, and the addition of the label “#HonorNepal” to Nepalese objects throughout the museum. (via ARTFIXdaily)

Tania Bruguera has received the Herb Alpert Award for visual arts, a $75,000 annual prize bestowed by the Herb Alpert Foundation and CalArts on mid-career artists in various disciplines. (via Artforum)

The city of Linz in Austria has made strides in the effort to establish the Valie Export Center (set to open in 2017), as the 74-year-old artist and Linz native’s estate was signed over to the city earlier this week. In the meantime, Export’s archives, including sketches, negatives, and paintings, will join the collection of the city’s Lentos Art Museum. (via artnet News)

The San Jose Museum of Art has been gifted 44 artworks by private collectors Barbara and Dixon Farley. The donation includes pieces by Willem de Kooning, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra, and will be exhibited this fall. (via ARTFIXdaily)

Jane Farver—whose administrative and curatorial career included directing the MIT List Visual Arts Center for 12 years, organizing the 1999 avant-garde touring exhibition on conceptual art “Global Conceptualism,” and curating for the Whitney Biennial—passed away in Venice this week. She was 68. (via ARTnews)

Best of Instagram

Via @art21org: “Artist #DianaAlHadid transforms brushstrokes into architectural sculpture from her Bushwick, Brooklyn studio—creating work currently on view at @ohwowgallery in Los Angeles—in a new #ART21 #NewYorkCloseUp film on art21.org.”

Via @ktichner: “Come see some of what’s been driving us all crazy for the past few months this Sunday, May 3 from 1-6 at @manacontemporary.”

Via @ngadc: “This week we’ve looked at a variety of interiors in art—from cavernous cathedrals to intimate living spaces. For this weekend’s hashtag project, share a photograph of an interior space with us.”

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