May 14, 2015: Christie’s Has a Billion-Dollar Week & Venice Biennale Artist/Activists Barred from the UAE
Opening
In New York ...
Frieze New York opens at Randall’s Island Park; NADA New York opens at Basketball City; “David Armstrong, Mark Morrisroe, Nan Goldin: Boston to New York” and “Will McBride: Salem Suite” open at ClampArt; “Igael Shemtov: The Photo Album 1979–1980” opens at Andrea Meislin Gallery.
In Miami ...
“Maury Edelstein | Ted Pushinsky : Fifty Years of San Francisco Street Photography, 1965-2015” opens at Mark Wolfe Contemporary.
In Los Angeles ...
“Wang Huangsheng: Unbroken Line” opens at October Gallery; Marcello Lo Giudice opens at Opera Gallery; “Cathleen Naundorf: Noah’s Ark” opens at Hamiltons Gallery; “Harry Cory Wright: Anglia” opens at Eleven.
In Hong Kong ...
Christie’s has become the first auction house to rake in over $1 billion from a single week of art sales, breaking the previous record of $975 million, set by the house itself a year ago. (via the New York Times)
Gulf Labor Coalition members and artists Walid Raad and Ashok Sukumaran were barred entry from the UAE as they attempted to enter the country for the Sharjah Biennial this week. Their vocal condemnation of working conditions on Saadiyat Island—where outposts of the Guggenheim and the Louvre, among other projects, are planned to open—is believed to be the cause. (via BLOUIN artinfo)
Against the entreaty of barrister Amal Clooney, Greece’s culture minister has announced that the country will not take legal action regarding the long-disputed Elgin Marbles, but will instead aim to restitute the artifacts in a “diplomatic and political” manner. (via the BBC)
The completion and opening of Hong Kong’s M+ museum have been delayed further, with the institution now expected to open to the public in late 2019, two years after originally planned. (via South China Morning Post)
Experts working at an archeological dig site in Alaska have accidentally discovered a 12,300-year-old bone pendant that may be the oldest artifact ever found on the continent. The world record for an artifact’s age, however, goes to a group of cave paintings in Spain, at 42,000 years old. (via artnet News)
MOCA, Los Angeles’s first sale with a major auction house brought in $22.5 million for the museum this week, as Sotheby’s auctioned off 41 works donated by the same number of artists, from Takashi Murakami to Barbara Kruger. (via the LA Times)
The UK-based Catlin Art Prize for emerging artists who are one year out of art school has been awarded to Zhu Tian, who recently completed an M.A. in sculpture at the Royal College of Art. Zhu Tian’s £5,000 prize money will feature in a new work entitled Money, in which she will post the balance of her bank account on her website each month for the rest of her life. (via the BBC)
Best of Instagram
Via @collectivedf: “April showers bring May flowers 🌸🌸🌸. Don’t miss Sight Unseen OFFSITE at #CollectiveDesign2015”
Via @kjwww: “the crew for @friezeartfair’s #emptyfrieze today with an installation by Carlos Garaicoa”
Via @cultured_mag: “In #NYC? Don’t miss the last #10 minutes of artist Berndnaut Smilde’s “Nimbus” series @Neuehouse!”
Good Reads
“Van Gogh for sale? DIA tiptoes into art auction market” (via The Detroit News)
“Fox News Bizarrely Censors $179M Picasso Painting” (via Hyperallergic)
Want to catch up with the rest of this week’s news? Review past Daily Digests here.
