Friday, September 18
Jessica Silverman Gallery Now Represents Sadie Barnette
Sadie Barnette, whose practice spans photography, drawing, sculpture, and installation, has joined Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Fransisco. Barnette’s work explores race, sex, and love, and she participated in the Studio Museum in Harlem’s residency program in 2015. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, the Blanton Museum in Austin, and other institutions. The artist is also represented by Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.
Marcel Odenbach Awarded 2021 Wolfgang Hahn Prize
German video artist Marcel Odenbach has been named the winner of the 2021 Wolfgang Hahn Prize. The annual award is administered by the Society for Modern Art at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany, and honors an exceptional contemporary artist. The institution will acquire Odenbach’s Schnittvorlagen (or “master copies”), an ongoing archive of photographic collages. The works will be exhibited publicly for the first time at the award ceremony which will take place at the institution in November 2021. Previous winners of the award include Betye Saar (2020), Huang Yong Ping (2016), Kerry James Marshall (2014), and Andrea Fraser (2013). Yilmaz Dziewior, the Museum Ludwig’s director, said in a statement, “Marcel Odenbach creates works that—experimental in form and theoretically founded in content—expose historical connections between colonialism and globalization and make the violence of the normative and representation tangible.”
Grimm Gallery Opens Second New York Location
Grimm, which maintains two gallery spaces in Amsterdam and one in New York, will open a second New York location at 54 White Street in Tribeca. The 6,000 square-foot exhibition space is slated to open in December 2020.
Blank Forms Editions Names Managing Editor
Blank Forms, a New York-based nonprofit organization that supports emerging and underrepresented artists working in interdisciplinary art practices, has appointed Ciarán Finlayson as managing editor of Blank Forms Editions, a newly formed position to oversee the further development of Blank Forms’s publications program that has so far included anthologies and poetry collections as well as recordings. Finlayson is a writer and editor from Houston, Texas, whose work has appeared in publications including Kunst und Politik, PARSE, and Artforum, where he served as an assistant editor. Lawrence Kumpf, artistic director of Blank Forms, said in a statement, “A key aspect of Blank Forms’ publishing program is the creation of a richer discourse around the intersection of experimental music and art, and Finlayson brings crucial knowledge and experience to this endeavor.”
Metropolitan Museum Appoints Chair of Education and Chief Digital Officer
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has named Heidi Holder as its new chair of education and Douglas Hegley as its next chief digital officer, with both appointees taking up their posts in October. Holder previously served as director of education at the Queens Museum, and in her new position she will oversee all of the Met’s educational programs. Hegley joins the Met from the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where he served as the institution’s first chief digital officer.
Thursday, September 17
Gallery 1957 To Open London Outpost
Gallery 1957, which is based in Accra, Ghana, will open a new outpost in London on the ground floor of a Kensington townhouse in Hyde Park Gate on October 23. The inaugural exhibition at the space, which is co-curated by writer Ekow Eshun, will feature new figurative works by painter Kwesi Botchway. Forthcoming presentations at the London gallery will spotlight Tiffany Alfonseca, Serge Attukwei Clottey, and Gideon Appah.
Public Art Fund Elects New Board Chair
Public Art Fund, an arts nonprofit in New York, has elected Elizabeth Fearon Pepperman as chair of its board of directors. Pepperman has been a board member since 2014, serving on the program committee and executive and external affairs committees. Pepperman has held leadership roles at arts nonprofits for over a decade, including tenures as president emerita and board chair of the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York, and as a member of the Parrish Art Museum Family Council.
Victoria Miro Adds Doron Langberg to its Roster
Victoria Miro in London now represents Brooklyn-based painter Doron Langberg. Langberg is best known for his vibrant, large-scale figurative paintings, which often depict intimate scenes of the artist and his loved ones. He was the subject of a solo show at Yossi Milo gallery last year, and his first exhibition with Victoria Miro will take place in 2021.
PowSOLO Awards Name Inaugural Winners
The PowSOLO Awards, a collaboration between the Dutch arts collective Powland Network and the Madrid-based contemporary art project Colección SOLO, have named five international sound artists as their inaugural winners. Enrique del Castillo, who won the “best sound art” category of the awards for the work Phonoptics Readers, will receive €10,000 (about $11,800) and an opportunity to exhibit at Espacio SOLO in Madrid. Artists Nolan Lem, Ioana Bremer Moser, and Etienne Krähenbühl will each receive €1,000 (about $1,200), and Enrico Ascoli and Hilaro Asola received a special mention.
Wednesday, September 16
Rabkin Foundation Awards Grants to American Arts Journals
Amid widespread financial fallout from the pandemic, the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation is giving individual grants of $20,000 to nine nonprofit arts publications in the U.S. Recipients of the grants for general operational support are ARTS.BLACK (of Detroit), BOMB (Brooklyn), Bmore Art (Baltimore), the Brooklyn Rail, Burnaway (Atlanta), Glasstire (Houston), the Maine Arts Journal (Portland), the New Art Examiner (Chicago), and X-TRA (Los Angeles).
Tuesday, September 15
David Nolan Gallery Now Represents Dorothea Rockburne
David Nolan Gallery in New York has added artist Dorothea Rockburne to its roster. Rockburne is renowned for her abstract painted structures, whose influences span astronomy, geometry, and ancient Egyptian iconography. She has exhibited widely since the late 1960s, and in the last decade been the subject of prominent surveys, including ones at Dia:Beacon, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Parrish Art Museum. David Nolan will host its first solo exhibition of Rockburne’s work in fall 2021.
The Africa Institute Commissions Adjaye Associates to Design New Sharjah Campus
The Africa Institute, which was established in 2018 and is dedicated to the study, research, and documentation of Africa and the African diaspora in the Arab world, announced that it has commissioned Adjaye Associates to design its new campus in downtown Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The institute is helmed by Cornell University professor Salah M. Hassan, who serves as its founding director, and Sharjah Art Foundation president and director Hoor Al Qasimi, who serves as president. Architect David Adjaye’s design for the 343,175-square-foot campus, which will include open-air interior courtyards, a research library, auditorium and performance space, exhibition gallery, and site-specific installations by artists, will be unveiled on October 8.
Monday, September 14
Jova Lynne Rejoins MOCAD as Senior Curator
After leaving the institution earlier this year, Jova Lynne has returned to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit as senior curator. Lynne first joined MOCAD in 2017, and was appointed senior curator in November 2019. She departed in spring 2020 amid protests against the leadership of executive director Elysia Borowy-Reeder, who was placed on administrative leave following accusations of “allegations of poor management and racial and gender bias (including harassment and bullying) from current and former employees.” (Borowy-Reeder was later terminated by the museum.) Lynne regained her responsibilities effective immediately and is currently planning an exhibition of Detroit artists slated to open February 2021.
Goodman Gallery Adds New Artists to Roster
Goodman Gallery, which maintains spaces in London, Capetown, and Johannesburg, now represents artists Paul Maheke and Naama Tsabar. Maheke, who is based in Paris, will have a solo exhibition with Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in April 2021. The gallery will present a solo exhibition by Tsabar, who is based in New York, at its London space in October 2021.
Mohamed Bourouissa Wins Annual Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize
Artist Mohamed Bourouissa has won the 2020 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, which comes with about $38,600. Bourouissa was nominated for his 2019 exhibition “Free Trade” at the Rencontres d’Arles, and his practice spans photography, film, drawing, and sculpture. Work by Bourouissa and the other artists shortlisted for the award—Anton Kusters, Mark Neville, and Clare Strand—will remain on view at the Photographers’ Gallery in London through September 20.
Outsider Art Fair Names New Director, Details Upcoming Edition in Paris
Nikki Iacovella, who most recently served as the managing director at Peter Freeman Inc. in New York, has been appointed director of the Outsider Art Fair, which holds exhibitions in New York and Paris. Iacovella has previously worked as a gallery and project manager for Art Basel and she has managed a Melbourne-based gallery specializing in Indigenous Australian art. The fair has also revealed that its eighth edition in Paris will be accessible online and in a curated exhibition organized by Alison M. Gingeras at the Hôtel Drouot.