This week’s rolling news roundup
8–14 October
At Sotheby’s Friday evening sale in London, Jenny Saville’s Propped (1992) sold for £9.5m, setting a new auction record for any artwork by a living female artist. But her thunder was stolen by Banksy’s latest stunt, which saw one of his works, Girl with Balloon (2006), self-destruct as the hammer went down for £1.4m. The artist shared a behind-the-scene video in which he is seen building a shredder system within the frame of the canvas, which he activated with a remote control as the painting was sold. Rhizome, the New York- based digital art organisation, has announced the recipients of its 2018 microgrants, ranging between $500 and $1,500 for proposals within the categories of Net Art, Virtual Reality and Poetry. See the full list here. Back in London, where Frieze has just drawn to a close, a roundup by Artsy reports that dealer Thaddeus Ropac expressed confidence in a post-Brexit art market, suggesting it might even cause ‘a slight boost to the market’, and could also ‘present an opportunity for the UK to become a less-regulated art market’.
American artist Hank Willis Thomas has been named California College of the Arts’ (CCA) first Creative Citizenship Fellow. Thomas cofounded the not-for-profit organisation For Freedoms in 2016 with fellow artist Eric Gottesman. The initiative describes itself as ‘a platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action’, using exhibitions, installations, and public programmes as a way to encourage public discourse on politics, education, culture and economics. At CCA, Thomas will run a programme that will include town halls, exhibitions, sign-making workshops, and community events.
On Wednesday, Collective, a new centre for contemporary art in Edinburgh, announced its opening date set for 24 November. The centre will be situated on Calton Hill, where the city’s observatory, a new exhibition space and restaurant will make up the site, and is freely accessible to the public. Collective’s inaugural exhibition, Affinity and Allusion, will include international and Scotland-based artists including Dineo Seshee Bopape, James N Hutchinson, Alexandra Laudo, Tessa Lynch, Catherine Payton and Klaus Weber, and feature specially commissioned works. Art Dubai announced Chloe Vaitsou, formerly the head of audience development for Frieze Fairs, will become its international director, working with artistic director Pablo del Val. Fernanda Brenner, artistic director of Pivo in São Paulo, will curate a special section dedicated to Latin American art.
The 6th Guangzhou Biennial has announced its full list of participating artists. The biennial, which is due to open in December at the Guangdong Museum of Art, is titled As We May Think, Feedforward, and takes as its theme the relationship between real and virtual worlds.
Stay tuned for the daily rundown on the artworld’s latest gallery news: awards, appointments, artist representation, open calls and more...
See here for last week’s roundup