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Legal complaint over lead pollution from Notre Dame fire
PARIS (AFP).- Paris authorities have been accused in a legal complaint of failing to safeguard the health of people living near Notre-Dame cathedral due to lead pollution from a devastating fire two years ago. Local familes along with the Paris branch of the CGT trade union and the anti-pollution association Henri Pezerat, have filed the complaint alleging city and public health authorities endangered lives. "Despite the scale of the fire and knowledge about the risk of pollution and contamination... no precaution in particular was taken by the authorities involved for more than three months after the fire," according to a copy of the complaint seen by AFP. It says 400 tonnes of lead from the roof of the Gothic masterpiece melted or were dispersed as microparticles over the French capital during the blaze on April 15, 2019. "Children (in creches and schools) ... More

A call to diversify those calling the cues
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Perhaps the hardest-working people in theater, stage managers oversee all aspects of a production. They work closely with the director to mark down every piece of staging from where the actors and sets are placed, to the sound and lighting cues. During tech week, when a show loads into a theater, they run the rehearsal process to ensure that technical aspects of a production flow smoothly before opening night. The stage manager is also responsible for communicating with all the various backstage teams, from the lighting and sound experts to the dressers helping actors do quick changes. A stage manager is like a conductor, said Lisa Porter, who over a 25-year career has worked on shows at the Public Theater and the La Jolla Playhouse, among others. We conduct the tempo and the tone of rehearsals ... More

The New Museum opens the first American survey of work by Wong Ping
NEW YORK, NY.- The New Museum is presenting Wong Ping: Your Silent Neighbor. This is the first American survey of work by the Hong Kong-based artist. Over the past ten years, Wong Ping (b. 1984, Hong Kong) has developed a highly personal, self-taught style of animation to craft tales of individual desire, societal pressure, and political upheaval. Before his colorful and sometimes disturbing stories of life in Hong Kong received mainstream attention from the art world, the artist worked in television broadcasting and commercial animation. Although his videos may at first recall childrens cartoons, Wongs work emerges from his own written stories and journals, revealing the aspirations and anxieties of everyday residents of Hong Kong through surreal narratives and a bizarre cast of anthropomorphic characters. Filling the Museums ... More

Frantiek LesÃ¡k probes the complex interplay between tactile and visual perception in new exhibition
VIENNA.- The conceptual draftsman and sculptor Frantiek LesÃ¡ks work is dedicated to describing and understanding the world of objects and associated questions of perception. Creating systems of spatial reference, exploring alternating perspectives, surveying and mapping selected sceneries, and toying with shifts of scale are key elements of his creative toolset. Undertaking a kind of basic research, systematically planned cycles of works examine things and their relation to the real space around them as well as the space of media. At the Secession, LesÃ¡k shows several bodies of work, mostly dating from the past few years, that have not or only rarely been on public display. The presentation sheds light on the contemporaneity of his art and continuities in his oeuvre. In his new cycle Supposition and Reality (2020), from which the exhibition ... More

Instead of bingo, senior housing brings opera singers and Broadway insiders to residents
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Enrichment classes are a dime a dozen in retirement facilities, but a crop of high-end senior living communities in New York City is offering next-level workshops, taught by local artists and experts from local museums and cultural institutions. It is certainly a lot more than bingo, said Andrew Young, a senior public relations specialist at Brookdale Senior Living, which operates nearly 700 senior housing facilities nationwide. At Brookdale Battery Park City, an independent living facility right on the Hudson River, residents have had the chance to attend lectures given by dancers from the New York City Ballet, who perform and talk about the history of a particular show and share details about their performances. Another class, taught by Robert Amodeo, a working stylist, chronicled the behind-the-scenes and history of costumes ... More

Christie's announces new leadership for the Watches Department, Americas
NEW YORK, NY.- Christies announced new leadership for the Watches department of Christies Americas with the appointment of Keith Davis as Head of Watches and Adam Victor as Senior Watches Consultant, based out the New York offices with start date effective July 6, 2021. Aline Sylla-Walbaum, Global Managing Director of Christies Luxury, comments: We are delighted to welcome Keith and Adam to our growing Christies Americas Watches team. This season has been an unprecedented success for the category and we see the momentum only continuing under their leadership. They both not only bring world class knowledge of horology and timepieces, but decades of experience working in the luxury sector for some of the biggest names. As we embark on the second half of the year, our global teams will continue to present a diverse ... More

Swann to present 'Focus on Women' July 15
NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries will present Focus on Women, a sale dedicated to the important contributions of those in the community who identify as women working in the fields of activism, art and design, community, education, entertainment, health and wellness, science and innovation, sport, and work. The sale is curated by Swann senior specialist of early printed books Devon Eastland and will be held on Thursday, July 15. The auction will feature first editions, manuscript material, archives, and works on paper by historically significant poets, novelists, scientists, journalists, photographers, playwrights, performers and more from before 1800 through the contemporary era. As collectors and institutions turn their focus to the important contributions of women, Swann is pleased to offer their work at auction. Leading the sale is an archive ... More

Stephen Friedman Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Mamma Andersson and Andreas Eriksson
S-CHANF.- Stephen Friedman Gallery is presenting an exhibition of new works by Swedish artists Mamma Andersson and Andreas Eriksson. The two-person show opened on Tuesday 6 July at 107 S-chanf, Switzerland and runs until Sunday 29 August. The presentation comprises paintings, tapestries and works on paper by two artists renowned for their fascination with landscape and nature. On view for the first time are multi-panel works and several new oil and acrylic paintings by Andreas Eriksson. These works embrace what seem like contradictions, depicting at the same time a lightness and a heaviness, illusion and reality. Featuring subtle earthy tones that alternately merge and collide, Eriksson employs translucent washes of soft greys and startling blues to reflect his natural habitat. The exhibition also includes a new large-scale work from the Semaphore ... More

Edouard Malingue Gallery opens group exhibition 'In the Labyrinth'
SHANGHAI.- Edouard Malingue Gallery is presenting a group exhibition 'In the Labyrinth' at 549 North Shaanxi Road from 2 - 18 July 2021, showcasing works by Chou Yu-Cheng (b. 1976, Taiwan, China), He Yida (b. 1980, China), Li Shuang (b. 1990, China), Liao Guohe (b. 1977, Calcutta, India), Liu Yin (b. 1984, China), Ma Qi (b. 1971, China), Nabuqi (b. 1984, China), Su Yu-Xin (b. 1991, Taiwan, China), Tang Dixin (b. 1982, China) and Zheng Zhou (b. 1969, China). Umberto Eco describes rhizome labyrinth in The Name of the Rose: Each road is closely related to other roads. It has neither a centre nor an edge, and there is even no exit. What it presents is not uniformity, but diversity. In his book, Eco constructs an era that could reflect the contemporary zeitgeist, like a "rhizome labyrinth", which is an exciting era but is internally fragmented. The intricate ... More

Exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel presents a loose response to the iconic INFORMATION show at MoMA
BASEL.- Encrypted networks, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, data harvesting, algorithmic biases, sentient machinesall are products of twenty-first-century data-based capitalism. The proliferation of information, and datas nebulous modes of circulating and being processed, fundamentally shape daily life now. INFORMATION (Today) is a group show featuring contemporary artists seeking to unravel this phenomenon. Intended as a loose response to the iconic INFORMATION show at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, curated by Kynaston L. McShine in 1970, INFORMATION (Today) examines how contemporary artists deal with the relentless flow of information and data that deeply inflects our everyday. If MoMAs exhibition was born from the late 1960s and early 1970s dawn of the Information Age, when advancements in new ... More

Opera roars back with dueling Wagner premieres
NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- If you were watching closely, opera never truly disappeared during the pandemic. Some companies performed in empty houses, hoping to reach audiences at home. A few took the risk of an early reopening, and were forced to abruptly cancel their shows if a coronavirus test came back positive. Composers began to skip the stage entirely and write for streaming platforms. But now opera as we remember it starry opening nights, full orchestras and choirs, cheers coming from over a thousand people in formal wear is back. Its still rare in the United States, but not in Europe, thanks to rising vaccination rates, newly opened borders and relaxed safety measures. And, after a long absence of large-scale productions, there are two of Wagners immense Tristan und Isolde, with A-list singers and creative teams to match, ... More