September 20, 2022 • View in browser

Good morning. 🌤️ Today, the Bushwick Open Studios returned this weekend after a two-year hiatus, and it was a hot mess. Many of the artists didn't even know it was happening. However, we were able to find some gems in the studios that were actually open. I recommend you read Elaine Velie's report from the festival and Daniel Larkin's selection of artists to keep an eye on.

Among other news stories today, artist Kahlil Robert Irving filed a complaint against the High Line Hotel in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, alleging racial discrimination by a manager and a staffer, and psychiatrists in Brussels are now prescribing museum visits to their patients to treat anxiety and depression.

Also, Bay Area artists, curators, and art workers have taken issue with a recent New York Times report that declared the death of their local art scene primarily because two blue-chip galleries — Pace and Gagosian — moved out to Los Angeles. Reactions to the article include "irresponsible," "underresearched," "nothingburger,” and "among the dumbest stories the NYT art section has ever published."

One of my favorite quotes in Emily Wilson's report for Hyperallergic is by Griff Williams of San Francisco's Gallery 16, who said: “The Gagosians of the world don’t represent the art world any more than Merrill Lynch represents Main Street. The idea that San Francisco is suffering because two mega dealers left and one wasn’t even in San Francisco, is silly.” All power to the Bay Area art community.

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

Bushwick Open Studios Returned, But the Artists Didn't Know

Several artists told Hyperallergic that they had to learn about the event just a day before it opened. | Elaine Velie

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Detail of a graphic included in an  Art Against Displacement (AAD) email (image courtesy AAD)

• Following a campaign by artists and anti-gentrification groups, Pioneer Works is no longer endorsing a luxury tower project in Queens.

• Psychiatrists in Brussels can now write “museum prescriptions” as part of a pilot program evaluating the impact of art institutions on mental health.

• Kahlil Robert Irving files a racial discrimination complaint against the High Line Hotel for being racially profiled and verbally assaulted in January.

• Workers sue the Walters Art Museum for refusing a Freedom of Information Request to turn over union-related communications.

ART SCENES

Rumors About Death of the Bay Area Art Scene Are Greatly Exaggerated

Local artists and curators took issue with a New York Times report announcing the demise of the local art scene in light of the departure of two blue-chip galleries. | Emily Wilson

Artists Find Inspiration in Uncertainty at Arts in Bushwick

Every artwork at Arts in Bushwick seemed to be in dialogue with the uncertainty and unpredictability of the moment. | Daniel Larkin

LATEST REVIEWS

These Photographs Were Made in Protest

The camera became the center of Chauncey Hare's life, and a tool for awakening his political consciousness. | Lauren Moya Ford

For Kaari Upson, the Abject and Grotesque Were a Wealth of Inspiration

To see Upson's memorial exhibition at Sprüth Magers is to absorb the full intensity of the artist’s explorations of trauma, vulnerability, and abjection. | An Xiao

Michelle Agins on Perseverance and Photographing Martin Luther King

The second Black woman ever hired as a New York Times staff photographer, Agins built her career at a time when photo editors gave very few assignments to women — much less to women of color. | Briana Ellis-Gibbs

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