September 16, 2022 • View in browser

Good morning. 🌤️ Museum workers in the US are no longer afraid to walk off their jobs when managements stall union contract negotiations to no end. It happened in August when MASS MoCA workers implemented a one-day strike, and it's happening again today at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. These workers have had it with starvation wages and scant to no benefits, and they won't take it anymore.

Let's talk about shame, or the lack thereof: David Frum, a staff writer at the Atlantic, wrote a controversial piece that advises against the repatriation of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. Why? Because Frum thinks that Nigeria can't be trusted to preserve its own cultural heritage. He also discloses his concern that his family might have to return items from its vast African art collection. If the name sounds vaguely familiar to you, it's because Frum was the writer behind George W. Bush's infamous "Axis of Evil" speech. Yup. Read Billy Anania's piercing response to Frum's article, and check out the rest of today's stories and reviews, including this week's Required Reading.

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

Philadelphia Museum of Art Workers Announce Daylong Strike

The PMA Union authorized a one-day strike on September 16, days after it filed an Unfair Labor Practices complaint against the institution. | Elaine Velie

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Still from an iPhone video taken by Fowzia Adde (screenshot used with permission)

• Five murals outside an immigrant business center in Fargo were defaced with graffiti promoting a white nationalist hate group.

• Mexico's new lot of “voluntarily returned” objects by citizens from Austria, Canada, Switzerland, and the US raise more questions than they resolve.

• Inkpa Mani steps down from a $400,000 public art commission meant for Dakota artists amid community controversy.

• Museum Day 2022 returns this Saturday, September 17, with over 500 participating museums across the US.

LATETS REVIEWS

Penny Goring's Emotional Body Horror

The interplay between bodies and emotions in Goring’s work, and their potential to be transformative, reveals the politics that pump through the artist’s ever-exposed heart. | Sam Moore

Jean Painlevé Revealed the Otherworldliness Beneath the Water’s Surface

His detailed images of microscopic aquatic creatures suggest a version of Surrealism’s dream realities. | Julia Curl

New Book Asks, Why Do Artists Make Art?

In no small feat, Why I Make Art condenses artists’ multifaceted, meandering spoken stories into lively, relatable narratives that draw the reader in. | Lauren Moya Ford

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

David Frum, “Axis of Evil” Speechwriter, Should Shut Up About the Benin Bronzes

Liberal establishment darling David Frum mocks repatriation efforts as a “ritual of self-purification through purgation.” | Billy Anania

Required Reading

This week, fictional characters with student debt, a Gen X guide to Web3, landlord rent increases, neoliberals and Salman Rushdie, money and happiness, and more. | Hrag Vartanian

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TRANSITIONS

William L. Coleman was appointed Wyeth Foundation Curator of the Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection and director of the Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Study Center at the Brandywine River Museum of Art.

Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime was named executive director of Transform 1012, the Texas coalition turning a former KKK building into an arts center in Fort Worth.

Rochelle Feinstein is now co-represented by the galleries Bridget Donahue, Hannah Hoffman, Nina Johnson, Candice Madey, Galerie Francesca Pia, and Campoli Presti.

Vanessa Kwan was named director and curator of Gallery and Exhibitions at Emily Carr University.

Arden Sherman was appointed Glenn W. & Cornelia T. Bailey Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Norton Museum of Art.

Lily Wong is now represented by Lyles & King.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

Ebecho Muslimova is the 2022 recipient of the Borlem Prize.

The Armory Show announced the winners of three prizes for exhibitors in last week’s fair: Reynier Leyva Novo presented by El Apartamento (Havana) received the Pommery Prize; Rutger Brandt Gallery (Amsterdam) received the TPC Art Finance Presents Prize for a presentation of Radenko Milak; and Claudia Peña Salinas presented by Curro (Guadalajara) and Embajada (San Juan) received the Sauer Artist Prize.

BRIC has announced its BRIClab 2022-2023 Artists-in-Residence. A complete list of awardees can be found here.

The International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Foundation released a list of its 2022 Curatorial Internship Grant and Foundation Grant recipients, here.

Candice Hopkins and the American Indian Community House received the Independent Curators International’s 2022 Leo Award.

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