February 24, 2023
Good morning. ☁️ Last night, I watched All the Beauty and Bloodshed, Laura Poitras’s documentary about Nan Goldin’s life, art, and opioid crisis activism with the group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now). The film screening was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the site of Goldin’s first “die-in” action against the willful artwashing of the Sackler family's blood money. It took The Met four years after that 2018 protest to finally do the right thing and remove the Sackler name from its walls. I recommended watching this film not just because it's a moving portrait of Goldin's career and struggles with addiction, but also because it's a hopeful reminder that change is always possible, even against the slimmest odds.
Today in the news, things keep getting worse in Florida, where lawmakers are now proposing to ban the LGBTQ+ Pride flag in government buildings. Also, we have an eye-opening story on how the use of pesticides and other preservation chemicals in museum collections poses a risk to the repatriation of Indigenous artifacts. And have you ever considered the racial bias of crayons? Learn about that in this week's Required Reading.
— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor
Harmful Pesticides in Museum Collections Complicate Repatriation Efforts
Tribes and museums are grappling with the dilemma of sacred Indigenous objects and remains contaminated by toxic pesticides and preservatives. | Maya Pontone
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LATEST NEWS
People carry the Rainbow Flag as they participate in the Miami Beach Pride Parade along Ocean Drive on September 19, 2021 in Miami Beach, Florida. (photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Republican legislators in Florida have filed bills that would ban the display of Pride flags in municipal buildings across the state.
Smithsonian will temporarily store the 77 Yemeni artifacts as looting and destruction of antiquities continue in the war-torn country.
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Creativity Explored Celebrates 40 Years of Supporting Artists With Developmental Disabilities
The San Francisco art collective will highlight six innovative artists at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City from March 2 to 5. Learn more.
FROM OUR CRITICS
Pedro Reyes Disarms in Santa Fe
By transforming guns into art and everyday objects, the artist hopes to transform culture itself. | Edgar Picazo Merino
Mourning and Perseverance Stitched Into South African Tapestries
Members of the Keiskamma Art Project experiment with needlework to narrate pertinent histories, moments of communal grief and of vitality. | Alexandra M. Thomas
My Travels in the Land of Winkfield
Trevor Winkfield’s modestly scaled acrylic paintings abound in puzzling, private symbols. | John Yau
MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC
Using Hair, Rice, and Indigo, an Artist Reclaims Her Family History
Adebunmi Gbadebo creates art from organic materials, like soil taken from her enslaved ancestors’ grave sites on the True Blue plantation. | Rhea Nayyar
Required Reading
This week, more inclusive crayons, categorizing female muses as artists, Tiktok-fueled "secret menus," Bernie walks into a TikTok, and much more. | Hrag Vartanian and Lakshmi Rivera Amin
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TRANSITIONS
Katherine Rochester was appointed curatorial director at Lehmann Maupin Gallery.
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in California (BAMPFA) announced the appointment of Margot Norton as chief curator. Norton is currently the senior curator at the New Museum. Victoria Sung of the Walker Art Center and Anthony Graham of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego were named senior curators.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
El Anatsui won Tate Modern’s 2023 Turbine Hall Commission.
Ana Bidart was selected for the Delfina Foundation artist residency in partnership with the Fundación Ama Amoedo.
Suneil Sanzgiri was awarded the Brooklyn Museum’s Fourth Annual UOVO Prize.
The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation announced Tim Whiten as the recipient of the 2022 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Portland’s Converge 45 biennial released the complete artist list for its upcoming 2023 edition, Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship.
