Weekly

September 3, 2022 • View in browser

This week's news includes a shocking vandalism story that was even more troubling when the identities of the suspects were discovered by police.

Earlier this week, Sculpture Space in Utica was partly destroyed by unknown individuals, and the following day, police let a Hyperallergic reporter know that the vandals are suspected to be a group of five children between the ages of 8 and 11 🫣. The realities of this situation are disturbing, to say the least. The arts center in upstate New York continues to fundraise to replace the damaged equipment. As of Friday evening, they have not quite reached their goal and we recommend giving them a helping hand if you're able to do so.

In other news, NYC's Department of Sanitation wants artworks for their garbage trucks but they don't want to pay the artists 🤔, new research suggests the earliest human fossils are at least a million years older than previously thought 😲, archaeologists have uncovered a fully furnished middle-class home in Pompeii 🌋, and we profiled five West Virginia artists you should know. 

We've also released our fall print guide to shows in and around New York City. You can find the guides at some of the city's finest museums, arts organizations, and galleries. You can also check out a summarized version of our guide online. We also have a handy guide to this week's Armory Art Week.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

Benin bronze, ancestral head of an oba (a king) at the Bristol Museum (image by Matt Neale via Wikimedia Commons)

UK Welcomes Restitution, Just not Anti-Colonialism
Arts Council England’s new restitution guidelines for museums sparks ...

In these times, any attempt to discuss cultural restitution outside of the context of the necessary evolution of curatorial and co-curatorial professional practice will surely fail, because across the public and professional fields restitution is understood to be about the opening up of possibilities for what happens next, including the potential for repair, remembrance, and reparation. Giving back is the necessary first step; but restitution is also about giving something up.

— Dan Hicks

NEWS THIS WEEK

Vandals used tools from the studios to damage and destroy works that were donated for Sculpture Space’s upcoming charity auction. (via Facebook)

• A devastating attack on Sculpture Space in Utica leaves smashed windows, destroyed equipment, and damaged works slated for a charity auction. The vandals are suspected to be a group of five children aged 8 to 11.

• NYC Department of Sanitation’s initiative, Trucks of Art, raises criticism about whether the open call devalues artists.

• Archaeologists uncover a fully furnished home in Pompeii, providing new insights into the lives of middle-class Pompeians.

• New research suggests that the earliest human fossils in South Africa are at least a million years older than previously thought.

• Bay Area organizations protest the San Francisco Public Library’s censorship of a pro-Palestinian mural.

OPPORTUNITIES IN SEPTEMBER

From grants like The Bennett Prize to residencies at Pioneer Works and Laundromat Project, here’s your go-to list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers this month.

NEW YORK HIGHLIGHTS FOR FALL

Jack Bell Gallery will show Marc Padeu's painting “Le dejéuner dans la plantation” (2022) in the Presents section of the Armory Show. (image courtesy Jack Bell Gallery)

Your Handy Guide to the NY Armory Week Art Fairs
Hop from the Seaport District to Madison Avenue without despairing with our run-down of next week’s art-fair extravaganza.

Duke Riley, “Nos. 50-P, 74-P, 10, 70, 112, and 106” of The Poly S. Tyrene Memorial Maritime Museum (2020), salvaged, painted plastic (© Duke Riley, photo by Robert Bredvad, courtesy the artist)

Hyperallergic Fall 2022 New York Art Guide
A month-by-month visual guide to the museum exhibitions and art events you should check out in New York City this season.

WHAT TO SEE IN NYC & LA THIS MONTH

September is back-to-school time, and that pedagogical impulse extends to the exhibitions in Los Angeles. Whether it's Dan Levenson’s fictional modernist Swiss art school or the Fulcrum Festival's focus on the deepest reaches of space and the sea, there’s definitely lots to learn.

Exhibitions in NYC this month include a sanctuary of African healing out on Governors Island, colorful deconstructions of gender and sexuality, and transmissions from a post-worker dystopia in Brooklyn.

IN A NEW LIGHT

Marie Johnson (Calloway), "Untitled" (1950s), oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches (courtesy Modern Art West)

Unearthing a Treasure Trove of Bay Area Women Abstract Painters
Jay DeFeo and Joan Brown may be the best-known women abstract artists in the Bay Area, but The Long View demonstrates they were far from alone.

Building an Art Community From the Ashes of Destructivism
A Contextual Retrospective traces Raphael Montañez Ortiz’s journey from radical, Destructivist artist to the founding of El Museo del Barrio.

Peeling Back the Psychological Layers of 1980s Sticker Books
In Sticker Book, Julie Alpert remains loyal to the elements of craft while reaching for intergenerational connections.

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QUASI-EXPLORATIONS

John William Waterhouse, “Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses” (England, 1891), oil on canvas (© Gallery Oldham)

The British Museum Takes the Feminism Out of Feminine Power
The realities of women’s lives are conspicuously absent from the British Museum’s show about the feminine.

Here, as in many of the exhibition’s labels and texts, the museum seems afraid to do or say anything that might seem too stereotypically “feminine,” or even feminist. A studied neutrality is at play — which of course is not really neutral, but rather a reiteration of the contemporary gendered status quo, which sees “male” as the default and “female” as the other. 

— Anna Souter

An Important Interactive Exhibition That Doesn’t Work
Shall Make, Shall Be at Manhattan’s Federal Hall wants to educate us critically about the Bill of Rights, but nearly half of the displays are dysfunctional.

An Artist’s Quasi-Exploration of Celebrity Culture
In As If, Almost, Louise Giovanelli uses techniques from the Northern Renaissance in an attempt to investigate our present-day celebrity worship.

VIBRANT ART SCENES

Robby Moore, “It's Easy to Stand Out When You're the Only Black One Invited” (courtesy Robby Moore)

Art Beyond the Coasts: Five West Virginia Artists to Know
Robby Moore, Ellie Schaul, Nevada Tribble, Nichole Westfall, and Sassa Wilkes are leading the wave of West Virginia's inventive and vibrant art scene.

West Virginia, the only state wholly in Appalachia, tends to find itself in the national news for the antics of Senator Joe Manchin, the state’s law targeting transgender athletes, or problematic portrayals of “hillbilly” culture. The state’s vibrant arts scene rarely receives national press. 

— Rossilynne Skena Culgan

This Brooklyn Art Collective Is Revitalizing the Post-Pandemic Drag Scene
Francesca Magnani zooms in on The POC Drag Art Collective’s The Collection Bowl, a weekly fundraising event at C’mon Everybody.

A New Mexico Arts Festival Goes Full Immersive
The Paseo — a site-specific, high-tech, experiential festival — is coming back to the streets of Taos.

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

Medicine bottle, 1700-1800, found at City of London by Malcolm Russell (© Thames & Hudson, photography by Matthew Williams-Ellis)

London’s History, Washed Up on the Shores of the Thames
Author Malcolm Russell’s novel approach to history — finding it as it washes up on the riverbanks — makes the past seem very much alive.

How Japan’s Best Ceramists “Listen” to Clay 
Listening to Clay sheds light on how Japanese clay workers' transition from production crafters to fine artists transformed the country’s culture.

Home Is a Mindset for a Nomadic Artist
At Museo Reina Sofía’s Crystal Palace, Carlos Bunga’s ephemeral construction creates a facade of stability and strength.

Only Treason in the Building
What does the star of Only Murders in the Building, Selena Gomez, have in common with Trump’s stolen top secret documents?

Required Reading
This week, new photos of Jupiter, film audiences and critics disagree, Andrew Wyeth’s funerary drawings, Diva Kid meme reborn, and more.