Absolut Vodka has rolled out a new marketing campaign heavily indebted to Andy Warhol’s own designs for the brand in the 1980’s, inscribing a limited edition bottle with a design the artist created for an Absolut print ad in 1985/86.  “Warhol is an icon and Absolut has a fantastic heritage of collaborating with him,” said Dan Brooks, creative director at the Sid Lee New York, the firm that created the campaign: “This is not about being back in the past, rummaging in the past. It’s about looking forward, reinventing.” (more…)

The Financial Times analyzes the current protest fervor over the presence of sponsorship and advertising dollars currently at play in the contemporary art world, noting major disputes at the São Paolo and Gwangju Biennials, as well as the ongoing protests over BP’s sponsorship of the Tate.  “Creativity has become . . .instrumentalized both by capitalism and the nation state,” says São Paulo curator Charles Esche. (more…)

Mark Flood, SADISTIC pleasure! (2013), via Peres Projects

Currently on view at Peres Projects in Berlin is an exhibition of new work by American artist Mark Flood, using his new pseudonym “Mike Lood” for the first time. Entitled Ask Officer Pepperspray, the exhibition is Flood’s fifth solo show at Peres Projects. (more…)

The controversial installation of a neon Playboy logo and cement sculpture by curator Neville Wakefield and Richard Phillips in Marfa, TX has been ordered to be removed.  After complaints from a local resident, the Texas Department of Transportation found that the installation was in fact corporate advertising, which requires a permit for installation. The Texas Department of Transportation has ordered the property owner to remove this sign because the owner does not have a Texas License for Outdoor Advertising and a specific permit application for the sign was not submitted,” explained Veronica Beyer, the director of media relations for the Texas DOT, in a statement. (more…)

A large banner featuring one of George Condo’s Jesters has been unfurled outside of the Metropolitan Opera.  The banner promotes the Opera’s current production of Rigoletto, as well as Condo’s current show of work in Gallery Met, the exhibition space in the Met’s south lobby, which opens Monday.  (more…)