Artist Andres Serrano, whose notorious work Piss Christ was removed from the Associated Press image archives after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices, speaks out in Creative Time Reports this week, defending unconditional free expression in the arts and in contemporary political discourse.  “Unfortunately, times like these show us the true limits of people’s taste for debate, even in an ostensibly free society,” he writes.  “We have only to look to our shared human history to find that the artists and thinkers who have most advanced civilization in the direction of freedom and equality were often unpopular in their day. They questioned, they analyzed, they regularly offended. Without them we would surely be lost.” (more…)

Lee Yong-woo, President of Korea’s Gwangju Biennial and one of the exhibition’s founders, has resigned from his post after a painting by arist Hong Seong-dam, depicting Korean president Park Geun-hye attacked by victims of the MV Sewol disaster, was removed from an exhibition at the Gwangju Museum, causing a major uproar and the withdrawal of several artists from the show.  “I am taking full responsibility for what happened,” Yong-woo said. (more…)

This past week, artist Richard Prince had his Instagram account deactivated for posting an image of his work Spiritual America (a nude photo of ten year-old Brooke Shields) on his account, then reinstated.  The artist recounts the experience on New York Magazine’s website:  “The thing goes black on your phone, and they have a little graphic username login. I could not, through my phone, reenter the world of Disney. It’s like Walt is behind me.” (more…)

A Ukrainian artist is accusing Nataliia Zabolotna, the exhibition curator and director at Kiev’s Mystetskyi Arsenal, of censoring a work using daubs of black paint.  The mural, Judgement Day, was censored claiming it was not in the spirit of the exhibition’s focus on the “Great and Grand,” and has already led to the resignation of deputy director Alexander Solovyov.  “I think that censorship is unacceptable, even more so by [an] institution which aims to engage in and support art.”  He said. (more…)