The new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island features a range of art installations by artists including  Michael Riedel, Matthew Day Jackson and Alison Elizabeth Taylor, among others, the New York Times reports. “The entire building is designed to spur imagination and innovation and sometimes unintentional interactions,” said Patricia Harris, chief executive of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which helped in the building commissions. (more…)

The New York Times profiles the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma, and notes how well many Miami arts institutions handled the storm. “It’s an existential question,” says collector Mera Rubell. “Ultimately, how can we predict what’s going to happen anywhere?” (more…)

Ann Freedman has settled her final of several lawsuits against her in the Knoedler Gallery court cases, bringing its long narrative to a conclusion. “Neither the government nor these individuals ever accused Ann of wrongdoing,” Freedman’s lawyer, Luke Nikas says. (more…)

The Art Market Monitor has a piece on the increasingly complex connections between collector Dmitriy Rybolovlev and various officials in the Monaco government, indicating that the Russian billionaire may have wielded undue influence on the small country’s justice system.  I have always said that Mr. Rybolovlev had privatized the justice system in Monaco its profit. There is now evidence that the police, the prosecutor’s office and the equivalent of the Minister of Justice have done everything possible to constitute an association of criminals in order to carry out a scam in the judgment,” says Paris based lawyer Francis Szpiner, who is pushing for a broader investigation of this situation.  (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on the fallout over Sam Durant’s controversial Scaffold work at the Walker Center in Minnesota, and and a number of staff departures at the institution, pointing to demanding working conditions under director Olga Viso. “Obviously the Walker has a slight cloud over it right now,” says Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. “It’s a cloud; not a downpour, but it needs to get out of it quickly.” (more…)

Indonesian-Chinese Collector Budi Tek is pressing the Chinese government to overhaul its restrictions on private museums, even as he battles pancreatic cancer. “I am still full of ambition. That’s what’s keeping me alive—and thinking positively,” he says. (more…)

The Hirshhorn has acquired artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s long-running Me and My Mother series, which includes footage of the artist being spit on repeatedly by his mother. The museum also acquired pieces by Shirin Neshat, Deb Sokolow, and Mika Tajima, among others. (more…)

Bloomberg has a piece this week on preparations underway in Miami to preserve and save art in the face of the powerful Hurricane Irma currently bearing down on the coastal city. “It’s always scary and dangerous. You can’t take any chances,” says developer Craig Robins. “At this point there isn’t much you can do. You’ve secured everything and now you can only pray. You pray it goes out to sea or gets weaker.” (more…)

The nation of Luxembourg is completing negotiations to move its national pavilion at the Venice Biennale to a space in the Arsenale. “This is a focal point of the Biennale and I am convinced that, thanks to this decision, the Grand-Duchy will have an increased visibility from the Biennale of Architecture in 2018,” says prime minister Xavier Bettel. (more…)

The New Art Dealers Alliance has added a group of thirteen new members, as it continues to grow and evolve. New galleries include Mexico City’s Lulu, London’s Arcadia Missa, and New York’s Signal. The organization will celebrate its new members this December at NADA Miami Beach. (more…)

La Biennale Paris art fair is preparing to open its doors, as the New York Times charts the adjustments and tweaks to its programming made to make it more competitive in the current art market. “In order to compete as a major fair, you have to be part of the annual calendar or someone will take that slot,” says fair president Christopher Forbes. (more…)

The Financial Times analyzes the current state of the contemporary art market, examining how demands placed on galleries by the international fair circuit and other situations have made it increasingly difficult to compete with mega-galleries. “If you add everything up on a booth for emerging artists, it’s difficult to see how galleries can make the costs back,” says gallerist Laura Bartlett, who recently closed her London exhibition space. “I gained so much profile through international fairs; they just need to be as flexible as possible now and adapt to the market.”  (more…)

Sotheby’s has unveiled a collection of 400 works and objects from the estate of painter Howard Hodgkin, which it will place on sale in the coming months through a series of auctions. “If Howard needed it he bought it, sometimes for a lot of money once he could afford it,” says the artist’s partner, writer Antony Peattie. “He didn’t believe in bargains and if something was really good he went ahead and paid the price for it.” (more…)

Gladstone Gallery is now representing the work of Ian Cheng, who recently capped a summer exhibition at MoMA PS1 featuring an evolving, shifting video game landscape. “We are honored and excited to work with Ian at this pivotal moment in his career,” Barbara Gladstone said in a statement. “Ian’s exceptional current exhibition at MoMA PS1 speaks to the transformative and forward thinking nature of his work, and we’re thrilled to support the continued exploration of his practice. We are eager to build upon the incredible momentum Ian has already gained in his career well into the future.” (more…)

Martine Syms is now represented by Sadie Coles HQ, the Art News reports.  The announcement comes after Syms capped her first exhibition at MoMA this summer. “Syms is original and dynamic, and has already earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humor, and social commentary,” a spokesperson for the gallery says. “Having experienced the work during Donahue’s presentation last year as part of London’s Condo gallery-swap scheme, we found Martine and her work compelling, sophisticated, and profound.” (more…)

The ICA Los Angeles is set to open its doors this fall in a former garment factory in downtown Los Angeles, the Art Newspaper reports. “The primary thing we’d like to achieve as an institution is to make this feel like a welcoming space for a public that might otherwise feel intimidated,” says curator, Jamillah James. (more…)

The Chicago Tribune takes a tour of Marisol, the new restaurant inside Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The space, named after the famed French-Venezuelan sculptor Maria Sol Escobar, features a massive mural by Chris Ofili. “We want (Marisol) to be a space where people come together,” says chef Jason Hammel. “If people walk around upstairs or go to a performance at the theater, they want a place to hang out afterwards and talk.” (more…)

The Brooklyn Museum has appointed Jennifer Y. Chi as the institution’s new deputy director and chief curator, Artforum reports. “I am excited to partner with Jennifer,” says Director Anne Pasternak. “She is not only a renowned scholar and curator, but also a creative thinker, whose drive and entrepreneurial skills will be a great boon to our efforts in expanding our curatorial activities.” (more…)

London gallerist Laura Bartlett is closing her space in London, which she has run for the past 12 years. “I have had the pleasure to work with an incredible group of artists over the years and I am happy to announce that I will continue these collaborations as an advisor to international collections, working on private and public commissions and towards a more fluid exhibition programming model,” she wrote in an online statement. (more…)

Painter Sean Scully is featured in the New York Times’s ‘Show Us Your Wall’ piece, showcasing some of the works from his collection including Walker Evans photographs and pieces by Damien Hirst. “I’m not trying to make a collection. It’s just making itself,” he says. “I’m quite a social person, quite a communicator, and I like to have the work of other people around. And occasionally I want to buy something that I want to look at for a long time.” (more…)

David Hockney is profiled in the New York Times this week, as the artist turns 80 years old, and reflects back on his life as a painter, and his relentless desire to challenge and reinvigorate the medium.“To hell with the idea of a single vanishing point,” he says during the course of the interview. (more…)

Lévy Gorvy will open an office in Shanghai, the Art News reports, with former Christie’s employee Danqing Li heading up operations. “We are delighted to welcome Danqing Li to our international team,” co-founder, Brett Gorvy, said in a statement. “Having worked with her for many years in Asia during my tenure at Christie’s, I have always admired the depth of her knowledge and her unique sensitivity not only to art but to the cross-cultural connections it creates. It’s an honor to welcome her to the Lévy Gorvy family.” (more…)

Casey Kaplan Gallery is now representing artist Matthew Ronay, who moves from the closing Andrea Rosen Gallery. The artist’s work in ceramics and wood draw on an abstract formal language recalling West Coast sculpture in the 1960’s and 70’s.  (more…)

The Louvre Abu Dhabi will open its doors on November 11th, with President Emmanuel Macron expected to visit for the institution’s opening ceremony. “We are finally going to leave the realms of the imaginary and discover not only the architectural design of Jean Nouvel, but the content of a new museum, conceived under a bilateral agreement that makes it an absolutely unique creation”, says Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez. (more…)