Arts Council England Head Darren Henley has made a statement in The Guardian this week, pledging more attention and funding to the regions outside of London, and increasing funding for areas outside the city to 75% of total funding. “With nine offices around the country, the biggest of which is not in London, but in Manchester, we understand very clearly the many beneficial dividends that investment in arts and culture pays back to communities in all parts of England,” he writes. (more…)

The WSJ looks at a growing group of artists dealing with the fluid movements of immigrants and refugees internationally, and the increased focus on notions of identity and global politics that often underscore their work.  It’s one of the themes that are going to define the latter half of this century,” says London-based artist John Akomfrah. (more…)

An article in The Guardian this week makes the argument that the art market bubble so often discussed in 2015 has already burst, pointing to the considerably diminished sales totals in late 2015, often failing to meet their estimate despite several major record-setters, and a drop-off in new buyers.  “It feels like we hit the top in the first half of 2015,” says Todd Levin, director of art advisory the Levin Art Group. “We rang that bell and things have softened ever so slightly since. My guess is that we will see further tightening over 2016.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles The 14th Factory, a massive, $3 million installation and exhibition on Wall Street curated and presented by organizer Simon Birch.  “We’re going to splash down in New York,” he says.  “There’s a huge art system here going on already, which we’re not really part of, to be honest.  We’re kind of nobodies.” (more…)

An Egyptian Government crackdown on dissent has resulted in the closure of one of Cairo’s most prominent international galleries, as well as two publishing houses, the New York Times reports.  Authorities raided Townhouse Gallery this week, seizing papers and computers, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi continues to monitor institutions receiving foreign funding he suspects of subversive action.  “They are scared of Jan. 25,” says Fatima Serag, the legal director for the Association of Free Thought and Expression, referring to the anniversary of last year’s uprising in the country. (more…)

As The Art Newspaper celebrates its 25th anniversary, the paper reflects on the troubled times in contrast with the years following the end of the Cold War, and looks back at some of this year’s defining events, from the destruction of monuments and sites by ISIL to Ai Weiwei’s returned visa. (more…)

The Washington Post takes a tour of La Fabrica del Arte Cubano, a warehouse space repurposed as a nightclub and arts venue in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.  The space is run by musician and artist X Alfonso, who operates it as a community space, giving him a certain degree of autonomy.   (more…)

University of Amsterdam art scholar Frans Grijzenhout is claiming that he has discovered the location of Vermeer’s Little Street painting, placing it in the upscale Vlamingstraat in Delft.   (more…)

Tufts University is reportedly taking over the Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s Art School, the Boston Globe reports.  The deal, effective June 30th, will allow the school’s 700-plus students to become part of Tufts, and will give operational responsibility to the University. “I think it will be more attractive to fine arts students,” says Tufts president Anthony P. Monaco. “The university can offer a lot more to them than the museum school standing on its own.” (more…)

The New York Art, Antique & Jewelry Show has reportedly lost its location at the Park Avenue Armory, part of a push by the institution towards a focus on live programming and events.  “What they’re saying is, they want to push all these shows out of the Park Avenue Armory. The goal is only to have performances,” says fair owner Scott Diament.  “It was a major shock to me.” (NYP)
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Artist Ai Weiwei recently visited refugees living on the Greek island of Lesbos this month, sharing photos and video documenting their precarious existence, and pleading for more international aid to help them in their attempts to enter Europe.   (more…)

Alex Israel is featured in the Brooklyn Rail this week, offering his take on the necessity and/or benefits of continued study at art schools for young practitioners.  “All too often, unsure of oneself, seeking the approval of a favorite professor or influential visiting artist, and/or succumbing to the brand of insecurity that only art schools can breed, an art student will sacrifice what was once the original vision for what he or she thinks the critique—faculty and peers—would prefer the work to be,” he writes. (more…)

The Art News profiles LOMEX, a new gallery by curator Alexander Shulan, based out of the former studio of Eva Hesse.  “I was in here, and it felt like an artist might have been here, and I looked up the address, and decided this was the space,” he says. (more…)

Jenny Holzer is collaborating with Google to create an app commemorating HIV/AIDS victims, made in conjunction with her installation for the NYC AIDS Memorial.  “Excerpts from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman will be the text on the granite paving stones. The Whitman poem is a beauty from a man in full and glad possession of his body,” Holzer said. “The app should add content from visitors and from other authors—I’m thinking a lot about David Wojnarowicz, for example—for a rich mix.” (more…)

The New York Times looks at the history of the Middle Eastern art magazine Bidoun, which has traced a unique voice in contemporary art discourse over the past 11 years.  “Our vision of the Mideast extends to India, it extends to L.A. It certainly doesn’t fulfill the expectations of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ vision that’s so pervasive,” says Senior Editor Negar Azimi. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the plans for the M+ Museum, an anchor of the West Kowloon Cultural District on Hong Kong’s waterfront, and the issues the city is facing in fully realizing its impressive scope after delays, infighting departures of key project members.  “We have achieved everything we set out to do so far,” says Lars Nittve, the executive director of M+. “But it’s probably taken four to five times more work to make it happen compared to my experience in the London and Scandinavian situations. Almost every day and night is spent arguing.” (more…)

An article in The Chicago Reader this week notes the difficulties facing public art and installations in neighborhoods and areas where funding does not exist to maintain them, focusing on the destruction of acclaimed muralist Bill Walker’s All of Mankind at Chicago’s Stranger’s Home Missionary Baptist Church.  “We had five and a half years to repair those murals and nothing happened. We got no support. The money wasn’t there,” says a Church spokesperson.  “And our demographics have moved out. So we had no choice. The only logical decision was to paint [over] the murals.” (more…)

The negotiations for Germany’s exhibition of works from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art may include a $3 million price tag, the Art Newspaper reports.  “We are in early discussions on bringing these great treasures to the Hirshhorn—a first-time exhibition in the US. No loan fees have been discussed as yet,” a spokesperson from the Hirshhorn (which is also in talks with the museum) said.  (more…)

Andy Warhol’s Hamptons estate has sold to dealer and collector Adam Lindemann for $50 million, the WSJ reports.  The record price for the Montauk home, which has been held by J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, was a dream buy for Lindemann, who has collected Warhol for years. “It was like seizing the opportunity,” Lindemann says.
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Allegations have been lodged that a set of Degas sculptures in the collection of the Chicago Art Institute are forgeries.  “All Degas bronzes are non-disclosed second to third generation forgeries with counterfeit signatures and bogus editions,” says critic Gary Arseneau. (more…)

A new study by economics professor Kathryn Graddy at Brandeis University has shown that depression does not actually result in an artist’s best work.  Looking at sales data and museum acquisition histories for 12,000 works executed between 1900 and 1920, Graddy noted that sales prices were notably lower for works that followed traumatic events or depression in an artist’s life.  “The concept of a ‘flow state’ that people enter when being very creative has gained acceptance by psychologists,” Graddy writes in her report, “death and bereavement can reduce creativity.”  (more…)

Ken Griffin, the billionaire head of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, has donated $40 million to MoMA in a non-specific gift, which the museum will use for education and exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, and will see a wing of the institution’s new expansion named after him.  “It is my hope that visitors, artists and students from around the world will experience all that MoMA has to offer for generations to come,” Griffin, 47, said in the statement. (more…)

A trial against the executors of the Daniel Wildenstein estate in Paris this month is set to cast light on the often murky ownership and backdoor dealing that goes on in the highest echelons of the art market, the New York Times reports.  French authorities allege that over $250 million in art was shipped from the late dealer’s holdings days before his death, in an attempt to avoid a sizable estate tax.  “It is really the first time that a trial like this in France is exploring the use of trusts and determining whether they are legal or illegal,” said Claude Dumont-Beghi, a lawyer who represented Daniel Wildenstein’s widow, Sylvia. “How did the family build its fortune and empire under this system?” (more…)

Artist Marilyn Minter has relaunched her Choice Works project, a nonprofit organization in collaboration with NYC’s Planned Parenthood locations.  The project raises funds for the organization and helps initiate advocacy programs around the nation.  “You know, I think there’s this whole thing where people are embarrassed by abortions,” Minter says.  “I want to say, ‘Yeah, they do abortions. I’m proud of it.’ Places are suing them because of those lying video tapes and edited video tapes. It’s just getting worse and worse and worse, and I think we have to fight back.” (more…)