The Studio Museum in Harlem has named Legacy Russell associate curator of exhibitions. “As we enter our 50th anniversary year and prepare to begin construction on our new home, we’re thrilled to have Legacy join us in advancing the mission of the Studio Museum,” director Thelma Golden said in a statement.  (more…)

Tony Oursler, TC: The Most Interesting Man Alive (Installation View), via Lisson Gallery

Tony Conrad stands among the pinnacle of modern artistic practice; a pioneering and influential experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, artist and educator whose body of work can rarely be traced within the framework of just one discipline or school of thought.  A longtime educator in conjunction with his expansive practice, Conrad’s work moves at a sprint through ideas and constructs, and has remained influential on much of the artists who worked around and with him.  One of these artists was Tony Oursler, who met Conrad in 1979 and performed in a number of Conrad’s films, ultimately forging a bond that would lead to a range of collaborations and pieces. Among these is TC: the most interesting man alive, a short biopic piece that incorporates a range of cinematic, graphic, narrative and autobiographical approaches to produce a new form of biopic about the late artist Tony Conrad. (more…)

The NYT looks at recent efforts by institutions to focus increasingly on diversity, pushing for additional funds to increase the number of professional curators and museum administrators of color. “American museums need to do a better job of hiring, cultivating, retaining and promoting curators of color,” says Akili Tommasino, curatorial assistant at MoMA. “People of color don’t have exposure to arts as viable careers.” (more…)

David Zwirner has appointed curator and instagram-influencer Elena Soboleva as the gallery’s first online sales director. “Understandably, it took some time to find someone both experienced in online sales and sensitive to the priorities of our gallery, programming, and artists,” Zwirner said in a statement. (more…)

Han-I Wang has been named a senior director of Gagosian in Hong Kong, Art News reports, leaving Christie’s to take the post. “I felt the stars aligned,” Wang says, “but I could not have gotten here if it weren’t for Christie’s.” (more…)

Tina Knowles Lawson, the mother of Solange and Beyonce Knowles, gives Kimberly Drew a tour of her art collection, reflecting on her tastes and focus on African-American art. “When my kids were growing up, it was really important to me that they saw images of African-Americans,” Lawson says. “I’m so happy that I did, because both of them are really aware of their culture, and I think a lot of that had to do with looking at those images every day, those strong images.” (more…)

Ten Pablo Picasso works are among the pieces discovered during a reappraisal of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art’s holdings, the Art Newspaper reports.     (more…)

Sculptor B. Wurtz is featured in the NYT this week, discussing the selection of Eames chairs he has collected and restored over the course of his life. “I have this fascination with Eames because I associate them with California, which is where I grew up,” he says. “And because they wanted to make nicely designed furniture that people could afford.” (more…)

The Kunststiftung NRW foundation in Germany has named the shortlist for the 2018 Nam June Paik Award, which includes a €25,000 prize. The nominees are Andreas Angelidakis, Melanie Bonajo, Antoine Catala, Hanne Lippard, and Sondra Perry.  (more…)

Sotheby’s has reported a $57.3 million net income in the second quarter of 2018—a decrease of $19.6 million from last year, it noted in its call to investors this morning. “Overall,”CEO Tad Smith said, “these results were lower than we expected. At the same time, management and the board are excited as ever about the company’s prospects going forward.” (more…)

The Bass in Miami Beach has acquired major work by Sandford Biggers, Lawrence Weiner, and more, Artofurm reports. “Continuing to grow and expand The Bass’s permanent collection is a vital part of our commitment to presenting international contemporary art to our audiences,” says director and chief curator Silvia Cubina. (more…)

The Mechanics of Fluids (Installation View), via Marianne Boesky

Currently on view at Marianne Boesky’s Chelsea exhibition space, the gallery’s entry in the annual string of summer group shows dives into the work of artist-turned-curator Melissa Gordon. Gordon, whose work explores shifting, ever-changing experiences in texture and materiality, turns her aesthetic sensibilities towards a broader selection of women artists, charting a broad trajectory of voices and strategies including work by Lynda Benglis, Helen Frankenthaler, Laura Owens, Amy Sillman and others, all set set off by an architectural intervention of Gordon’s own design. (more…)

Alex Da Corte, Slow Graffiti, 2017.©Alex Da Corte. Courtesy the artist

David Zwirner’s summer group exhibition, This Is Not a Prop brings together aesthetically slick and conceptually witty works by an intergenerational group of artists working in a variety of media. The thread weaving through the show is questioning of bodies’ relationship to objects, both in harmony and discord, as most vividly manifested in two Franz West sculptures from the ‘90s spearheading the exhibition. (more…)

Munich’s Haus der Kunst has cancelled its exhibition of the touring Joan Jonas retrospective, citing financial difficulties. All attempts at securing last minute funding have failed, leaving the institution without the resources to open the show.  (more…)

Nicole Eisenman has won the 2020 Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize, which includes a $200,000 cash award. “I would describe her as being one of the most important painters of our generation,” says Louis Grachos, the executive director and chief executive of the Contemporary Austin. “Part of the excitement we have for this prize is it’s so focused on the artist’s ability to create new work.” (more…)

Josh Kline, 10% Tip (Applebee’s Waitress’ Hand and Foot) (2018), via Metro Pictures

Currently on view at Metro Pictures, and continuing a trend this summer towards artists taking the curatorial reins for the summer group shows across the city, Josh Kline has pulled together a body of work for the Chelsea exhibition space under the title Evidence. Featuring the work of seven artists, Evidence investigates the nature of documentation and reality in post-truth America, posing the state of modern political discourse as an opportunity to reframe and rethink the act of expression. (more…)

Sedrick Chisom, Fragile Narcissus’ Expulsion and Regurgitation of White Bile Into an Echo of His Belated Self (2018), via JTT

Drawing on the writings of the late theorist Mark Fisher as a starting point for broader explorations of modern artistic practice and its possibilities in challenging the status quo of the global capitalist landscape, Dan Herschlein has dipped his toe into the world of curating, organizing an exhibition around the work David Altmejd, Adam Putnam, Elizabeth Jaeger, Gil Batle, and more at JTT.  Using varied approaches and modes of creative making, including illustration, sculpture and even graphic novels, Herschlein’s show delves into the idea of just how modern practice might be able to work around “culturally sanctioned ideals” or to explore how the human mind may be able to sustain itself beyond these ideals. (more…)

Cheim & Read will host a fundraiser for NY gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon on August 14, Art News reports. “We believe in Cynthia Nixon’s platform and would like to lend our support at this critical time in American politics,” the gallery told says. (more…)

Simon Shaw has been named vice chairman of Sotheby’s global fine art division, Art News reports. Shaw was behind the record $157.2 million sale of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 painting Nu couché (sur le côté gauche). (more…)

Shirin Neshat, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others, will create a series of video works for Planned Parenthood’s new campaign, Unstoppable. “In the darkest hours, the struggle is to keep on pushing, to keep on advancing, to rebel and to protest, to lift our voices against all forms of injustice as we attempt to address the wrongs of the past, to move to higher ground and to hold on tighter to hope, to one another and to love,” Weems said in a statement. (more…)

Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery has clamped down on “illegal” tours of its halls, with a side effect being museum guards reprimanding everyday visitors discussing the works. “We were exchanging views about the paintings, naturally we asked each other questions,” says University professor Maxim Shevchenko. “Suddenly we were approached by a guard who said it was prohibited to lead tours without accreditation.” (more…)

An artwork featuring a list of 34,361 refugees and migrants who have lost their lives trying to reach Europe has been destroyed in the city of Liverpool. Artist Banu CennetoÄŸlu has produced this list for several years, with this iteration installed for the Liverpool Biennial.  “It is timely and important to make The List public during a global refugee crisis,” the exhibition organizers said in a statement. “We were dismayed to see it had been removed on Saturday night and would like to know why. The List has been met with critical acclaim and we are doing everything we can to reinstate it.” (more…)

In a major announcement, Klaus Biesenbach will head west to serve as the next director of MOCA Los Angeles, the LA Times reports. “He’s a total visionary,” MOCA board president Maria Seferian said. “He’s an incredible museum executive. He’s innovative. He’s done it all.” (more…)

Robert Indiana’s estate is the subject of an in-depth piece in the NYT this week, examining the influence the late artist’s caretaker has exerted over the control of his works and images, and may have driven the production of a series of works attributed to the artist that have raised questions over their authenticity. “I would be surprised,” says scholar John Wilmerding, “if any serious and informed Indiana critic or writer would accept these works, in my opinion.” (more…)