Ai Weiwei is wrapping Florence’s Palazzo Strossi in rubber life boats, continuing his projects commenting on the plight of Syrian refugees.  The work is part of an exhibition by the artist at the space, which will include a body of new works alongside older pieces. (more…)

MoMA is set to make thousands of images documenting various installations and exhibitions from the full range of the museum’s history available online.  Visitors to the MoMA website will be able to browse the images and search for exhibitions from across the museum’s almost 100 year history.  “This is like a dream come true for me,” says Michelle Elligott, chief of the museum’s archives, “because I’ve been playing around with this material for 20 years and I know the depth of what’s here.” (more…)

Sophia Al-Maria, still from Black Friday (2016). Digital video projected vertically, color, sound; 16:36 min. Collection of the artist; courtesy Anna Lena Films, Paris, and The Third Line, Dubai.

Currently showing on the first floor of the Whitney Museum is Black Friday, the American-Qatari artist Sophia Al-Maria’s solo debut in the United States.  Born in the U.S. and educated in London and Egypt, Al-Maria has been a central voice in the Gulf region’s burgeoning contemporary art scene.  At the helm of the art collective Gulf Cooperation Council as a founding member, Al-Maria’s work drives at a concept of “Gulf Futurism,” a term she coined to define the rapidly evolving economic and social landscape of the region.  As a writer, researcher and filmmaker, Al-Maria has been delivering a substantial body of work on oil-fueled wealth and its political/social consequences in the Middle East.

Sophia Al-Maria, still from The Litany (2016). Digital video projected vertically, color, sound; 16:36 min. Collection of the artist; courtesy Anna Lena Films, Paris, and The Third Line, Dubai. (more…)

Bloomberg reports that collectors Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu are set to open an art space dedicated to Arte Povera in the Hudson Valley town of Garrison.  “The only drawback to collecting Arte Povera is that much of the work is huge in scale and certainly cannot be shown in a house made of glass walls,” Nancy Olnick says. “This led us to look for an appropriate space to display the artwork.” (more…)

Taryn Simon, An Occupation of Loss (Installation View), courtesy Park Avenue Armory Image © Naho Kubota

In the midst of the Park Avenue Armory, a series of immense silos tower up from the floor, part of artist Taryn Simon’s landmark performance An Occupation of Loss, which brings a series of funeral mourners from around the globe to the Drill Hall for an overwhelmingly powerful performance meditating on loss, political agency, and common human experience. (more…)

The WSJ interviews Takashi Murakami on his recent work, and his incorporation of Japanese spirituality into his subject matter.  “I’m not making fun of Zen,” he says. “I respect it. This is more about the feeling of painting, and how I can generate proper energy as a painter.” (more…)

David Hockney, Barry Humphries, 26th, 27th, 28th March (2015), all images courtesy Royal Academy

Currently on view at London’s Royal Academy through the end of the month, artist David Hockney continues his remarkably prolific painterly output, bringing a new series of portraits created at his Los Angeles studio to the British Institution.  Exploring a wide range of sitters through the artist’s particular approach to the genre, the show is both a striking map of Hockney’s own life, and his vivid, tireless approach to his craft.

 David Hockney, Rita Pynoos, 1st, 2nd March (2014)

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The descendants of Greta Moll, the subject of a famed portrait by Henri Matisse, are suing the National Gallery in London to reclaim the work, claiming it was unlawfully sold while the family was navigating the unstable terrain of post-war Berlin.  “The portrait is a family heirloom,” the family’s lawyer, David Rowland, says. “It was owned and lost by Greta Moll in an illicit transfer which she did not authorize in the aftermath of WWII.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the grim state of Brazil’s art market, as its economy continues to struggle, and notes the hope dealers and artists are placing on foreign collectors to sustain its growth.  “There has been a growing interest in artists from the so-called ‘peripheries’ over the past ten years,” says Maria Quiroga, director of São Paulo’s Galeria Luisa Strina. (more…)

A former chairman of the department of conservation and collections management at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has spoken out on the long disputed plaster cast of Degas’s Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans.  Long thought to be produced after the artist’s death, Arthur Beale now believes that the artist may have produced the piece.  “I think those that have scoffed at it as being a fake or a copy or something, should take a second look,” he said. “That there’s a good deal of evidence, of all natures — art, historical, technical, scientific and so forth — that make this a rather significant, seemingly significant piece.” (more…)

Alec Baldwin has officially filed suit against Mary Boone Gallery this week over the controversial Ross Bleckner painting he purchased from the dealer in 2010.  The work was purchased with the understanding that Baldwin was getting a piece by the artist made in 1996, but the suit claims that experts have claimed the work is a copy of the original.  Baldwin is suing for the difference in value between the two works, plus attorney fees. (more…)

The nationalist Finns party has blocked state funding for the Guggenheim Helsinki, stating that the funding for the museum is a waste of taxpayer money during a time of austerity.  “This is the end of the matter, we have ruled out state funding once and for all, for this government,” says Sampo Terho, the parliamentary head of the Finns party.  “We are not opposed to the project as such, we just don’t think it is something that the state should participate in.” (more…)

Antony Gormley is interviewed in the Financial Times this week, explaining his views on architecture, and how the principles of construction and design factor into his own work.  “We’re dealing with a made world,” he says, “rather than an elemental one, and I’ve set myself the task of trying to make an account of what it feels like to live now.” (more…)

Kerry James Marshall sits down with the New York Times to discuss his upcoming Met Breuer retrospective, his expansive body of work, and his views on the political implications of his art.  “The revision of any kind of established model is always a political act,” he says, particularly if the model was built “without ever having to accommodate any of the people who have been banging on the door to get in.” (more…)

MCH Group, the Swiss Conglomerate behind the Art Basel brand, has purchased a controlling share in New Delhi’s India Art Fair.  The fair will not become an Art Basel event, but rather will operate in a separate portfolio of region fairs held by MCH. (more…)

The WSJ profiles the work of Carmen Herrera, and the artist’s continued artistic vitality at the age of 101, as she prepares to open a major exhibition at the Whitney Museum.  “I work, and I work, and I work,” she says. “I’m happy, and I do it. And then somebody rings the bell.  All I want is to be left alone, like Greta Garbo. And you see what happened to her.” (more…)

An arts residency aboard a Chinese shipping vessel has made a turn towards the surreal, as the recently declared bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping Company has left its ships, sailors, and resident artist Rebecca Moss stranded at sea without a port that will allow the company to dock.  “The predicament in which I currently find myself is extraordinarily absurd,”,” the artist said in a recent email. (more…)

Ibid Gallery has relocated to a 13,000 square foot exhibition space in Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood, inaugurating the space with a trio of shows.  The gallery plans to operate multiple exhibitions at a time, dedicating separate galleries to different projects and focal points.   (more…)

Maya Lin is the subject of a lengthy profile in the New York Review of Books, charting the artist’s progression from her early work designing the Vietnam War Memorial, to her recent land works and sculptures.   (more…)

The Art Market Monitor reads into a recent SEC filing by Sotheby’s, and notes that Taikang Life, which recently purchased a sizable portion of Sotheby’s stock, will work with the auction house to find a “mutually acceptable” independent director to fill the seat on its board requested by the Chinese corporation.  “We welcome Taikang’s investment in Sotheby’s and are optimistic about its support for our strategic initiatives,” Sotheby’s said in a statement. (more…)

Buenos Aires will serve as the first stop for Art Basel’s new Cities initiative.  The global fair brand recently announced a plan to expand into new regions and urban locales through project fairs and other events.  The program in Argentina is set to begin late next year. (more…)

Michael Shvo has been indicted for an alleged plan to evade $1 million in tax payments for purchases of fine art and other luxury goods.  “Michael Shvo went to great lengths to defraud New Yorkers,” Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said in a statement. “This indictment puts other purchasers of fine art on notice: the purposeful evasion of New York state and city taxes is a tax crime, and those who scheme to avoid their obligations will be held criminally and civilly accountable.” (more…)

Raqib Shaw, Self Portrait in the Study at Peckham (After Vincenzo Catena) Kashmir Version (2015-2016), via White Cube

Raqib Shaw’s work is flush with context, canvases as densely layered with paint as they are with intersections of religious, historical and personal signifiers, drawing on the sprawling figurative techniques of Renaissance reliefs, decorative arts, and portraiture in quick succession.  His are paintings investigating the techniques and histories of these early Western works, while drawing on his own personal experiences to drive and embellish their original iconographies.  Shaw brings a new body of these works in sculpture and painting to White Cube’s Bermondsey location this month, continuing his investigation of 15th, 16th, and 17th Century art through the lens of his own life. (more…)

Kamel Mennour is opening a gallery space in London, the latest gallery to expand into the British capital.  “Of course we are all worried about Brexit but London is an extremely visited city and it is a second home for me. I visit two or three times a month—it’s so easy to get to from Paris—and I love the idea of the interconnection between these two big cities,” Mennour says. (more…)