Uffizi Galleries director Eike Schmidt has tested positive for Coronavirus.  Schmidt is asymptomatic and working from home. “I can dedicate all my time and energy to the Uffizi as usual,” he said. (more…)

Tracey Emin has an interview in The Guardian this week, opening her show at the Royal Academy just as the UK descends back into COVID-10 lockdown. “They sold 16,000 advance tickets but when Boris announced the second lockdown, we knew we couldn’t open,” she says. (more…)

Artist Glenn Kaino has an interview this week in the LA Times, as he prepares to open a show of new work at MOCA Los Angeles, and looks back at his career. “They’re intended to create moments of visibility for things that are invisible around us. Most people don’t feel seen, understood. Making things visible is a form of empathy,” Kaino says of his new works.  (more…)

Artist Senga Nengudi has an interview in the NYT This week, discussing several decades of work and its intersections with her life.“I felt that you could live forever and still be an artist,” she says. “You can live to 100 and still have the ability to express yourself.” (more…)

The art world’s attention has turned to Shanghai as the city holds its annual art week, even as positive COVID-19 tests are popping back up in the city. “I think that at this point any display of normalcy is a good sign and an ‘in-real-life’ fair is one manifestation,” says Mathieu Borysevicz, founder of Shanghai gallery Bank. (more…)

An end is in sight in the lawsuit over the estate of Robert Indiana, Art Newspaper reports, after the late artist’s lawyer James Brannan settled with with Morgan Art Foundation. “I think this is a great deal for the Star of Hope Foundation [established by the artist before he died] and Bob’s legacy,” Brannan says. (more…)

Brian Calvin, Minor Difference (2020), via Anton Kern

Artist Brian Calvin returns to Anton Kern this fall for his seventh solo show with the gallery, continuing his unique approach to portraiture and figuration that twists cartoonish color and form into a nuanced depiction of the human visage. (more…)

Sotheby’s has been sued by the State of New York over its role in allowing a collector to escape taxes on works purchases.  The company sold $27 million tax-free to Porsal Equities, although the auction house allegedly knew the client a dealer buying tax free. “Millionaires and billionaires cannot be allowed to evade taxes while every day Americans pay their fair share,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Sotheby’s violated the law and fleeced New York taxpayers out of millions just to boost its own sales.” (more…)

Helio Oiticica (Installation View), via Lisson

Taking over both New York City Lisson Gallery spaces this fall, the Brazilian master Hélio Oiticica has a set of works on view documenting his engaging and expansive practice, underscoring his luminary role in the pioneering development of Brazilian contemporary art.  An influential and all-consuming vision, Oiticica’s work ranged across visual art, music, theater, literature and more, each of which is explored here in this pair of exhibitions. (more…)

A piece in the Art Newspaper catalogs artists’ response to Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the presidential election last week, with a selection of works and images circulating online.“We still must come to terms with the extent to which the structures of governance have been damaged and the government itself delegitimated—wantonly and steadily—by Donald Trump and the third-rate bottom feeders whom he empowered as his wrecking crew,” says artist Martha Rosler. (more…)

Senga Nengudi, Sandmining B (detail) (2020), via Sprüth Magers

Always deeply connected to the human body, Senga Nengudi’s work invokes ritual, narrative and connections between cultures disparate in geography and time. For her newest show, on view now at Sprüth Magers’s Los Angeles exhibition space on the Miracle Mile, the artist has erected a series of large-scale installation works, offering profound insights into her way of thinking and working.

Senga Nengudi, Sandmining B (2020), via Sprüth Magers (more…)

A new database of Vincent Van Gogh works has gone live courtesy several Dutch arts agencies, featuring an impressive collection of data on each work.  (more…)

A piece in the New York Times this month looks at the psychological and emotional impact of re-entering lockdown for the art world. “The British government has been supportive this financial year, but our real problem is looking into the future, and this builds up more problems,” says Tristram Hunt, the head of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (more…)

Trevor Paglen, Octopus (2020), via Pace

Taking over the Pace Gallery space at 6 Burlington Gardens in London, artist Trevor Paglen opens a show that seeks to find a shared physical and digital space, mining the artist’s long engagement with technology and aesthetics to present a set of new works that explore the society-shaping power of computing, and the massive troves of data collected every day online.   His new show, Bloom explores central themes of artificial intelligence, the politics of images, facial recognition technologies, and alternative futures, marking his second show with the gallery.   (more…)

David Hockney has released a series of new paintings from his self-imposed lockdown in Normandy. “Remember they can’t cancel the autumn either,” he said. (more…)

The Guardian has a piece this week on how Times Square has become a new hub for protest art and installation.  “People needed to laugh, dance and sing, even if they were masked and socially distancing,” says performer Ebony Brown, who recently launched a performance in the area. “Ultimately, what we created was performance art, it just happened to be an act of multicultural, civic engagement. “We shut down Broadway on a Saturday night, reclaiming the streets in the name of all the lives stolen by racial violence and police brutality.” (more…)

Jersey City has approved a new tax specifically targeted for funding the arts, the New York Times. “It shows that the arts are important to people even in the toughest of times,” says Robinson Holloway, former chair of the Jersey City Arts Council. (more…)

Sam Orlofsky has been fired from his directorship at Gagosian as part of an investigation into what the gallery called “unacceptable and repugnant” behavior towards women. “I want to first emphasize emphatically that the behavior alleged is unacceptable and repugnant,” says Larry Gagosian in a letter to staff. ” The Gallery expects all employees to adhere to our values, which include mutual respect, dignity, collaboration, and honesty. The Gallery is committed to fostering a workplace where employees are safe, are empowered to do their best work, and can express concerns freely.”  (more…)

Grayson Perry is under fire this week after a statement about coronavirus clearing the “dead wood” from the arts. “‘It’s awful that the culture sector has been decimated, but I think some things needed to go. Too often, the audience for culture is just the people making it – theatres with whole audiences of actors, or exhibitions only put on to impress other curators,” he said in an interview. (more…)

Sam Falls,  Paradise (2020), via 303

A look at the work of Sam Falls illustrates a vibrant interior universe, one populated by swirling undergrowth, alien forms and a series of linkages connecting human and non-human agents. This sensibility hits a high point at his most recent exhibition with 303 Gallery, where Falls has selected a series of new works for his fall show.   (more…)

A number of U.S. Museums served as polling locations in yesterday’s election, Art Newspaper reports. “We expect to see a big turnout on election day and are honored to be a part of this process,” says Ann Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum. (more…)

Artist Howardena Pindell gives an interview with The Guardian this month, discussing her work and the trauma of racism in the United States. “The trauma of racism, I feel, is there for everyone to see,” she says. “If you are not a person of color, you may not even notice what is going on.  When you look different, you can become a target for others’ unresolved issues, where they take out their rage on people who do not look like them.” (more…)

A new report in the Art Newspaper reveals a Venetian city flood plan that sacrifices St. Marks’ Cathedral to save the city’s industrial port of Marghera. The decision comes amid the recent completion of the city’s new flood prevention system. (more…)

The Treasury Department has issued statements warning of vulnerabilities in the art market that could serve as sites for malign actors to evade U.S. sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reports. “The mobility, concealability, and subjective value of artwork further exacerbate its vulnerability to sanctions evasion,” says the Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. (more…)