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Lynda Benglis gets a profile in the NYT, as she gives the paper a tour of her New Mexico studio, and talks about her process. “My mind is always working with ideas but sometimes they pop and quickly disappear,” she says. “I have to wait until the idea crystallizes again before I go back to working. Otherwise, I have no reason to work.” (more…)

Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery has tapped Betti-Sue Hertz as its new director and chief curator. “I think we absolutely need to be part of that ecology and playing a leadership role in the Upper Manhattan community,” she said.  (more…)

The Harrisons, On Making Earth (1970-ongoing), via Various Small Fires

Currently on view in Los Angeles, gallery Various Small Fires has compiled a selection of works from the careers of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison, affectionately referred to as “The Harrisons.”  A visionary pair who embraced early warning signs of a global ecological catastrophe, The Harrisons have used their lives and careers as a spring board for investigations and experimentations in just how artists mights provide alternatives and opportunities for global preservation in the face of global climate change and political indifference.  (more…)

The parents of a six-year-old boy allegedly thrown from a Tate Modern viewing platform have made a statement, claiming their son is in stable condition, but that the full extent of his injuries are not yet known.  “Our son has already undergone two long and difficult operations,” they said in a statement. “But he is alive, struggling with all his strength, and we remain hopeful.” (more…)

The Met is reviewing its holdings of Indian art donated by dealer Subhash Kapoor, after pressure from the country to recover thousands of looted idols and relics. “As we have since learned of the multiple law enforcement actions, and in the spirit of our enhanced procedures over recent years, we are now seeking to identify additional provenance information,” the museum said in a statement. (more…)

The Guardian has a piece this week on photographer Alvin Baltrop, who rarely showed during his life, but whose pioneering work among the NYC LGBTQ community during the 70’s was vastly influential. “Alvin photographed the LGBTQ community differently than Robert Mapplethorpe, who shot them in a very explicit and glamorization of the S&M culture,” says Bronx Museum curator Sergio Bessa. “Baltrop wasn’t about that. He saw sexual freedom.” (more…)

JTT Gallery in New York has added Elaine Cameron-Weir, Issy Wood, and Sam McKinniss to its roster.   (more…)

Donald Moffett, Lot 090307 (O) (2007), via Lehmann Maupin

On view for the summer months at Lehmann Maupin, a group show compiling the work of Angel Otero, Donald Moffett, Carrie Moyer and many more. The exhibition, co-organized by Curator Michael Goodson and Lehmann Maupin Curatorial Director Anna Stothart and spanning both of its Chelsea locations, combines a group of artists centered around more traditional formal, material, and spatial concerns, while also explicitly engaging with social, political, and psychological areas of influence to expand the established narrative traditionally used to answer the question, “Where does abstraction come from?” (more…)

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Untitled (2011), via 303 Gallery

35 years ago, gallerist Lisa Spellman opened 303 Gallery, a space that would stand as a cornerstone of the New York art world over the coming decades, and which still stands as an icon of distinctive artistic practices, conceptual rigor, and a little bit of New York style. Now, with the gallery celebrating its three and a half-decade milestone, it has launched a publication and exhibition culling together works and perspectives from the length of its run as a gallery.

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Artist group Postcommodity have unveiled a commission in Chicago reflecting on the history of migrant cultures in the United States, and calling on the U.S. government to create space for those deprived of basic human rights. “We need to acknowledge this migration in real time and start preparing for that transformation. Rather than fight it, embrace it,” member Kade L. Twist said. “There’s a lot to learn from how Black people were treated and disregarded through most of [the Great] Migration. There’s a desperate need to humanize.” (more…)

The Guardian speaks with a group of life models on their practice sitting in a studio, and their perspectives on their job posing for learning artists. “I’d been waiting for someone to tell me it’s fine to pose for students if you’re different,” says Suzon Lagarde, a painter. “You might feel vulnerable posing, but as a painter I also know how vulnerable people can feel behind the easel – you are always questioning and judging yourself. I soon realized we are a team, all trying to be brave.” (more…)

The NYT profiles a recent digital venture, Collecteurs, which serves as a database for private collections. “If I don’t put them in some kind of public database, these works essentially disappear from the planet,” says collector Roberto Toscano. (more…)

While Donald Trump postponed a number of trade restrictions with China this week, his tariff against art and antiquities will still go into effect September 1st, Art Newspaper notes. “The US import tariff will apply to all Chinese art sourced anywhere in the world, not simply Chinese art imported from China. [It] will act as a tax on all US collectors, curators and dealers buying anywhere on the international market,” says dealer James Lally.  (more…)

Artist Judy Chicago has launched her own brand of wine, announced this week on her Instagram page.  (more…)

Arthur Jafa is profiled in the New York Times this week, as the Golden Lion winner reflects on his recent successes and the response to his video work Love is the Message, the Message is Death. “I’ve… had people coming up to me saying, ‘I was super moved,’ ‘I cried’ — a pretty moderate articulation of their experience. I’m very happy that people are moved, but I do think it’s complicated when you say, ‘I cried.’ O.K., is that what art is supposed to do? Does that make you any less whatever the hell it is you are? Is that transformative crying or is it just crying? I don’t know.” (more…)

Robert Indiana’s caretaker has been accused in court of neglect, claiming around $1.1 million while the artist lived in “squalor and filth.” “Thomas had allowed valuable archival documents, nearly all of Indiana’s personal library (which he had taken enormous pride in), and some artwork to suffer severe damage or destruction,” says James Brannan, who represents Indiana’s estate. (more…)

London’s National Gallery is planning an “immersive experience” that will look at Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks this fall, showcasing the work’s construction and research into its history. “Much of our research takes place in closed studios, laboratories and libraries,”says Caroline Campbell, director of collections, noting that the project allows visitors “to explore and engage with what we have found.” (more…)

A piece in the New Yorker this week charts recent challenges faced by the El Museo del Barrio, as tensions between the museum and the community around it come to a head. “The institution got gentrified,” alleges one protestor. (more…)

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was arrested in Havana this week after staging a performance where he illegally draped a Cuban flag over his shoulders. The work, Drapeau, was initiated in protest of new laws passed this year that regulate how national symbols can be displayed. (more…)

The N.E.H. has announced a round of grants totaling $29 million for the fiscal year. “As the nation prepares to commemorate its 250th anniversary in 2026, N.E.H. is proud to help lay the foundations for public engagement with America’s past by funding projects that safeguard cultural heritage and advance our understanding of the events, ideas and people that have shaped our nation,” says Jon Parrish Peede, the endowment’s chairman. (more…)

The New York Library System’s Culture Pass Project saw 70,000 sign-ups in its first year, the NYT reports. Cardholders at the Brooklyn, New York and Queens public libraries can get free admission through the program at various city cultural institutions. (more…)

Betty Woodman, Venus #7: Homey (2014), via David Kordansky

Currently on at David Kordansky’s Los Angeles exhibition space, Shadows and Silhouettes brings together a selection of sculptures and paintings by Betty Woodman, the artist’s first solo show in a gallery since her death. Meandering through the last years of the artist’s live, the show takes particular interest in the technical issues of constructing the work, and how these moments and movements in space can work in conjunction with the artist’s hand to complete the object. (more…)

Pace Gallery has launched a new venture, PaceX which is marketed around facilitating art-and-tech commissions around the world.  “Artists reflect the time we’re in,” says Marc Glimcher. “In what way is the gallery model equipped to support these artists in the way it supports painters and sculptors?” (more…)