Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist’s piece exploring horrific conditions at a Syrian jail opens at the Turner Prize exhibition. “The only way we can access much information about the site is through acoustic memories,” he says, “because people were blindfolded when they came in and held in darkness.” (more…)

Kanye West will release a new film October 25th, in collaboration with IMAX, that features footage of his Sunday Service performance series set in James Turrell’s ongoing Roden Crater project. “This one-of-a-kind experience features songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with music from his new album Jesus Is King—all presented in the immersive sound and stunning clarity of IMAX,” a statement reads. (more…)

The Drawing Center will waive admission fees for the run of its show on work by incarcerated artists.  According to Laura Hoptman, the center’s director: “Our hope is that free admission will foster increased engagement with the content of the exhibition and encourage visitors of all backgrounds to come back and experience the show on multiple occasions.”  (more…)

Emma Lavigne, president of the Palais de Tokyo, gas dismissed a leading donor, Bernard Chenebault, after he called for the death of sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, saying “I hope an off-center person shoots her.”  (more…)

Henriette Huldisch is the new curator at the Walker Art Center, Art News reports.  “Since the beginning of my career I have watched the trailblazing programs at the Walker with admiration,” Huldisch says. “I am truly thrilled now to join the institution and help move forward this legacy of innovative and forward-thinking exhibition making together with Mary Ceruti and the Walker’s staff.” (more…)

Artist Otobong Nkanga is the inaugural winner of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Program, a biannual prize carrying $100,000 in cash, an exhibition at the The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Museum in Norway, and a budget to acquire work by the artist for the museum’s collection. “Otobong Nkanga is an artist of unshakeable integrity and vitality,” says Tone Hansen, museum director. “The impact we have upon our environment and one another constitutes the essence of her work.” (more…)

Art logistics company Atelier 4 has announced a new annual competition for “Registrar of the Year,” which comes with a $5,000 cash prize. “When exhibitions come around, they’re the ones that have to make it all happen while they’re working under very last-minute conditions,” says company CEO Jonathan Schwartz. “The registrar is the one who actually carries the standards for how things are supposed to happen.” (more…)

Artist Elias Sime has been commissioned to design a a large public garden for the Grand National Palace in Addis Ababa, a space that was previously off-limits to citizens. “Once [prime minister Abiy Ahmed] saw it, literally the next day he called Elias up and said, ‘You need to come to the grounds of the royal palace, which I’m going to open to the public for the first time since 1976. It will become our national pride, and you need to build a garden for us,’” says dealer James Cohan. (more…)

A federal lawsuit brought by Ronald Lauder against the International Museum of World War II has been dismissed last week with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be litigated again, Art News reports. Lauder had reportedly given a collection of objects valued at $25 million to the museum, but was rebuffed when he tried to assert ownership over the objects later on. (more…)

Marilyn Minter is interviewed in New York Magazine’s “How I Get It Done” column, discussing her work and activism. “I always get stressed before I start a new project,” she says. “I totally feel like I’m going to fail. I’ll never get it, I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s usually right before the shoot. Who doesn’t have self-doubt? I don’t know anybody who thinks everything they do is great.” (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans has been named the new chair of the board of the Institute of Contemporary Arts.  “Since my student days, the ICA has given me the opportunity to see pioneering art of varying media first-hand”, the artist said. “I am proud to serve this important institution […] at a time when its importance as a progressive space for culture in the heart of London is becoming ever more important.” (more…)

A group of artists and activists have criticized Ford Foundation president Darren Walker over comments they see as encouraging the expansion of the U.S. prison system. “I am deeply grateful to activists in the movement—including activists in the abolition and criminal justice reform movements—for all they have done to accelerate an end to mass incarceration,” Walker wrote in a follow-up essay. “I do want to clarify that, in order for our common goal of de-carceration to be realized in New York City and our nation, we must come together in dialogue and work together where possible.” (more…)

A piece in the New York Times profiles Kara Walker’s commission at the Tate Modern, a reworking of the language of the Queen Victoria Memorial she first saw after her initial site visit to the museum. “I hadn’t even seen it before,” she says. “I took a bunch of pictures out the window, because I was like — this is so totally my thing.” (more…)

After a counting error, the British Museum has once again reclaimed its place as the most visited museum in the UK. “The electronic counting system at the main entrance was undercounting because of incorrect light levels caused by a broken light fitting,” according to a spokesperson. (more…)

Hauser & Wirth will stage a three-show series with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Art News reports.  “We really see him as the quintessential artist in the history of postwar European art, and internationally, he’s not where we think he should be, especially not for certain aspects of his work,” says VP and Partner Marc Payot. “Today, the art world is very global. We feel that we can be pushing even more, in terms of his growth and legacy.” (more…)

David Zwirner has tapped Skarstedt partner Brady Doty as a new senior director, with a focus on the secondary market. “I am very excited to begin the next chapter of my career at David Zwirner’s Upper East Side gallery,” Doty says. “I have always followed the gallery’s program, and I am continually impressed with the quality and caliber of their exhibitions.” (more…)

The MFA Houston has acquired a long-lost version of Eugène Delacroix’s Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, a version of which hangs in the Louvre. “We didn’t know he created a first version of the composition,” said Gary Tinterow, the Margaret Alkek Williams director of the MFA Houston. “It shows us how Delacroix composed in an additive fashion.” (more…)

Max Hollein joins host Charlotte Burns on the Art Agency Partners podcast this week to discuss future plans for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “At the Met, you’re always being confronted with endless opportunities,” he says. “If you’re not clear on where you want the institution to go—what mission you want to fulfill, what are the important steps to get there—you can get distracted at any moment in time. And you could get opportunistic.” (more…)

Piotr Uklanski is profiled in the NYT this week, as he opens a show of works at the Istanbul Biennial, which rework paintings of European men dressed up as Ottomans. “I have a long history of appropriation in my practice, and reinventing it in my own way,” he says. (more…)

A classic Josef Albers mural originally commissioned for 200 Park Ave (currently referred to as the MetLife Building) has been restored and placed back on view. “It’s all centered on a vantage point of the Albers piece,” says Rob Speyer, the president and chief executive of Tishman Speyer. “We were able to take a piece of the building’s history, which could’ve been forgotten, and instead restored it as the centerpiece of the building.” (more…)

Art collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick will give $750 million to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena as part of an effort to combat climate change. “In order to comprehensively manage the climate crisis, we need breakthrough innovations, the kind that will only be possible through significant investment in university research,” Stewart Resnick says. “Science and bold creativity must unite to address the most pressing challenges facing energy, water, and sustainability.” (more…)

After a long negotiation, da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man will show at the Louvre this October. The loan from the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice was announced this week. (more…)

Vox Media will acquire New York Media, the company behind New York Magazine and a series of other publications, in an all-stock transaction.  “No one had to do this,” says Pamela Wasserstein, CEO of New York Media, said on Tuesday. “It’s a brilliant, in our view, opportunity, so that’s why we leaned into it. It’s not out of need. It’s out of ambition.” (more…)

Artist Cameron Rowland, Mel Chin and Jeffrey Gibson have been awarded MacArthur Genius Grants. “I finished the call and sat there dumbfounded,” Gibson says. “I’m familiar with MacArthur, but I never even knew how it worked.” (more…)