Philip Taaffe, “Unit of Direction No. 2” (2008). Via Gagosian Gallery.
Until August 21st Gagosian Gallery is displaying a small group exhibition of exuberant abstract paintings which celebrate circles, dots and spots at their West 24th Street location. The collection of nine paintings covers work from their most prestigous artists; Â included are works by Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Mike Kelley and Roy Lichenstein.
On view now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris is ‘STAGES,’ a fundraising exhibition organized by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong, featuring artists such as Ed Ruscha, Shepard Fairey, Richard Prince, and a number of others. The exhibition runs concurrently with the Tour de France, which ends on Sunday, July 26th. In addition to the gallery exhibition, which is planned to tour the world after its run at Emmanuel Perrotin, Livestrong has teamed up with Nike and Supertouch to curate a line of artist-designed bikes for Lance to ride during the Tour. Those artists include KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, and Damien Hirst, who designed the bike for the final stage of the Tour de France. ‘STAGES’ runs July 15-August 8, 2009 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, after which it will open at the Armory Center in New York on October 2, according to the LA Times.
The Bike Shepard Fairey designed for Lance Armstrong via Supertouch
Untitled (Grey and Brown) (1991) by Fiona Rae, via Tate Britain
Currently on display at Tate Britain “Classified” presents a collection of the Tate’s newest additions featuring the work of British artists such as Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Jeremy Deller and Tacita Dean. The exhibit will highlight new acquisitions which will be on display for the the first time such as Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Family Collection (2002) and two works from Damien Hirst’s recent gift to Tate: The Accquired Inability to Escape (1991) and Life Without You (1991).
Uncertain Economic Times Intensify Need for Private Student Loans.
Education Business Weekly April 21, 2010 Amidst a still-struggling economy and confusion in the market over recent student loan legislation, SimpleTuition, Inc. explains that college financing options, including private student loans, remain readily available. The student loan provision in the recently passed Health Reform Act took private banks out of the federal student loan business, but not out of the education loan business. in our site citi student loans
With the country still recovering from a massive financial meltdown and credit crisis, families have seen their savings and home equity dwindle — traditionally the two biggest sources of contribution toward education expenses. At the same time, school endowments and scholarships are down, while tuition continues to rise, creating a growing gap between federal student loan limits and the money required to fund an education. While the federal PLUS loan helps to enable parent borrowing for part of this gap, for many student borrowers, private student loans remain an option and continue to play a critical role when paying for college.
“For many parents, careful use of private loans is a sound way to manage the gap in financing unmet need at many private colleges and universities and even flagship state universities,” said Nancy Hoover, Director of Financial Aid at Denison University in Ohio.
As an example, a typical student with a $32,000 annual college bill may receive about $10,000 in scholarships and other reductions, leaving a balance of $22,000. On average, federal student loans cover $7,000, leaving students with a balance of $15,000. If possible, families then contribute money from their savings or from parent borrowing, leaving a typical gap of $8,000 a year that students fill with private education loans in their own name. website citi student loans
“Since its inception, SimpleTuition has been a resource to millions of students and parents as they manage the confusing student loan process,” said Kevin Walker, Co-founder and CEO of SimpleTuition. “This legislation simplifies the process for getting federal student loans, but did not increase the amount that students can borrow. And, it may have left borrowers with the impression that ‘private’ student loans are no longer available. In fact, it is federal loans from private lenders that won’t be available. Gap-filling private student loans continue to be issued by banks and other lending institutions.” “With the economy improving, we are seeing an increase in lenders’ interest in promoting the private student loan category,” Walker continued. “We expect to see several new lenders included in the private student loan choices at SimpleTuition over the next several weeks.” The dissolution of the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) is primarily a change in the way federal loans are delivered. Previously, the federal government allowed private banks to provide federal student loans on its behalf. Over the last few years, legislation reduced the amount of money banks generated from the federal student loan program, leading many banks to leave the market. All students will now apply for federal student loans directly from their school, for a loan that will now be provided by the Department of Education.
Ed Ruscha’s ‘That Was Then This Is Now’ sold for £713,250, falling between estimates of £600,000-800,000, via Phillips de Pury
Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale realized £5.1 million last night, missing its low estimate of £5.4 million. With a much smaller and deeply discounted offering compared to last year’s sale, Phillips sold 30 out of 39 lots for a 77% sold-by-lot rate, beating last year’s rate of 66%. However, this year’s totals represent a 79% decrease in value as last year’s sale brought in £24.5 million. Conservative estimates helped, with many lots selling above their estimates. The highest selling lot was Ed Ruscha’s fittingly titled ‘That Was Then This Is Now,’ going for £713,250, including buyer’s premium, putting it in the middle of estimates of £600,000-800,000.
Gerhard Richter, Cow, part of an exhibition of the artist’s work at MKM. via the Albertina.
Until August 23, Museum Küeppersmühle is exhibiting 80 paintings by legendary German artist Gerhard Richter.  Comprised of works drawn from private collections Burda, Ströher, Böckman, and the artist’s own,  “Paintings from Private Collections” is an exploration of colors, of their uses and limitations.  Works included span much of the artist’s career, from the early 60’s to 2007.
Andy Warhol’s ‘Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Brown (Tunafish Disaster)’ sold for £3.7 million against estimates of £3.5-4.5 million, via Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London yesterday realized £25.5 million, near the top of its estimates of £19.8-27.4, with one of the highest ever sell-through rates as only 3 of the 40 lots went unsold. The pared down sale is only a quarter of the value of last June’s sale, but along with solid results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s Impressionist sales earlier this week and brisk sales at Art Basel two weeks ago, the art market appears to have hit its bottom and has started to stabilize. However, the highest selling lot was Andy Warhol’s ‘Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Brown (Tunafish Disaster),’ selling for just £3.7 million, at the low end of estimates of £3.5-4.5 million, nowhere near the blockbuster prices of a year ago.
–>
Damien Hirst’s Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain, currently showing at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show. via Pinchuk Art Centre.
The Royal Academy of Arts, in collaboration with the BBC, has opened its 241st summer exhibition, showing until August 16.  The show is coordinated by Royal Academicians Ann Christopher, Eileen Cooper, and Will Alsop, and sponsored by Insight Investment. The Summer Exhibition seeks to encompass a range of works, in all media, by both well-known and emerging artists. Included are works of photography, sculpture and architecture, printmaking, film, and painting.  This year’s theme, “Making Space,” reflects the inclusive spirit of the exhibition, which the Times has called “the art world’s annual jumble sale.”
Death Explained (2007) by Damien Hirst, via White Cube
Requiem, a major retrospective of over 100 works by Damien Hirst dating from 1990 to 2009, is currently showing at the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev, Ukraine. The show brings together many of Hirst’s most renowned works which range from early iconic sculptures such as A Thousand Years (1990) to more recent works such as the monumental butterfly triptch Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven (2007) and the famous Death Explained (2007), a sculpture of a shark cut in half and placed into formaldehyde.
ASSEMBLYMAN LENTOL WARNS HIS COMMUNITY ABOUT ASIAN LONGHORNED BEETLE
US Fed News Service, Including US State News November 8, 2006 Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, D-Brooklyn (50th District), issued the following press release:
Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol (D-North Brooklyn) alerted his community that the Asian Longhorned Beetle, a non-indigenous insect that preys on healthy trees, has returned to Brooklyn. Once a tree is infested it must be removed and destroyed to prevent the beetle from spreading to other trees.
“The Asian Longhorned Beetle is a threat to our community,” said Lentol. “We thought we eradicated it from the district seven years ago. Now we have evidence that it has returned.” A massive infestation in Greenpoint was literally rooted out in 1999 when over 1,000 trees had to be destroyed because of the Asian Longhorned Beetle. Last spring, the New York State Asian Longhorned Beetle Cooperative Eradication Program found 18 trees in Williamsburg infested with the bug. The majority were on Lynch St. Thirteen of the 18 trees were on Lynch St, the rest on nearby Lee Avenue and Heyward St. website asian longhorned beetle
“Just because we’re talking about a little bug doesn’t mean this isn’t a big concern for our district,” warned Lentol. “We’re lucky that this appears to be a small infestation, but the key to keeping the Asian Longhorned Beetle from destroying our trees is through awareness.” The Asian Longhorned Beetle is known to nest in all varieties of maple, as well as birch, horse chestnut, elm, willow, poplar, ash, hackberry, sycamore, London Plane and mimosa. Lentol encourages homeowners to look for exit holes on their trees, they will be about the size of a dime, and to grant environmental inspectors access to their property for the purpose of finding infested trees. go to website asian longhorned beetle
Lentol also encourages residents who spot the beetle to call 311 and ask for the Asian Longhorned Beetle Hotline. The United States Forest Service offers replanting of new trees to those who lose trees to the beetle. The insecticide imidacloprid is the only effective preventative measure against the beetle, though experts warn that it cannot help a tree once it is infested. ALB Eradication Program contractors use it during the spring to treat at-risk trees. Residents will be notified by the ALB Eradication Program when tree treatments take place in this area, and Assemblyman Lentol urges residents to work with program officials and provide them access to yard trees for these critical applications and for survey.
No brown skins. (Hispanic Americans and the 1986 Immigration Reform Act)
The Economist (US) February 3, 1990 No brown skins SAN FRANCISCO HISPANIC Americans were against the 1986 Immigration Reform Act; they feared it would give employers an excuse not to hire people who looked or sounded Hispanic. They were right, it seems. The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission reports that the law, which is supposed to deter illegal immigration, has created “a widespread pattern and practice of discrimination” against legal immigrants.
The law fines or imprisons those employers who are caught hiring illegal immigrants. Nervous employers are playing safe by brushing aside official work permits and declining to hire people with brown skins and Latin names and accents. The law, which was supposed to protect people against this happening, created a special counsel to hear complaints and to act on them. But there is just one special-counsel office, and that is in Washington, DC. Few immigrants even learn of its existence, let alone approach it with complaints. go to website illegal immigration statistics
In addition, reports the Californian commission (an independent agency established 30 years ago to protect civil rights in jobs and housing), the Immigration and Nationalisation Service (INS) issues such a variety of different immigrant classifications that employers cannot be familiar with what is official and what is not. The confusion is compounded by the amnesty that the law gave to illegal immigrants who could prove that they had lived in the United States since 1981, plus the special rules for agricultural workers. The sorting-out of all this leaves the immigration service snowed under with forms and letters of work-approval.
Although the INS claims to have spent $2m on educational material explaining the law, the explanation, the commission says sternly, is “inadequate…incomplete and confusing”. As remedy, the commission proposes a temporary moratorium on employer sanctions until the backlog of appeals for work authorisation is cleared, the educational material is rewritten and special counsel offices are opened around the country. go to website illegal immigration statistics
The California report is important since about half the immigrants who come to the United States seeking work authorisation come to California. But it is only one in a series of reports on the effect of the 1986 law. A New York task force is due to report to Governor Mario Cuomo soon. And in a month or two, the General Accounting Office (GAO), which was officially charged to monitor the consequences of the immigration controls, will be issuing its findings. Last year the GAO reported that about 16% of some 3.3m employers who were aware of the new rules did discriminate against foreign-looking applicants. The report called for a more co-ordinated effort to educate the public but, unlike the California commission, it did not declare that a “pattern” of discrimination had resulted from the act.
If the GAO now finds such a pattern, it would trigger changes in the law. Congress would have 30 days to consider lifting sanctions against employers. But if the GAO reports that it has found no serious discrimination, the provisions in the law that are supposed to protect workers against bias would be removed. In any event, the GAO report will set off a fiery debate in Congress.
Part of the debate is whether the law’s strictness has in fact cut down illegal immigration. Statistics from the INS suggest that it has. In 1986 1.6m people were caught trying to enter from Mexico; in 1989, with more border guards, the total had shrunk to 850,000 people. Either they are getting cleverer at evading the guards, or the law, despite its unfair side-effects, is working.
RALEIGH WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY IN MORTGAGE FRAUD CONSPIRACY.
States News Service January 11, 2010 GREENVILLE — The following information was released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina: in our site employment verification letter
The United States Attorney’s Office announced that in federal court January 8, 2010, MARY ROSE WRIGHT, 43, of Raleigh, North Carolina, pled guilty before United States Magistrate Judge David W. Daniel to wire fraud and conspiring to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and bank fraud.
A Criminal Information was filed on November 23, 2009. According to the Information, from August, 2006, to November, 2006, WRIGHT, working as a mortgage broker for Fairway Mortgage, worked with others to defraud various financial institutions through the submission of false and fictitious mortgage loan applications. Using a falsified Power of Attorney giving authority on behalf of a co-conspirator to execute all documents in connection with the property purchase, WRIGHT then prepared false United States Individual Income Tax Returns for years 2004 and 2005 and a self-employment verification letter and caused to have prepared a fabricated financial statement to use in obtaining the property. She then submitted an offer to purchase a property. go to site employment verification letter
On November 27, 2006, WRIGHT submitted a loan application, which included false representations regarding borrower’s address, employment, bank account information, and rental real estate schedule, in connection with the purchase of the residential Raleigh property. That same day Equity Services, Inc., loaned a co-conspirator $1,537.500 for the property purchase.
In November, 2006, WRIGHT’s co-conspirator gave her $120,000 from a previously fraudulently obtained mortgage loan from Washington Mutual in the amount of $2,996,969 to be used as a down payment for the purchase of the Raleigh property. On November 27, 2006, WRIGHT took possession of the property after executing a HUD-1 statement containing false and fraudulent information. To date, no mortgage payments have been made.
“In recent years we have seen how pervasive bank fraud has become and how devastating it has been to our banking institutions and our economy. This guilty plea is another step in the Justice Department’s effort to deal with this problem and to ensure integrity in our financial systems,” stated John Stuart Bruce, Acting United States Attorney.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. This case is being handled by the Office’s Economic Crimes Section, with Assistant United States Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan assigned as prosecutor .
Steven Cohen, founder of prominent hedge fund SAC Capital, and his wife Alexandra have lent Sotheby’s 20 artworks valued at $450 million worth of art from their very substantial collection. The works will be displayed from April 2nd to April 14th at Sotheby’s New York headquarters, and will revolve around the female form and its portrayal from 1890 to the present. The exhibition is not tied to a sale, and is entitled Women.
Women III by Willem de Kooning, Turquoise Marilyn by Andy Warhol, Madonna by Edvard Munch, and Le Repos by Pablo Picasso will be amongst the pieces on display, alongside paintings by more contemporary artists such as Lisa Yuskavage and Marlene Dumas. Â Cohen bought the de Kooning from David Geffen for $137 million, spent $80 million to acquire Turquoise Marilyn from Stefan Edlis, and acquired the Picasso at auction for $34.7 million.
Cohen and his wife are avid collectors, and have accumulated one of the most significant collections of 20th century art in the world, according to Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art. Cohen is known for owning a formaldehyde-enclosed shark by Damien Hirst, currently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and has been steadily expanding his collection over the last ten years, buying works by major artists.
In a statement released through Sotheby’s, Mr Cohen remarked: “Our collection has not been curated before. It will be an exciting experience for us.”
SAC Capital has also become one of the larger shareholders of Sotheby’s, accumulating a 5.9% stake after its share price has collapsed over the past 6 months due to lackluster results.
When Damien Hirst sued a 16-year-old street artist over copyright infringement late last year, demanding the boy pay him £200 for profits made on collages that incorporated an image of Hirst’s diamond and platinum skull ‘For the Love of God,’ a bit of an uproar followed. Hirst, who has made an estimated £500 million from sales of his art work, was seen as a bully, and moreover perhaps, as a hypocrite, given that Hirst himself has taken ideas from other artists, notably the claim by former Hirst friend and artist John LeKay, whose crystal-studded skulls done in the 90s bear resemblance to ‘For the Love of God.’
Enter Red Rag to a Bull, an artist collective including Jamie Reid, who made the cover for the Sex Pistol’s album ‘God Save the Queen,’ James Cauty, who, when in the band KLF, burned £1 million, and Tracey Emin’s former boyfriend Billy Childish. Through their website, the collective has launched a campaign to get back at Hirst by selling limited edition works that lampoon Hirst’s work and name, as well copyright laws. By buying these works, ‘you can now save this Street Urchin from certain death and help him get back the 200 quid that this Hirst allegedly nicked off him.’
