Art Industry News: A Prankster Artist Claims He Was Behind the Embarrassing Fake Biden Ad That Fooled the Internet + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know on this Tuesday, April
28.

NEED-TO-READ

Riga Biennial Pivots to Create a Movie in Lieu of Live Show
– Here’s a novel way to pivot away from an IRL
event. The second Riga
biennial titled “and
suddenly it all blossoms,” which was originally slated to open on
May 16, is now being
turned into a movie shot on a film set in the former industrial
port setting of Andrejsala. It will feature finished, unfinished,
and absent works that were slated to be included in the
now-postponed exhibition. (Press release)

Why Deaccessioning Rules Should Be Relaxed Forever
– Earlier this month, the
Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) passed temporary
resolutions to help institutions cope during this time of
crisis, including relaxing the rules on how proceeds from
deaccessioned art can be used. Now, art lawyer Donn Zaretsky argues
that these guidelines should be made permanent. “Once you accept
that there are some occasions when a broader use of funds is
acceptable, you have to concede there may be other such occasions,”
he writes. (ARTnews)

Artist Brad Troemel Creates Viral Fake Biden Ad –
An image that ricocheted around the
web and was subsequently removed as fake news may have actually
been an artwork. Artist Brad Troemel took to Instagram to claim the
meme, which showed presidential hopeful Joe Biden smiling along
with the phrase “His brain? No. His heart.” The image was shared by
thousands of people, including Trump staffers, before Twitter
removed it for violating its rules. Troemel commented: “The ad is
real, not in the sense that it was officially released by the Biden
campaign, but in the sense that this is truly their message to
you—that Joe Biden is a mentally and morally defunct candidate
whose folksy and centrist charm will lead him to victory.”
(ARTnews)

Man Found Guilty of Stealing Richter Works from the Garbage
– Cologne’s Higher Regional
Court has confirmed a guilty verdict for a man who stole discarded
works by Gerhard Richter from the artist’s trash. The accused took
the works while visiting Richter’s home and later tried to auction
them off. His original €3,215 fine was later
reduced to €1,200; the higher court is now deliberating on the new
punishment. (Monopol)

ART MARKET

Seoul Gets Back to
Business As Usual… Almost – With government-supplied
N95-grade masks for everyone, comprehensive testing, and contact
tracing of the infected, South Korea has managed to slowly reopen
its economy. Galleries are already having openings. Lehmann Maupin,
which has instituted furloughs and salary cuts among its staff,
opened a show of work by Billy Childish in Seoul last week. Rachel
Lehmann says she chose the work because collectors are looking for
art that is “really real, really true, not fabricated.”
(NYT)

Zwirner Expands Platform
Program to Los Angeles – David Zwirner is heading
West with his online
platform dedicated to spotlighting a hand-selected group
of smaller galleries. Platform: Los Angeles will feature 13 LA-based
galleries that will each present works by a single artist. (The
endeavor follows earlier iterations focused on New York and
London.) The chosen galleries include Commonwealth and Council,
Jenny’s, Kristina Kite, Château Shatto, Park View / Paul Soto, and
The Pit. (ARTnews)

Max Ernst Desert
Dreamscape Heads to Christie’s – As auction
houses work to pump up private sales while live auctions are on
hiatus, the highlights are beginning to come in. One is a 1962
painting by Max Ernst, which the artist completed while living in
Sedona, Arizona. But in Color last went to auction in
2017, where it sold for $291,635, meeting its high
estimate. (Art Market Monitor)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Prospect New Orleans Postponed Until 2021 – The opening of the highly anticipated New
Orleans exhibition “Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow” has been pushed back another year. The
show, originally due to open this fall, has been rescheduled to run
from October 23, 2021 to January 23, 2022. Organized by
curators Diana Nawi and Naima J. Keith, Prospect.5 will
include work by artists Dawoud Bey, Simone Leigh, and Kevin
Beasley, among others. (Press release)

Tributes to the Late Graffiti Artist SAME Pour in –
Friends pay tribute to the New York
street artist SAME, who died earlier this month at 39. SAME, also
known as the Whitney Vandal, made headlines when he painted
“PPPRiceless” on the walls of a Jeff Koons exhibition at the
museum. The actor Julia Fox, a close friend of the artist,
described him as an “enigma.” (Page Six)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Texas Philanthropists Pay Artists $100,000 to Get Artists
Back to Work – Texas
philanthropists Sasha and Ed Bass are distributing $100,000 to Fort
Worth artists who are making work in response to the coronavirus.
The initiative, called “The New Normal” is an effort to get artists
back to work, and other cities are being encouraged to launch their
own New Normal projects. (Press release)

See Alternative LACMA Designs – The Citizens Brigade to Save LACMA has released
some alternative proposals for the museum’s new build following a
renegade architecture competition. (It’s coming a bit late, as
demolition on some of the museum’s old buildings to make way for
the new Peter Zumthor construction has already
begun.) The six “winning” designs include a landscape plinth by
Vienna firm Coop Himmelb(l)au and a “horizontal skyscraper” by Paul
Murdoch Architects. (The Art Newspaper)

Cultural Heritage Body Launches Emergency Fund –
The international alliance for the
protection of heritage in conflict areas has released emergency
funding for cultural heritage in conflict and post-conflict areas
where the coronavirus pandemic has delayed restoration projects.
The foundation has released $1 million for local operators to
defray the associated costs and prepare for relaunch.
(Press
release)

Hauser & Wirth Sells Work By Gallery Staff – Hauser & Wirth is selling work by its gallery
staff and their families on a new platform called HOMEGROWN. Ten
percent of the proceeds from the new biweekly online exhibitions
will go to COVID-19 relief, and the rest to the artists. Prices
range from $100 to $20,000, and the first release is slated to go
live on Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. EST. (Press release)

The post Art Industry News: A Prankster Artist Claims He Was
Behind the Embarrassing Fake Biden Ad That Fooled the Internet +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.