Finding Nemo in the Antarctic
A group of refreshingly crazy artists and scientists—and the chief executive of The Art Newspaper—will venture to the ends of the earth in 2017 for the first Antarctic Biennale. Anna Somers Cocks, our founding editor and newly appointed chair of the biennial’s board, will bunk down on the Akademik Ioffe ship during the 12-day expedition to the South Pole. The artists on board will land at different locations, making objects and installations along the Antarctic continent, says the biennial’s intrepid commissioner, the Moscow-based artist Alexander Ponomarev, who will be assisted by the curator Nadim Samman. Somers Cocks is relishing the prospect, saying: “It’s in the great Russian tradition of group art projects of a utopian, philosophical nature, taking its motto, ‘Mobilis in mobile’, from anti-hero Captain Nemo and his [submarine] Nautilus in Jules Verne’s novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We set sail next year from the tip of Argentina and I’ll be on that boat come what may.” Ponomarev is showing work inspired by the Antarctic Circle at the Richard Taittinger Gallery in New York (until 5 June).
Byrne without his bike
Dustin Yellin's Pioneer Works gallery kicked off Frieze week Sunday night with its third annual Village Fete fundraiser in Red Hook—a lively dinner and party that featured the likes of Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys, Ben Lerner, Monica Lewinsky and the New York's first lady of New York, Chirlane McCray. The event raised $1 million, between ticket sales and a live auction, for the art space's exhibition, residency, music, science and education programs. "We've been doing a lot more science programming this year," Yellin explained, and indeed that seemed to be the theme of the evening. Google, a sponsor, was on-hand to demonstrate Tilt Brush, a virtual reality paintbrush that had spectators "painting" in three dimensions as they leaned around throwing pigment into space. Much of the art for sale at the auction felt tech-y: Molly Surno's Transitional Objects (2015), combined hairbrushes and microphones to questionable effects. Not all the attendees were tech-friendly, however. Near the entrance David Byrne, in a cornflower blue suit, could be seen fiddling with his phone for a long period of time. He couldn't quite get the Uber app to take his request. "It's my second time using it," he said. "Normally I just bike out here."
You talkin’ to me, Trump?
The Republican presidential frontrunner, Donald Trump, is making his presence felt at Frieze New York. The brash billionaire’s dulcet tones can be heard (via an actor) in an audio work inside the BMW 7 Series cars, which are available to fair VIPs, courtesy of Liz Magic Laser. The Brooklyn-based artist “ventriloquises the voices of Donald Trump and an investigative reporter in a philosophical dialogue that takes on the character of therapeutic ruminations”, the organisers say. Let’s hope that the Frieze Sounds commission, presented with BMW, doesn’t make fair-goers feel too queasy.
Get your free print here!
New Yorkers are in for a treat later this week when a series of 12 freebie prints by art stars such as Shirin Neshat, John Baldessari and Glenn Ligon will be handed out on the streets of Manhattan. The art giveaway, which takes place in hotspots likes Times Square from 5 May, comes courtesy of the art publication Visionaire. The Belgian artist Wim Delvoye is also taking part in the Visionaire65 initiative, as it is called. His eye-popping print depicts his laser-cut sculpture, Suppo (2010), against a celestial background. But what if the posters end up on eBay? Delvoye is philosophical about the possibility of individuals cashing in. “People have no shame and some are even selling a plastic bag I designed for €5. So these things happen, but they cannot claim it is an art piece. It is not signed and I won't be there at Times Square to sign them,” he says, adding: “I just think it is a good poster.”
Love is rock hard
The art world was taken aback on hearing that, last summer, Tracey Emin married a large ancient stone under an olive tree in her garden in France, while wearing her father’s white funeral shroud. The British artist appears to be taking this rock-based romance further with her nattily titled exhibition of new works, Stone Love, which opens at Lehmann Maupin in New York this week (5 May-18 June). The show’s organisers say that Emin “explores metaphysical notions of love and seeks to understand different forms of intimacy”. Let’s assume that this covers her predilection for the odd brick and boulder.
Wandering about
Visitors to City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan will soon encounter a mysterious lady warbling on the park's walkways and paths. Members of the public should not be alarmed, though, by this sweet-sounding interloper, who is a performer planted in the park by the mischief-making artist Tino Sehgal. The work, part of the Public Art Fund exhibition The Language of Things (28 June-29 September), “traverses the nature of personal encounters and translation”, the organisers say (we’re confused as well; answers on a postcard, please!).
Brody’s gonna reel you in, baby
The actor Adrien Brody was en route to the bathroom at the inaugural edition of the Context New York fair on Tuesday when a middle-aged woman stopped him. The hallway was dominated by his maritime works, including posters parodying the Starbucks logo (“Brodybucks”), featuring a mermaid pointing two guns at her own head, and graffiti (“BRODY’S GONNA REEL YOU IN BABY”). His large painting of a shark hung on the other side. “It’s amazing,” the woman said. “I can’t even begin to tell you. And my sign is a fish. It’s magical,” she sighed. “What I’m talking about is seeing the light,” Brody told her gravely. “Fish live in the darkest places.” He’d come to pee, but also to label the wall under the shark, because it was not simply a great white but a “GREAT” (as he wrote it) white shark. The fair was due to open in 20 minutes, but Brody liked to work up to deadline. “I learned that in indie film-making,” he said. Back at the stand of David Benrimon Fine Art, where he had just six minutes to spare, was a Looney Tunes-style painting of a fish with the head of the Super Freak singer Rick James that read: “I’m Rick James, Fish!” When asked about the piece, Brody said: “It’s not an overtly druggie piece, no.” The works are priced from $5,000 to $75,000.
