Art Industry News: A Viral Instagram Hoax Has Been Tricking Famous Artists (But Not Kara Walker) + 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 this Thursday, August
22.

NEED-TO-READ

Will David Adjaye Design the Benin City Museum? –
The British-Nigerian star architect
appears to be the frontrunner to design a new museum for
Benin bronzes in the
City of Benin, in Southern Nigeria. Adjaye outlined his ideas for a
Royal Museum that could house artifacts looted from the Kingdom of
Benin in the late 19th century by the British at the latest meeting
of Benin Dialogue Group in
early July. The meeting included representatives from the UK,
France, Germany, and the Netherlands, which all have Benin
artifacts in their museums’ collections. The next meeting is due to
be held in 2020 at the British Museum in London.
(Guardian)

Hong Kong Artist Detained by Chinese Police
– Sanmu Chan, the Hong Kong-based artist, curator,
and activist who has been a vocal supporter of the city’s ongoing
protests, was detained by Chinese police on August 19 while passing
through immigration at Lo Wu station, which sits on the border
between Hong Kong and the Mainland. He was suspected, according to
police, of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” After seven
hours of questioning, he was released and returned to Hong Kong.
According to local media, officers questioned Chan specifically
about a protest banner he designed earlier this summer, which read,
“There are no rioters, only dictatorship.” (Art Asia
Pacific)

A Viral Instagram Hoax Spreads to the Art World –
Art-world figures have begun
circulating the viral “channel 13” Instagram hoax online. The
nonsense text, which reads like old-school chain mail, warns that
Instagram will have permission to make deleted photos and messages
public if users do not share the note denying the company to the
right do so. It went viral after celebrities including Usher, Julia
Roberts, and Rob Lowe shared it on their accounts. One can only
hope the art-world figures who have shared it, including Oscar
Murillo and Arthur Jafa, are doing so with tongues firmly in cheek.
Kara Walker, for one, had a little fun with the message. Scroll to
the bottom to find screenshots of the hoax. (The Verge)

The Director of MIT Media Lab Promises to Return Epstein’s
Money – Joi Ito has apologized
for his and the MIT Media Lab’s links to the disgraced billionaire
Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide earlier this month while
awaiting trail for sex trafficking. In a letter posted online, Ito
says he met Epstein at a conference in 2013, which led to the
financier providing funding for the lab that researches art and
design, as well as technology, media, and science. Epstein
also contributed to Ito’s own investment funds for tech
startups. Ito claims that he was unaware of Epstein’s past when they met, and he now
vows to “raise an amount equivalent to the donations the Media Lab
received from Epstein,” which will go towards supporting
trafficking survivors. Ito also pledged to return the money that
Epstein gave to his personal investment funds. (Art Asia Pacific)

ART MARKET

A Gallery Dedicated to Female Artists Opens in Melbourne
– Australia is getting its
first commercial gallery dedicated to female artists. The
Finkelstein Gallery in Melbourne is founded by the art consultant
Lisa Fehily (who named the gallery after her maiden name,
Finkelstein). It will represent 10 artists, including Lisa
Roet, Louise Paramour, and Monika Behrens. (TAN)

Simon Preston Joins Pace – The swiftly
expanding mega-gallery has hired Simon Preston, who previously ran
an eponymous gallery in Chinatown, as a senior director. He will
focus on bringing new artists to Pace and enhancing its
contemporary programming. Preston ran his gallery for 10 years, but
felt that the pressures on a small business like his were simply to
great to continue. “I looked at what the next 10 years look
like,” he said, “and this just seemed like a good opportunity.”
(ARTnews)

ADAA Opposes Chinese Art Tariff – The Art Dealers Association of America
has—perhaps not surprisingly—come out in opposition
to President Trump’s
new 10 percent tariff on Chinese art and
antiquities. In a
statement, the ADAA said: “With the tariffs in place, it will be
virtually impossible for these businesses to price artwork
competitively within the global art market.” (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

London’s Indian Museum Faces Closure – Officials from the Indian state of Maharashtra
are battling the local council of a wealthy London suburb over a
museum dedicated to one of the founding fathers of modern India,
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. The museum has been open since 2015 and
recently underwent a £2 million ($2.4 million) revamp, but the
London council is forcing it to close because it turns out that
permission was never given to turn the residential property into a
museum. Ambedkar, who was one of the authors of the Indian
constitution, lived in the house in London while he was a student.
(Times)

Contemporary Art Center to Open in Estonia – The Kai Arts Center is slated to open in a
former submarine production plant on the waterfront in Estonia’s
capital city of Tallinn on September 20. The center will host 14
artists a year for an international residency program.
(Artforum)

Arkansas Arts Center Names Director – The former director of the El Paso Museum of
Art, Victoria Ramirez, is the new executive director of the
Arkansas Art Center. Ramirez, who has also worked at the Bullock
Texas State History Museum and the MFA Houston, will guide the
museum on a $128 million fundraising campaign for a new building
and its endowment. (Artforum)

Advocates Win Restoration of Arts Funding in Alaska –
Alaskan officials have restored
full funding to the state’s arts agency after statewide protests
over its planned dissolution. Following widespread outcry, Governor
Mike Dunleavy stopped the state from becoming the first without an
arts agency in an emergency special session of the state
legislature. (Hyperallergic)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Australian Tourism Chief Disses Yoko Ono – The chief executive of the official tourism
agency that promotes Sydney and New South Wales did not think much
of Yoko Ono, according to never-before-seen correspondence
published following a legal fight between a journalist and the
agency. In a 2013 letter to the director of Sydney’s Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sandra Chipcase said that while the
Japanese-American Fluxus pioneer is a “well-known celebrity,” she
questioned whether she could attract audiences on the same level as
artists like Anish Kapoor and Annie Leibovitz. Nevertheless, the
agency ended up giving AU$500,000 ($338,370) to help fund a
Yoko Ono exhibition—and the show went on to draw a respectable
74,000 visitors. (The Art Newspaper)

In a Creative Rut? Try These Tips – The 33-year-old author of the graphic memoir
I Was Their American Dream, Malaka Gharib, shares her tips
for how to break through a creative block. Gharib’s strategies
include setting yourself a tight deadline—she sometimes forces
herself to make a mini-zine in just five minutes—as well as drawing
inspiration from your immediate environment and your lived
experiences. (New York Times)

British Council Condemns Iran for Jailing a Curator –
The British Council is trying to
fight a court in Iran after it upheld a 10-year jail sentence for
one of the council’s former employees, a curator who has been
accused of espionage. Aras Amiri, who was accused of “cultural
infiltration by the British intelligence services in Iranian
internal affairs” after she refused to spy for the Iranian
intelligence services, lost an appeal of her conviction earlier
this week. (TAN)

See That Viral Instagram Hoax in Action:

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Tricking Famous Artists (But Not Kara Walker) + Other Stories
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