A Week in Art...After Nyne's Hot 9

1. Frieze art fair returns welcoming to the weird and the wacky to London (via The Guardian)

Opening last week, the 14th Frieze art fair took over Regents Park and galleries across London, showcasing a wonderful mix of artwork. The fair promised to both confuse and amuse buyers, featuring pieces from Anish Kapoor and Grayson Perry confirming the event as one of the world’s most important art fairs. A standout event in art collectors’ calendars as hundreds of commercial art galleries selling the work of thousands of artists were in attendance, leaving visitors spellbound as they wandered through the plethora of work on display in the vast marquees.

2. Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery wins Riba Stirling Prize (via BBC)

The gallery built to house the infamous artist’s private collection has been named winner of the UK’s leading architecture award, the Riba Stirling Prize. The Newport Street Gallery based in Vauxhall saw the remodelling of three listed Victorian buildings, to create a coherent sequence of bright gallery spaces. Rachel Whiteread, Turner prize-winner and part of this year’s judging panel, described the gallery as ‘a generous asset to an evolving community’.

3. David Bowie’s private collection displayed online ahead of Sotheby’s auction (via Mail Online)

For the first time hundreds of pieces from the late David Bowie’s personal collection have been unveiled online ahead of an exclusive auction. Bowie’s lesser-known love of art and extensive art collection will be showcased as part of Sotheby’s Bowie/Collector, a three-part sale including around 400 items. The collection features post-war British avant-garde painting along with German Expressionism, giving an insight into the fascination and engagement in art Bowie fostered throughout his life.

4. A Sinn Fein minister claims artworks missing from Stormont’s collection (via BBC)

The finance minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir stated some paintings from Stormont’s art collection may have been removed ‘by accident’ from government offices. The collection was originally started by the then unionist Prime Minister, Terence O’Neill in the 1960s features works hung on the walls seen only by civil servants and government ministers.

5. Feminist collective, Guerrilla Girls target super-rich collectors (via The Art Newspaper)

The multiplying number of private museums across the world is coming under the scrutiny of activist collective, the Guerrilla Girls. ‘There’s a growing proliferation of private museums put together by billionaire art collectors, and they’re really to protect their very expensive spending habits in the arts,’ says Frida Kahlo, one of the founding members of the US-based collective. Ahead of the group’s first major UK show at the Whitechapel Gallery, the collective has a week long residency at Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange space and members were also in London to attend Frieze. Kahlo stated, ‘As art becomes more of an instrument of capitalist investment, marginalised groups become less important. What kind of a story can be told by art that costs the most and that’s chosen by a handful of homogeneous people?’

6. Portland Art Museum announces new partnership with Mark Rothko (via ArtNet News)

The Portland Art Museum is honouring artist Mark Rothko creating a giant pavilion in his name along with a partnership with the late artists’ children. The pavilion, designed by Vinci Hamp Architects, the three-storey Mark Rothko Pavilion will add a glass-walled entrance to the museum, 10,000 square feet of exhibition space and third floor sculpture garden. The new gallery space will house contemporary and media art, with construction expected to finish in early 2021.

7. Christie’s London Post-war and Contemporary art sale exceeds high estimate (via Art News)

Last week Christie’s post-war and contemporary evening sale amounted to £34.3 million, a total that exceeded estimates of £21.3 million. The sale got off to a good start with new artist records spurring on the bidding and only four lots left unsold. The success came during Frieze week, which was shaken by apprehension regarding Brexit, with the night at Christie’s restoring faith as artist records were reached on 6 of the 41 lots.

8. Zoe Leonard’s ‘I Want a President’ installed in lead up to US Election (via Art News)

Zoe Leonard will install her manifesto-esque essay ‘I want a president’ as a 20 by 30 foot installation on New York’s High Line. Cecilia Alemani, the curator and director of High Line Art stated, ‘It’s very do-it-yourself, very private and yet immediately public, almost declamatory—it’s like turning the High Line into a speakers’ corner, with very simple, immediate means of communication.’

9. Arts Council announces shift in focus for arts funding (via The Telegraph)

Arts Council England has announced more funding will be put towards regional arts, as it moves focus away from London. It has stated an extra £37 million will be released each year between 2018 and 2022 to create a boost for the regions by 4%, with the budget planning to ‘reach more people in new ways.’ Darren Henley, chief executive of Arts Council England stated ‘Everybody deserves to benefit from Arts Council investment, wherever they are, whatever their background. Our plans through to 2022 show we mean it when we talk about great art and culture for everyone.’

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