This Week in Art 1.15-1.21: New “Art-Filled” U.S. Embassy Opens in London

The new U.S. Embassy in London. Photo: Richard Bryant/arcaidimages.com.

On Tuesday, the new U.S. Embassy in London opens with the unveiling of a work by British artist Rachel Whiteread, who has been commissioned alongside Jenny Holzer and Mark Bradford to create large-scale, site-specific works for the new building. Bradford’s We The People (2016)—32 panels containing the entire U.S. Constitution—will fill the atrium of the new embassy when it is installed in February. And Jenny Holzer’s quote call-out project, featuring quotes selected by students in the U.S. and the U.K., will be carved in granite on a wall besides the embassy’s water features.

Also this week:

  • Laurie Simmons’s first feature-length film My Art was released in theaters last Friday, and Vogue calls it a “must-see.”
  • On Tuesday, Creative Time raises the eighth flag in its Pledges of Allegiance series, this one designed by Pedro Reyes. Entitled Hands On With A Visionthe flag belongs to the artist’s People’s United Nations project, an experimental conference featured in Season 8 of Art in the Twenty-First Century.

Events & exhibitions

New York City

Atlanta

  • The Hammonds House Museum is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new exhibition of work by Carrie Mae Weems, From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried, opening Friday. Featuring the artist’s photographs and her film People of A Darker Hue, the exhibition exposes photography’s key role in shaping social injustice throughout history.

Tuscon, AZ

  • Etherton Gallery’s new exhibition Mementoson view through March 3, features the work of three photographers: Rodrigo Moya, Masao Yamamoto, and Graciela Iturbide.

Los Angeles

Toronto

Gwacheon, Korea

Osaka, Japan