Richard Serra. "7," 2011. Photo courtesy Qatar Museums Authority.
In this week’s roundup, Art21 artists in the Whitney Biennial, Cindy Sherman and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle receive awards, Cai Guo-Qiang and Richard Serra are in Doha, Qatar, and more.
- Charles Atlas, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Rashid Johnson, and Mike Kelley will all participate in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2012 Biennial, which will open March 1. The 2012 Biennial is curated by Elisabeth Sussman, Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney, and Jay Sanders, a freelance curator. The curators began working on the research and planning of the show in early December 2010. You can read the full list of 2012 Biennial artists here.
- Cindy Sherman was awarded The Roswitha Haftmann Foundation’s CHF Foundation Prize. The prize, created in 1999 according to the wishes of the late Roswitha Haftmann (1924-1998), is given to “living artists producing major works.” The first winner was named in 2001. It is the most generous such award in Europe. It will be presented to Sherman on May 12 at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
- Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle was awarded United States Artists (USA) Guthman Fellow Visual Arts 2011 for his work in sculpture and video. Every year, the national artists’ advocacy organization USA awards 50 USA Fellowship grants to outstanding performing, visual, media and literary artists. In the last six years, USA has invested $15,000,000 in America’s most exceptional artists.
- Richard Serra unveiled a new landmark sculpture titled 7 recently at the launch of the Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art‘s (MIA) new park. Serra’s project began as a 200-feet long Shanxi Black granite extension to the crescent-shaped esplanade that runs from the MIA along the park. Built on the boulders and rubble left after the museum’s construction, the extension places 7 between the modern Arab-inspired architecture of the museum and the skyline of Doha, Qatar.
- Cai Guo-Qiang recently lit up the Doha, Qatar horizon with an “explosion event” that shot rainbow-colored gunpowder into the desert sky near the Arab Museum of Modern Art. The explosions, which are so intense that they sound like a racecars going around a track at full speed, are controlled by microchips.
[youtube:https://youtube.com/watch?v=FPV8zdiySlI]
- Matthew Ritchie will soon collaborate with The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner for The Long Count. Described as “an abstract orchestral-rock song-cycle” about Mayan ‘hero twins’ in the Popol Vuh, the Mesoamerican calendar, and the ‘rituals of baseball,’ the Dessners will perform as Ritchie’s animated film plays throughout the show. This will be performed for the first time ever in the UK February 2 – 4, 2012 at The Barbican Theatre in London.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFGtOKvMJRY]
- Rashid Johnson is featured in Spotify’s Music Loves Art. This is the first installment in which Johnson and Luis Gispert meet with legendary rapper Nas to talk about Nas’ seminal record, Illmatic, their creative processes, and the current state of art and music as 2012 approaches.
- Mark your calendars now for Rashid Johnson in conversation with curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm. This event will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on Saturday, April 14, 2012, 10:30am – 11:30am.