Matthew Ritchie, Remanence: Salt and Light (Part II) ,” 2013. Photo: Andrea Shea for WBUR
Carrie Mae Weems is named a MacArthur Fellow, Matthew Ritchie’s kicks off a residency with a seventy-foot mural, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle puts a sculpture in a wind tunnel, and more in this week’s roundup.
- Carrie Mae Weems has been named a 2013 MacArthur Fellow for “transforming our understanding of social identity and visual imagery.” Cecilia Conrad, Vice President of he MacArthur Fellows Program notes that this year’s grantees, “[A]re working to improve the human condition and to preserve and sustain our natural and cultural heritage.” Fellows will each receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000 (increased from $500,000) paid out over five years.
- Matthew Ritchie has created a seventy-foot mural, titled Remanence: Salt and Light (Part II), for Dewey Square on the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway (Boston, MA). The mural draws inspiration from Boston’s history and waterfront location, and features a unique digital component, with music by Bryce Dessner (The National) and a short film by Ritchie, accessible by all wireless devices. Remanence marks the start of Ritchie’s eighteen-month residency at the ICA Boston.
- Pierre Huyghe has a retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France). It includes some fifty projects that provide an overview of the work Huyghe has been developing for over twenty years. On view through January 6, 2014. Check out Julia Michalska’s interview with the artist for The Art Newspaper.
- Yinka Shonibare MBE at Greenwich, now on view at Royal Museums Greenwich (Greenwich, UK), includes a new site-specific commission and sculptures never before seen in the UK. The works explores themes of Britishness, trade and empire, commemoration, and national identity, which are central to both Shonibare’s work and the museum’s collections. On view through February 23, 2014.
- Inigo Manglano-Ovalle’s project Bird in Space is on view at the Ernst Schering Foundation (Berlin, Germany). For this project the artist tested what happens when a classic piece of modern sculpture is placed in a wind tunnel producing an air current ten times the speed of sound. His findings are on view through November 16, 2013.
- Jeff Koons is featured in the September issue of T-Magazine. In his interview with Ken Miller, Koons speaks about his collaboration with Dom Pérignon, what inspires his work, and why he chose to show work at two competing galleries simultaneously.
- Mel Chin is a juror of the 2013 edition of ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In a Rapidian interview with ArtPrize Exhibitions Director Kevin Buist, Chin talks about his various projects including Operation Paydirt, a multidisciplinary, multi-city campaign to address the issue of lead contamination in poor neighborhoods.