This week, more than 230,000 people signed a PEN America petition opposing President Trump’s plan to defund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). So far, twelve Art21 artists including Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Serra have signed.
Also this week:
- Artists Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher and Julie Mehretu teamed up to purchase singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone’s childhood home. While no concrete plans are in place, the artists hope to both preserve and reactivate the legendary space.
- On Thursday, the Asia Society will honor Kimsooja and Hiroshi Sugimoto at its annual gala celebrating the Asia Arts Game Changers.
- The Prado Museum announced it will be commissioning Cai Guo-Qiang to create new works at the museum beginning in September, that will respond to its famed collection of Old Master paintings.
Events & exhibitions
Chicago
- March 23-25, 7:30pm—Charles Atlas will be performing alongside artists Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener in another series of Tesseract performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Potomac, MD
- A survey of Roni Horn’s work opened this month at Glenstone. The exhibition continues through January 2018. [Read a review in the Washington Post.]
Fayetteville, AR
- March 24, 7-8pm—Marina Abramović is kicking off the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s 2017 Distinguished Speaker Series, intended to “inspire new ways of thinking.” Get tickets.
Phoenix, AZ
- Yeohlee/Serra, a new exhibition pairing gowns by fashion designer Yeohlee Teng with large-scale prints by Richard Serra opened on Friday at the Phoenix Art Museum where it will remain on view through May 29.
Akron, OH
- March 23, 6pm—LaToya Ruby Frazier will present the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Lecture at the Akron Art Museum. The event is free and open to the public.
San Francisco / Bay Area
- Beginning this Saturday, Leonardo Drew will be exhibiting a site-specific installation in the de Young Museum’s Wilsey Court. On view through October 29, viewers around the world can watch a livestream of the work’s installation online.
- Trevor Paglen’s new exhibition opened Wednesday at the Cantor Arts Center. On view through July 31 and entitled The Eye and the Sky, the seventeen featured works place Paglen’s Time Study (Predator; Indian Springs, NV) alongside nineteenth and twentieth century photographs in the museum’s collection.
Naples, Italy
- Voyages Without a Destination, an exhibition of work by Louise Bourgeois is opening this Friday at Studio Trisorio and will be on view through June 17.
Tel Aviv
- This is the last week to see Tommy Hartung’s exhibition at Braverman Gallery. Lilith closes tomorrow, March 21.
Reykjavik, Iceland
- March 16-April 9—Artists Matthew Barney, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Gabríela Friðriksdóttir have collaborated with the Iceland Dance Company to create Sacrifice, a series of performances celebrating modern rituals. [Learn more in the Iceland Monitor.]
It’s impossible to include all the incredible exhibitions and art events happening this week in a single post. If there’s something you feel should have been included in today’s roundup, leave a comment below!