I’m back from Montreal, where I spent the weekend in art-adjacent bliss at Plural Art Fair. The best meal goes to Tuck Shop, which I highly recommend. After the opening night, we went to Bota Bota to recover in the sauna, which offered a view of the fair from a relaxing distance. I had lovely studio visits with Gahee Park and Elise Lafontaine. It’s true—Montreal definitely has the best studio spaces. Both artists gave me a book when I was leaving, an incredibly sweet gesture. A mimosa brunch at Pangée celebrated Grace Kalyta’s current exhibition. I heard exciting whispers of the Frieze London line-up. I spilled an entire drink on Franz Kaka gallerist Aryen Hoekstra.
Art News
I’ve still been trying to make sense of the asset-backed Sotheby loan. Wall Power (formerly Artelligence) has the clearest breakdown:
“The loans aren’t risk-free, but Sotheby’s does well either way. If the borrowers pay back their loans, Sotheby’s makes money on the spread. If they don’t, Sotheby’s sells the art at favorable terms for itself, pockets the fees, and makes the trust backing the security whole. It would take a crisis like 2009 to put these notes at real risk. And if that happens, Sotheby’s securitization will be the least of investors’ worries.”
Faith Ringgold passed away. Her retrospective at MCA Chicago was one of the best shows I saw last year. I was deeply moved by her political work and the personal depth and feeling stitched into each quilt.
This story was so self-aggrandizing. As soon as I read about Inigo Philbrick and his friend/accomplice Orlando Whitfield’s obsession with Edward St Aubyn (the English author who wrote five auto-fictive books spanning from an abusive childhood to a rambunctious adulthood and sobriety), I could tell exactly what Whitfield was trying to do. Which is an attempt to self-mythologize. Of course, he cites the art world’s problems rather than personal responsibilities. The art world does have problems, but please.
If you need a refresher on Inigo Philbrick’s art crimes, visit this long-form Vanity Fair piece.
Frieze has listed a job posting for the Director of the Armory Show. Two things: look at the exhaustive list of responsibilities and then look at the listed salary. I think it’s wildly underpaid, but friends say I just expect too much. Feel free to comment your thoughts.
Artist Ruth Patir and curators Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit posted a notice outside the Israel pavilion at the Venice Biennale stating, “The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached.” I’ve seen mixed reactions, from applauding the move as the right thing to criticizing it for not being enough.
NEW PAINTING ALERT: New paintings found in Pompeii! It’s so cool that they’re still excavating the site and discovering new things. And the art is in such good condition! The work reminds me of Katie Lyle’s, which I also saw at Plural.
Plural “First Look,” Picks
A few years ago, I hosted a tour of Art Toronto with a headset mic that automatically made me feel like a Spice Girl. The mic at Plural, held daintily in my hand, made me feel more like a flight attendant—my voice echoing through the crowd, offering suggestions and guiding the tour-goers through the fair like I was calmly conducting a safety demonstration.
My pitch: Collect emerging artists. It’s a show of support for artists early in their careers, which gives them a foundation to thrive—and when they do, you get to follow them along, knowing you were on the ground level. There’s such a thrill to collecting an artist right out of school and, in the span of a couple of years, no longer being able to afford the work. It’s not like you did anything, but you get to be excited alongside them.
Latest Art Forecast Posts:
Upcoming: The Price of Art (paywalled)
April 11: The Older Artist Facebook group
April 6: Dallas Art Fair Round-up
April 4: Author of Happy Hour, Marlowe Granados, On Collecting
Re: The Armory Director, what surprised me is not the compensation, but rather the fact that the parent company, Endeavour, also own the UFC and WWE. Art fairs and pro wrestling… a match made in heaven!
Love this! Also, I feel like when you collect an artist early in their career, you are in fact DOING something: both emotionally, giving the artist some boost to keep going, and financially, enabling them to live from their talents, as well as signaling to the art world that there's a market for the work. Or at least, I like to believe that's the impact we're having ;)