Urgent Museum Notice

Art Fix Friday: July 30, 2021

Blog Category:  Art Fix Friday
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman holding a newspaper with news about World War II. She wears a coat and her short, curly hair is caught in the wind.

As the 2020 Tokyo Olympics continues, a giant human-faced balloon can be seen floating above the city’s skyline. Masayume (2019) (“dream come true”) is part of the Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13 and is on view through May 29, 2022.

A photo of the Tokyo skyline on a hazy day. In the mid-ground, a sea of green treetops divides the cityscape. Above the trees floats a large balloon face with a black-and-white portrait of an anonymous person. The subject has dark hair parted in the middle, dark eyebrows, and a serious expression.
Installation view of Masayume at the Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13, Tokyo, Japan, 2019–2021; Photo by Kaneda Kozo

The installation was conceived by Japanese artistic collective 目 (Mé), which comprises artist Haruka Kojin, director Kenji Minamigawa, and production manager Hirofumi Masui. Depicting a real, though anonymous, person, the installation “will [gaze] back at us from the sky in the midst of this pandemic. It is as though we are a part of the spectacle,” reads the artists’ statement.

Front-Page Femmes

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation awarded $5.1 million in climate change grants to 79 U.S. art institutions.

ARTnews profiles Alma Woodsey Thomas on the occasion of Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful, a comprehensive overview of the artist’s life, currently on view at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.

Frontón México in Mexico City presents Frida: La Experiencia Immersiva, an immersive, 35-minute projected light show of Frida Kahlo’s paintings.

Phaidon has released the first-ever monograph of Catherine Opie’s work. The photographer spoke to Hyperallergic about the book’s release.

Louise Fishman, whose artwork synthesized Modernist abstraction with her identity as a queer Jewish feminist, died on July 26 at age 82. Fishman’s painting Two Hearts (1981) is part of NMWA’s collection.

A canvas that has been thickly painted to have a dark brown and black background. The outlines of two large white ovals are placed side by side, spanning the width of the canvas and almost two-thirds the height, and rendered with visible brushwork. The left oval is slightly larger than the right. Inside the ovals are splotches of red and white paint, which have been applied in similarly thick brushstrokes.
Louise Fishman, Two Hearts, 1981; Oil on linen, 22 x 19 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Patsy Rogers and Lucille F. Goodman; © Louise Fishman

A self-described “city girl with a nature brain,” Wangechi Mutu recounts her upbringing in Kenya in a new video interview with Art21.

A Hyperallergic op-ed assesses the evidence that prehistoric art was created by women.

Artnet interviews Valentina Grande, whose forthcoming graphic novel, illustrated by Eva Rossetti, recounts the origin stories of Judy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Ana Mendieta, and the Guerrilla Girls.

Hyperallergic reviews a new book on Carrie Mae Weems that includes essays by bell hooks, Deborah Willis, Dawoud Bey, and more.

Vogue profiles contemporary Nigerian artists Chidinma Nnoli, Renike Olusanya, and Chigozie Obi, who are challenging conservative gender norms.

Shows We Want to See

Ortuzar Projects in New York presents You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: The Sapphire Show, a group exhibition showcasing works by Gloria Bohanon, Suzanne Jackson, Betye Saar, Senga Nengudi, Yvonne Cole Meo, and Eileen Nelson. The show reunites the six women artists, who were part of the 1970 exhibition Sapphire: You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, thought to be the first in the United States to feature all Black women artists. On view through July 31.

In a sparse gallery, large stainless steel rods are tack welded to resemble staircases, doorways, and windows, complete with architectural decorations. The majority of the sculpture is silver, though some of the decorative motifs are yellow, pink, orange, purple, or blue. About a dozen gallery-goers stand next to and behind the installation.
Installation view of Anne Wu: A Patterned Universe, 2021, at The Shed, New York; Courtesy of The Shed; Photo by Ronald Amstutz

At The Shed in New York, Open Call: Anne Wu is the emerging artist’s celebration of the Chinese communities of Flushing, Queens. With assemblages made from stainless steel rods and decorated with the emblems that frequently adorn Flushing buildings, Wu reimagines the architecture of the iconic immigrant neighborhood. The artist spoke to Art in America about her creative process. On view through August 1.

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