Sweden’s Fotografiska to open first overseas gallery in east London The centre for contemporary photography will take the ground floor of a new building in Whitechapel. The original Fotografiska was created in a restored 1906 customs building on the Stockholm waterfront and has become an important centre for exhibitions of photography, with changing shows in four large galleries. The White Chapel Building, designed by Fletcher Priest architects, is due for completion in 2018.
Ceramics factory to open at Tate Modern Artist Clare Twomey’s installation, FACTORY: the seen and the unseen, will launch the second year of Tate Exchange which, over 2017 and 2018, will focus on the theme of production with the public invited to mould or cast jugs, teapots and flowers. The space on Level 5 of the Blavatnik Building will open on 28 September.
Drawings found in London antiques shop accredited to Giacometti Presumed lost, the sketches were hidden among dusty paintings in the Kensington shop of late antiques dealer Eila Grahame. Following her death in 2010, the Cambridge auction house Cheffins was instructed in 2016 to clear and sell the effects from her shop. The drawings were sent to Paris where a committee of the Giacometti Foundation authenticated them and added them to the artist’s catalogue raisonné.
Arab arts showcase at Edinburgh Fringe beset by visa difficulties The Edinburgh Fringe showcase – the first of its kind – has been forced to cancel and completely rework several productions. Nearly a quarter of the visas for their performers and organisers were refused more than once by the Home Office, despite the event’s backing from the Fringe Society, Edinburgh venues and the British Council.
Baltimore removes all its Confederate monuments After a unanimous resolution by Baltimore’s City Council to remove the Confederate monuments, they were swiftly taken away by city workers overnight. The removal occurred just days after protests erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, spurred by white supremacists who were defending a Robert E. Lee monument that still stands in Emancipation Park, the clashes resulting in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer. Louisville has also announced it will review public artworks to identify those ‘honouring bigotry’.
Thousands of protesters and an inflatable rat welcome President Trump back to Trump Tower in New York Jeffrey Beebe’s inflatable sculpture Trumpy the Rat made its debut and thousands of New Yorkers gathered to protest against the president during his first visit home since taking office.
New contemporary art space opens in Aberdeen Peacock Visual Arts has launched ‘The W OR M’, a new space in the Scottish city described as a place “for discussion, deliberation and action from the ground up”. Located less than 100m from the organisation’s printmaking and digital workshops, the Glasgow-based artist Raydale Dower was commissioned to design and transform the new gallery and events space.
London garden bridge project collapses in acrimony after £37m spent Boris Johnson claims Sadiq Khan ‘killed’ the project after the mayor of London said taxpayers should be ‘very angry’ over wasted public funds. The trust behind the £200m project for a tree-lined bridge between Temple on the north side of the Thames and the South Bank said it had to abandon the scheme because it did not have the backing of the mayor whose financial support had become necessary for its survival.
Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit heading for closure According to a former head, its three detectives have been reassigned to help the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed more than 80 people on 14 June including the artist Khadija Saye.
Artist advocacy group launches boot camp to help artists run for office The New York–based arts advocacy group Fractured Atlas has launched a new initiative that aims to help artists learn the skills necessary to run a successful political campaign. The Artist Campaign School aims to encourage more artists to run for public office. Around one hundred creatives will be invited to attend free classes in Detroit this October where they will learn how to fundraise, build a staff, communicate with the media, and write policy, among other things.
David Roberts to close London gallery and open sculpture park in Somerset The David Roberts Art Foundation in London, founded in 2012, will be closing after its next exhibition, ‘(X) A Fantasy’, which opens 8 September and runs until 7 October. Roberts, the gallery’s founder, plans to open a 20-acre sculpture park on Somerlea Farm in Charlton Musgrove, once it is approved by the local council.
Image:
1. Clare Twomey, Dudson Factory, Stoke-on-Trent 2017. Photo: Copyright Clare Twomey Studio
2. The W OR M, Aberdeen. Courtesy: Peacock Visual Arts
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