London based Rokeby Gallery permanently closes After 13 years of exhibitions and art fairs, Rokeby Gallery has announced its closure. The space was founded by Beth Greenacre, who previously curated David Bowie’s art collection, and her husband Ed Greenacre, in 2005. Over its duration it exhibited a number of high-profile artists, including Liam Gillick, Doug Fishbone and Graham Hudson.
In a statement, they said: “We would like to thank the 77 artists we have met and presented, many of whom have become close friends. We will continue to engage with the collectors, curators, writers and collaborators and friends who have supported us over the years in our new roles within the art community.”
Rokeby’s closure follows a wave of London gallery closures last year, including Carroll/Fletcher, Vilma Gold, Ibid Gallery, and Laura Bartlett Gallery.
Shoair Mavlian appointed director of UK’s Photoworks Assistant curator at Tate Modern will take up the post in February, succeeding Celia Davies, who left in December after an eight-year tenure. The organisation promotes photography through various initiatives including its Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, a journal on photography and visual culture, the international Brighton Photo Biennial, and other programming.
Since 2011, Mavlian has researched acquisitions for Tate’s international collection and curated exhibitions such as ‘The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection’ (2016) and ‘Project Space: A Chronicle of Interventions’ (2014).
Art critic Catherine Millet amongst 100 Frenchwomen to criticise #MeToo movement in open letter Women from the fields of entertainment, journalism, science, and the arts appear as signatories on an open letter in the newspaper Le Monde, criticising the #MeToo movement that grew in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The signatories claim that the movement, which calls out men on social media accused of sexual misconduct, has created a ‘totalitarian climate’, where men are presumed guilty before they can prove themselves innocent.
Berlin Biennale announces ‘We don’t need another hero’ The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art has announced that the title of its 10th edition, which runs from 9 June to 9 September 2018 and is curated by Gabi Ngcobo, is ‘We don’t need another hero’. The title is a reference to the 1985 Tina Turner song of the same name. A curatorial statement from the biennale describes this year’s exhibition as a ‘conversation with artists and contributors who think and act beyond art as they confront the incessant anxieties perpetuated by a willful disregard for complex subjectivities’, adding that the biennale will confront ‘the current widespread states of collective psychosis’.
Scientists claim 5,000-year-old stone carvings are earliest representation of a supernova Stone carvings found in the Kashmir Valley may represent the earliest known recording of a supernova, according to a group of Indian scientists. Since archaeologists unearthed the irregular stone slab in 1969, experts have believed that its markings depict a hunting scene, with armed men chasing fauna beneath two radiating, sun-like objects. However, the scientists claim that since there cannot be two suns, the image must be of something else.
They searched records of past supernovas for those that would have exploded during the right period and were bright enough to see from the stone’s original site. The scientists then found one strong candidate: Supernova HB9, a star that exploded around 4,600 BCE.
University museum plans to sell works by Ingres, Degas, and more at Christie’s La Salle University in Philadelphia has deaccessioned works from its Art Museum collection in hopes of raising $5 million at auction. Funds from the sales — which are scheduled to begin in March and continue through June — are intended to help cover the costs of La Salle’s five-year strategic plan. The school has been working at reducing its budget deficit and cutting down its debt for several years.
Twenty Modiglianis seized by police in Genoa are fake, expert confirms The paintings were being exhibited at Palazzo Ducale in July when they were confiscated by the authorities. The show closed three days early after the Genoa state prosecutor ordered the seizure of the 21 alleged fakes. Isabella Quattrocchi, an independent expert appointed by Italian prosecutors to assess the images, said that in “terms of both style and the pigments [used]”, the alleged paintings by the early 20th-century artist are “crudely forged”.
Images:
1. Artists who have exhibited at Rokeby Gallery, 2004 – 2017
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