December 2 | New leadership for Contemporary Istanbul

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Contemporary Istanbul takes on a new director, contemporary Australian artists gets a new dedicated biennial in Sydney, and the recipients of the National Arts Competition prize and the Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grants are announced.

Maleki to helm Contemporary Istanbul

With 15 years of experience in the contemporary art world, Maleki has developed a particular interest in the promotion of emerging artists. He is a founding member of the ICA’s Young Patrons group, which supports the figures who are leading contemporary art practice. Maleki expressed his desire to expand CI’s artworld footprint, commenting: “Our aim is for CI to further increase its recognition worldwide, building upon its trajectory and legacy.” The 12th edition will host a preview day on September 12, 2017 and will open to the public from September 13 through 17. Find further details with this press release.

 
 

Artist representations

It has been announced via the Baer Faxt that New York gallery Simone Subal now represents Emily Mae Smith (born in 1979).

 

Smith is based in Brooklyn and is also represented by Mary Mary in Glasgow and Rodolphe Janssen in Brussels.


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Emily Mae Smith, The Mirror, 2015, oil on linen. Courtesy the artist and Laurel Gitlen, New York


New appointments

With this year’s Miami art week already underway, it has been announced that Phillip Kaiser will curate the Public sector of Art Basel Miami Beach 2017.

 

The fair’s Public sector is a series of performance events and site-specific sculpture commissions that are organized in collaboration with the Bass Museum each year. The event has taken place in the city’s Collins Park since 2011. Kaiser, a Swiss independent curator and art critic, takes over from previous curator Nicholas Baume, who put on a memorable show last year which included a performance by the well-known drag queen Lady Bunny. Kaiser is also curating the Swiss Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale next year. artnet News has more.

 
 

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC has appointed Mark Beasley as its first-ever Curator of Media and Performance Art.

 

Beasley was previously curator at the performance art biennial Performa, where he founded the Malcolm McLaren Award for cutting-edge, risk-taking artists. The creation of the new post — made possible through donations by philanthropists and collectors Robert and Arlene Kogod — is indicative of the museum’s strong commitment to exhibiting new media art. More details on artnet News.

 
 

New biennial down under

Sydney is launching a new biennial to spotlight contemporary Australian art, which will be held in March 2017.

 

Entitled “The National: New Australian Art,” the event will take place across three venues in the city: the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The exhibition will showcase, “a mix of emerging, mid-career, and established artists” who hail from Australia and are working either within the country or overseas. The fifty participating artists include, among others, Matthew Bradley, Julie Gough, Khaled Sabsabi, and Agatha Gothe-Snape. See the full list of artists here.

 
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Khaled Sabsabi, 70,000 Veils, 2014. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Australia


Grants awarded by Warhol Foundation

The recipients of the 2016 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program have been announced.

 

The grants recognize art writing in four categories: articles, blogs, books, and short-form. The twenty successful writers will each receive between $15,000 and $50,000 — a total of  $695,000 between them. Among the winning proposals are Claire Bishop’s OS XXI: Contemporary Art and Attention in the Twenty-First Century, Ania Szremski’s blog “I’d prefer not to,” and Sarah Hromack’s “@Artist: Performing the Digital Self.” ARTnews has the full list.

 
 

National Art Competition prize winners

Sabastine Ugwuoke, Ayinla Olajumoke and Atonye Lamie Alfred have been named the winners of the 2016 National Art Competition.

 

The competition is run by the African Artists’ Foundation and based in Lagos, Nigeria. This year artists were invited to explore the theme of “Shifting Boundaries,” looking at how the concept of a boundary can be understood in the 21st century. The winners were selected from 12 finalists. Ugwuoke took home the Grand Prize for his project No Rest, No Comfort, Confusion Everywhere, Olajumoke was awarded the Outstanding Concept prize for her work Moving Pieces, and Lamie won Outstanding Production for On A Second Thought. Find out more about the National Art Competition on their website.

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The prize winners recieve their cheque. Via AAF Lagos