March 28 | MA in Middle Eastern contemporary arts to launch at Birmingham City University

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Despite a number of galleries having closed up shop in New York, the art world’s big names continue to invest in bigger and sleeker spaces. The Western world is also continuing to open up to Middle East and Indian art, despite a global political shift toward populism.

New Middle Eastern contemporary arts program to premier in UK university

A new postgraduate program in partnership with organizations in the Gulf will be developed over the next three years at Birmingham City University. The program will focus on art practices, institutions, and culture networks in the region, with an undergraduate program expected to follow.

Anthony Downey, founding editor of the online publication Ibraaz, has already been appointed professor of visual culture in North Africa and the Middle East in the scheme, the first of its kind in the UK. Downey was formerly the director of contemporary art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, with recent publications including Future Imperfect: Contemporary Art Practices and Cultural Institutions in the Middle East. Details via The Art Newspaper

 

Anthony Downey speaking at Art Dubai in 2015

 

 

New York-based India Center Foundation to launch new consortium for contemporary Indian art

In an effort to bring contemporary Indian art to new audiences, and provide an international platform for emerging art in the region, the India Center Foundation has set up a consortium with Rachel Weingeist, recently-appointed senior curator, at its helm. Though the arts program is still in its early stages, Weingeist has begun studio visits in New York and launched an open call, “hoping that Indian artists find us and submit digital portfolios or initiate correspondence.”

Early members include Sotheby’s, the New York-based Aicon Gallery, the New York-based Lianne Sheplar Art Advisory and the Delhi Art Gallery Modern (DAG Modern), based in Delhi, Mumbai and New York. Whilst these commercial investors seek to expand their collector base through the initiative, Weingeist hopes to bring non-commercial institutions on board as well. Managing director and chief executive, Ashish Anand, believes there is still “a knowledge gap on Indian modernism” in the West. Details via The Art Newspaper

 

Aicon Gallery, ICF, at Art Dubai 2015

 

 

Winners of 2017 Fredrik Roos Art Grant Announced

Oskar Hult, Jonas Silfversten Bergman, and Josefine Östberg Olsson have been awarded the Fredrik Roos Art Prize. The $68,000 prize is one of Sweden’s largest grants for artists under 35.

All three artist will receive a grant of about $23,000, with an exhibition of their work opening at Moderna Museet Malmö today, March 28. The graduating art students were judged by a jury comprised of members of the Fredrik Roos Foundation together with Daniel Birnbaum, Ann-Sofi Noring, and Iris Müller-Westermann from Moderna Museet.

 

Winners of 2017 Fredrik Roos Art Grant © Moderna Museet Malmö  

 

 

EVA International announces the appointment of Matt Packer as Director

The new Director of Ireland's biennial of contemporary art, Matt Packer, will commence in his role this June. The move comes after five years as the the director at CCA Centre For Contemporary Art Derry.

The 2018 edition of the biennial will be curated by Inti Guerrero (Bogotá/Hong Kong) and will run from April 14 through July 8.

 

Matt Packer, photo courtesy of British Council

 

 

New York’s Koenig & Clinton moves from Chelsea to Brooklyn

Koenig & Clinton has announced it will move its operations from West 19th Street in Chelsea to 1329 Willoughby Street in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. The last show at its Chelsea space will commence April 13 with “Behind the Mirror” by artist Peter Dreher, through May 20.

Also housed inside the Brooklyn building will be the newest venture of gallery owner Leo Koenig, a project space called Century Pictures. Koenig announced that the space will be used to show works from his own collection, and to stage exhibitions in conjunction with artists’ studios. The release also noted that “the gallery will be situated near many of the artists around whom our work takes shape and many of the audiences that keep an exhibition space relevant.” Details via artnews.

 

Peter Dreher, "Behind the mirror", Koenig & Clinton, New York

 

 

Zurich’s Galerie Eva Presenhuber expands to New York

It has finally been confirmed that the Zurich powerhouse, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, will expand to New York in May. Located in NoHo, at 39 Great Jones Street, the first show will be by Tobias Pils, opening May 5, during Frieze New York.

The New York branch “will function as an important extension of the Zurich gallery,” which has a formidable blue-chip artist roster that includes Joe Bradley, the estate of Jay DeFeo, Trisha Donnelly, Carroll Dunham, Rondinone, John Giorno, Henry Taylor, and Michael Williams. The expansion of the young gallery, founded in 2003, follows the closure of a number of longtime dealers in New York and London.

 

Tobias Pils, Untitled (black m.) (2016) | Untitled (round) (2016) Photo by Jorit Aust