Weekly News Roundup: July 12, 2024

Korea’s Incheon Airport Launches Media Art Exhibition

The Incheon International Airport Corporation, which operates Korea’s largest airline transportation hub, debuted its collaboration with the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) on a media art exhibition from July 10 to November 10, titled “Ghosts Out of the Machine.”  The exhibition spans nine locations within Incheon Airport and features 16 video and installation works by eight emerging Korean artists. Making use of the bustling venue, government agency KAMS hopes to make Korean art more accessible to both domestic and international audiences. According to Incheon Airport president and CEO Lee Hak-jae, “Ghosts Out of the Machine” serves as a unique gateway to Korean media art for overseas visitors. The displayed works, related to ideas of virtual realities in connection with real spaces, include the video installation Double Poser (2023) by Heecheon Kim, Shadow Planet (2023) by Minha Park, Oneroom-Babel (2022–23) by SANGHEE, Syncope (2023) by Sojung Jun, Dalle’s Aimy (2021) by TZUSOO, and The Tumble (2023) by Chan Sook Choi, among others.

Polka-Dot Artist’s Tallest Pumpkin to Date Debuts in London

London’s Serpentine Galleries unveiled Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama’s tallest bronze pumpkin sculpture to date. The new public sculpture stands six meters tall and five and a half meters in diameter. Featuring a rounded, bulbous silhouette with a yellow surface adorned with Kusama’s signature black polka dots, the work is installed by the ornamental lake Round Pond at London’s Kensington Gardens. Kusama is renowned for her immersive large-scale installations, ranging from her kaleidoscopic Infinity Mirror Rooms to whimsical outdoor sculptures of plants and flowers. Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Serpentine’s artistic director, stated that it was an “honor” to showcase Kusama’s latest sculpture. “Her signature pumpkins have become a landmark motif for the artist, and this project is a reunion for Kusama and Serpentine.” In 2000, the Serpentine presented the first major survey of Kusama’s work in Britain.

NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship Announces Winner

Sydney-based artist Gillian Kayrooz is the recipient of the 27th New South Wales Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), NSW VAF (E). Funded by the NSW government, the annual project is run by Create NSW in partnership with Sydney’s Artspace and highlights new contemporary artists in the region. The Fellowship offers an AUD 30,000 (USD 20,280) award to develop an independent career program. This year’s panel included notable industry names, such as Katie Dyer, Artspace’s senior curator; Morgan Hogg, 2023 NSW VAF (E) Fellowship recipient; Brett Adlington, Museums & Galleries of NSW’s CEO; and Adam Porter, head of curatorial at Campbelltown Arts Center. The judges were impressed by Kayrooz's three-channel film installation titled Leave Your Shoes at the Door (2024) which reflected local community experiences. The 2024 NSW VAF (E) exhibition—curated and hosted by Artspace in Woolloomooloo until September 8—will display the works of Sydney-based finalists, including Kalanjay Dhir, Remy Faint, Aotearoa-born Talia Smith, Asian-Australian artist Kien Situ, and Bundjalung Country-based Charlotte Haywood.

Famed Chinese Pyrotechnic Artist to Open Los Angeles Festival

PST Art (formerly Pacific Standard Time), a collaborative exhibition project funded by the Getty Institute in Los Angeles, announced that artist Cai Guo-Qiang will launch the event on September 15 with a daytime firework performance. The pyrotechnic installation, titled WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST Art, will include around 10,000 firework shells and 2,300 drones set up in and above the Los Angeles Coliseum. Featuring biodegradable dyes and pigments, the artwork will explode into a multicolored light show controlled by Cai’s very own AI model, cAI™. With this spectacle, the Chinese-born and New York-based artist hopes to “integrat[e] the virtual with the real,” pushing for more artistic agency within AI technology. Getty Trust president Katherine E. Fleming stated that Cai’s performance will reflect the “quintessential collision of art and science” in line with the event’s theme. PST Art is the Getty Trust's third edition of the art initiative and will encompass more than 70 museums and institutions across the Southern California region.

Liverpool City Council Orders “Looney Tunes Jesus” Painting To Be Taken Down

On July 5, Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun mandated the removal of Australian artist Philjames’s oil-on-lithograph painting Jesus Speaks to the Daughters of Jerusalem (2023) from the Blake Prize exhibition at the city council-run Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. The biennial award promotes artists who “explore ideas of spirituality and religion.” The controversial work, which overlays the faces of Looney Tunes characters onto a scene from the life of Jesus Christ, sparked a brief online protest orchestrated by Charlie Bakhos, founder of the conservative Catholic group Christian Lives Matter (CLM). On Facebook, Bakhos condemned the painting, calling it “a cheap and low attempt at mocking Christianity.” In response to the backlash, Mannoun asserted the necessity of balancing freedom of speech with the right to practice religion without fear or mockery. Despite his cooperation to avert potential public unrest, Philjames voiced his concern towards the city council’s decision to “[put] politicking before freedom of expression,” questioning “where does it end?” 

ACCA Melbourne to Bid Farewell to Longtime CEO

On July 8, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) announced that its artistic director and chief executive officer Max Delany will end his tenure in November 2024. Delany has curated an extensive number of exhibitions throughout his time with ACCA, such as “Who’s Afraid of Public Space?” (2021), “On Vulnerability and Doubt” (2019), and “Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism” (2017), among others. Delany is known for his curatorial vision that focuses on contemporary art’s link to wider social, cultural, and political contexts. “Max’s enthusiasm and dedication to art and artists has never wavered, and we wish him the best of times as he embraces new horizons in the next chapter in his career,” stated ACCA’s chair Terry Wu. The Victoria-based art center’s board will begin the recruitment process for its new artistic director and CEO shortly.

Saudi Arabia’s Global Museum Names Founding Director

On July 10, the Saudi Museums Commission announced that the former British Museum director Hartwig Fischer will be the founding director of a planned museum of world cultures, now under construction in Riyadh. Fischer had served as director of the British Museum for seven years, but resigned in August 2023 following the loss, damage, or theft of more than 1,500 objects from the institution’s collection. According to a press release, Fischer’s appointment is “based on his global expertise in leading international cultural institutions and museums.” The new, 110-meter-tall museum, to be designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, is scheduled to open in 2026 in the Royal Arts Complex in King Salman Park. Aside from showcasing domestic cultural heritage, the museum will serve as a center for global collaboration, described by the Commission as a “pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia’s cultural renaissance.”

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