Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.
Frieze London Is About to Get Less Shitty One of the most demoralizing parts of going to an art fair — and there are plenty — is the bathroom situation, which is usually either a depressing array of Coachella-style portapotties or a perfectly usable but uninspired facility with one absurdly marked “exhibitors only” stall. That may be why Frieze London has asked artist Gray Wielebinski to redesign its public restrooms “as a site of refuge and exposure” (yes, that is an actual line from the press release) for its September edition.
Wielebinski is creating a set of urinal and toilet rim deodorizers that release a custom scent, made by the aptly named creative studio Dean’s Bottom. As for what the fragrance will evoke — freshly printed cash, the interior of a Geneva Freeport storage unit, turpentine? Duchamp could never.
Michelle Grabner Gift Works to Midwest Museum Artist Michelle Grabner has made a major donation of more than 2,000 works to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The gift includes Grabner’s own work, plus 300 pieces by 50 artists from her personal collection — including Mary Heilmann, Robert Longo, Pat Steir, and Victor Vasarely — along with several decades of archives from her time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Gagosian Ditches London Space Gagosian Gallery is closing its two-story central London location after three years of programming, leaving the gallery with only two spaces in the city as its mega-gallery identity crisis rolls on. The Art Newspaper also reported that Gagosian plans to leave its Basel location. Earlier this summer, Pace said it was reducing its London footprint after shockingly laying off 50 staffers and removing 50 artists from its roster.
What Else Happened?
