30/12/2022 Art Industry News: A Sweeping Documentary Series About the NFT Phenomenon Is Coming to Amazon Prime + Other Stories

Plus, the International African American Museum delays its opening, and a documentary on Nan Goldin gets shortlisted for the Oscars.

Billboards display NFT art in Times Square during the 4th annual NFT.NYC conference on June 20, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)Billboards display NFT art in Times Square during the 4th annual NFT.NYC conference on June 20, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know on this Thursday, December 22.

NEED-TO-READ

Why Some Misunderstood Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat –Following Simone Leigh’s“Loophole of Retreat: Venice” symposium, which focused on the intellectual and creative labor of Black women, a critical evaluation of the event by Seph Rodney forHyperallergichas, according to Rizvana Bradley, entirely missed the point.(Artforum)

An Exhaustive List of Art Nepo Babies –With “nepo baby” still the term of everyone’s lips after a viral feature byNew York Magazine,ARTnewshas compiled its own version for the art world. The list extends particularly long for dealers but also includes auction-house executives, art advisors, and the artists themselves. Did you know Art Cologne director Daniel Hug is the grandson of artist László Moholy-Nagy? (ARTnews)

A New Amazon Series Will Explore NFT Culture –Crypto winter, be damned! Amazon Prime is planning a new documentary series calledNFTMe.With a focus on 50 key pioneers within the space, from artist Refik Anadol to music producer Peter Rafelson, the six episodes will explore the cultural impact of NFTs. (Coin Telegraph)

Trinidad Art Dealer Dies During Attempted Robbery –Mark Pereira of 101 Gallery in Trinidad and Tobago, known as a champion of Caribbean art, was shot by thieves who broke into his home earlier this week. Police are investigating the murder.(ARTnews)

MOVERS & SHAKERS

International African American Museum Delays Opening –The opening of the highly anticipated museum in Charleston, South Carolina, has been pushed back due to faulty humidity and temperature control systems. Originally scheduled to open in January, it is still expected to debut in the first half of the year.(New York Times)

Nan Goldin Doc Gets Shortlisted for the Oscars –Laura Poitras’sAll the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which chronicles the life of artist Nan Goldin and her fight against the Sacklers, made the Oscars shortlist for best documentary feature. Final nominations will be announced January 24. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Amsterdam Museum Returns Salt Cellars to Heirs –Four silver salt cellars held at museums in Amsterdam will be returned to the heirs of the German Jewish collector Emma Budge following an investigation into their provenance and the binding advice of the Dutch Restitutions Committee. (Codart)

Pace and Black Lunch Table Open Up Gallery Library –Pace Gallery’s collaboration with the non-profit Black Lunch Table, through which it is improving its archives on Black artists, has led to a six-month Wikimedia Fellowship to expand online entries for historically excluded artists. The research will culminate with an exhibition at the New York gallery’s library for Black History Month in February.

Arts

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-industry-news-december-22-2022-2234789

Interesting NFTs
''Transmutative Spontaneity''
Mixed Media, Neo-Expressionism & Traditional Handmade by Yusaymon ©
#95455
By OthersideDeployer
CryptoPunk #6649
The CryptoPunks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters. No two are exactly alike, and each one of them can be officially owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain. Originally, they could be claimed for free by anybody with an Ethereum wallet, but all 10,000 were quickly claimed. Now they must be purchased from someone via the marketplace that's also embedded in the blockchain.
Faceplant
Facebook logo factory. 3D animation, 10-second loop, 30 fps. Created using Cinema4D, X-Particles, TurbulenceFD, Octane, and After Effects. Originally posted on TikTok (@jigpx) on 1/4/21. 38.7m+ views, 2.1m+ likes (as of 4/22/21).
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
"Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?" is dedicated to the mysterious creation of Bitcoin, and acts as the showcase artwork within Javier ArrĂ©s’ exploratory series "Bitcoin, The Origin". "Who is the creator of Bitcoin?" The artist, ArrĂ©s, explores this question, and the feelings of doubt and mystery that accompany it, through his unique artistic language. An unknown, an enigma. It should be remembered that the name Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym of Bitcoin's author or authors and gives us little insight into its true creator. For this Visual Toy, ArrĂ©s uses the signature claw machine, his famous half-operation, to symbolize our collective ignorance and unconfirmed belief: As soon as it has the stuffed animal within its grasp and appears to have solved the puzzle, the animal escapes again, and again. At present, there are three more public and studied possibilities who are either believed to be the creators of the currency or who directly claim the creation of it. It may be all or none of them, yet these three personalities leave us clues which are an important part of this interesting enigma. For this moment, it will remain unknown... In this artwork, ArrĂ©s elevates the claw machine from the apparatus, to an iconic pop art object serving as an important element to the Bitcoin creation narrative. Action is everywhere, with each movement serving an iconographical or metaphorical purpose related directly to cryptocurrency: Various ups and downs, roller coasters, mining points, robot, coins and more speak to a sense of hope, risk, mystery, randomness and possibility of pay out. Hundreds of manically thought out details make this creation one of the artist’s most complex Visual Toys to date. ------- "Bitcoin, The Origin" is a set of two Visual Toys, titled "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto" and "It’s Alive!" which reflect and explore the mystery and enigmas behind the creation of Bitcoin. ArrĂ©s presents these proposals to us in his signature style, full of iconography, fantasy, maniacal animations and a panoply of details (both subtle and overt) which simultaneously fascinate, hypnotize, and narrate this historical milestone through the singular vision of the artist. Through this series, ArrĂ©s freezes a crucial moment of cryptocurrency history, taking a still photo under his vision and turning it into two unique crypto artworks. ---- More info about Javier ArrĂ©s: https://javierarres.com/about.html