The Art Daddy's Weekly Daddy Wrap Up for 4/19/24
Daddies descend on Venice, a shockingly low paying studio assistant job posting, and a sauced up gossip columnist goes to Europe. Here is all the daddy news of the week that is fit to print.
This week the daddies were deep in Italy for the Venice Biennale. Instagram was popping off with so many images of the art from various pavilions, Venice waterfront scenes, and the Aperol Spritzes were flowing. Read my weekly Daddy Wrap up here for 4/19/24.
An Art Daddy meme about the Biennale.
Venice Bienniale Opens to the Public
FOMO was real and the daddies were out in full force in Venice this week for the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale. While many art world insiders were gallivanting in the sinking city of Venice, many of us were at home watching via social media and cursing our drab existence. While I briefly experienced this, I memed about to get through it and made peace with the situation.
An Art Daddy meme about the Biennale.
The daddies in Italy filled their social feeds with posts from the various pavilions, al fresco lunches with a view, and countless parties including the Chanel bash at the French pavilion which featured every art A-listers as you can imagine; this also seemed like the party to attend. For this year’s fair the artist Julien Creuzet was chosen to represent France.
Adriano Pedrosa, was tapped to curate and direct this year’s event, focuses on larger themes of outsiderness and queer history. Previews for the Biennale end today and it opens to the public on April 20th. A standout for many critics and viewers alike American Pavilion which featured the artist Jeffrey Gibson who was also the first ever Indigenous artist to represent the US. This week's NYT also produced a great profile on him.
Many art people also pointed to larger climate change issues facing Venice as they were there in a classic privileged dilettante move. It’s been a widely known fact for years that the city is in fact sinking, and this has also been quickened due to climate change. And may even be added to an endangered list as a result.
Climate change aside, there was a lot of art to see and the daddies pressed on. Dread Scott’s project which was co-organized by The Africa Center, and his gallery Cristin Tierney, titled All African People’s Consulate, is another work that has generated a lot of conversation. Scott’s installation, according to the Africa Center’s website, is a “functioning consulate for an imaginary Pan-African, Afrofuturist union of countries, promoting cultural and diplomatic relations. The premise of the Consulate is the opposite of most existing immigration chokepoints; while those often function to constrain admittance and movement, this Consulate facilitates ways to let one in.”
Puppies Puppies, Chick with a Dick, 2024. Image courtesy of artist’s IG.
The performance artist Puppies Puppies aka Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo, also made their debut with a performance that was a nod to Marina Abrmovic’s Nude with Skeleton. There were also several other works that gave the artist’s larger take on sociocultural issues, gender, sex and more. Chick with a Dick was a funny take on many things, such as sexual orientation and the sculpture featured a live baby chick a top green dildo. Puppies Puppies also had work featured at the New Museum last fall.
The Venice Biennale is on view through November of this year to the public.
Four Joan Mitchells Up for Auction Next Month
May is usually marked with blockbuster auctions for contemporary art, and next month is no different. Ahead of the sales in two weeks, Sotheby’s announced there will be four major works by the monumental abstract painter Joan Mitchell that will go on the auction block.
Joan Mitchell, Ground, 1989-90. Courtesy of Sotheby's.
The sale will take place on May 13th and the works are estimated between $1 and $20 million and were made between 1954 and 1990. Last November, Mitchell’s Untitled sold for a shocking record $29.2 million at Christie’s making it the second highest record sale at auction for the artist. Read more about the works here.
Nate Freeman at the Medici Villa Party Becomes Basis of Art Daddy Venice Biennale Game
This week the Wayne’s World art version Nate Freeman and Ben Godsill dropped a promo video on Instagram for their podcast, Nota Benet. In the 25-second clip, Freeman, who is an art gossip communist for Vanity Fair, and art dealer Godsill can be seen chatting about the event they are attending with an majestic Medici villa in the background. In the clip, Freeman barely blinks with his signature goofy smile, and in it Godsill asks him what they are there for.
“We're here to celebrate the collector Tony Salamé, and this is one of the craziest things I have ever seen,” Freeman says.
A recording of the video that appeared on IG this weekend of Freeman and Godsill.
Slurring his words a bit, and drink in hand, Freeman notes again, “This is a whole thing.” Almost instinctively to try and counter what has just happened, Godsill seems to try to keep it moving while also trying to clean up the messiness of his podcast co-host current condition. He tries to share more info about the event, noting that they will be covering it this week “in-depth in the pod.” I will go on record and say, this is one of my least favorite art world podcasts for many reasons. But now is not the time for me to dissect that.
A screenshot of Freeman and Godsill in a promo video for their podcast Nota Benne.
In some ways this interaction is an extension of their podcast which is predicated on art world gossip, what they eat at gallery dinners, and the things they observe in their own exclusive circles. But we know the art world is bigger than that but this kind of approach for me results in gatekeeping which I find boring, problematic, and are the larger critiques of it that have gone on for decades. Can we do something new boys?
The rules for the Venice Biennale Drinking Game.
Freeman is clearly drunk in his own club in the video which was mostly amusing. So much so, it became the basis of my game for the Venice Biennial. While Freeman thinks he is a legend in his own right, this game cements his villa-crunk status for better or for worse. For the Art daddy’s drinking game, if you see Nate in Venice city limits, people are encouraged to try and clock his Aperol spritz intake, take a picture and send it to AD, and then pound your own drink. What's not to love about this?
Marina Abramović Posts Ad for a New Studio Assistant for Extremely Low Pay
The groundbreaking performance artist Marina Abramovic is looking for a new studio assistant. I became aware of this information this week while looking at NYFA's job classifieds. Abramović, who has been in hot water before with the treatment of her interns and volunteers in 2014 after founding her institute and being accused of not compensating them, is now paying an embarrassingly low salary for this latest position.
A screenshot from the NYFA ad for the studio assistant position for Abramovic LLC.
For $50-60,000 a year including health insurance you can be her studio assistant and do the following:
Perform administrative tasks, including data entry, scheduling, correspondence, and office documentation
Clerical tasks as needed such as filing, dictation, and data entry
Assist in the day-to-day operations of the artist's studio, which will span a large variety of activities that will change consistently
Collaborate with the artist on various projects
Work closely with other members of the studio team, including assistants, interns, and technicians, to ensure seamless communication and cooperation in all aspects of studio operations.
Liaise with external vendors, galleries, and collaborators as needed.
Assist with art installations, exhibitions, and events as required.
Assist in organizing and maintaining the artist’s extensive mixed media archive, including physical and digital elements.
Manage digital assets, including photographs, documentation, and digital files, using appropriate archival software and systems.
For someone who currently who has a traveling retrospective that’s been in two major European museums (The Royal Academy of Art, and is currently at The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam) she appears to be riding high on the hog. And in another bizarre move this year, she launched her own skincare and wellness line (the skincare link no longer works but the rest of the products are apparently available).
To me, this also reads like vintage Tom Sachs and Sarah Hoover who posted an even more embarrassing and outrageous job post last year looking for an assistant that literally did everything from Sachs’s art, watching his child, and picking up dry cleaning. At least they were willing to go up to $95k but, still, doesn't seem like enough.
The low salary is insulting and further underscores the mistreatment of cultural workers and how in the art world specifically so many people are overworked and underpaid. This has been seen in a growing movement of cultural workers in museum and institution spaces who have organizing since the pandemic. How can anyone live off of $60,000 in NYC where apartments are going for $3,000+ in Manhattan alone? Honestly, do better Marina.
Maurizio Cattelan Doesn't Consider Himself a Satirist
In an interview this week with The Telegraph which almost seemed like a parody of itself, the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan told the newspaper that he doesn't consider himself to be a satirist. Over the years the artist has made a name for himself for poking fun at the art world, and culture at large with pieces such as his banana tapped to a wall which made headlines at Miami Basel in 2020 titled Comedian, among many others.
Installation view of Maurizio Cattelan, La Nona Ora, 1999, at “Not Afraid of Love,” Hotel de la Monnaie, Paris, 2016. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images.
For this year's Biennale he was asked to be part of the Vatican's pavilion, which sounds like a joke in itself. He even had a go at the Catholic Church before, and in a country like Italy which has a large Roman Catholic practicing population. Cattelan's La Nona Hora from 1999 features the pope being hit by a meteorite and also escapes his larger humor and commentary on the Church. Cattelan had many interesting things to say which are counter to how he is viewed it seems. Read the full interview here.
Things AD is currently obsessed with:
In a NYT Style section manner, I also want to set forth some taste making elements.
What I am drinking: Waterloo Tropical Fruit Seltzer.
What I am reading: This ridiculous New Yorker profile of Adam Moss and his new book.
What I am looking at: Works from the latest exhibit up at Gaa Gallery in Tribeca by the artist Julia Garcia.