Uzbek Artist to Face “Insult and Slander” Charge
News / Tashkent
By Sara Raza

Outrage swept across the Central Asian professional art community as news surfaced in late December 2009 that Umida Akhmedova, a prominent documentary photographer from Uzbekistan, had been criminally charged for “insult and slander of the Uzbek people and traditions.” [more]

Top Commercial Gallerist to Head LA Museum
News / Los Angeles
By William Pym

The January 11 announcement that New York powerhouse dealer Jeffrey Deitch will assume the directorship of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) sent shock waves through the international art world’s institutional and commercial sectors. Deitch’s new posting represents an unprecedented elision of the private and public in contemporary art. [more]

Mass Eviction of Beijing Artists
News / Beijing
By HG Masters

This winter, northern China has seen record low temperatures and heavy snowfall, but for the artists of Beijing’s Zhengyang Creative Art Zone, it has been a particularly cold, hard season. On November 26, residents of the Zhengyang Creative Art Zone in Jinzhan village, in Chaoyang district, northeast of the capital, were served eviction notices by the art zone’s developer, Haohai Yizhou Company. [more]