Weekly News Roundup: August 4, 2023
By The Editors
Curator IWONA BLAZWICK with Istanbul Biennial director BIGE ORER. Photo by Salih Ustundag. Courtesy the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts.
Istanbul Biennial Names Curator of its 18th Edition
The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) announced on August 3 that curator and art historian Iwona Blazwick will lead its next edition, scheduled to open September 2024. Blazwick was the longtime head of the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 2001 to 2022, and is now curator for the Royal Commission’s Arts AlUla project in Saudi Arabia. Her major curatorial projects have included initiating the commission programs for the Tate Turbine Hall and Whitechapel Gallery. She was also founding editor of the influential Contemporary Artists Monographs and Themes and Movements in Art series, both with Phaidon Press, and the series Documents of Contemporary Art from Whitechapel Gallery/ MIT Press. Founded by İKSV in 1987, the Istanbul Biennial is sponsored by Turkey’s largest conglomerate, Koç Holdings, and takes place across multiple museums and venues throughout the city. As noted by İKSV general dictor Görgün Taner, Blazwick has had a “long association” with the Biennial as she was previously a member of the advisory board for past editions. The 18th Istanbul Biennial will open to the public on September 14, 2024, and run through November 17.
Art Mumbai will be held at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse Members’ Enclosure. Courtesy Rudolph.A.furtado.
Art Mumbai to Launch in November
India’s financial center and most populous city, Mumbai, will have its first major art fair this November. Art Mumbai will feature more than 40 participating galleries showcasing modern and contemporary art, crafts, and antiquities from across the region “with an overlay of technology and A.I.” The gallery lineup includes leading Indian galleries showcasing historical and contemporary artworks, including Jhaveri Contemporary, Experimenter, Chatterjee & Lal, and international galleries such as New York’s Aicon Contemporary and London’s Grosvenor Gallery. Art Mumbai will be the second major art fair in the country along with the India Art Fair, which has taken place annually in New Delhi for 14 years. The director of operations at Art Mumbai, Teesta Bhandare, said that this fair will be “more tightly curated” in comparison to India Art Fair, and “its ideal location at the charming Mahalaxmi Racecourse in the city center lends itself to a more experiential visit for our audience.” Art Mumbai will take place from November 16 to 19.
A portrait of Mark Salvatus. Image via Instagram.
Curatorial Proposal Selected for Philippines’s Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024
The curatorial proposal “Kabilang-tabing ng panahong ito (Behind the curtain of this age)” by Carlos Quijon, Jr., which features the work of artist Mark Salvatus, was selected for the Philippines Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. The exhibition project will focus on the ethno-ecologies of Mt. Banahaw, a forested mountain located at the boundary between Laguna, Quezon, and Lucban, the artist’s hometown. The Philippines selected its national presentation for the Venice Biennale with a jury of arts professionals that vetted 13 proposals submitted through an open call. The jury included Corazón S. Alvina, director of the Museo ng Kaalamáng Katutubò; Victorino Mapa Manalo, chair of the National Commissioner for Culture and the Arts (NCCA); Shanghai-based independent curator Biljana Ciric; Guggenheim senior curator-at-large Alexandra Munroe; and Loren Legarda, the Senate President Pro Tempore and project principal for the Philippines’s participation in the art and architecture biennales in Venice.
National Gallery of Australia geometric roof detailing, 2018, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Courtesy and copyright National Gallery of Australia.
NGA Australia Released Report Finding No “Improper Interference” to Indigenous Artworks
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Kamberri/Canberra has released its investigation into the authenticity of works from the APY Art Centre Collective (APYACC) following allegations of white staff members interfering with aboriginal art and the subsequent postponement of the NGA’s “Ngura Pulka – Epic Country” show. The NGA’s independent panel concluded that there had been no “improper interference” to Indigenous artworks, and that the 28 artworks “comply with the National Gallery’s provenance policy.” The South Australian Government, which funds the APYACC, is also leading a separate, ongoing investigation into this issue, and has recently appointed a three-person panel to review the allegations. The NGA will “continue to monitor the South Australian Government’s review” and will announce decisions made regarding “Ngura Pulka – Epic Country” and its investigation in due course.
