Weekend reading: December 18 edition

Around Ohio

• If you weren’t able to see our fall shows before the Wex closed, video views of Free Space and the galleries holding work by Gretchen Bender and Tomashi Jackson are now posted on the respective Exhibition event pages.
• Saturday night at 7 PM, Ian Hummel, frontman for local children’s favorite The Shazzbots!, is performing an online tribute to Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas.
• The Columbus Museum of Art is reopening this weekend. 
• But if you’d rather stay home, writer Scott Woods did a streamed tour with curator Deidre Hamlar of the epic Aminah Robinson exhibition.
• Plans have been unveiled for the expansion of Cleveland’s I.M. Pei-designed Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
• For anyone still on the hunt for art gifts, another option: the small works exhibition Size Matters is on view at Pennington Art Services through the end of the year.
• Here’s an update on how local film presenters are faring—including the Wex.
• 614 Magazine is looking for input from readers.
• Columbus-based writer Saeed Jones got an early Christmas gift: Margaret Atwood reading one of his poems for The New Yorker.
• The fabulous singer Dionne Warwick had some fresh side eye to share over Ohio State’s attempt to trademark “The.”
• And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Hoodpanda’s naked roll on Rte. 670 this week.

Around the globe

• If you missed last week’s livestream of Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce… Pandemic! (pictured at top of page), it’s now available on demand. The New York Times raves that it’s a “bawdy, spangled, queer celebration.”
• The Criterion Collection is currently spotlighting the films of Marie Loisier. Here's a Q&A with Loisier from our own Film/Video Director Dave Filipi about one we supported, The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye.
• Dave also contributed his thoughts to a collection of Best Films of 2020 lists from Screen Slate Magazine.
• Free Space contributing curator Rooney Elmi spoke to filmmaker Ekwa Msangi about her feature debut Farewell Amor.
• The full slate for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival has been unveiled. It includes new films from Sam Green (7 Sounds, pictured above), Natalia Almada, Sion Sono, and Edgar Wright, along with filmmaking debuts by actor Rebecca Hall and multi-hat wearing musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.
• And if you need an antidote for the problem of endless Netflix scrolling, trying figure out what to watch, Wright has shared his wide-ranging pandemic watch list. 
• There’s also been a programming update from SXSW for ’21; Mark Mothersbaugh and Cynthia Erivo are part of the fest’s digital lineup.
• Through December 31, the Hirschorn Museum is hosting an online show centered on media art and history with video works by William Kentridge and Kota Ezawa, among others.
• JUXTAPOZ is offering a new virtual residency opportunity to artists who work in acrylic.
• Jeff Koons is now spilling his art making secrets via MasterClass.
• Character actress Carol Sutton, seen recently in HBO’s Lovecraft Country and this year’s reissue of the 1982 film Cane River, passed away at 76—another casualty of COVID-19.
• And another: highly controversial South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk has died at 59.
• With the passing of dancer-choreographer Ann Reinking at 71, Theatermania has compiled clips of her most iconic moves on screen.
• Here’s the story behind the Soviet-style Cookie Monster mural commissioned for a Peoria, Illinois commercial building by someone impersonating the building owner.
• Up and coming artist Eden Seifu is on this new list of art world Instagram feeds to follow.
• Hammer Museum curator Ikechúkwú Onyewuenyi created a Spotify playlist inspired by James Baldwin’s record collection.
• San Diego’s DJ Riko shared his eagerly anticipated annual holiday mix, including his new track with Gerald A, “We Need a Little Vaccine.”
• Lastly, this week music legend Dolly Parton not only saw the Moderna vaccine she supported be approved for emergency use in the US, she debuted a new holiday special.

We're taking a holiday break from Weekend Reading for the next two weeks, but we'll share a post next week some of our favorite stories from the year.