Weekend Reading: July 19 Edition

Around Ohio

• ICYMI, we have some big, exciting news: Julieta González will join the Wex October 7 as our new Head of Exhibitions.
• Here’s a good one we missed last week: a Dispatch feature on artist Kirsta Benedetti and the Marysville Women’s Art Project.
• There are loads of options for your Sunday this weekend. First, the Goodale Park Music Series has another killer act for Sunday afternoon: The OG Players.
• Sunday also brings a matinee of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure to the Ohio, courtesy of the CAPA Summer Movie Series.
• Or you can get into a discussion about the book The War of Art at Streetlight Guild.
• Or create an abstract drawing while listening to the sounds of nature.
• Later Sunday, you can have a cocktail as you learn to make a paper succulent garden at The Bar at Echo Spirits.
• Columbus Monthly gave space to author Mandy Shunnarah to discuss her new book about finding community at the indoor skate park Skate Naked.
• Felicity Gunn shared insights on the prints she’s presenting in a new show at 934 Gallery.
• The startup Fallback Studios discussed plans to open a full-service film production facility in Dublin next year.
• Mansfield, where parts of the modern classic Shawshank Redemption were filmed, is planning a blowout for the movie’s 30th anniversary.
• It’s been a big week for Cincinnati. First, The National Trust for Historic Preservation dished out $3 million in grants to preserve Black History sites in locations including Cincinnati.
• Then, Cincy made the short list of possible new locations for the Sundance Film Festival.
• The Ohio State Fair kicks off Wednesday, as does the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. Contributors include Lynda McLanahan, Jennifer Poleon, and Wex Marketing Project Manager Adin Sadic.
• Thursday, Ginger Rabbit hosts a jazz quartet featuring guitarist Brett Burleson.
• Looking ahead to next weekend, Friday, Urban Arts Space is hosting a free—and fascinating—documentary poetry workshop with the inimitable Ajanaé Dawkins as part of its monthly Artist Commune series.

Around the Globe

• For BOMB, Wex Path Fellowship alum Reg Zehner wrote about the prints made by Cameron Granger during the residency that led to his current show at the Queens Museum.
• An Eva Hesse work that’s part of the permanent collection the Wex stewards is mentioned in this piece about a show now on view at Hauser & Wirth.
• Here’s a story that ties into to Wex Director Gaëtane Verna’s work with artist Kapwani Kiwanga for the current Venice Biennale: Archaeologists found a trove of Murano glass off the coast of Bulgaria.
• After two statues of women were beheaded last week, another outdoor sculpture was sawed off this week, this time in Seattle.
• Boston, a city with a healthy share of historic statues, launched a new campaign to reimagine public art. Hank Willis Thomas is among the artists tapped for this.
• Art world power couple Julia Chiang and KAWS were interviewed about their parallel solo shows at New York’s Parrish Art Museum.
• In a new installation, Dutch artist Johannes-Harm Hovinga is taking a different approach to art-related climate activism by spending hours each day punching holes in the UN’s Climate Report.
• Got a neurocognitive tolerance for “oddball” stimuli? You just might be a creative.
• An exhibition exploring the history of Turkey’s transgender community has been banned.
• How can artists protect their legacy after they’re gone?
• This fall, the Academy Museum will offer visitors the chance to walk through the stargate corridor from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• The Washington Post spotlighted the restoration of the Barton Opus, a pipe organ built nearly a century ago for live accompaniment to silent film.
• The 2024 Emmy nominations were announced; The Bear and its network, FX, both broke records.
• A nine-hour documentary project about Prince that’s been moving forward quietly for years now may not see the light of day.
• Hungarian filmmaking icon Béla Tarr shared some thoughts on how film can fight authoritarianism.
• Actor June Squibb talked about getting her first starring role at the age of 94, in the art house hit Thelma.
• The producer of a new film starring Anthony Hopkins has gone public with an extortion attempt involving the theft by hacking of all the footage shot with the actor.
• A new approach to an iconic work by late choreographer Pina Bausch, from the company she founded, is earning raves.
• A performance of a Joan Jonas piece at California’s Getty Center brought about a silent protest by dancers for fair wages.
• It impacted the area’s music scene for decades, but a notorious 1978 concert by The Clash has been deemed by historians in the British town of Bury as unworthy of commemorating.
• The New York Times shared the amazing life story of first-time children’s book author Betty Gordon.
• Following the death of Shelley Duvall, her choreographer on the film Popeye, Sharon Kinney, reflected on the actor’s memorable moves as Olive Oyl.
• Influential video artist Bill Viola passed away at the age of 73.
• Iranian conceptual artist Farad Moshiri shed his mortal coil at 61.
• Photojournalist Thomas Hoepker died at 88.
• Costumer, producer, and former Hollywood studio exec Anthea Sylbert died at the age of 84.
• Actor Shannen Doherty passed away at 53.
• And beloved comedian Bob Newhart passed away at 94. He might be best known recently from Elf or The Big Bang Theory, or as the real comedian whose act was cribbed by a character on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but to this writer, he’ll always be the guy who gave us maybe the single best comedy series finale ever.