Weekend Reading: May 12 Edition

Around Ohio

• The big news on campus this week is the announcement of the launch of the Provost’s Council on the Arts. The council will advise and strategize on virtually all major, arts-related matters at the university. Wex Director Gaëtane Verna is on it, as is Head of Learning & Public Practice Dionne Custer Edwards.
• In other Wex news, big congrats are in order for Head Curator Kelly Kivland, who’s won a Teiger Foundation grant to support her summer 2024 show with Artist Residency Award recipient Tanya Lukin Linklater.
• Dayton Daily News shared a photo gallery from last weekend’s memorial for the late, great Julia Reichert.
• Ohio native and Malt Adult curator Sarah Schmidt may have moved to Chicago, but you can see her latest work when it debuts this weekend on YouTube via Adult Swim.
• Artist David Denniston dropped his trailer for Ice Cream Land, an upcoming doc on Southside personality Ricky Jackson.
• Columbus poet Matt Mitchell opened up about his upcoming collection, Vampire Burrito.
• Nationally touring local singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless talked about her second career as a recording engineer.
• Ohio Art League is accepting submissions through June 30 for its 2023 Fall Juried Exhibition.
• Tuesday through Saturday, Urban Arts Space hosts Grieving Landscapes, a durational performance installation exploring grief practices and rituals.
• Tuesday afternoon, the Columbus Dispatch will host an online conversation about drag.
• Tuesday night, WOSU-TV will air the 2022 Nam June Paik doc Moon is the Oldest TV. The film will also stream via the Passport app.
• Thursday, Greater Columbus Arts Council is having a reception for the public art project Art Spot.
• Next Friday, gallery owner Duff Lindsay is back at it with a new show by Ricky Barnes.
• Also next Friday, WOSU will interview retiring All Sides host Ann Fisher at its HQ, across the street from the Wex.
• And Friday night brings Wonderball.

Around the globe

• A couple of good recommendations came through this week from artists with Wex ties. The first is from Unorthodocs alum Robert Greene: Starting Saturday, the Stronger Than Fiction Film Festival will stream 15 short docs for a week, covering subjects from housing challenges in America to a controversial public artwork by Richard Serra.
• The second is from Meditation Ocean Director Hope Ginsburg, who shared coverage of a fascinating immersive video installation by Ayana V. Jackson at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
• Speaking of the National Museum of African Art, it’s looking for a new director for the third time in six years.
• In other Wex connections, Linoleum, the recent film by Columbus native and 2023 Ohio Shorts juror Colin West, made this New York Times roundup of sci-fi movies to stream now.
• The Criterion Collection announced a new distribution deal with Janus Films.
• Here’s an expert opinion on how long the Writers Guild of America strike might last.
• There’s a new book out about how color is in the eye of the beholder.
• And this piece reflects on the importance of color in art history through seven works by artists including Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent.
• Tracey Emin spoke from experience about the healing power of art.
• Connie Butler will be the next director of MoMA PS1.
• Queer|Art announced its 2023 fellows and mentors.
• In June, the Rembrandt House Museum will host a pop-up tattoo studio, so patrons can have the artist’s work etched onto their skin.
• Paris’s Centre Pompidou announced that it will close for five years, and the call is out for architects to renovate the building.
• The Met is preparing to scour its collection for looted art.
• As emergency orders end around the pandemic, here’s a story about how COVID 19 laid bare unsustainable and harmful practices in the dance industry.
• Here’s the complete list of winners of a 2023 Pulitzer Prize.
• An author’s research is resulting in a scandal involving author Alex Haley and how Martin Luther King actually viewed Malcolm X.
• Writer Patricia McCormick wondered why the young adult book she wrote to combat sexual abuse has become a target for right wing book bans.
• Ever have trouble grasping philosophical concepts? Theoretical Puppets is here to illuminate.
• We lost two major creative forces in pop culture this week. Illustrator Frank Kozik died last weekend at 61. Here’s a shortlist of Kozik’s iconic works, including promotional art for Pearl Jam and the Melvins.
• And legendary cartoonist Sam Gross passed away at the age of 89. He’s maybe best known for a darkly hilarious National Lampoon single-panel involving frog legs.