Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
Happy Wednesday! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week.
| Rebecca Ackroyd Joins Deborah Schamoni Gallery: The Munich gallery has a solo show planned for the Berlin-based British sculptor for September, alongside a presentation at Art Basel this week. |
| David Kordansky Gallery Announces Representation of the Estate of Keith Sonnier: A major work by the Post-Minimalist sculptor, who died in 2020, is currently on view as part of Art Basel’s inaugural Basel Exclusive initiative. The gallery will mount a solo exhibition of his early neon sculptures in Los Angeles this September. |
| Omolola Coker Wins Inaugural Myma Art Prize: The Lagos-based batik artist, born in London in 1992, was selected from a group of finalists whose works were exhibited at Yenwa Gallery in Lagos. She receives a $5,000 grand prize and a fully funded three-month residency at Nosona Studios in Benin City, from July through September. |
| Trellis Art Fund Announces Third Round of Milestone Grants Totaling $1.2 Million: The grant-making organization is awarding $100,000 each in unrestricted funding to 12 artists, including Kelly Akashi, Charles Atlas, Alex Da Corte, and Senga Nengudi, among others. Four of this year’s grants were reserved for artists who are caregivers to children, senior family members, or others in need. |
| Villa Albertine Announces Its 2027 Residency Cohort: The French Institute’s US residency program has selected 60 artists and thinkers for exploratory residencies across nearly 25 cities and regions throughout the United States. The announcement coincides with the organization’s fifth anniversary. |
The Big Number: $75.8 M.
That was the record-breaking total for Phillips’s New York Watch Auction: XIV, which broke the record for the highest-grossing watch sale in the US. The previous was just set in December, also by Phillips, with a $43.5 million sale.
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Earlier this month, news broke that the mega-gallery Pace Gallery was laying off 50 staff and cutting its roster by 50 artists. In interviews, CEO Marc Glimcher repeatedly blamed a more-is-more art system and called the cuts a “model correction.” That framing was a bit rich for many artists and critics who felt it was too much like Dr. Frankenstein lamenting the monster he created. Count longtime New York magazine critic Jerry Saltz among them. In a column last week, Saltz pulled no punches, dubbing Pace the “Fyre Festival of mega-galleries: all branding, hype, ambition, and promises of a future that never arrives.” And before one writes off Saltz as “Old Man Yells at Clouds,” the critic is devastatingly specific, saying his issue is not with mega-galleries, but with Pace, which in his estimation, became “more like a clearinghouse” under Glimcher that “chased almost every art-world fad and growth strategy of the last decade.” Ouch.
