Athens Archaeological Museum Architect Named, Copyrighting A.I. Art, and More: Morning Links for January 12,2023

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The Headlines

ON THE MOVE.Patti Wong, a powerhouse in the Asian art market who departedSotheby’slate last year after more than 30 years there, issetting up an art advisory,Angelica Villareports inARTnews. Wong is going into business withDaryl Wickstrom, who is also aSotheby’salum, and is partnering withPhilip Hoffman’s international outfit, theFine Art Group. Meanwhile, theMethas named anew chief operating officer—Jameson “Jamie” Kelleher, who has been its chief financial officer—Artforumreports. AndAlex Poots, the founding artistic director and chief executive of Manhattan’s multifariousShed, isdroppinghis chief executive duties. He told theNew York Timesthat, “to really take us on to the next chapter, I need to dedicate my entire time to the artistic direction of this organization.”

Related Articles

Morning Links: Colonial Williamsburg Edition

Archaeologists Have Uncovered a New Royal Tomb in Luxor, Egypt

THE MACHINE AGE.Computer scientistStephen Thaleris suing to get theU.S. Copyright Officeto grant copyright to artcreated by an artificial-intelligence system of his design,Reutersreports. Currently, only human-created material can be copyrighted in the U.S. Thaler has also been pursuing similar action in a total of 18 jurisdictions. On a tangentially related note, an exhibition in Londonpits a human curator(artistFabienne Hess) againstInstagram’s algorithm,Wallpaperreports. Their task: Curate a display at theJ/M Galleryabout “loss,” using open-source images of theMetropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. One of its organizers, a researcher from theOxford Universitysaid, “In this exhibit, the algorithm reveals its own ways of seeing.”

The Digest

In perhaps not entirely surprising news, architect (and art collector)Lanfranco Cirillo, who designed a Black Sea compound that is reputedly the domain ofVladimir Putin, has said he will not travel from Russia to his native Italy to face charges of financial crimes. The proceedings will take place with him in absentia.[The Art Newspaper]

The leaders of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei people in New Zealand are calling forSotheby’sto return 18th- and 19th-century relics that it is selling that come from their culture. The Māori tribe said it currently holds very few of its historical treasures; the auction house said that it “upholds the highest standards of the market.”[The Guardian]

David Chipperfield Architectsbeat out 10 other firms—includingSANAA,Herzog and de Meuron, andAdjaye Associates—to design a newNational Archaeological Museumin Athens.[Architects’ Journal]

Behold this absolutely art-stacked Paris “pied-à-terre” (if you can call a two-floor, 5,270-square-foot home a pied-à-terre). Its owner is unnamed, but its interior designer isLuis Laplace, who has also done projects for dealersIwanand Manuela Wirthand artistCindy Sherman.[Architectural Digest]

Veteran New York sculptorAnn Gillen, who built her career around public commissions, is still going strong at 88, and has a show up at thePolina Berlin Galleryin Manhattan. It is Gillen’s first solo outing in 20 years; she said she had teachers who told her “you have to do work that’s meaningful to you, and just keep doing it.”[The New York Times]

The Kicker

DO OR DINE.Fellow photographers and friendsJason SchmidtandRoe Ethridgeshared an email conversationwithCultured(Ethridge has a new monograph and accompanying New York exhibitions)—and it is a lively one. At one point, Schmidt asked Ethridge why he became an artist. The reply: “I wanna say I didn’t have a choice . . . or the choice was a grim script of either nine-to-five, Dockers, Oakleys, and Olive Garden,orbe an artist, move to NYC, and let the chips fall where they may.”[Cultured]