What We're Reading: 8/19/24
Meet the Husband-Wife Team Who Make Monuments to Sports Heroes in Chicago, Around the World
A local husband-and-wife team leads a collective of artists who create monuments to sports stars and heroes of all kinds — from Ty Cobb to Johnny Cash.
The couple makes them on property that was once part of Fort Sheridan, the historic U.S. Army training camp 28 miles north of Chicago’s Loop. One former camp building is now occupied by Studio Rotblatt Amrany.
The studio was founded by Julie Rotblatt Amrany and Omri Amrany, sculptors who have worked together since the 1980s.
Via WTTW
Artist Mickalene Thomas and her dream of making a difference
When you walk into the world of Mickalene Thomas, prepare to be dazzled. The 53-year-old artist uses rhinestones, collage, silkscreen and video to create pieces that celebrate women – proud, confident and powerful.
She may be best known for her reinterpretations of classics, like her "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe," a take on the Pablo Picasso and Edouard Manet paintings of the same name. "Our histories are always wrought with ideas of leaving truths out, leaving people out," said Thomas. "And so, I started questioning that."
Via CBS Sunday Morning
Anish Kapoor’s Massive Sculptures Take Over the U.K.’s Largest Cathedral
Anish Kapoor is marking his first Liverpool presentation in over 40 years with a sprawling new show commemorating the 100th anniversary of Liverpool Cathedral. The free exhibition, titled “Monadic Singularity,” spans a range of Kapoor’s sculptures from the past 25 years throughout Liverpool Cathedral, among the few sites large enough host to spectacles like Kapoor’s massive, immersive sculpture Sectional Body Preparing for Monadic Singularity (2015). The centenary show marks this artwork’s U.K. debut, too.
Via Artnet
Netflix’s co-founder will redevelop Utah resort into a ‘skiable outdoor art museum’
A popular resort in Utah will be transformed into a luxury “skiable outdoor art museum” after being acquired by Reed Hastings, the billionaire co-founder of Netflix, who will install works by James Turrell, Jenny Holzer and others throughout the mountaintop.
With 8,484 skiable acres, Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah, is the largest ski resort in North America by total acreage. Starting in 2026, the 12,100-acre property will be home to a new art programme. Notable installations include a trailside light installation, Ganzfeld Apani (2011), which James Turrell originally created for the Venice Biennale. The resort said it will also install a major work by Nancy Holt from the 1980s onsite. Pieces commissioned specifically for Powder Mountain will include a series of text engravings on rocks by Jenny Holzer and an installation by Utah native Paul McCarthy rooted in American Western mythology.
Via The Art Newspaper