Better Than the (Is)real Thing
Observations on the new Artforum Editor in Chief. Plus Whitney Biennial first takes
Tina Rivers Ryan: a very savvy choice.
A move away from geopolitics and established loyalties to divide the art audience along a new central fault line, viz., tech/popular art vs. “old guard” art.
Outside the New York social economy, which seems essential. Outside the gallery economy, which might make her easy to boss around, lacking support of that essential constituency.
Maybe not! I don’t know her. And perhaps the magazine’s ownership no longer views galleries essential to their business.
As a writer, Rivers Ryan is someone whose work I’ve enjoyed. Appears to know her shit. She’s mediagenic and oriented toward the public sphere, which is essential for AF’s desire to move into public events and make money off the brand qua brand rather than as a publication.
Covers a lot of bases: both a football fan and a self-declared “cybergoth,” which suggests an ability to cross lines of cultural demarcation: can talk both NFL and NFTs.
Have no idea if she knows anything about how to run a publication. But what’s a publication?
Columbia PhD but very online, at least by curatorial standards. Seems like someone I’d quite possibly like.
Unafraid to take political stances, or rather to make politically oriented social-media posts. Has posted about Gaza on Twitter numerous times, beginning with a #ceasefirenow retweet supporting Tlaib et al.’s introduction of a Gaza ceasefire resolution into the HOR on Oct. 16.
A historian of digital art, which is an important role to play in a realm that otherwise flails around ahistorically.
Handsome website. Landing page includes a section titled Educator and Public Speaker, which solicits “private bookings for virtual and in-person corporate and social events.”
If not for this career move, Rivers Ryan was likely destined to be a niche “go-to” person for digital art, maybe in ten years becoming the first named curator for digital art at MoMA or etc. (Maybe still the latter ultimately.) Now she’s moving, or moving with, digital art to a central place in the art world.
In a way the path is clear for AF; they’ve already suffered the art world being riven in a way it almost never is. The likelihood of a second, different catastrophically divisive event occurring in the next few years is small. Now the path is cleared for them to do what they want, which is leverage the brand—AF x SXSW. Penske owns both.
Get ready for Spike 2.0 but more boring and with TED talks.
Biennial First Takes
How’s the Whitney Biennial? I have no idea. I went to the opening and talked to my friends. It felt spacious; that was nice. I’ll go back soon.
The intelligentsia have begun to weigh in, however:
As one says on Twitter:
An Announcement and a Plea
Exciting news: the Spigot media empire is expanding in the coming weeks! More information on that modest but important step soon.
Expansions do, of course, require money.
I prefer to give away most things I write and otherwise produce under the Spigot banner for free. But it’s not easy. Los Angeles was expensive! New York is merciless. I may experiment with paywalling a bit more in coming months.
To avert this tragedy of the commons, it would be lovely if more of you could chip in $5 a month. If you want to keep alive criticism that’s serious but not reactionary (see above), supple yet with a strong backbone like a fine glass of Bordeaux, sign up as a paid member today! If nothing else, you get a friendship bracelet, handmade by me.
