Barneys New York as a beauty brand. Image courtesy of Barneys New York…
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Barneys New York makes a post-bankruptcy return as a beauty and wellness brand.
“For decades, Barneys New York was synonymous with identifying up-and-coming designers, giving them their first wholesale deals and the clout that came with counting Barneys as a stockist. Those days are over: Barneys filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and closed its stores. In a post-bankruptcy return, it’s purveying a different sort of product assortment: skin care and bottled water. ABG partnered with South Korea-based Gloent Group on the new Barneys beauty brand, the first use of its name on a product since the bankruptcy filing. The line will start with a four-product skin care lineup, consisting of a cleanser, a serum, a day cream and a night cream, costing from $48 to $168.” [H/T Business of Design]
Online art communities are updating their policies to ban AI-generated images.
“However you feel about the ethics of AI art, online art communities are facing a very real problem of scale: AI art can be created orders of magnitude faster than human-made art. A powerful GPU can generate thousands of images an hour, even while you sleep. On Sunday, popular furry art community Fur Affinity announced that AI-generated art was not allowed because it “lacked artistic merit.” Last year, the 27-year-old art/animation portal Newgrounds banned images made with Artbreeder, a tool for “breeding” GAN-generated art. It’s not just long-running online communities: InkBlot is a budding art platform funded on Kickstarter in 2021 that went into open beta just this week. They’ve already taken a “no tolerance” policy against AI art, and updated their terms of service to exclude it.” [H/T WAXY]
Floating Museum. Image courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial…
The art collective Floating Museum will lead the next Chicago Architecture Biennial.
“Chicago-based art collective Floating Museum has been announced as the artistic team that will lead the forthcoming fifth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), entitled This is a Rehearsal. With Floating Museum jointly stepping into the (plus-sized) artistic director shoes, CAB 5 is slated to kick off in September 2023 and will build on and expand the collective’s ongoing work, including “site-responsive art and design projects and public programs, to explore divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a mode for expanding how we frame the relationship between our environments and ourselves,” a press announcement detailed.” [H/T The Architect’s Newspaper]
Glenn Brown will open a museum of his own work in London during Frieze Week.
“The artist Glenn Brown will open a museum of his own work in London during Frieze Week in October. The British painter and sculptor will show paintings, sculptures and drawings he has kept from across his career in a house in Bentinck Mews in Marylebone, central London. In time, he will bring them together with works by historic artists in his private collection. The Brown Collection, as the space will be called, is a stone’s throw from the Wallace Collection, whose paintings have been the source for some of Brown’s best-known works. The artist has funded the purchase and restoration of the building and will pay for the new museum himself, he says.” [H/T The Art Newspaper]
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Studio Gang in Little Rock. Photography by Tim Hursley…
The Studio Gang–transformed Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts will open in April 2023.
“The newly transformed Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, will open on April 22. Designed by architecture practice Studio Gang in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox and landscape architecture and urban design practice SCAPE, The Museum’s new architectural identity aims to signify its role as a leading arts institution in the region. One of the Museum’s most recognizable features, the folded plate concrete roof, is now complete. The new roofline spans the length of the building, connecting the new construction and the renovated spaces to create a coherent architectural character for the cultural institution.” [H/T ArchDaily]
The Aperture Foundation will move its headquarters to Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“The Aperture Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1952 by a group of prominent photographers, announced Thursday that it has purchased a new headquarters for $8.95 million. The group will occupy the lower two floors of a Romanesque Revival building at 380 Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side, across the street from the American Museum of Natural History. Currently occupying fourth-floor rented quarters in Chelsea, Aperture plans to relocate in summer 2024, after the renovation of the space’s 10,000 square feet by the Levenbetts architecture firm. A ground-floor entrance and windows will afford much greater visibility to its exhibitions, bookstore and public programming, while another level will supply additional offices for administrative and publication staff.” [H/T The New York Times]
Netflix’s “Man Vs. Bee” starring Rowan Atkinson. Photography courtesy of Netflix…
Today’s attractive distractions:
In Netflix’s Man vs. Bee, Rowan Atkinson destroys a priceless art collection.
