Artists Rashid Johnson, Adam Pendleton, Ellen Gallagher, and Julie Mehretu have purchased Nina Simone’s former home in North Carolina in order to preserve it. “It wasn’t long after the election that this all began to happen—I was desperate like a lot of people to be engaged, and this felt like exactly the right way,” said Johnson.
[The New York Times]
Fashion on Film
A documentary about Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten is in the works. The movie, which will debut at festivals this month, gives an inside look at Van Noten’s home and studio, as well as backstage at a recent fashion show.
[Vogue]
Gustav Metzger, 1926-2017
Gustav Metzger, an artist best known for founding the Auto-Destructive Art movement, has died at age 90. He defined the movement in a 1959 manifesto, which reads,“Self-destructive painting, sculpture, and construction is a total unity of idea, site, form, color, method, and timing of the disintegrative process.”
[Artnews]
Vacation House
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston plans to transform a condemned former factory nearby into a seasonal exhibition space for large-scale artwork and site-specific installations. Local firm Anmahian Winton Architects will lead the renovation, which is estimated to cost $10 million.
[Artforum]
Google Campus Images Revealed
New renderings of Google’s proposed campus in Mountain View, California, designed by BIG and Heatherwick Studio, have been released. The 595,000-square-foot building will be the company’s first ground-up construction.
[Silicon Valley Business Journal]
Paris’s Power Play
Seven new skyscrapers have been proposed for Paris’s La Défense district, including towers designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Foster + Partners, and Christian de Portzamparc. The buildings, which are intended to attract companies to the city, are planned to be completed by 2022.
[Archdaily]