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As Seoul’s art market flourishes, Pace Gallery expands to a much larger building there.
Pace continues to amp up its international presence. As the latest part of its growth strategy, the mega-gallery will move its 925-square-foot location in Seoul to a much larger building nearby with more than 8,500 square feet of exhibition space in the Hannam-dong neighborhood. The move follows the 2019 opening of its seven-floor space in Chelsea, New York, and recent plans to upgrade to an 8,600-square-foot space in Hanover, London.
“As we have demonstrated in Palo Alto, East Hampton, and Palm Beach, we have a strong interest in building artistic communities outside of the traditional art world centers,” Marc Glimcher, Pace Gallery’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Seoul was one of our earliest experiments of this kind and we are excited to be doubling down on our commitment to the city with our beautiful new space in a time when its popularity is about to explode.” The new space will open on May 27 with an exhibition of new work by Sam Gillian—the American octogenarian’s debut exhibition in Asia.
The National Gallery names six design teams in the running for its bicentenary revamp.
To mark its 200th birthday in 2024, the National Gallery has named a shortlist of six design firms selected to proceed to the next stage of the high-profile design competition that would deliver a suite of capital projects, including a renovation of its Sainsbury Wing originally designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Among the shortlisted firms include David Chipperfield Architects, Selldorf Architects, David Kohn Architects, Asif Kahn, Caruso St. John Architects, and Witherford Watson Mann Architects. Except for Selldorf Architects, each firm is headquartered in London.
Allbirds will become the first direct-to-consumer brand to IPO after a $1.7 billion valuation.
One of today’s most pioneering direct-to-consumer brands, Allbirds is signaling that it plans to IPO by hiring someone to oversee their SEC filings. The purveyor of sustainable footwear and apparel was launched by former pro soccer player Tim Brown and entrepreneur Joey Zwillinger in 2016 and quickly gained popularity in Silicon Valley where its merino wool sneaker became a staple of the techie uniform. If the IPO goes through, Allbirds would become the first DTC brand to go public. The company has confirmed a valuation of $1.7 billion.
Harvard GSD names four early-career architects as finalists for the 2021 Wheelwright Prize.
The Harvard Graduate School of Design has named four early-career architects—Germane Barnes, Luis Berríos-Negrón, Iulia Statica, and Catty Dan Zhang—as finalists for the 2021 Wheelwright Prize. The annual prize, now in its ninth edition, offers a $100,000 traveling fellowship to support innovative architectural research. Last year’s winning proposal, “Being Shellfish: The Architecture of Intertidal Cohabitation” by Daniel Fernández Pascual, sought to research and discover regenerative building materials found in coastal territories. The 2021 winner will be selected in late April by a jury that includes David Hartt, David Brown, Sumayya Vally, and Harvard GSD’s dean Sarah M. Whiting, Mark Lee, and Megan Panzano.
A soaring sculpture by Richard Lippold will move from Lincoln Center to LaGuardia Airport.
Richard Lippold’s monumental Orpheus and Apollo, a soaring sculpture of 190 bars of gleaming metal suspended on steel wires, was decommissioned from Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall) in 2014. It wasn’t clear where the sculpture would end up—as architecture critic Paul Goldberger says, “there aren’t a lot of places you can put a 40-foot-high sculpture.” Now, the work will find a permanent home at Central Hall at LaGuardia Airport, which is currently undergoing an $8 billion transformation at the hands of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The sculpture will be visible from both inside and outside the new building’s glass facade.
Half of the exhibitors at Art Basel Hong Kong opt for “ghost booths” without gallery staff.
At least half of the 104 participating galleries at Art Basel’s upcoming Hong Kong edition (May 19–23) are opting to not exhibit in person. Instead, the galleries will send their artworks to “ghost” stands manned by staff hired by Art Basel. For the satellite stands, the fair plans to train local assistants to answer questions about the artworks and act as on-site assistants to help gallery owners. The option helps eliminate a major logistical hurdle for international galleries, whose staff would need to undergo a three-week quarantine to work the five-day show.
Today’s attractive distractions:
Will.i.am drops a souped-up face mask equipped with wearable tech.
Egypt stages a real-life mummy parade through the streets of Cairo.
Old Samsung Galaxy phones can be used for ophthalmic health care.
CB2 revives timeless, 1950s-era furniture and lighting by Paul McCobb.
