WEDNESDAY 7/25

“Lyrical Color," a Pocket Utopia group show, at Pocket Utopia, 6 - 8 PM
191 Henry Street, East Village/Lower East Side

Performance: Laura Ginn: “Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Catch,” at Allegra LaViola Gallery, 7 - 9PM
179 E. Broadway, Chinatown, $100

Closing Reception: Jerry Blackman “Presents,” at toomer labzda, 6 - 8 PM
100 Forsyth Street, Chinatown/LES

Tamara Gayer "The Inside," at toomer labzda, 6 - 8 PM
100 Forsyth Street, LES

Screening: Jeffrey Wengrofsky "The Party in Taylor Mead's Kitchen," at Anthology Film Archives, 6 PM
32 Second Avenue, Soho

"Con Artist Collective Summer Show," at Work In Progress, 6 PM - 4 AM
34 Vandam Street, Soho

Artist Talk: Emanuel Xavier, Kate Bornstein, at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, 7 - 8:30 PM
26 Wooster Street, Soho

Screening: Derek Jarman "Blue" curated by David Everitt Howe, at Dirty Looks (Judson Memorial Church), 8 PM
55 Washington Square South, Greenwich Village

Luis Carle, at Michael Mut Gallery, 6 - 8 PM
97 Avenue C, East Village

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS ** 112 Greene Street: The Early Years” Book Launch, at David Zwirner Pop-Up Bookstore," at David Zwirner, 5 - 7 PM
533 W.19th Street, Chelsea

“Curator and playwright Jessamyn Fiore conjures the salad days of Soho loft parties and radical, post-minimal art practice in her book ‘112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970- 1974). (See my interview with her, here)” - Chloe Wyma  

"Love, Sharing and Green," at SVA (Eastside Gallery), 5 - 7 PM
209 E. 23rd Street, Chelsea

Panel Discussion: David Keefe, Maureen Cummins, Miranda Maher, moderated by Maria G. Pisano "Book as Witness: The Artist's Response," at Center for Book Arts, 6:30 PM
28 W. 27th Street, floor 3, Chelsea

Panel Discussion: "Book As Witness: The Artist's Response," at Center for Book Arts, 6:30 PM
28 W. 27th Street, floor 3, Chelsea

Photography: Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Martin Bogren, Monika Merva, Shawn Rocco, Tabitha Soren "Fresh 2012" selected by Fred Bidwell, Darren Ching curated by Darren Ching, Fred Bidwell, at Klompching Gallery, 6 - 8 PM
111 Front Street, floor 2, Dumbo, Brooklyn

Andrew Gutauskas "The Spot" curated by Kyle Saulnier, at Brooklyn Lyceum, 8 PM
227 4th Avenue, Brooklyn

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS ** Reading: "In Valuable Information" an evening with …ment journal, at Triple Canopy, 7 PM
155 Freeman Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, $5 suggested donation

"The European, bi-annual journal known as …ment presents an evening of silent poetry, 99 re-tellings of the same story, and original readings from their latest issue in an exploration of the ways in which dominant concepts of authorship, authenticity, and knowledge impact cultural resistance in our hyper-everything society." -Sara Roffino

Performance: Weimar New York at Joe’s Pub, 9:30 PM
425 Lafayette Street, Noho

THURSDAY 07/26

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS ** 2012 Chelsea Art Walk, 5 - 8 PM
Chelsea
“The Chelsea art world stays up late (well, later than usual) this Thursday, offering a smorgasbord of summer group shows, openings, artist talks, and open studios. See some of our picks below, and check the Web site for a complete list of the goings-on.” - Chloe Wyma   

Artist Talk: Maria Kucinski on Post-Movement, featuring Eleanor Antin, Ida Applebroog, Chris Burden, Peter Campus, Robert Colescott, Dennis Oppenheim, and Joan Snyder, at Cristin Tierney Gallery, 6 PM
546 W. 29th Street, Chelsea
                                                                                                                       
Artist Talk: Nicholas Hall gives a talk on the exhibition “Strange Fruit,” at RARE Gallery, 6:30 PM
547 W. 27th Street, Chelsea

                                                                                               
Reception and Gallery Talk: Gallery Director, David Clements, on the exhibition “Mi Lou: Recent Works by Hong Lei” and current trends in Chinese contemporary art, at Chambers Fine Art, 6:30 PM
522 W.19th Street, Chelsea                                                                                                               

Gallery Talk: Lisa de Simone gives a talk on the exhibitions “Becoming: Worlds in Flux” and “Pedro Barbeito: The Science/Astronomy Series,” at C24 Gallery, 7 PM
514 W. 24th Street, Chelsea
                       
** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS ** Ultra Violet invites visitors to have their Polaroid portraits taken, while looking into works with mirrors reading SELF PORTRAIT at Ultra Violet Studios, 5 - 8 PM
526 W. 26th Street #406, Chelsea
"Dali’s student, Warhol’s muse, and artist in her own right, Ultra Violet opens her Chelsea studio for an interactive evening of Polaroid portraits, readings, and overall immersion into her universe."  - Sara Roffino

Open Studio: Patrick Milbourn
334 W. 22nd Street #1, Chelsea

Open Studio: Angela Errico
526 W. 26th Street, #1013, Chelsea

Open Studio: Mark Wiener
551 W. 21st Street, #210, Chelsea

Open Studio: Paul Seftel
528 W. 28th Street, Chelsea        

Artnet Magazine Farewell Party Featuring DJ Spooky (Invite Only), 8:30 PM
Location provided with RSVP

Phillips de Pury Opening Party for the 2012 New York Staff Show (Invite only), at Phillips de Pury
450 15th Street, Chelsea
                                   
Jae Kyung Kim "Liberty in the Forest," at Chashama 266 Gallery, 6 - 9 PM
266 W. 37th Street, Midtown

"Jeremy Penn "The Secret in their Eyes," at RL Fine Arts, 6 - 8 PM
39 W. 19th Street, suite 612, Flatiron

Joanne [Ha]Rruff "UJHR," at Independent Curators international (ICI) (The Curatorial Hub), 7 - 8:30 PM
401 Broadway, Suite 1620, Chinatown, RSVP at rsvp@curatorsintl.org with "Jordan Stein" in the subject

"Kingbrown" curated by John Leo, Melissa Mccaig-Welles, at Klughaus Gallery, 7 - 10 PM
47 Monroe Street, LES

"Cannonball!" curated by Vicki Sher, at Frosch&Portmann, 6 - 8 PM
53 Stanton Street, LES

Alessandra Eramo "Lauter Spannung," at Harvestworks, 7 PM
596 Broadway, Suite 602, Soho

Zhang Gong "Where We Go," at Eli Klein Fine Art, 6 - 8 PM
462 W. Broadway, Soho

Benjamin Butler, Charlotte Becket, Chris Martin, Dominic Nurre, Mark Dagley, Stephanie Campos, Troy Michie "Disappearing Acts: Act II," at Anna Kustera Gallery, 6 - 9 PM
520 W. 21st Street, Chelsea

Artist Talk: Jaime Davidovich, Judith Henry, at Churner and Churner, 6 PM
205 Tenth Avenue, Chelsea

Ezra Johnson, Francesco Longenecker, Irys Schenker, Julia Bland, Melissa Brown, Naomi Safran-Hon, Yevgeniya Baras "Centaurs & Satyrs," at Asya Geisberg Gallery, 5:30 - 8 PM, tour by artists at 6:30 PM
537B W. 23rd Street, Chelsea

"Float," at Sears-Peyton Gallery, 5 - 8 PM
210 11th Avenue, Suite 802, Chelsea

"First Year in New York," at Galerie Richard, 6 - 8 PM
514 W. 24th Street, Chelsea

Performance: “The Oblique Mystique,” at Mike Weiss Gallery, 7 PM
520 W. 24th Street, Chelsea

Photography: "31 Women in Art Photography" curated by Jon Feinstein, Natalia Sacasa, at Hasted Kraeutler, 6 - 8 PM
537 W. 24th Street, Chelsea

“Summer Selections," at De Buck Gallery, 10 AM - 6 PM
511 W. 25th Street, suite 502, Chelsea

"Operating System" curated by Heng Gil-Han, at Dean Project, 6 - 8 PM
511 W. 25th Street, suite 207, Chelsea

Alejandra Padilla, Darlene Charneco, Maria Berrio "Summer Show," at Praxis International Art, 6 - 8 PM
541 W. 25th Street, Chelsea

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS **
Issei Hidaka "Fantasy World," at Onishi Gallery, 6 - 8 PM
521 W. 26th Street, Chelsea
“Inspired by ukiyo-e (‘floating world’) prints of early modern Japan, Hidaka produces dream-based, carefully colored and constructed swaths of feathers and clouds, without the hard edge of European Surrealism or the geeky smiles of manga and anime.” – Reid Singer

"Between Two Thoughts" curated by Richard Brooks, at SVA (Visual Arts Gallery), 6 - 8 PM
601 W. 26th Street, floor 15, Chelsea

Aaron Krach, Karl Larocca, Martin McMurray, Polina Barskaya, Siobhan McBride, Thomas Marquet "How to Write a Novel," at Field Projects, 6 - 8 PM
526 W. 26th Street, #807, Chelsea

"Visual Feast: A Pattern & Decoration," at Accola Griefen Gallery, 6 - 8 PM
547 W. 27th Street, Suite 634, Chelsea

Alexander Severin, Jiyoung Lee, Ka Kyung Lee, Ka Kyung Lee, Mi Yuming, Mi Yuming, Peter Gregorio, Seung Wook Sim, Sue G. Syn, Sung Tae Park, Xiao Wei Chen, Xiao Wei Chen "Interconnected Segment," at ArtGate Gallery, (Invite Only)
520 W. 27th, suite 101, Chelsea

Photography: "The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered" curated by Miz Metro, at ArtNowNY, 6 -9 PM
548 W. 28th Street, 2nd floor, Chelsea

"Social Media Portrait Project," at Porter Contemporary, 5 - 8 PM
548 W. 28th Street, Chelsea

Polyglot Theatre: Tangle (U.S. premiere), at Lincoln Center, 2 - 4 PM
Lincoln Center, Upper West Side

Screening: Shirley Clarke "Portrait of Jason" curated by Paul Dallas, at Maysles Institute, 7:30 PM
343 Lenox Avenue, Harlem

"Art for Pits" fundraiser art show to benefit Animal Farm, at Gristle Tattoo + Art Gallery, 7 - 10 PM
178 N. 8th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Benefit: "site95 Benefit" curated by Meaghan Kent, at Present Company, 6 - 9 PM
101 N.13th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Brian Sensebe "WORKS," at Dobbin House Gallery, 6 - 9 PM
50-52 Dobbin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

"Intimate Planet" curated by Babette Rittenberg, at The Bogart Salon, 6 - 9 PM
56 Bogart Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS **
Artist Talk: Claudia Cannizzaro, Shalini Ganendra, at Residency Unlimited, 6:30 PM
360 Court Street, #4, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
“South Asian art dealer Shalini Ganendra and Claudia Cannizzaro, an artist who boasts extensive experience with Javanese batik textile craft, discuss their work at Vision Culture Art Residency, an organization aimed at developing intercultural collaborations between artists in Southeast Asia.” – Reid Singer

Jaqueline Cedar curated by Yoorim Park, at Yace Gallery, 6 - 8 PM
44-02 23rd Street, #109, Queens

Workshop: Newtown Creek: Past, Present, Future, at Flux Factory, 7 - 9 PM
39-31 29th Street, Long Island City

FRIDAY 7/27

Conrad Schnitzler, at Audio Visual Arts (AVA), 6 PM
34 E. 1st Street, LES

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS **
“London Street Photography” at the Museum of the City of New York, 10 AM - 6  PM
1220 Fifth Avenue, East Harlem
“Traveling over from the Museum of London with 150 photographs by 70 photographers, some well-known, others anonymous, 'London Street Photography' captures moments from the changing landscape of a city. The exhibition coincides with the opening of the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, and the images, which range from Victorian quiet and to modern chaos, will likely provide a contrast the tourist-friendly images of contemporary London that will soon flood the news.” - Allison Meier

Screening: Santiago Sierra "NO, Global Tour," at Team Gallery, 7 - 9 PM
83 Grand Street, Soho

Preview: Third Annual Zine & Self-Published Photo Book Fair, at Camera Club of New York (Printed Matter), 6 - 8 PM
195 10th Avenue, Chelsea

Performance: Tao Dance Theater, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, 7:30 PM
70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side

Screening: "MISSINGLINKS" presented by the School of Visual Arts MFA Art Practice Program, at EAI (Electronic Arts Intermix),6:30 - 8:30 PM
535 W. 22nd Street, floor 5, Chelsea

Closing reception: "Cultural Transference" curated by Sara Reisman, at EFA (The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts),  6 - 8 PM
323 W. 39th Street, Chelsea

Performance: "Anatomically Incorrect," at Alternative Arts Association (Magic Futurebox), 7:30 PM - 1 AM
55 33rd St, 4th floor, Greenwood, Brooklyn, $12

Performance: Akio Suzuki, Gozo Yoshimasu, Otomo Yoshihide "Voices and Echoes," at Issue Project Room, 8 PM
22 Boerum Place, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, $15 

"In the place we live 2012," at M55 Art, 5 - 7 PM
44-02 23rd Street, Queens

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS **
Rooftop Films and BAMcinématek: Animation Block Party at the Automotive High School, 8 PM
50 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg
“The Animation Block Party, now in its ninth year, will be offering a deluge of animated films of every genre, with stop-motion, computer animated, and traditional hand-drawn work showing in Brooklyn. The weekend-long event starts with outdoor screenings with Rooftop Films at the Automotive High School in Williamsburg, and then moves to BAMcinématek with presentations for both adults and children. This small film festival, which continues to gain more momentum every year, is sure to contain some frenetic, experimental, and possibly groundbreaking animation work.” - Allison Meier

Performance: Metropolitan Opera at Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7 - 9 PM
334 Furman Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn

SATURDAY 7/28

Tour: Photography: James Welling, Jeff Brouws, Justine Kurland, Mark Ruwedel, Victoria Sambunaris "The Permanent Way" curated by Brian Sholis, at apexart, 2 PM
291 Church Street, Tribeca

Reading: Buzz Spector, Reagan Upshaw, Roberta Upshaw, at Golden, 7 PM
120 Elizabeth Street, ground floor, LES

Art Fair: Ale Souto, Alma, Antonio Bokel, Bruno Big, Corinne Rendinaro, Danilo Zéh Palito, Demian Jacob, Helena Wolfenson, Jassvan, Kilu, Rodrigo Martins, Tiago Gualberto, William DeNatale "Affordable Art Fair," at FB Gallery, Noon – 6 PM
368 Broadway, #209, SoHo

"Global Positioning System (So You Say You Want a Revolution)" curated by Keren Moscovitch, at SVA (Westside Gallery), 6 – 9 PM
141 W 21 Street, Chelsea

“Spiders Alive!” at the American Museum of Natural History, 10 AM - 6 PM
Central Park West at 79th Street, Upper West Side

Closing Reception: Shelley Joy, "Abstract Modernism: Pirouettes into Time," at Blue Mountain Gallery, 3 – 6 PM
530 W. 25th Street, 4th Floor

Lecture: Denise Allen "Antico and Exhibitions," at The Frick Collection, 2 PM
1 E. 70th Street, Upper East Side

Art Fair: "Bazaar," at Soloway, 1 – 6 PM
348 South 4th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Performance: Bastinado at Galapagos Art Space, 9 PM
16 Main Street, DUMBO

"Art From The Heart" curated by Jennifer Kahrs, at Gowanus Loft, 6 PM – Midnight
61 9th Street, #C8, Brooklyn, $10 – $750

Open Studio: Other Means at Museum of Arts and Design, 11 AM - 6 PM
2 Columbus Circle, Columbus Circle

"Color," at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC), 1 – 6 PM
499 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn

Performance: Chin Chih Yang "Kill Me or Change," at Queens Museum of Art (New York City Building), 2 PM
Corona Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens

CHERYL at Mobile Dance Party, 12 PM
Secret location announced on twitter, @cheryldance

“Telettrofono” at stillspotting nyc: staten island, 12 - 7 PM
St. George Ferry Terminal, Staten Island

PS1: Warmup: MJ Cole, Sinkane (Live), DJ Spoko, Slava, Van Rivers at MoMA PS1, 2 - 9 PM
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City

SUNDAY 7/29

Art Fair: "Third Annual Zine & Self-Published Photo Book Fair," at Camera Club of New York, Noon – 6 PM,
336 W 37 Street, Midtown

Corning Museum’s GlassLab at Governors Island, 11 AM - 6:30 PM
Governors Island

"NADA Hudson 2nd Edition" curated by Grela Orihuela, at NADA NYC (Basilica Hudson), 11 AM – 7 PM,
110 S Front Street, Hudson, NY

5Pointz Poetry Slam at 5Pointz, 5:30 - 8 PM
45-46 Davis Street, Long Island City

MONDAY 7/30

** ARTINFO RECOMMENDS ** Reading: Silvia Kolbowski and Simon Leung, at Golden, 7 PM
120 Elizabeth, Ground Floor, Chinatown/LES
"Multidisciplinary artist-critics and all-around smart cookies Silvia Kolbowski and Simon Leung read their texts as a part of White Walls’ ongoing symposium of artist writings." - Chloe Wyma

TUESDAY 7/31

tagiruka "SOMEWHERE," at Ouchi Gallery, 7 - 10 PM
170 Tillary Street, No. 507, Downtown Brooklyn

Book launch: "The Art Of War," at White Box (WBX Bowery), 6 - 10 PM
329 Broome Street, LES

Photography: Jake Bryer "Urban Interrupted" curated by Stephanie Lui, at bob gallery, 7 - 10 PM
235 Eldridge Street, LES

Screening: "Youtube XXXtrava-GANZA" curated by Tova Carlin at Heather's Bar, 10 PM
506 E. 13th Street, East Village

Artist Talk: Bettina John, Juan Zamora, at ISCP, 6:30 PM
1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Art Southampton, the third and ultimate fair of this summer's Hamptons art season, is gearing up for its big debut this weekend. How does it stack up to the competition?

Among other things, the new fair, which comes from the team behind the Art Miami franchise, promises the season's most international slate of participants — including London's Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Toronto's Nikola Rukaj Gallery, Munich's Galerie Terminus, and Barcelona-Amsterdam outfit Villa del Arte Galleries — which might bode well for collectors looking for something a little more adventurous.

Running from tomorrow through Sunday, the new fair includes nearly 50 participating galleries in all. As for artists, fairgoers can expect choice works from the likes of John Baldessari, John Chamberlain, Eric Fischl, Louise Nevelson, Mike and Doug Starn, and Francesca Woodman.

To preview works from the first Art Southmapton fair, click on the slide show.

In Caracas, Venezuela, a 160-foot monument rises, fortified with near indestructible, imported steel and sheathed in white Spanish ceramic tiles. Brashly abstract and colossal in size, the building marks the new site of the remains of Simón Bolívar, the South American revolutionary who rallied countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru to win their independence from Spain. Despite its noble background, the slick sculptural protrusion, commissioned by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has been subject to criticism from every angle.

The saga of Caracas's new monument began two years ago, when Chávez ordered that the remains of Bolívar be exhumed and studied by international scientists. Chávez was determined to procure evidence of the founding father’s poisoning, despite the general consensus among historians that "the Liberator" had died of tuberculosis. Turns out, these historians were right; no evidence of poisoning was found. Nevertheless, the move gave new impetus to a long tabled scheme to move Bolívar's remains from the National Pantheon — where the revolutionary had been sharing glory with more than 100 other Venezuelans — to a more dignified space.

Then came the plans for a new mausoleum, most of which to this day remain veiled in secrecy. Chávez appointed former culture minister and Spanish-born architect Francisco Sesto as "Minister of State for the Transformation of Greater Caracas" — a newly minted title — and Sesto was to foresee the construction of a glorious new sepulcher for Venezuela's foremost founding father. Rather than solicit design proposals for a jury to assess, Sesto gifted the hefty $140-million commission to a still unknown architect, and construction of the mausoleum was scheduled for completion in December 2011.

The lack of transparency, coupled with mounting delays in construction, would have been enough for locals to criticize, particularly for those who would find any singular $140-million construction a wasteful proposition in a neighborhood desperate for better housing and healthcare. But the austerely contemporary, imposing design quickly became an easy target for disapproval. Several have likened the façade to a skate park half pipe. On a more pragmatic level, some critics worry that the sloping form will send heavy rainfall flooding into the adjacent National Pantheon, a modest, neoclassical former church.

"One appreciates the enormous mass, limpid and seductive in itself but gigantic and absurd, out of context, possessive of the same sin as the political system from which it originates," said Venezuelan architect Oscar Tenreiro to Associated Press reporters. Tenreiro's terse analysis sums up the mausoleum’s mixed reception: While many are undoubtedly proud to see a glistening new monument in Caracas, there is no hiding the self-serving will of its creator, Chávez, a political leader grappling with his own mortality.

To historian Elias Pino, Chávez, who has been battling cancer while preparing for re-election, has a clear agenda. "The political intent is that President Hugo Chávez be proclaimed the agent of Bolívar's will and interpreter of the gospel of Bolívar," he said. As Pino sees it, the grossly oversized and shamelessly out-of-context building "will not just be the mausoleum of Bolivar but also the entrance of President Chávez into the pantheon of patriots."

Earlier this week, MTV announced its plan to bring back “House of Style,” the taste-making fashion and style series that ran from the late ’80s through the ’90s. To celebrate the news, the channel’s Web site has thrown up a bevy of snippets from shows past – from the Cindy Crawford era onward – and it is a treat. While it’s impossible to pick just six favorites out of the treasure trove of clips, we gave it our best shot. 

Episode 2: Dee Dee Switches Punk for Proper

Dee Dee Ramone and his bandmates had style, but it was a style based on a complete lack of deviation: sneakers, tight black jeans, T-shirts, and black leather jackets. So to pair the Ramones bassist with straight-laced British designer Paul Smith is clearly a stroke of genius. Dee Dee kicks off his Chuck Taylors and slides into a series of tuxedos and does a few self-satisfied twirls. “The clothes that come out in the fall are my favorite,” Dee Dee says in his only comprehensible sentence.

Episode 12: Backstage at Spring 1992 Paris Fashion Week

Back in 1991 a Paris Fashion Week show cost $150,000. (To give you an idea of how much things have changed, Louis Vuitton reportedly spent $8 million on the steam train that was used in its fall/winter 2012 Paris runway presentation.) Supermodels Veronica Webb, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell make appearances in this episode, with Turlington justifying the $5,000 they would make working one runway show: “Our couple of thousand dollars are meager compared to the billions of dollars we seem to be making for these designers.” Best of all, we get to see a portly Karl Lagerfeld with salt-and-pepper hair and a black turtleneck.

Episode 18: Stephen Sprouse for Harper’s Bazaar

Before Louis Vuitton immortalized Stephen Sprouse’s work all over its handbags in 2001 and again in 2008, the late artist and designer was known in the fashion world for bringing Day-Glo brights to the forefront in the ’80s. This segment shows his “Iggy on the Cross” silkscreens and a still-cool Axl Rose choosing Sprouse’s designs for a Guns N’ Roses tour. It wraps up with Sprouse shooting models for a Harper’s Bazaar editorial. Very informative for those who’ve only seen his Louis Vuitton collaboration. 

Episode 29: Jon Stewart Accompanies Cindy Crawford Around Town

Before he was on the news desk at “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart had a runaway success with his eponymous talk show on MTV. In a fit of cross-promotion, “House of Style” brought Stewart on the show to shuttle Cindy Crawford around to her various appointments. When her agent is scheduling a German Vogue shoot, Stewart chimes in, “I’m also free.” They eventually go to the gym, where Stewart lights up a cigarette on the medicine ball mats. America!

Episode 31: X-Girl Streetwear 

All the ’90s cool kids showed up for the guerilla-style outdoor runway show that marked the launch of X-Girl, the label founded by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and her designer friend Daisy von Furth. The camera caught Spike Jonze and his then-girlfriend Sofia Coppola, who explained that their “friend Marc Jacobs just had a show down the street.” Nothing from the line — which consisted mainly of re-imagined sports shirts (including the Ringer, which Von Furth called, “the uniform for indie rockers”) — cost more than $60. Too bad X-Girl isn’t available stateside anymore. At least we can still get it in Japan.

Episode 52: Gwen Stefani and Shalom Harlow Go From the Treadmill to the Stage 

Based on the clip of Gwen Stefani and Shalom Harlow palling around New York City in 1996, it appears the Hollaback Girl had established her iconic style code early on in her career. After hitting the treadmills for a few minutes the supermodel and the singer head to Roseland Ballroom, where No Doubt is headlining. They go to the green room and Stefani grabs some old outfits, including what appears to be a Snow White Halloween costume. “I’ve matured a little bit,” she says.

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

The killing of 12 people and injuring of 58 at the midnight premiere of Warner Bros.’ “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado, last Friday has, for better or worse, induced a climate of self-censorship at Time Warner’s entertainment subsidiaries.

The massacre has unsurprisingly led the studio to move “Gangster Squad” from September 7 to January 11 next year, therefore limiting its awards opportunities. DC Comics, owned by Time Warner, is meanwhile delaying the release of  “Batman Inc #3” until August 22.  Both the movie and the comic contain scenes that could be considered offensive to the Aurora wounded and the relatives of those who died.

“Gangster Squad” is a period crime thriller, starring Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone, about the LAPD’s attempts to keep members of the East Coast mafia out of Los Angeles in the '40s and '50s. It climaxes with a scene in which gangsters in a movie theater spray bullets through the screen at the audience. This scene will now be cut and reshot in a different kind of location. The film will be partially re-structured.

“Batman Inc #3” is the latest from the Scottish comic-book writer Grant Morrison and illustrator Chris Burnham. It is being held back, says The Guardian, because it “‘contains content that may be perceived as insensitive in light of recent events.’” The nature of the potentially problematic material, which relates to “a major international threat,” has not yet been revealed, but Burnham has tweeted: “It’s not just a Batman comic with guns in it. There’s a specific scene that made DC & the whole Bat-team say ‘Yikes’. Too close for comfort.”

Deadline’s Nikki Finke meanwhile reports that Summit Entertainment, a subsidiary of Lions Gate, is going ahead with plans to open its feelgood dance movie “Step Up Revolution” in 2,500 theaters on Friday, despite the inclusion of a sequence that, though bloodless, is eerily close in some respects to the start of the Aurora massacre. Finke notes that “the dancers steal into a party, wearing body vests and gas masks and using gas grenades to threaten the guests” – behavior close to that of the Aurora perpetrator, James Holmes, who wore a gas mask and body armor and let off two smoke devices before he began shooting.

The studio omitted some of these details when it issued the following statement: “Summit Entertainment’s ‘Step Up Revolution’ is an uplifting film that celebrates the redemptive power of dance. There is a brief scene in the film in which a troop [sic] of dancers enter a room wearing gas masks as props and the dancers immediately go into a choreographed routine. Because of last week’s tragic event in Colorado, Summit immediately removed television advertising that briefly showcased that scene from the film. The scene also briefly appeared in a trailer released three months ago that the studio is no longer actively servicing. Having taken these steps, Summit will open this inspirational, nonviolent film in theatres nationwide this weekend as originally edited.”

Pig bladders have for centuries been used in the manufacturing of sports equipment. Light, solid, and stretchable, they made perfect airtight membranes inside the first footballs. Artist John O'Shea is now going back to this traditional method, fusing it with cutting-edge biotechnology to create the first football made with a pig bladder entirely grown in a lab.

Commissioned by the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival and funded by the Wellcome Trust, "Pigs Bladder Football" was inspired by the first successful transplant of a bioengineered organ, a urinary bladder, in 2006. O'Shea has been an artist-in-residence at Liverpool University's Clinical Engineering Unit for the last year. He has worked in close collaboration with Professor John Hunt and Theun Van Veen to devise his own scientific protocol, experimenting with living animal cells collected from abattoir waste.

In this Olympic period, O'Shea's challenge poignantly resonates with the heated debates around human enhancement in sports. The project is still ongoing, but if successful, the pig bladder football will be presented together with documentation of its fabrication process in an exhibition at Manchester's CUBE next month, as part of the AND Festival.

"Pigs Bladder Football," August 30-September 7, 2012, CUBE (Centre for the Urban Built Environment), Manchester; Abandon Normal Devices Festival, August 29 – September 2, 2012, throughout Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, and Cumbria.

This article appears on ARTINFO UK.

Not much good news comes out of war-torn Afghanistan these days. However, last week did offer a small coup of cultural diplomacy for the UK: With help from the British Museum, England returned 843 looted art objects to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. The stolen artifacts were secretly returned on two military planes last week, the Telegraph reports. In a press release, the British Museum said that many of the objects were recovered in three separate operations by the UK Border Force as they were being smuggled into the country, presumably for sale on the black market. Another group of objects was seized by the art and antiques unit of London's Metropolitan Police, and some were even saved by private individuals.

The restituted works include examples of the Begram Ivories, which date to the first century A.D. and originally decorated Indian wooden furniture in the ancient city of Begram, as well as a Buddha sculpture from the second or third century A.D. Other objects include Bronze Age cosmetic flasks, Kushan and medieval Islamic coins, and Islamic metal and pottery vessels. In 2011, the British Museum exhibited the Begram Ivories while they were being held for safekeeping as part of its exhibition "Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World," which featured loans from Kabul's National Museum while it was being restored.

"I am delighted that these important artifacts have been safely returned to the National Museum in Kabul," British Museum director Neil MacGregor said in the institution's statement. "This is the outcome of the ongoing dialogue between our cultural institutions as well as the support of the authorities to identify and preserve items from the national collection of Afghanistan that had been illegally removed during years of conflict." 

The world of classical music is experiencing a spiritual revival, as the New York Times has it. The leading indicator is the Salzburg Festival, which added a week this year to accomodate a 10-day Spiritual Overture. The program, which was conceived by the festival’s new artistic director, Alexander Pereira, will be an annual feature, with each year focusing on a different belief system. And it’s not the only program of its kind, the Times reports: Festivals and orchestras around the world have been featuring (and scheduling) more spiritual-themed work during their performance seasons.

Audiences, explains Pereira, want idealism in a transitory world. “It’s as if people were expecting something that finally comes,” he told the Times, “even if they didn’t know what they were expecting.” His sentiment is echoed by Jane Moss, the Lincoln Center’s artistic director, and a self-proclaimed “secular mystic,” who said, “People are looking for larger experiences in a cyberworld.”

Whatever the case, here is some of what to expect from some experience-enlarging festivals and orchestras cited by the Times over the coming months:

Salzburg Festival -- Salzburg, Austria
The festival, which acts as the summer home for the Vienna Philharmonic, has already made the Spiritual Overture a mainstay of the annual festival. Next year the focus will be on Buddhism.

Lucerne Festival -- Lucerne, Switzerland
The Swiss festival, which has featured sacred music during its Easter outings, opens a summer season called Faith on August 8. The program will feature Mozart and Verdi Requiems.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Next season the orchestra will expand it Music for the Spirits program, including productions of Mozart and Mahler in the fall, and a dedicated festival in the spring.

Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival -- New York, New York
The personal creation of Moss, the festival will enter its third season this fall. It can (and probably should) be viewed a precursor to this whole movement.

Read more culture coverage on Spotlight

James Franco must have had a free hour a month ago. Somehow —between graduate studies, acting in a few big budget films, completing his own “homo-sex-art-film,” and chilling with Marina Abramovic — he found time to design the fall 2012 campaign for high-end denim line Seven For All Mankind. He last worked with the jeans company in February, when he shot the spring 2012 campaign, which he titled “The Death of Natalie Wood.”

The fall shoot moves from the Hollywood Cemetery to a classic Los Angeles Art Deco-style movie theater to a field where the models cavort around in the grass. Among the lucky few selected as Franco’s muses are Victoria’s Secret model Lily Donaldson, actor Henry Hopper (son of Hollywood royalty Dennis Hopper), “Magic Mike” star Cody Horn, and French actress/singer Lou Doillon. Unlike some of Franco’s darker work, everyone is clearly having a good time.

But he’s also falling on old habits: as with much of his work, he deconstructs the Hollywood mythos here by using his own stardom to break the fourth wall. Our favorite instance of this was last summer, at Asia Song Society — Terence Koh’s space on Canal Street — when we stood next to James Franco as James Franco watched a video of James Franco reading from “The Wizard of Oz,” the inspiration for the upcoming film “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” in which James Franco stars as Oz.

Anyway. In the behind-the-scene film Franco made to accompany the shoot — called “Hollywood Resurrection” — he’s a bit less omnipresent. You see the actor chasing the cameras with a cell phone camera, or a flip phone, or an old-fashioned hand-held camera run on film. Or sometimes he’s just in the shot, waving his arms or splattering fake blood on the models. Is Franco ripping off Tyler Shields, now?

Shooting a glossy fashion campaign could strike some as a departure for the budding auteur, who in the past two years has gone to great lengths to make sure his installation work, short fiction, solo shows, and short films are taken with the utmost seriousness. But filming a bunch of pretty young things in little more than cut-offs plays into the Franco performance art oeuvre, somewhere between dressing in drag for Terry Richardson and guest starring as “Franco” on “General Hospital.”

Whether Franco’s ongoing dalliances with the art world will help sell blue jeans, well, that’s another question.

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

BERLIN—Art Berlin Contemporary (abc) announced the final list of galleries participating in the 2012 edition of the fair on Thursday. The headlining event for the inaugural Berlin Art Week, abc looks stronger and more international than ever for its fifth edition (September 13-16) with 120 galleries from 17 countries. The majority of the galleries (63) still come from Berlin, however the list also includes multiple exhibitors from Dubai, New York, Paris, and Milan, among others.

This year sees the fair drop its previous curatorial frameworks such as last year’s “About Painting” and “Light, Camera, Action” in 2010 in exchange for a partnership with New York’s Artists Space, who will present a bazaar of objects and artworks that cross boundaries between fine art, design, fashion, and publishing. “We don’t want to just do the same thing each year. We try to feel the zeitgeist and think about what needs to change. This year we decided that it would be a good idea to cooperate with someone from outside Berlin and turn the focus on the artists and the process of producing art,” abc’s Silke Neumann told ARTINFO Germany in an interview.

Due to abc’s expansion into a third hall of Station Berlin, galleries will have more room to show those artists as well. ARTINFO got an exclusive sneak peak at the unofficial list, which promises more depth and variety of medium than previous years, as well as an exciting array of new names from the fair’s younger galleries. Highlights include works by Mona Hatoum at Berlin’s Max Hetzler who will also open a show with Hatoum on September 8, David Adamo at Ibid Projects, David Thorpe with Meyer Riegger and Maureen Paley, Eddie Martinez at Peres Projects, Aaron Curry at VeneKlasen Werner, Jeff Wall at Johnen Galerie, Qiu Xiaofei at Boers-Li Gallery, and Clemens von Wedemeyer at KOW.

The full list of galleries is:

2P Contemporary Art Gallery
Galerie Mikael Andersen
Andrae Kaufmann
Arndt
Galerie Guido W. Baudach
Johan Berggren Gallery
Galleri Bo Bjerggaard 
Boers-Li Gallery
Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie
Bourouina Gallery
BQ 
Buchmann Galerie
Capitain Petzel
Carbon 12 Dubai
Carlier | Gebauer
Charim Galerie
Mehdi Chouakri
Contemporary Fine Arts
Galerie Crone 
Croy Nielsen
Galerie Anselm Dreher
Duve Berlin 
Egeran Galeri
Galerie Eigen+Art
Elastic
Galerie Frank Elbaz
Figge von Rosen Galerie 
Konrad Fischer Galerie
Galerie Thomas Fischer
Galleria Fonti
Carl Freedman Gallery
Galerie Cinzia Friedlaender
Frutta
Galerie Gebr. Lehmann
Laurel Gitlen
GreyNoise
Grieder Contemporary
Galerie Karin Guenther
Galerie Jochen Hempel 
Galerie Max Hetzler
Gallery Hyundai
Ibid Projects
Johnen Galerie
Galerie Kadel Willborn 
Galerie Kamm 
Georg Kargl
Kicken Berlin
Klemm's
Klosterfelde
Christine König Galerie
Galerie Johann König
KOW Berlin
Kraupa-Tuskany
Andrew Kreps Gallery
Galerie Krinzinger
Krobath
Krome Gallery
Galerie Bernd Kugler
Tim van Laere Gallery
Tanya Leighton Gallery
Lullin + Ferrari
Lüttgenmeijer
Mary Mary
kamel mennour
Meyer Riegger Berlin
Galerie Mezzanin
Monitor
Galerie nächst St. Stephan 
Rosemarie Schwarzwälder
Nature Morte Berlin
Galerie Neu
neugerriemschneider
Galerie Nordenhake
Galerie Opdahl 
Maureen Paley
Peres Projects
Tanja Pol Galerie
Galerie Eva Presenhuber
PSM
RaebervonStenglin
Reception
Renwick Gallery
Aurel Scheibler
Esther Schipper 
Schleicher/Lange
Galerie Micky Schubert
Galerie Thomas Schulte
Gabriele Senn Galerie
Galleria Suzy Shammah
Sies + Höke Galerie 
Société
Sommer & Kohl
soy capitán
Sprüth Magers
Stevenson
Jacky Strenz
Supportico Lopez
Svit
Gallery Taik
The Third Line
Galerie Barbara Thumm
Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf
Sassa Trülzsch
Rob Tufnell
Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde
VeneKlasen Werner
Vilma Gold
Galerie Tanja Wagner
Galerie Barbara Weiss
Wentrup
Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner Bremen/Berlin
Barbara Wien Wilma Lukatsch
xavierlaboulbenne
Alex Zachary Peter Currie
Zak | Branicka
Galerie Susanne Zander
Zero
Galerie Zink

For his oh-so-meta exhibition at Friedrich Petzel (on view through July 28th), German conceptual art rapscallion Christian Jankowski invited 80 art critics and journalists to write reviews of an artwork that did not yet exist. Intended as an investigation of discourses used in art journalism and the art world, the artwork, entitled "Review," is made up of the reviews themselves. While the names of the reviewers have been catalogued on ARTINFO's In the Air blog, the actual reviews, which are hermetically-sealed in air-tight glass bottles and strewn across the floor of the otherwise sparse gallery, may never see the light of day. Via email, Jankowski responded to questions about his project and its implications for art journalism. 

Your current Friedrich Petzel show, "Discourse News," might be one of the most written-about shows of the year. Ironically, nobody can read the exhibition’s 80-plus reviews, as they’re all sealed in glass bottles and scattered on the floor of the gallery as part of your installation, "Review."

I was playing with the idea of reviews in sealed bottles already for a while. As a student, I was part of a land art exhibition. Back then, I asked some critics to go, see the show and write a review about it and put all of the reviews together into one bottle. My contribution was to throw this bottle into a river. With "Review," I am revisiting this "message-in-a-bottle" idea, because I always thought it would be stronger if there is a review of the piece itself, the reviewed bottle, and not about an entire show.

I was looking for the right moment to place this new work. I thought that it would be great to have several prominent art critics writing these reviews that will be then sealed in individual bottles. This time, the future recipient would be able to completely access and experience the piece. Whoever opens the bottle and takes out the critique will read about a sculpture he or she holds in his or her hand. The piece is talking about itself, it is self-reflective, almost a close-circuit, like a snail that bites its own tale.

How did this project come about? What reactions did you get when you asked critics to submit un-publishable reviews?

When you do a show for a gallery or museum with several works, you try to combine pieces together. You try to create an interesting dialogue between the individual works you present. "The Eye of Dubai," one piece in Petzel's show, was created in collaboration with BBC World News, another piece entiled "Discourse News" involved a news anchor from NY1 television. And then I thought about "Review" and New York as a center for the art discourse in America, but also internationally. If you see how many media companies promote information and ideas from here into the world, New York stands out as a location. So, I thought it was a good city to do an exhibition involving projects that in different ways reflect on this unique site-specific fact. Many of the important art magazines and newspapers have their offices just a view blocks away from Friedrich Petzel gallery. Many writers passed by the gallery and handed out their bottles personally.

Most of the responses I got were positive, maybe just 10 people gave different excuses why they couldn't do it. Sometimes, I also got funny emails or calls from people who were not really sure what to make out of it. They needed more information and had questions. One of them asked me if it might be too ironic. He was thinking about my piece and asked me if I don't believe in reviews. But that was not my point. It's also not the way that I would like my artwork to be read, because without the journalist's work, the work itself would not even exist.

Of course, there are multiple interpretations of the work. For me, it is stimulating to imagine journalists sitting down and writing a review about my work, which is — at the moment of their writing  — just an idea. You can imagine the time passing and in the future, when a bottle breaks — accidentaly or on purpose — the collector, the institution, or the children of my children decide to open it. Who knows? In the future, I think, many of these bottles will be read. It is just a matter of time. 

Many of the writers were quite positive and it was a joy for them to use their hands not only for typing a text, as the review had to be hand-written. Some also had deep thoughts about which bottles they should choose and that was also an enjoyable experience.

According to the press release, the installation investigates the "nature of discourses used in art journalism and the art world." How does your installation comment on art journalism?

My installation fundamentally depends on art journalism and on a dialogue with people working in this field. So, I guess, it should be able to comment on art journalism. The notion of time is very important in this piece. As we all know, journalism has to do with the right timing to report the right thing to the right audience. Like in this moment, while I am reviewing this interview, missing the deadline could mean no media presence. Leaving the moment of disclosure of the review out of mine and the journalist's control gives a special twist to the whole situation and routine. Also, the fact that the journalist had to create the image of my entire project before they had to start to write their critique plays with the notion of time: There was no artwork created they could look at and reflect in their writing, as there normally is.

Between these two poles, the imagined work and the imagination of the future audience, many things can happen.

In your previous projects, you’ve collaborated with various constituencies including televangelists, fortunetellers, border patrol officers, magicians, young children, members of the Vatican, and yacht salesmen to investigate the logic of different industries. How might participating in an interview on a global art news site such as ARTINFO complicate your critique of art journalism?

I think every interview is a complicated task for an artist. Of course, I will try to explain my work and I will try to make people understand my point of view and ambitions. While seeing a work many times and with some distance, you can find many aspects of the work you didn't think of at the beginning. Similar to art history and writing, I might change my view from interview to interview. You are conscious about the words you choose and are aware that some ideas might be helpful, while others may make you sound like an idiot in the future. The problem is, I never exactly know which side I'm on. All in all, there are many artists who refuse to give interviews. In my case, since I need participation in my work, I make it as a principle that I am almost part of everything and if someone ever asks me something, I almost do everything as well. Well, at the end of the day, this participation in ARTINFO complicates my critique, but I can deal with it.

If you were a critic, how would you review "Review"?

I like the question. Of course, in my fantasy I also put myself in the position of a writer, before I wrote them the letter with my request. Because I could not afford to pay them for their work, I offered  them a photograph with their bottle during a water-proof test in a New York river. 

Since you don't know your future recipient, I saw the piece almost as an exercise of a believer. You do it knowing that your publishing house, your employer, your usual audience will not be able to read it. In this sense, it can also be very experimental. The role of the art writer becomes like that of an artist. This is the most challenging fantasy I can get from writing. To think how your imagination is going to judge your own fantasies... if it is good or bad, what it will look like if you write a review about something that is not yet there.

What project are you working on next?

Once again, our trusty ARTINFO staff set out around our New York offices, tasked with reviewing the art they saw in exactly one (often run-on) sentence. (To see our One-Line Reviews in illustrated slide show format, click here)

* “Backlash” at Soho20 Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 301, July 17-August 11

Containing enough coat hangers and crucifixions to assure it some sort of buzz, the work in this ultra-feminist group show at the artist-run SoHo20 Gallery varies in size, shape, and quality, but is uniformly shocking and raw, addressing many of the political setbacks endured by second-wave feminists, with the best works going beyond anger to achieve a thoughtful contemplation of a female’s place in today’s society.  — Shane Ferro

* “Claxons,” curated by Walter Robinson, at Haunch of Venison, 550 West 21st Street, July 19-August 17

Via the juxtaposition of discordant bodies of work — Elisabeth Kley’s talavera-esque ceramics alongside Robert Goldman’s “cosmic explosions” and John Drury’s discordant series, which includes stick bundles, a colorful miniature fireplace, and a monster action figure in a hand-knit cardigan — each artist’s personal chaos plays off the next, emphasizing their uniqueness while adding to the colorful chaos of the whole. — Sara Roffino

* “Into the Woods,” at ClampArt, 521-531 West 25th Street, June 28-August 17

If you like photographs that bring out the foreboding mystery of dark forests, there will be a lot in ClampArt’s group show “Into the Woods” to please and unsettle you, with particularly striking moments being Adam Ekberg’s curious “A Disco Ball in the Mountain,” David Nadel’s stark after-the-fire imagery in “Burn #2,” and Sebastian Lemm’s “Subtraction” pieces, which eliminate the forest and leave the trees. — Allison Meier

* “It's Always Summer on the Inside” at Anton Kern, 532 West 20th Street, July 10-August 17

Taking his title from a nonsensical '70s wetsuit ad, artist-curator Dan McCarthy sought paintings and drawings that evoke what it might possibly mean to have “summer on the inside,” a standard by which works like Joyce Pensato's smiling Batman, Sean Landers's Ahab-like clown captain, and Dan Walsh's beachy horizontal abstraction are successful at evoking — even if Matthew Monahan's robotic figure and Miriam Cahn's icy sleeper seem decidedly too cool for summer school. — Benjamin Sutton

* “Stretching Painting,” at Galerie Lelong, 528 West 26th Street, June 21-August 3

Paintings on pipes, paintings on hangers, paintings shedding threads, missing spots, and mutating in geological growths off the wall are some of the variations on the traditional format to be seen at Galerie Lelong’s current exhibition, with highlights provided by Donald Moffett’s furry abstractions and Sarah Cain’s stripey “floor sex.” — Kyle Chayka

– Brit Official Totally Fails at Bell-Ringing: Kicking off Martin Creed's highly-anticipated Olympics performance "Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes," British secretary of culture and sport Jeremy Hunt began enthusiastically shaking a handheld bell. Before he knew it, the ring became unhinged and flew off, narrowly avoiding the woman standing behind him. The incident immediately began trending on Twitter with the hashtag #bellend. Luckily for us, there's already a disco remix (which we embed below, for your pleasure). [Guardian] 

– Fire Deitch, Says Ex-MOCA CEO: The temperature continues to rise at L.A. MOCA. In a letter, Charles Young, the outspoken former CEO of the troubled L.A.'s institution, has urged trustee and friend Eli Broad to remove museum director Jeffrey Deitch. "I hope that the four-alarm fire now enveloping MOCA has at least given you pause for thought about his appointment," Young wrote Broad in an e-mail. "I will do anything I can to try to right the MOCA ship, but nothing will work without a new Captain/Director." [LAT]

– The New Museum Expands Online: The New Museum recently raised $1 million to expand virtually, redesigning its five-year-old Web site. The new site, four years in the making, goes live today and features a digital archive of the museum's 35 years, a directory of 400 independent art spaces in 96 nations, a series of digital artworks, and a blog featuring interviews and reviews. Let the time-wasting begin. [NYT]

– Upper East Side Antiques Dealer Wanted by Cops: Madison Avenue art dealer Subhash Chandra Kapoor is facing arrest after police uncovered a $30-million treasure trove of stolen Indian antiquities in four storage units he owns on New York's Upper West Side. Some of the bronze and stone statues still had dirt on them, according to a law enforcement official, who suspects they had been freshly removed from their temple homes. Kapoor is currently in custody in India on separate charges of trafficking in precious idols. [NYPost]

– British-Arab History Goes Online: Qatar teaming up with London's British Library to fund an £8.7-million project to digitize 25,000 pages of medieval Arabic manuscripts and 500,000 pages from the archives of the East India Company and India Office. The initiative, which will involve the creation of 43 jobs, aims to reveal the "forgotten history" of British involvement in the Gulf region. [TAN]

– Prized Pollocks on the Move: Two of the fabled Abstract Expressionist's biggest paintings have relocated to major museums' conservation departments this month. The Iowa University Museum of Art's fought-over "Mural" (1943) recently arrived at the Getty Museum's conservation lab, while the Museum of Modern Art is de-installing Jackson Pollock's "One: Number 31, 1950" for the first time since the museum's 2004 reopening — and replacing it, appropriately, with "Number 1 A, 1948." "We do have an equally great, though not as gigantic, Pollock,” said MoMA's chief curator of painting and sculpture Ann Temkin. "It’s the painting where Pollock’s hand prints are visible in the upper right-hand corner." [LAT, NYT]

– Zurich Throws Art in the Streets: A new exhibition installed in public places throughout the Swiss city includes works by some of contemporary art's biggest names, including a large neon text piece by Olympian bell-ringer Martin Creed installed on an office building, and a 17-feet-tall metal water bucket by Subodh Gupta at the site of a farmer's market. Perhaps the most striking work in "Art and the City" (continuing through September 23) is Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's installation of two armchairs of white marble — "Sofa in White" (2011) — outside the Credit Suisse headquarters. [WSJ]

– El Anatsui Comes to the High Line: Chelsea's elevated park has commissioned Ghanaian artist El Antasui to create a monumental drapery from pressed tin and mirrors. The work will be displayed on an outdoor wall adjacent to the park, between 21st and 22nd Streets. "He hasn't shown here much except in galleries," notes High Line Art curator Cecilia Alemani. Plus, those mirrors will look pretty cool reflecting the surrounding landscape. [NYT]

To see Page 2 of the Daily Checklist, click below

– When Artists Competed in the Olympics: You won't see Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, or other London Cultural Olympians stepping onto any podiums in the next month, but did you know that for the first four decades of the modern Olympic Games medals were given for painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and music? Between 1912 and 1952, more than 150 works of sports-related art were rewarded with medals. The arts prizes were scrapped after the American Avery Brundage — who had received a mere honorable mention for a piece of writing he submitted to the 1932 Olympics — became president of the IOC and campaigned against them. [Smithsonian]

– Artist Serves Up Rat Feast: Wednesday night's opening for artist Laura Ginn's new exhibition at the Lower East Side's Allegra LaViola Gallery, "Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Catch," featured an unusual menu of dishes made from rat meat, which Ginn presided over in a fragrant gown made from 300 rat pelts. "If I see an entire carcass, I might throw up," said diner and performance artist Clifford Owens. "This is about risk." [NYT]

– RIP L.A. Abstract Classicist Karl Benjamin: The abstract painter — who was classified as an "Abstract Classicist" in a LACMA exhibition in the late 1950s and was featured in a number of Pacific Standard Time exhibitions last year — died of congestive heart failure at his Claremont home on Thursday at age 86. His boldly colorful canvases of geometric forms made a comeback in recent years after falling from favor in the '70s and '80s. He was the subject of a major retrospective at his hometown museum, the Claremont Museum of Art, in 2007. [LAT]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

The disco remix of culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's bell-ringing fail

ALSO ON ARTINFO:

Just in Time for the Olympics, British Artist Grows World's First Soccer Ball From Living Cells

An Increasingly International Art Berlin Contemporary Announces 2012 Exhibitor List

With the Aid of the British Museum, The UK Returns Over 800 Looted Artifacts to Afghanistan

Is Caracas's $140-Million Simon Bolivar Mausoleum Really a Monument to Hugo Chavez's Ego?

"This Participation in ARTINFO Complicates My Critique": A Self-Reflexive Q&A With Christian Jankowski

One-Line Reviews: Our Staff's Pithy Takes on "Claxons," "Stretching Painting," and Other Gallery Shows

This week America’s “First Couple of Vampire Films,” Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, faced a serious challenge to their relationship – one that could potentially sever the two forever. Stewart admitted to having an affair with Rupert Sanders, the older, married director of her non-“Twilight” summer blockbuster, “Snow White and the Huntsman.” People reported that Pattinson has moved out of the house they share in Los Angeles. This might be the end. So, let’s take a look back at the fashion of the four years the pair was together. We have a feeling the pictures of the estranged duo later this year, during the months-long press tour for “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” will not be as charming.

Click on the slide show to see fashion highlights from the couple’s four-years together.  

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.