Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Fashion, and Performing Arts, April 16-20, 2012:
ART
— Alanna Martinez and Chloe Wyma gathered a list of the 20 best artist grants and fellowships that artists might apply for.
— Antonio Manfredi, curator of Naples's Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, made good on a promise to start burning works from the museum's collection in protest of austerity measures that have hit Italy's cultural institutions hard.
— Shane Ferro reported that Sotheby's has come under fire from an investment group for cronyism on its board.
— Julia Halperin revealed that the doorway to Sean Kelly Gallery's booth at Art Basel this year will be guarded by two nude performers re-enacting Marina Abramovic's classic piece, "Imponderabilia."
— ART+AUCTION's Judd Tully spoke to super-collector Jean Pigozzi, who explained his preference for African and Japanese art over the works of Western artists most collectors go after.
DESIGN & FASHION
— This week Janelle Zara covered the constant stream of design news coming out of Milan's Salone Internazionale del Mobile, from Marni's new line of chairs made by Colombian ex-cons, to a mini Alexander McQueen retrospective and Mercedes-Benz's new line of luxury furniture. (ARTINFO UK also reported on the Milan launch of a new design think tank backed by a Russian oligarch.)
— Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo opened an exhibition of the label's spring/summer 2012 line at Les Docks in Paris.
— British starchitect David Adjaye released plans for a massive mixed-use development in Frankfurt, the 1.8-million-square-foot "Forum Kulturcampus."
— Ann Binlot e-visited the Museum of the City of New York's new online exhibition chronicling the works of 19th-century couturier Charles Frederick Worth and 20th-century designer Main Rousseau Bocher, aka Mainbocher.
— Revolutionary British hat-maker Stephen Jones — whose hats have graced the heads of Princess Diana, Carla Bruni, Madonna, and more — will adorn manequins at the Bowes Museum in Teesdale, England, with his signature designs.
PERFORMING ARTS
— Nick Catucci pondered the tenuous basis in historical fact of art house auteur Abel Ferrara's new web series for Vice, "Pizza Connection," which purports to be about a Sicilian heroine bust in '70s New York, but so far has mostly concerned a pizzaiolo's peculiar customers.
— Ben Sutton reviewed Performance Lab 115's outrageous, Spandex-clad staging of Robert Wagner's Ring Cycle as a pro-wrestling melodrama.
— Graham Fuller parsed an incredibly complex synopsis of Quentina Tarantino's next film, "Django Unchained," which the filmmaker released to appease eager bloggers.
— Kyle Chayka spoke to RISD film student Julian Marshall, who's working on a fictionalized film about the early career of one of the school's most famous alums, street art star Shepard Fairey. (You have got to see the trailer.)
— Graham Fuller attended a screening of the 1989 BBC classic "The Firm" starring Gary Oldman, which was introduced by the British author Martin Amis.
VIDEO
— Kyle Chayka and Tom Chen visited the Brooklyn studio of Chinese art legend Xu Bing, who discussed the political hardships faced by artists in China, and his current exhibition at the Aldrich Museum.