Superflex Art Mistaken For Superstorm, Bridget Riley Wins Color Prize, and More

— "Flooded McDonald's" Sows Confusion Amid Sandy: The massive Frankenstorm that has plowed its way over the Eastern Seaboard has left in its wake plenty of chaos, and plenty of dramatic pictures of flooding. But one image of chaos making the rounds is a fake. Photos from Danish art collective Superflex's iconic "Flooded McDonald's" project started making the rounds on social media yesterday, prompting Buzzfeed to include it in its list of "11 Viral Photos That AREN'T Hurricane Sandy," and even leading one Virginia paper to issue a warning, "If you see this photo on Facebook with the caption 'Shore Drive McDonalds,' don't believe it." In fact, the paper reports, comfortingly, "both Shore Drive McDonalds are open for business today." [Buzzfeed, HamptonRoads] 

— Riley Nabs Dutch Color Prize: British painter and Op artist Bridget Riley has won this year's Sikkens prize, an award given out by the Netherlands' Sikkens Foundation for the use of color in architecture, design, art, film, and a plethora of other disciplines, including everyday life — previous winners range from Donald Judd and Le Corbusier to the sanitation workers of the city of Paris and "The Hippies" — becoming the first Brit, and the first woman, ever to receive the honor. "In my years after leaving art school, I found a way of learning about the use of use of colour in modern art by copying a Seurat," Riley said. "It was the landscape of a river and its banks in autumn. I copied it from a reproduction, because it is much easier to copy when one is not intimidated by the presence of a masterwork." [Guardian]

— Turrell Blesses Arizona Campus With Skyspace: Arizona State University's ASU Art Museum in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts is the latest Southwestern university to add a Skyspace installation by conceptual and land artist James Turrell to its amenities: The installation, "Air Apparent," was recently inaugurated on the university's Tempe campus near the new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4. "Like much of the work that takes place here, the Skyspace is a project with roots in multiple disciplines — physics, the arts, philosophy — that transcends those categories to emerge as something unique and truly extraordinary," said ASU president Michael Crow. [ArtDaily]

— Van Gogh Masterworks Moved: While Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum is being renovated, its trove of the modern artist's paintings — the world's largest — is being shown across town at the Hermitage's Amsterdam location, a relocation that has been strikingly visualized by contemporary artist Henk Schut, who threaded a red rope through the Dutch capital's streets, squares, and intersections as part of a public installation marking the relocation. Among the works on view at Hermitage Amsterdam is a two-sided Van Gogh painting that has never been exhibited before, with one side showing a gloomy early work, and the other, painted months later, boasting a self-portrait rendered in what would become his trademark bold palette. [Guardian]

— Miami Museum Commissions Four Artists: When the Miami Art Museum reopens in December 2013 as the Pérez Art Museum Miami in its new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building, it will boast new works by Israeli video artist Yael Bartana, Moroccan video artist Bouchra Khalili, Scottish sculptor Hew Locke, and Polish conceptual artist Monika Sosnowska, which each will develop over a year-long process of exploring Miami. "We are also committed to engaging with artists, creators and thinkers from around the globe," said MAM director Thom Collins, "connecting our local experience with those across the world and solidifying Miami's role as a major cultural catalyst." [ArtDaily]

— Rome Avid for Affordable Art: The Affordable Art Fair's first outing in Rome this past weekend was deemed a success by exhibitors, who found the crowds of the Italian capital thirsty for contemproary fair to match their art history-filled surroundings. "The organisers thought that this being Rome, the people would arrive a bit late," said photographer Ruggero Rosfer, whose work was on sale at the fair between $3,300-5,180. "Instead, half an hour before opening time there was already a queue around the block... That's how huge the interest is." [Reuters]

— Cincinnati Museum's Hiring Spree: The Cincinnati Art Museum has hired a new curator for European art — to replace Benedict Leca, who left in the spring — and a new chief conservator to replace Per Knutås, who now holds that title at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Esther Bell, a former curator at the Metropolitan and Morgan museum, will take over as European art curator, and Serena Urry, most recently of the Barnes Foundation and before that the Detroit Institute of the Arts, will be the new chief conservator. [Cincinnati.com]

— Monumental Gollum Statue Graces Airport Food Court: NYC flights may be grounded, but New Zealand's Wellington Airport got a precious new mascot on Friday morning, when local prop and special effect company Weta Workshop revealed a massive, grotesque hanging sculpture of Gollum, the ring-infatuated creature of J.R.R. Tolkien legandarium, suspended over the airport's food court. As of Friday morning, the 42-foot long, 2,500-pound effigy of the creature formerly known as Sméagol hungrily snatching up fish celebrates New Zealand's involvment in the Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, while plugging the forthcoming "Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" movie. [NYT]

— National Gallery Director Piles on Plinth: Nicholas Penny, the director of London's National Gallery, is not fond of the Fourth Plinth public art program just outside the gallery's doors in Trafalgar Square — for which contemproary artists like Yinka Shonibare MBE and Elmgreen & Dragset have been commissioned to create site-specific and temporary public art projects — saying the the plinths should simply be adorned with two complimentary works of contemporary art. The current program, he said, is "antagonistic to the architectural character of the square" and turns the plinth into "a stage, which can be used ironically, farcically [and] inappropriately." [TAN]

— "Peru's Sistine Chapel" Restored: The Church of San Pedro Apóstol de Andahuaylillas in a remote Peruvian village, long deemed South America's equivalent of the Sistine Chapel, will reopen tomorrow following a four-year, $1.5 million restoration effort to undo the effects of centuries of dirt, earthquake damage, sloppy conservation, and bat droppings. "These churches are wonderful examples of Andean Baroque art during the colonial period and we are committed to their conservation," said World Monuments Fund Peru president Marcela Pérez de Cuéllar. "When you restore a building, you may think you are only helping the building, but these projects also benefit the community." [TAN]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Superflex's "Flooded McDonald's" (2009):

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