Art Industry News: A Searing Documentary About Nan Goldin’s Sackler Takedown Gets an Oscar Nomination + Other Stories

NEED-TO-READ

British Museums Cut the Term “Mummy” – The British Museum in London, the National Museums of Scotland, and the Great North Museum have decided to avoid the term “mummy” in their communications and instead discuss “mummified remains of,” citing the individual in question. Some argue that the term “mummy” is dehumanizing, and is entrenched in imperialism and monsters. (El Pais)

FKA Twigs Joins a Major Museum Project – The musician, alongside artists including Yinka Shonibare and Heather Phillipson, is partnering with more than 500 museums across the United Kingdom on an ambitious ecological awareness campaign. Called “Wild Escape,” the project hopes to preserve the nation’s critically endangered biodiversity—artworks are inspired by wildlife, and the star has created an ethereal self-portrait invoking beetles and snakes, which responds to Velázquez’s in the National Gallery and by Shibata Zeshin, which is in The Khalili Collections. ()

Nan Goldin Documentary Nominated for an Oscar – , directed by Laura Poitras, has been nominated for best documentary at the Academy Awards. The film looks at the photographer’s creative practice and activist history, and chronicles her own battle with OxyContin addiction and subsequent mission to take down the Sackler family, the wealthy art patrons who profited from its sale. (Press release)

Actor Lisa Edelstein Gets a Gallery Show – The T.V. star, from the hit show , also makes paintings, and has just wrapped her debut solo exhibition “Family” at the SFA Advisory gallery in Manhattan. Just as some of her best-known roles encompass her Jewish identity, so do her works on canvas: they are based on family photos capturing candid moments, like groups of men in yarmulkes kissing family members on the cheek at a celebration. (Times of Israel)

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Baltimore Museum of Art Names Director – Asma Naeem, who has served as the museum’s chief curator since 2018 and interim co-director since June 2022, will assume the role of director beginning on February 1. The Baltimore native is the first person of color to helm the Maryland-based museum, which was founded in 1914. (New York Times)

Creative Capital Grants – Creative Capital has announced the awardees of the “Wild Futures: Art Culture, Impact” Awards to 50 projects featuring 66 individuals working in the fields of technology, performing arts, and literature. Each project or individual will receive up to $50,000 in unrestricted funding. (Press release) 

Hawai‘i Triennial’s 2025 Curatorial Team – Wassan Al-Khudhairi, independent curator; Binna Choi, director of Casco Art Institute (Utrecht) and co-artistic director of Singapore Biennale 2022; and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu,  independent curator and faculty at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (Honolulu) will lead the artistic vision for the exhibition. ()  

New Executive Director at John Giorno Foundation – Anthony Huberman will take on the role at the New York-based organization named for the late poet and artist, taking the helm from inaugural director Elizabeth Dee. Huberman was previously director and chief curator at San Francisco’s CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. (Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Shahzia Sikander’s Golden Monument – In New York’s Flatiron a new work by the Pakistani-American artist stands tall atop the state courthouse. The eight-foot female sculpture, wearing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s signature lace collar, accompanies nine other statues of lawgivers, all of them men. ()