Curated Letters N°12
April -May 2022 Edition
A SOPHISTICATION focussed selection of Information
Bookology
Truly Noteworthy
Qatari Sheikh loses appeal
A Qatari Sheikh has lost his legal claim against a Geneva-based art dealer for selling him two fake antique statues. The Sheikh claims that the statues, for which he had paid $5.2 million were worthless fakes. An early attempt to resolve the dispute saw the Swiss art dealer offering to exchange the items but this did not come to fruition. The replacement items were seized by UK customs, reportedly over issues with export documents.
picture@Getty images
Ana Sorokin-Delvy is back in the art world
Anna Sorokin, the infamous “Soho scammer” was making art in prison. Alfredo Martinez a New York-based artist and curator, who has his own history with art-world fraud and prison art, will present a group show featuring one of the drawings Sorokin created while serving nearly four years in New York correctional facilities. The exhibition’s title, Free Anna Delvey, borrows the name that the faux German heiress used while defrauding banks and hotels. The exhibition is co-curated by Julia Morrison,
photo@Mary Altaffer/Associated Press 2019
Saudi Arabia’s UNESCO site
The AlUla region in Saudia Arabia‘s first-ever UNESCO site. In 2021 declared Hegra a UNESCO world heritage. A total of 22.000 sqm and monuments dating back 200.00 years are waiting to be discovered. The entire region seems to have monuments sculpted by one of nature’s master artists. AlUla is a combination of masterfully sculpted façades and interior spaces cut into colourful limestone rock formations. It is indeed rare to walk inside interiors that are actually sculpted and not built.
photo@royal commission for AlUla
A Must
The Biennale in Venice
On April 20th, the 59th Biennale in Venice has opened its doors for previews and will be open to the public until the 27th of November.
Cecilia Alemani is the first Italian woman to hold the reins of the project. She chose Leonora Carrington’s book title ‘The Milk of Dreams’ as the general headline for the exhibitions at the Arsenale and Giardini.
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At the Arsenale Exhibition Space, you should focus on two exhibitions: 1) “A leaf a gourd a shell a net a bat a sling a sack a bottle a pot a box a container” and 2)The seduction of the Cyborg.
At the Giardini visit 1) The German Pavillion with Maria Eichhorn 2) The British Pavillion with Sonia Boyce 3)Hong Kong’s Pavillion with Angela Su 4) Ghana’s Pavillion 5) The Japanese Pavillion with Dumb Type 6) Brazil‘s Pavillion with Jonathas de Andrade 7) The US‘ Pavillion with Simone Leigh 8) The Kazakh Pavillion with Orta 9) Iceland‘s Pavillion with Sigurdur Gudjonsson 10) The Irish Pavillion with Niamh O’Malley 11) The Swiss Pavillion with Latifa Echakhch 12) The Italian Pavillion with Gian Maria Tosatti.
There are plenty of must-see shows in various Palazzi from Marlene Dumas’s “open-end” at the Palazzo Grassi, to “Enchanted Modernity” at the Peggy Guggenheim collection.
Or see Claire Taboute‘s “I am spacious, singing flesh” at the Palazzo Cavani. Don`t miss Anselm Kiefer at the Palazzo Ducale and Anish Kapoor at the Galleria dell’Accademia.
Word of the Month
Hold yourself and your people accountable and appreciate them form holding you accountable
Ray Dalio