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Gabrielle Goliath’s performance series, axed by South Africa for its Venice pavilion, will shine on, pro-wrestling meets contemporary art, a new hire for New York’s forthcoming Hip Hop Museum, and more.
Gabrielle Goliath (© Anthea Pokroy)
Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.
A Canceled Biennale Show Finds a New Home
Gabrielle Goliath will independently present three new suites of her performance project Elegy, which mourns victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, during the forthcoming 61st Venice Biennale after her eponymous proposal for the South African Pavilion was notoriously axed. “Palestinian lives will be grieved,” declared a press release from the artist’s team this week. Kudos to the venue that agreed to host the work — the Chiesa di Sant’Antonin in Castello, a historic church dating back to the seventh century that is honestly a huge upgrade from those stuffy pavilions — and co-sponsors, the Bertha Foundation and the London art space Ibraaz.
Please Join Us in Congratulating …
Indira A. Abiskaroon Valbuena joins the Hip Hop Museum. (photo courtesy Leo Ng)
It feels like just yesterday that we were connecting with curator Indira A. Abiskaroon Valbuena about her stunning booth with artist Aiza Ahmed at last year’s Spring Break Art Show. Now, Abiskaroon Valbuena, a native New Yorker whose art world creds include co-curating the Spike Lee show at the Brooklyn Museum, has a cool new gig: creative director and director of curatorial affairs at the forthcoming Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx.
“I’m a ’90s kid who grew up in Queens. There is no doubt in my mind that I move through life the way I do in part because I’ve never known a world without Hip Hop,” Abiskaroon Valbuena told Hyperallergic. “It felt like the soundtrack to life back then — not just through music, but in the way people approached their day-to-day.”
“When this museum opens, my hope is we will all finally have a chance to look at that legacy, not just for what Hip Hop’s practitioners accomplished and when, but for how their limitless creativity shaped the way we see the world,” Abiskaroon Valbuena concluded.
Also …
- Tomashi Jackson, Lucy Kim, and Yu-Wen Wu are the recipients of the 2026 Wagner Arts Fellowship, awarded by the Wagner Foundation. They’ll each receive $75,000 in unrestricted grants in support of their practice.
- Veronica Fernandez is now represented by Anat Ebgi gallery.
- Garth Greenan Gallery now represents Heidi Howard.
- Pentimenti now represents Philadelphia-based artist Sarah Pater.
- Manifesta 16 Ruhr released a list of the 106 participants in its upcoming edition, which will take place from June 21 through October 10.
- Silke Lindner now represents Elizabeth Jaeger.
- The Estate of Paul Claude Gardère is now represented by Magenta Plains.
Wildcard: Contemporary Art Meets … Pro-Wrestling?
Lee Moriarty, “Pink Mink” (courtesy MDD)
Contemporary art has previously collided with the US Open and anti-aging serums, so I guess it was just a matter of time before it entered the ring. Two internationally recognized wrestlers, Lee Moriarty and Thekla Kaischauri, are also emerging visual artists, and their debut show, Sunset Flip, is now open in the Miami Design District — where even the paintings have better abs than you.
