Artdaily - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

National Air and Space Museum welcomes Star Wars X-wing outfitted Boeing CV2 Cargo Air Vehicle
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has welcomed a Boeing CV2 Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV) to the collection. This CAV was the first remotely piloted large eVTOL (electrical vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft to be flown in support of a commercial operation in the United States. For this flight, Boeing partnered with Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development to mount X-wing “body shells” on two CAVs for the opening events of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The themed CAV is a gift from Boeing and Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development and will go on display at the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. “While lightweight delivery drones are being tested at a number of locations around the nation, the development ... More

National Portrait Gallery announces Michael S. Hollander as new board chair
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Michael S. Hollander of Chicago as the new chair of its 25-person commission, effective immediately. Hollander will lead the commission in its support of the Portrait Gallery’s mission of narrating the multifaceted story of the United States through the individuals who have shaped American culture. He will succeed Joseph P. Ujobai, who has served as chair since November 2016 and will remain on the board as a commissioner through April 2026. Hollander was appointed to the Portrait Gallery’s commission in 2021 and most recently served as chair of the Strategy and Finance Committee. “We are delighted to welcome Michael Hollander as the new chair of the museum’s board,” said Kim Sajet, director, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “He assumes ... More

Chacarita is Buenos Aires' quirkiest neighborhood. Get there soon.
NEW YORK, NY.- To become a city’s coolest new neighborhood, there are certain prerequisites: a crop of cafes that toe the line between cozy and snobbish, chefs combining the innovative with the Instagrammable, and shops so sincere that they are doomed to close when rents rise, which they inevitably will. But then it must also have quirks. Chacarita, long seen as a low-slung, low-profile neighborhood in north-central Buenos Aires, Argentina, has plenty. There’s the cafe that doubles as a museum of photography and triples as a jazz club. Two cavernous, mysteriously indistinguishable pizza halls, both opened in 1947, stand side by side near a subway stop and serve thick-crusted slices draped with mozzarella and onions. And then, in Chacarita’s southwest flank, a cemetery has elegant monuments to 20th-century tango legend Carlos Gardel ... More

'The Keep Going Songs' review: Vexed by grief and worried about the planet
NEW YORK, NY.- Not a lot of Lincoln Center Theater shows call for setting the preperformance mood with the Grateful Dead, but when “Uncle John’s Band” came over the speakers the other evening before the Bengsons took the stage, it was such an ideal match for their crunchy, mellow, kindhearted, folk-rock vibe that I had to smile. In Abigail and Shaun Bengson’s “The Keep Going Songs,” though, it’s the dead with a lowercase “d” who are integral. This married couple of music-makers, known for shaggy, melodic, autobiographically inspired theater, wanted to create what they call “a concert. That’s also a wake.” Directed by Caitlin Sullivan for LCT3, the show is a musing on death: of human beings, and of our planet. The pairing doesn’t entirely work organically. Still, the seeming intent is a processing of grief. “If you’re in this room,” Abigail ... More

The 'Fall Guy' filmmakers have a cause: Give stunts an Oscar
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The life of stuntmen and women is never glamorous. The job is to take the fall, endure the pain, break the bone, then walk away — unsung, battered and bruised. They usually move on to the next gig without ever seeing the finished product. They rarely get invited to the movie premiere. Oscars? Forget about it. That narrative seems to be changing with the new action-comedy-romance “The Fall Guy,” the loose film adaptation of the 1980s television show that opened Friday. The movie, directed by the former stuntman David Leitch, stars Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, a down-on-his-luck stuntman who returns to set after a nasty accident to solve the mystery of a missing leading man (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and, more important, to get the girl (played by Emily Blunt). Not only does the film give the best portrayal of the life of a stuntman ... More

The voice of a hundred faces: Dee Bradley Baker's 'Star Wars' journey
NEW YORK, NY.- For “Star Wars” fans who have seen only the theatrical blockbusters, clone troopers are peripheral figures, at most recalled as the title menace in “Attack of the Clones,” from 2002. But over the past two decades they have become essential to the franchise, the pillar of animated “Star Wars” series including “The Clone Wars,” “Star Wars Rebels” and most recently, “The Bad Batch.” And in that time one man has been essential to the clones: Dee Bradley Baker, who has voiced them all. Not all of the shows — all of the clones, hundreds of them since getting cast for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which debuted in 2008 with a feature film and an animated series that lasted for seven seasons. Now Baker’s incredibly prolific gig, which also included plenty of non-clone ... More

TikTok's boss goes from reserved tech exec to Met Gala chair
NEW YORK, NY.- Although the Met Gala serves as a branding event for Vogue, it has long accepted sponsorships from the tech giants that have threatened the very survival of legacy media publications. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos appeared as the ball’s honorary chair in 2012. Four years later, when Apple was a Met Gala sponsor, its CEO, Tim Cook, showed up in tux and tails. And Instagram supplied cash in 2022. The 2024 event is sponsored, in part, by TikTok, the social media goliath whose future looks murkier than that of Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and other magazines, which has laid off employees and shuttered or sold off some of its publications in recent years. TikTok found itself in jeopardy last month when President Joe Biden signed a bill that gave ByteDance, the Chinese ... More

At New York City Ballet's gala, the usual with a twist
NEW YORK, NY.- Ballet galas are a special species of performance, as much about schmoozing and speeches and gowns as about the dancing. Ballets made for such occasions tend to fall into certain patterns and formulas: usually upbeat and often emphasizing opportunities for dancers to show off. As with any genre, a gala-style piece can be done in a rote or fresh manner, and at New York City Ballet’s spring gala on Thursday, the two premieres were fresh enough. In their connections to the company, the choreographers presented a contrast. Justin Peck, City Ballet’s resident choreographer and artistic adviser, was contributing his 24th work for the troupe. Amy Hall Garner, a midcareer, newly in-demand choreographer, was offering her first. But these dancemakers were similar in what they delivered: the usual, with a twist. Following George ... More

Michael Muir's debut showcase in London on view at JD Malat Gallery
LONDON.- JD Malat Gallery is presenting Above the Surface, an exhibition by Australia-based painter Michael Muir, marking his debut showcase in London. Presenting ﬁve new works, the exhibition from May 2nd – 1st June transforms the gallery space into a vivid extension of Muir’s paintings complete with white sand and palm trees functioning to reﬂect the artist’s profound connection to the natural world. Originally from Scotland, Muir’s formative years were spent travelling throughout Southeast Asia before eventually settling in Sydney, Australia where the artist is currently based. His peripatetic upbringing deeply informs Muir’s artistic practice, manifesting in his adept ability to reconcile the juxtaposition of the familiar with the novelty of new experiences. Muir’s paintings are predominately inspired by his experience of the landscape and awe of both natural and built environments. He states, ... More

Miranda July is ready to get 'Maximum Weird'
LOS ANGELES, CA.- It was not exactly urgent to get the rug, but the larger question the rug had to answer was urgent enough. That’s why, on a bright afternoon at the end of March, Miranda July and I were driving toward Irvine, California, where she planned to meet a man about a listing on Facebook Marketplace. She had recently moved out of the large home she shared with her husband and child in Silver Lake and into a small two-bedroom house behind her writing studio in Echo Park. It meant she needed new things for a new place. A toilet, for example. A coral one, ideally, to match the tub and sink. Flooring for the kitchen. A refrigerator. And an antique carpet for the walk-in closet she was fixing up in her studio space. In this new life, would it all fit together? July, a writer, filmmaker and artist whose work plays with the boundaries of intimacy, ... More

Nancy Schuster, crossword champion, creator and editor, dies at 90
NEW YORK, NY.- Nancy Schuster, who began crafting crossword puzzles for a PTA newspaper when her children were young and went on to make puzzles her career — constructing them, competing in tournaments and editing them for magazines — died April 26 in Newburgh, New York, in Orange County. She was 90. Her daughter, Jackie Novick, confirmed the death, in a hospice facility. Schuster had been living in nearby Goshen, New York. Schuster became a star in crossword puzzle circles in 1978 when she won the first American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, held at a hotel in Stamford, Connecticut. She took home $125 after solving all five of the competition’s puzzles. She told Newsday afterward that the most difficult clue was in the third puzzle: “Greek festival maidens with baskets on their heads.” Answer: canephori. “She described herself then ... More