Category: visual

“Mark [Rosewater, head designer,] explains how, once he and his team come up with the creative concept for a particular Magic set, there are lots of other things to think about. They have to figure out not only how that deck works on its own, but also how it fits into a game that has tens of thousands of cards already out there — not to mention all the various ways the massive fan base can play with those cards. The calculations are so complex that they even have a full-time economist on staff.” (podcast) – Slate

In designing such new homes, these heavy hitters — Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner and Pace, which is consolidating its spaces on the Upper East Side and West 25th Street — are redefining what it means to be a gallery, shifting their emphasis from selling and showing art to a more full-service visitor experience that offers food, performance spaces, research libraries and open storage. – The New York Times

“You’re collecting an idea and the documentation, if the artist has stipulated, but sometimes they prefer it to be fleeting and ephemeral and totally experiential,” says Amanda Hunt, director of education and senior curator of programs at MOCA. – Los Angeles Times

The grand-scale operation, code-named Pandora III, was coordinated by the Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) and supported by The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), Interpol, and the World Customs Organization (WCO). Since October 2018, these authorities assigned thousands of Police and Customs officers to the investigation, which included a special focus on illicit online trafficking of cultural goods. – Hyperallergic

It’s part of “a new initiative by Apple called [AR]T — a curation of augmented reality art, featured in a series of guided walks. Apple worked with the New Museum to select the artists: Nick Cave, Nathalie Djurberg, Hans Berg, Cao Fei, Carsten Höller, Pipilotti Rist and John Giorno. Each created an augmented reality work that’s been choreographed into the landscape of the tour, playing with the canvas of public space.” – The New York Times

There are two questions surrounding artists and their archives. Why do artists keep them? And what is worth keeping? – The New York Times

“Among the goods seized in the multinational operation, which was dubbed Pandora III and organised by Europol, were an ancient Mesopotamian crystal cylinder seal, a 15th-century bible that had been stolen in Germany over 25 years ago and 109 ancient coins.” – The Art Newspaper

Now that Warren Kanders (“the tear-gas CEO”) has been chased off the Whitney’s board, “which institution might wind up in the crosshairs next? We looked at the makeup of various museums and ranked whose ties make them likely targets of outrage.” – New York Magazine

“A French street art association is the unexpected beneficiary in the years-long legal battle brought by the French schoolteacher Frédéric Durand-Baïssas against Facebook over censorship claims. The Paris-based group Le MUR (The WALL), which works with artists including A1One and BK Foxx, is due to receive an undisclosed amount from the social media giant.” – The Art Newspaper