Charlotte's Weekly Round-Up

AI WEI WEI ON HUMAN RIGHTS

The Guardian and BBC have been reporting solidly on the house arrest of Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei. Ai, whose work is currently on display in the Turbine Hall at Tate has called on David Cameron to bring attention to the Chinese government’s record on human rights. The artist was supposed to have a closing down party at his studio in Shanghai last week but was arrested shortly before, his fans carried on the party in his honor.


HUGO BOSS PRIZE

German artist Hans Peter Feldmann has won the 8th Hugo Boss Prize. A jury of international museum directors and curators selected Feldmann from a group of six shortlisted artists, which included Cao Fei, Roman Ondák, Walid Raad, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. An exhibition of the prizewinner’s work will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum from 20 May to 5 September 2011. Previous winners of the award include Matthew Barney, Douglas Gordon and Tacita Dean.



ANOTHER RECORD PRICE FOR WARHOL

An Andy Warhol Coke Bottle has sold for $35 million at the Sotheby’s New York Contemporary Art Sale. Company Director Tobias Meyer is reported as observing; "What's happening is that people have been moving into this market from the Impressionist market. ... It's become one market.” In an interview for Reuters Meyer furthered the issue by pointing out that the strength of Warhol’s market value was gaining rapidly on auction favorites Matisse and Picasso.


GLO GLO’S

Just in case you didn’t have enough trendy restaurants to take your pick from in and around Shoreditch when you’re out on a gallery jaunt, Alan Ricker of E&O has just opened up another option. Glo Glo’s is at
54 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3QR. Go and see if they do a better Martini than Boundary!