David Bowery Lives!: Last Week in Art

And James Franco is making paintings to fight AIDS. Get yours for just $10!

January 24, 2016, 2:45pm

Et oui ! David Bowery ! #houstonstreet with the #bowery #DavidBowery #davidbowie

A photo posted by Cristina Guadalupe Galván (@cristinaguadalupegalvan) on Jan 23, 2016 at 10:24pm PST

A lot went down this week in the weird and wild world of art. Some things were more scandalous than others, some were just plain wacky—but all of them are worth knowing about. Without further ado:

+ In the midst of Winter Storm Jonas, someone braved the wind and snow to paint a play on the Thin White Duke's name atop a thin green street sign.

+ The Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover is sweeping the nation, checking in at over 30 arts organizations over the next two months. [Vogue]

+ L'Origine du monde performance artist Deborah de Robertis was jailed after lying naked in front (and in imitiation) of Manet’s Olympia painting at the Musée d’Orsay’s Splendors and Miseries: Images of Prostitution 1850-1910 exhibition. [The Guardian]

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+ By donating $10 or more to the AIDS non-profit (RED), you can enter a chance to win a flight to L.A. for a personally painted portrait by James Franco. [Out Magazine]

+ In other nude news: this Bushwick artist is taking a stand against "all the bullshit in the art world" by sitting on a toilet, in the nude, for two days for a parody piece entitled Artist is Humbly Present. [The Bushwick Daily]

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+ Since January 8th, artist Sarah Meyohas has been busy buying and selling stocks. Now, her paintings of the past two weeks’ price movements are on display at Manhattan’s 303 Gallery, selling for $10,000 a pop. [CNBC]

+ The trial of Knoedler & Co.’s Ann Freedman, charged for selling counterfeit Rothkos, Pollocks, and Diebenkorns, begins on Monday. [The Wall Street Journal]

+ The National Museum of African American History and Culture will receive a 10 million dollar gift from David Rubenstein. [The Washington Post]

+ Visitors to the Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida can now experience one of the artist’s surreal works in virtual reality. [Digital Trends]

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+ William Edmondson’s Boxer set the Christie’s record for its Outsider Art sale at $785,000. [The New York Times]

+ Sotheby’s reported a fourth-quarter loss of between 10 and 19 million dollars. Ouch. [Bloomberg]

+ New details were released about The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s modern and contemporary art expansion project in The Whitney’s old Breuer building. [New York Post]

+ U.K. museums are facing nationwide financial crises caused by cuts in public funding. [Art Forum]

+ David Koch, New York oil billionaire and infamous climate-change denier, left the American Museum of Natural History’s board. Ouch. [The Guardian]

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+ French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui died after falling victim to the jihadist attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on January 15th. She was there on assignment for an Amnesty International project regarding child marriage. [The Art Newspaper]

+ Russian art-lovers waited outside for hours in freezing temperatures for a chance to see a temporary exhibition on impressionist painter Valentin Serov. [U.S. News]

+ This hedge fund billionaire is using art to back his Morgan Stanley loan. [Financial Intelligence]

+ San Francisco’s Bay Bridge will shine once again with the return of Leo Villareal's 25,000 LED-strong installation later this month. [SFist]