“We cannot risk one more mother’s life in the name of bad art”

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This week

💦 brace yourselves: its a Dean Kissick special

💦 Martin Herbert speaks on Hans Ulrich Obrist: dodgy and desperate

💦 television idiots

Events

A slim run down for you today! We’ve got bigger fish to fry. But shouting out some fab shows that opened last week, like Kin-Ting Li at South Parade, Moritz Tibes at Algha Works, Nadia Hebson & Marietta Mavrokordatou at Mackintosh Lane and Antony Cairns at Zerui xoxox

🧊 26 Nov | 6-10pm | Lily Hargreaves: Eat Soup or Die Trying, Picalilli Gallery [Sydenham] 

🧊 26 Nov | 6-8pm | Klara Liden: Square Moon, Sadie Coles HQ [Oxford Circus] 

🧊 27 Nov | 6-8pm | Gili Tal: The Cascades Plus, Cabinet [Vauxhall]

🧊 28 Nov | 6-10pm | San Mei Gallery Secure Our Future Fundraising Event, Sain Mei Gallery [Loughborough Junction]

🧊 28 Nov | 6-8pm | Özgür Kar: HEAVY GROUND, Emalin [Shoreditch High Street]

HOT LINKS

Genius marketer Dean Kissick pulls off an incredible profile-raising campaign for obsolete American magazine Harper’s with his controversial essay, The Painted Protest.

“I don’t particularly care to have my awareness raised”, he says of contemporary art.

Debate has been raging since Dean’s piece went live, leaving many confused and scared. Whether you agree with Kissick’s piece or not, the landslide of discourse has been stunning and paralleled only by the time Dean invented ‘Dimes Square’ during the pandemic. You’ve got to give it to the guy, he get’s the people going. Read on for some of the choicest takes from this historic week in art criticism…

🫦 “Ed Fornieles, Gavin Brown Enterprises, and the edgelord anti-woke artist archetype no longer guarantee party invites like they did in 2014” - Persona Non Grata did not like Kissick’s piece, ultimately describing him, in quite strong terms, as a Eurocentric white supremacist...

🍦“Dean Kissick needed a better editor. He was let down” – former ArtReview and Brooklyn Rail editor, Jonathan T.D. Neil, now Co-Founder of Inversion Art, ‘an investment accelerator program and artist services agency’ (?), gives a positive take on the piece, asserting that while the essay could have benefitted from a strenuous gimmick-check, Dean has something important to say. 

🔕 “The artworld is full of these vibrationless husks; close your eyes and they disappear” – @divacorp_USA’s Dean Kissick piece addresses the elephant in the (And-Is-Dean-Kissick-In-The-) room (-With-Us-Right-Now?). Amidst the psychosis that has gripped art people this last week, no one has really touched on Kissick’s mum, her double amputation being brought to our attention forcefully at the start of the Harper’s piece, only to be cast aside for thoughts on how the art world is being throttled by liberals. Taking a brusque tone that matches Kissick’s own, divacorp’s otherwise great piece did upset one or two, especially with the double decker bus meme…

🍸 “the meaning of Dean Kissick transcends the person of Dean Kissick. There are only meanings of Dean Kissick.” – a stunning piece by Udith Dematagoda with lines like “I contend that Dimes Square, even if such a place ‘exists’, must solely be the invention of Dean Kissick – or of the utopian phenomenon of Dean Kissick” and centres on trying to discover the “meaning” of the contemporary art critic.

🍂 From one highly strung critic to another – we also loved how ArtReview’s own Martin Herbet tried to empathise with Dean in this wonderfully therapising piece, broaching the idea that Dean just needs to age out gracefully.

🔒 Have an opinion on the discourse? Want to throw your two cents in on social media? BE WARNED! Dean is always online and he will out you on his stories..

Add-to-cart

We reported on House of Voltaire’s divine Tom of Finland x Beryl Cook merch in a previous ‘sletter, but this fab Monster Chetwynd porcelain pig mask is new to the online store - perfect for sneaking into Sadie Coles’s xmas party! Available for £950, here.

Parting shot

Iconic Goldsmiths CCA director Sarah McCrory leaves Instagram via mic-drop giant ballsack post. After such an extended period of Kissick content we predict a suite of reactionary art world deactivations over the festive period. Will any top Sarah’s in style and substance? We doubt it