RM, the leader of the pop group BTS, was recognized by a South Korean agency for his overseas efforts to help preserve and restore Korean cultural artifacts.

The 28-year-old singer, who released his solo album Indigo on Friday, received a plaque of appreciation from the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA). RM, whose real name is Nam-joon, shared the news on Instagram with a short “Thank You” note.

According to the Korea Times, the plaque’s engraving says, “You have contributed to preserving and promoting Korean cultural artifacts outside the country with great affection for our cultural heritage and history. You are being honored with much appreciation and gratitude.”

The pop superstar has established a reputation for his interest in art and other artists through visits to museums, galleries, and major art fairs. In between publicity events and tours, he has shared news of all of this on his influential social media channels. RM also made large financial donations of 100 million won (about $77,000 USD today) to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

In addition to collecting art from domestic and foreign artists, RM loaned a terra cotta sculpture of a horse by the Korean artist Kwon Jin-kyu to a Seoul Museum of Art for a retrospective that ran until May of this year.

The New York-based Andy Warhol Foundation, which distributes grants in the creative sector, has announced the 2022 recipients of its lauded Arts Writers prize.

The non-profit organization will distribute a total of $695,000 that will go to support twenty writers producing project across three literary categories: articles, books, and short-form writing. Each recipient will receive funding between $15,000 and $50,000. The annual grant is focused on supporting arts criticism.

In a statement announcing the awardees, Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant director, Pradeep Dalal described this year’s honored writers as “immensely rich.” Topics represented in the projects address issues related to race, eco-activism, and labor.

Dalal went on to describe the need to fund art criticism as “urgent,” amid “publication venues folding, national newspapers reducing their arts coverage and staff, and university presses relying on authors to find additional support for the publication of their books.”

The full list of grantees follows below.

On a Tuesday evening last month, just before Thanksgiving, artist Ted Hartley was at a dinner to celebrate his recently exhibition of new paintings at Keyes Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York. As the dozen oysters he’d ordered were laid out in front of him, he was prompted to explain the inspiration for his latest body of work.

“It’s about walls,” Hartley said. “When you run into a wall you either have to get over it, go under it, get around it, or break it down. Life is about dealing with walls. It’s about not letting fear get the better of you” he said. After a moment to himself, he picked an oyster, swallowed it down, and placed its shell upside down on the tray of crushed ice. 

Apart from its zip code, an exhibition opening in Sag Harbor is not unlike one at a smaller gallery in Tribeca or Chelsea, or any in Brooklyn. The main difference, however, is the complete lack of pretense or cynicism, noticeable upon entering the gallery. 

The atmosphere was quite nonchalant for one of the chicest enclaves on Long Island, and by proxy in all of New York State. About 20 people filled the room, for a night full of conversation, appreciation, and very good wine served out of thin plastic flutes.

On view in the exhibition, which runs until December 5, was Hartley’s “Ukraine Series,” a collection of three punchy abstract works in blue, red, black, and yellow that bring together the influences of Post-Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism.

November 4 – December 17, 2022

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If context is everything in art, how does placing an art show in the middle of the sea change our experience of the work? That’s the obvious question posed by New York’s Half Gallery, which hosted the second iteration of one-day Miami Art week pop up Stiltsville Thursday. 

If nothing else, it made for quite the adventure for the 130 collectors, artists, and art world hangers-on (including yours truly) that braved the two-hour sea journey to the Bay Chateau, one of six houses still standing in Stiltsville. With guests traveling throughout the morning, the weather alternated between clear, bright sun and a steely downpour with gusts of powerful wind, until the boat reached its far-out destination for a genial afternoon of art, swimming, and sun. 

Stiltsville is a collection of houses built in Biscayne Bay, off the coast of Miami, in the 1930s. For decades, the houses, of which there were 27 at peak, were a major nightlife attraction, featuring restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and gambling houses. Illicit activity hidden from prying eyes was the allure. The surviving houses have become landmarks in Biscayne National Park.

“I think traveling via boat with a small group of other art lovers is more unique than bumping into someone at a fair,” Half Gallery’s director Erin Goldberger said in a statement. 

That’s an understatement. Between the mildly treacherous sea journey, a healthy amount of cocktails, and the convivial air from the many friends and family of the artists and gallery present, it was a unique experience indeed.

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