Morning Links: Museum of Ice Cream 'Sprinkle Plague' Edition

The infamous sprinkle pit at the Museum of Ice Cream's Miami Beach outpost.

COURTESY MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM

Silver Anniversaries

Arthur Lublow at WSJ. magazine takes a look at David Zwirner's burgeoning gallery empire in its 25th year. Zwirner's first shop, a modest storefront on Greene Street in New York's SoHo, opened in 1993 with a bare-bones staff—and now, in 2018, he is set to have outposts on three continents and employ 160 people. The profile touches upon the launch of David Zwirner Books, which is now run by his son, Lucas, and even dishes on gallerist-against-gallerist feuds that have popped up over the years. Due to long-simmering arguments over issues with the Dan Flavin estate, David Zwirner admits that "Paula​ ​Cooper​ ​really​ ​hates​ ​me." [WSJ.]

Museum Updates

Could 2018 finally be the year when downtown Las Vegas welcomes to its environs the Art Museum at Symphony Park? Carol Cling of the Las Vegas Review-Journal investigates, and speaks with the proposed institution's board chair Katie O'Neill, who lays out some tentative plans. The goals for 2018 involve using the $1 million appropriated by the state to work toward a merger with the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, and scouting for local staff. [The Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Just when you thought you had heard enough about the Museum of Ice Cream for many, many lifetimes comes this delightful report from Kenzie Bryant in Vanity Fair. The Miami Beach outpost has a gigantic pit of sprinkles that some adult people self-document jumping into, but these sprinkles are no innocent Instagram bait. They have sparked what Bryant refers to as a "sprinkle plague." The run-down: The sprinkles get carried out of the museum, the sprinkles get flushed through drains to the ocean, sprinkles get eaten by sea creatures. And so, MOIC is being fined $5,000 for health-code violations. [Vanity Fair]

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Katherine Stewart explains that the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., maybe shouldn't be considered a true "museum" that's akin to, say, something that's part of the Smithsonian. That's because the Museum of the Bible is founded by Trump supporter Ralph Drollinger who, as Stewart puts it, "believes that social welfare programs 'have no basis in Scripture,' that Christians in government have an obligation to hire only Christians and that women should not be allowed to teach grown men." [The New York Times]

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, will be loaning out two major works for the bulk of 2018, Robbie Neiswanger explains in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Asher B. Durand's Kindred Spirits will be going to the the Met in New York, and Normal Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter will be going to the New-York Historical Society. [The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]

Nicholas Rice in Billboard has the news that the Stratford Perth Museum in Ontario will stage an exhibition dedicated to the early life of pop star Justin Bieber. The museum's board has been working on curating a full-scale show about the Canadian born singer for some time, and reports indicate that Bieber will be loaning his hockey bag and running shoes, among other personal items, to the show. [Billboard]

Artist Routines

At the age of 86, the artist Harry Bertschmann is still hoping for his big break, making work everyday in the South Street Seaport apartment and studio he shares with his wife. He once was spoken of alongside Rothko and Motherwell, but as Susan Chumsky explains in the pages of the New York Times, he now has trouble getting gallery owners to agree to show him, and when they do, his work does not exactly sell like hotcakes. He will have work at a fair this month in Palm Beach, but what some advocates for the artist really want is a leg-up from somewhere like the Swiss Institute. After all, Bertschmann was born in Basel. [The New York Times]

Anicka Yi doesn't eat sugar, dairy or animal protein, so when it comes to breakfast, things can get a little tricky. But as she tells Hilary Moss at T magazine, there are plenty of yummy options to start the day, and Yi is nice enough to provide personal recipes for a chia bowl and a green smoothie. [T: The New York Times Style Magazine]

When Yi shared the story on Instagram, she thanked the magazine for having her contribute to its wellness coverage, and said that "I would add that my one true passion is the weather. IT IS my LIFE." [Instagram]

The Wall

The artist JR talks with Chris Harvey at the Telegraph about the work that he's installed at the American/Mexican border, near Tecate, of a baby peering over the barricade. [The Telegraph]

And much has been made of the artist Christoph Büchel's campaign to get the prototypes for Donald Trump's border wall to be named a national monument. Jerry Saltz chimed in with his two cents over the weekend, with an Instagram post claiming that the eight examples of potential walls, which are lined up next to each other in Tijuana, amount to the "Greatest Earth Work of the 21st Century." [Instagram]

Meanwhile, in China

Annie Malcolm at Quartz goes to Shenzhen, China, to spend time at the Wutong Art Village, an artist colony with 15,000 residents that apparently resembles, in the words of one American ex-pat there, "a Hollywood film set of an old Chinese village." [Quartz]

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