Briefing

London’s Carroll/Fletcher Gallery joins the string of recent closures across the capital (it feels like only a few days since we reported on Laura Bartlett Gallery in east London shutting). After five years, cofounders Jonathon Carroll and Steve Fletcher will be leaving to independently run a commercial and non-profit space respectively. The gallery was established in 2012 and its roster included Constant Dullaart, Mishka Henner and Manfred Mohr.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi finally has a confirmed date, 11 November 2017, set for its opening. It will be a decade since France and the UAE first began the EUR€10-billion project, with a series of opening dates pushed back. The museum is set on Saadiyat Island and houses a collection drawing on France’s leading cultural institutions. The building, designed by Jean Nouvel, has drawn heavy criticism over the years for harsh labour conditions (in 2015, a construction worker died on site). French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to be present at the inauguration in November.

Writer, activist and sculptor Kate Millett has died at 82. Her book Sexual Politics (1970) was a landmark in second-wave feminist literature (and sparked a feud with Norman Mailer). Millett was born in Minnesota in 1934, and became the first American woman to receive a first-class degree from St Hilda’s, Oxford University. She set up an artists’ colony for women in LaGrange, New York, later renamed the Millett Center for the Arts.

Lévy Gorvy is to open an office and private viewing space in Shanghai. The gallery has named Danqing Li, formerly at Christie’s, as their senior director of Asia to head up the office located in the city’s business district. Lévy Gorvy joins a string of western galleries expanding into Asia (David Zwirner announced its Hong Kong outpost last year with a ‘gallery and lifestyle tower’ set for early 2018).

Artist and writer Caroline Bergvall has won the newly created Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou literary prize, awarded for ‘a recent non-book literary creation’. Serge Lasvignes, President of the Centre Pompidou, commented: ‘The power of Caroline Bergvall's poetic and sonic creation comes from her work on languages, which gives her output an incomparable dimension’.

Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, now represents artists Lisa Brice and Channing Hansen. London-based South African Brice focuses her work on intimate, resonant portraiture, while LA-based Hansen produces hand-knitted paintings drawing on his own DNA.

In further representation news, Gladstone Gallery has taken on American artist Ian Cheng. His first solo US museum show ‘Emissaries’ at MoMA PS1 runs until 24 September. Barbara Gladstone commented: ‘Ian’s exceptional current exhibition at MoMA PS1 speaks to the transformative and forward thinking nature of his work, and we’re thrilled to support the continued exploration of his practice’. Don’t miss Jace Clayton writing on the hyper-intelligent dogs and violent humans in the artist’s computer-simulated worlds, from frieze issue 187.