Gillian Wearing reveals design for suffragist statue on Parliament Square

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Gillian Wearing reveals design for suffragist statue on Parliament Square | The artist Gillian Wearing today unveiled her design for a statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett in London’s Parliament Square, where it will join 11 other statues of notable historical figures – the first work at this site designed by and depicting a woman. The commission, which was announced in April of this year, has been financed by a £5 million government fund to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage, and is expected to be unveiled by February 2018. Wearing’s cast bronze design, which depicts Fawcett holding a sign with a quotation from a 1913 speech she gave after the death of suffragist Emily Wilding Davison, was granted conditional approval by Westminster city council this morning.

Jens Hoffmann is artistic director of second Honolulu Biennial | Jens Hoffmann, director of special exhibitions and public programmes at the Jewish Museum and chief curator-at-large at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, has been hired as artistic director of the second edition of the Honolulu Biennial, it was announced yesterday. Curators Scott Lawrimore and Nina Tonga will join Hoffmann’s team to organise the two-month multi-site exhibition, which is scheduled to open in spring of 2019. The first edition of the biennale, which took place this year, was directed by Fumio Nanjo of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

Centre Pompidou curator joins Hauser & Wirth | Hauser & Wirth has hired a new director of exhibitions at its New York office: art historian and curator Florence Derieux. Derieux, formerly curator of American art at the Centre Pompidou Foundation in New York and curator-at-large of its Paris museum, confirmed the appointment to Artnet yesterday.

Serpentine’s Grayson Perry exhibition breaks attendance records | Grayson Perry’s recent solo show at the Serpentine in London, ‘The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!’ appears to have fulfilled the promise of its title, with officials at the institution describing it as the ‘busiest show’ ever held in its Hyde Park galleries, the Art Newspaper reports. 202,198 visitors attended the exhibition over the 14-week period of its run, averaging 2,416 visitors a day. While the Serpentine’s 2016 summer exhibition of works by American artist Alex Katz drew a record total of 217,646 people, Katz’s show ran for a week longer than the Perry exhibition, which closed on 10 September.

Birmingham Museum of Art appoints new director Graham C. Boettcher | The Birmingham Museum of Art announced yesterday the appointment of Graham C. Boettcher as its new director. Boettcher’s hiring concludes the BMA’s six-month search for a replacement for its current director, Gail C. Andrews, who joined the Alabama museum over 40 years ago, serving 21 years as director. Boettcher, meanwhile, has worked at the institution for over a decade, joining in 2006 as a curatorial fellow in American art and most recently promoted to the position of deputy director.