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Sacha Jafri’s Attempts World Recordl

Artist Sacha Jafri is attempting to create the largest painting ever created on canvas. His inspired project, which has a goal of raising $30 million for charitable causes within health and education and connecting a billion people around the world, involves creating a painting 160 meters long (larger than two soccer pitches laid end-to-end). He’s been working on his painting, The Journey of Humanity, in Dubai since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Jafri has invited children around the world to send in drawings themed around isolation and connection that he’ll paste into circular portals inside his mammoth painting. They’ll act as windows intended to lead us to a better tomorrow, as seen through the eyes of our children.

“My initiative, Humanity Inspired, aims to be a catalyst for true societal change through the hearts, minds, and souls of the children of the world – a springboard for a better future for all humanity. I aim to connect the world and re-connect humanity to ourselves, each other and ultimately the soul of the Earth,” says Jafri. His efforts are being supported by Dubai Cares, UNICEF, UNESCO, the Global Gift Foundation, and the UAE government. Once the work is completed, the canvas will be split into 60 individually framed, numbered, signed and catalogued artwork pieces and sold via an online charity auction.

Loring Randolph Steps Down as Director of Frieze New York

Loring Randolph, who has worked as director of Frieze New York since 2019 and previously served as

Sacha Jafri has been working on his painting, The Journey of Humanity, in Dubai since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

artistic director of the Americas for Frieze Art Fairs from 2017, has announced that she will depart from her role at the art fair to direct the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger collection of art starting in September.

Randolph will continue her involvement with the fair as program director for its 2021 edition in New York, and she will direct Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center, which opens next month. She will also assist and consult with the transition of new leadership upon her departure.

“I have known Nancy and David for over 10 years, and it was very natural for us to work together in this capacity,” Randolph stated. “The COVID isolation has made me acutely aware of how much I miss being around art, so I am really excited to get closer to the works in the collection and to go more in-depth with my research into artists’ practices.”

In her new position, Randolph will assess and manage works in the collection, conduct research related to the holdings, and identify acquisitions for it. In an email to colleagues, Randolph wrote, “I have had a fantastic experience with Frieze, and I could not be more proud of all the accomplishments made these last few years, including the conception and launch of Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center in 2019 and Frieze viewing room earlier this year,” adding, “Frieze New York is positioned to have a great year in 2021!”

The career move comes in a year

where Frieze has called off most of its fairs, holding online viewing rooms in their stead. The in-person editions of Frieze New York, Frieze London, and Frieze Masters have all been canceled due to safety concerns related to the ongoing pandemic.

Phillips to Sell $12.5 M. Basquiat Painting at New Southampton Location

Phillips has opened a new space in Southampton. The auction house, which joins Sotheby’s and Christie’s in expanding to the Hamptons, hosted a curated exhibition of 20th-century and contemporary art, as well as design pieces, jewelry, and watches.

Phillips has taken up residence in a two-story, 6,000-square-foot space at 1 Hampton Road, which once served as Southampton Town Hall and has been redesigned by studio MDA. The inaugural show at the space will featured 70 works previewing some of the auction house’s forthcoming sales, including the 20th-century and contemporary art evening and day sales set for November and its online-only “Phillips x Artsy: Endless Summer” sale.

Among the major lots on view in Southampton is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting Portrait of A-One A.K.A King, which is estimated to sell for $10 million to $15 million at the November evening sale of 20th-century and contemporary art, along with works by Ruth Asawa, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Matthew Wong, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Nicolas Party, and others.

Portrait of A-One A.K.A King, which serves as a tribute to the famed

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Portrait of A-One A.K.A King, 1982. COURTESY PHILLIPS

New York graffiti artist A-One, who was also a close friend and collaborator of Basquiat, is an example of the artist’s “mark-making” and the “abstract language he creates,” Robert Manley, co-head of 20th-century and contemporary art and global chairman at Phillips stated in an interview. The work was included in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne’s “Keith Haring | JeanMichel Basquiat: Crossing Lines” exhibition, which opened last year and ran through March 15.

The six-foot-by-six-foot work was last sold for just $18,150 more than three decades ago in a Sotheby’s New York sale, where it was acquired by the Mugrabi family. It changed hands once again to the current anonymous seller.

Phillips sold a monumental Basquiat paper on canvas work in its July 2 evening sale for $9.3 million. The piece, titled Victor 25448 (1987), was among the leading lots in that sale, second to a painting by Joan Mitchell.

Basquiat’s works have cropped up at recent sales by other entities, too: Untitled (Head), 1982, achieved a new record for a work on paper by the artist at Sotheby’s in June, where it sold for $15.2 million, and former Christie’s executive Loïc Gouzer sold a $10.8 million Basquiat work on paper through his app Fair Warning in July.