Saturday, January 29, 2022

How do art scams work?

Once a week or so I get an email from an artist somewhere on the planet like this about a potential art scammer (see all my listed scammers here):

Hello, I'm a German artist and found your " Art Scam Alert " from July 15  2018 about this Donald Hugh mail. Now at January 21  2022 I got the same mail from him online in German. He ordered two pictures from me. My question is, how he is trying  to rip off artist? He wants me to send pictures and doesn't pay? 

Thank you for an answer. 

This is how:

  1. They will most likely give you (a) International Bank Draft/Postal Money Order or (b) Credit Card
  2. Your bank will accept them and they will show almost immediately as available in your account, which is the "normal" way to show that the deposit has cleared.
  3. Artists then usually ship the work
  4. A few days later the bank gets a note from that overseas bank... bad news - the draft is fake and/or cc has just been reported as stolen.
  5. They withdraw the funds from your account.
  6. You're hosed.

2022 Wherewithal Grantees

From the Washington Project for the Arts:

We are pleased to announce the 12 recipients for the 2022 Wherewithal Grants. Each artist or artist collective was awarded $5,000 for either a collaborative project or research.
The Research Grants recipients are: Rasha Abdulhadi, Safiyah Cheatam & Hope Willis, Larry Cook, Deirdre Darden, Rex Delafkaran, Monica Jahan Bose, and Armando Lopez-Bircann.
The Project Grants recipients are: Antonius Bui & Naoko Wowsugi, Fabiola Ching & Mayah Lovell, Ayana Zaire Cotton, Dirt, and Imogen-Blue Hinojosa.
Over the next year, these artists and cultural producers will organize projects and conduct research around such fascinating and timely topics as club photography, queering Palestinian embroidery, climate injustice, O-1 artist visas, and world-building through Black aesthetics.
An independent panel of four curators reviewed 114 applications and recommended the final 12 for funding. The panelists were Monica Peña, Programs Manager, Locust Projects (Miami); Eriola Pira, Curator, The Vera List Center (New York); Victoria Reis, Executive & Artistic Director, Transformer (DC); and Tiffany Ward, Curator and Founder, Mare Residency (Baltimore/London). 
Wherewithal Grants are generously funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its Regional Regranting Program and managed by WPA.
Learn more about grantees and their projects here and follow @wherewithalgrants on Instagram for updates.