Federal Agents Raid NYC Gallery Involved in High-Stakes Poker Games

The New York Times is reporting that Federal agents have raided an Upper East Side art gallery, Helly Namad Gallery, as part of an investigation into a gambling operation that included “high-stakes poker games involving Wall Street financiers, Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes, according to an indictment unsealed in the case.”

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hyperallergic: I have a feeling that this is only the beginning … my instinct tells me that we’re starting to see where the fault lines between art, public space, human rights, and personal freedom are forming and they seem to be mostly online.

iteeth:

curate:

Dominguez, 50, a tenured visual arts professor, was scheduled to answer questions about an online sit-in he helped stage last month to disrupt the Web site of Mark Yudof, president of the University of California . The sit-in drew about 400 participants, each triggering a reloading of Yudof’s Web site over the course of 90 minutes.

Dominguez, a scholar in the emerging field of electronic civil disobedience, says the event was a protest against budget cuts and the administration’s priorities.

Campus officials say it’s a personnel matter so they can’t discuss the situation. Dominguez says university police and administrators have told him they are investigating whether he violated rules by launching a “denial of service attack” in which a hacker takes over a Web site and shuts it down. He says he fears the investigations may lead to his tenure being revoked.

Joe Nalven, who worked as a private attorney in the 1990s and represented a UCSD professor facing dismissal, said he believes the university has a case against Dominguez.

“If he has done the things I’ve read that he’s claimed, I would say it’s actionable,” said Nalven, who lectures at San Diego City College. “There are limits to academic freedom.”

Tenured professors enjoy a certain level of academic freedom but have to comply with campus policies. UCSD’s faculty code of conduct says unacceptable conduct includes “intentional disruption of functions or activities sponsored or authorized by the university,” and “unauthorized use of university resources or facilities on a significant scale for … political reasons.”

During yesterday’s rally, Dominguez asked for a show of hands on whether he should attend the meeting with campus auditors, skip the meeting, or ask that it be opened up to the crowd. A majority of those gathered voted for the third option.

Once the crowd marched to the meeting site, Dominguez talked briefly with the auditors, who are tasked with making sure university employees comply with laws and policies. Dominguez was told the crowd could not witness the questioning because of university protocol. He stood at the door of his department chair’s office and drew questions from the crowd and then repeated them for the auditors.

“Why all the secrecy?” one student yelled out.

“What are the charges?” another asked.

Dominguez dipped his head into the office and then relayed to the crowd, “No, there are no charges. They’re fact-finding.”

Professors in the crowd urged Dominguez to call off the meeting until his attorneys are present, and he agreed. Afterward, Dominguez grabbed his backpack and sat quietly as students and professors decried the university’s tactics.

After more than an hour, Dominguez thanked the crowd and headed out to teach a class.

“A new form of art is not a crime,” he said, to loud cheers.

(via UCSD prof turns meeting into protest rally - SignOnSanDiego.com)

On Driggs Avenue, in front of the now closed Jack the Pelican Gallery

Artist Joy Garnett holds court on Facebook … is all intellectual property theft?

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s missing Rembrandt since 1990.

Cecily Brown, “Untitled (Bunny Gangbang)” (1996), oil on canvas. 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm).

California Aggie’s photo of California Highway Patrol using stun guns on student during a March 4 protest at University of California, Davis. (via Twitpic)