Stagwell (STGW) Partners with Google Cloud and SADA to Develop Marketing-Focused Generative AI Solutions

By in Art World News

Stagwell (STGW) Partners with Google Cloud and SADA to Develop Marketing-Focused Generative AI Solutions

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, today announced a unique partnership with Google Cloud and SADA, a Google Cloud Premier Partner, to develop generative AI (gen AI) marketing solutions that support Stagwell agencies, client partners, and product development within the Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC).

Through this collaboration, SMC will build AI-based tools for modern marketers and receive development support from Google Cloud as a strategic cloud and AI provider. This work will greatly enhance SMC’s ability to identify, develop, and infuse AI capabilities into all of its products. SMC will leverage Google Cloud’s gen AI solutions including Vertex AI, Duet AI, and other advanced tools to create new solutions, initially spanning the following areas to help customers:

  • Transform brand campaigns: Develop go-to-market programs for brands supported by gen AI, specifically with SMC’s Media Studio Audience Identification, PRophet Monitor, and PR applications.
  • Accelerate gen AI solution development: Develop solutions that drive market-leading initiatives, such as translation services for market research and survey solutions, and an AI agent-to-agent service.
  • Harness data analytics and insights: Develop and train a proprietary Stagwell large language model (LLM) purpose-built for Stagwell clients; productize data assets via APIs to create new digital experiences for brands, and multiply the value of their first-party data ecosystems to drive new revenue streams using Vertex AI and open source-based models.

Additionally, SMC plans on releasing its solutions on Google Cloud Marketplace in the future, scaling access to Stagwell’s marketing-focused AI-enabled product suite.

The partnership comes as artificial intelligence is poised to help transform a diverse range of popular consumer segments such as automotive, entertainment, financial, hospitality, retail and more, driving operational efficiencies, marketing transformation, and customer experience innovation for digital companies worldwide. For Stagwell, the collaboration with Google Cloud adds a trusted technology partner who can accelerate the company’s ability to identify, build, and scale AI products.

“Partnering with Google Cloud is an opportunity to strengthen our SMC offering and engage with some of the best technology professionals as we build, test, and scale our gen AI products, enabling us to get market-shifting technology in the hands of our teams and our client partners faster than ever,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “As we work to lead the AI-based transformation of marketing, it is an honor to partner with Google Cloud and SADA to chart the future on AI.”

“Through Stagwell’s collaboration with Google Cloud, brands can gain competitive access to the transformative power of gen AI, accelerating the development of customer-centric marketing campaigns with enhanced data analysis and automation,” said Caroline Yap, Managing Director, Global AI Business, Google Cloud. “This partnership exemplifies Google Cloud’s commitment to getting cutting edge technology into the hands of customers through its easy-to-deploy, scalable, and secure AI solutions.” 

“At Stagwell and in the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, we are laser-focused on reinventing the marketing technology stack with AI-infused products and solutions,” said Merrill Raman, Global Chief Technology Officer, Stagwell. “With rich proprietary data and insights from our in-depth knowledge in core marketing disciplines, we are eager to work with Google Cloud  and develop purpose-built gen AI models and tools that drive value for our clients and help them win in the marketplace.”

“SADA is proud to be Stagwell’s trusted advisor on their gen AI and cloud transformation journey. We’re thrilled to be a part of this exciting partnership working with a visionary company like Stagwell that is leading with technology to help take their businesses to a completely unprecedented level,” said Tony Safoian, President & CEO, SADA.           .

About Stagwell

Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

About Stagwell Marketing Cloud

Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC) is a marketing-focused, AI-enablement platform built for the modern in-house marketer. Born out of Stagwell’s (NASDAQ: STGW) network of award-winning marketing agencies, SMC’s technology empowers marketers to drive business impact by giving them intuitive tools equipped with proprietary, actionable data. SMC’s portfolio of solutions powers strategic customer research, communications, and media activation for brands worldwide by leveraging technology such as generative artificial intelligence, shared augmented reality, and more. Get your head in the cloud at www.stagwellmarketingcloud.com.

About SADA Systems      

SADA is a market leader in professional services and an award-winning solutions provider of Google Cloud. Since 2000, SADA has been committed to helping customers in healthcare, media, entertainment, retail, manufacturing, and the public sector solve their most complex challenges so they can focus on achieving their boldest ambitions. With offices in North America, India, and Armenia providing sales and customer support teams, SADA is positioned to meet customers where they are in their digital transformation journey. SADA is a 6x Google Cloud Partner of the Year award winner with 10 Google Cloud Specializations and has been recognized as a Niche Player in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Public Cloud IT Transformation Services. SADA is a 15x honoree of the Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies and has been named to Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces four years in a row. Learn more at www.sada.com.

SOURCE Google Cloud

Nervous start to New York auction season but Picasso sells for $121mn

By in Art World News

Nervous start to New York auction season but Picasso sells for $121mn

New York’s much-anticipated auction season has started nervously, reflecting a fragile art market in the midst of wider turmoil. The highest-wattage sale this fortnight, of the collection of 31 works from the late arts patron Emily Fisher Landau, came in at the low end of expectations at Sotheby’s on November 8, making a total of $351.6mn ($406.4mn with fees, est $344.5mn-$430.1mn).

Top lot of the evening by far, as expected, was Picasso’s “Femme à la montre” (1932), a portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, which sold for $121mn ($139.4mn with fees, est $120mn). This is the second-highest auction price for the artist, whose record stands at $179.4mn.

Only one work flew far ahead of expectations: Agnes Martin’s “Grey Stone II” (1961), which was estimated between $6mn and $8mn and hammered for $16mn ($18.7mn with fees). Among the works that disappointed against estimates were two by Robert Rauschenberg while an dark painting by Mark Rothko from 1958, estimated between $30mn and $40mn, went for a relatively paltry $19mn ($22.2mn with fees). 

The auction house had offered a guaranteed payout for all the works in the sale, increasingly necessary to bring in supply, and managed to offload the risk to third-party investors on 24 of the works, including the Picasso.

A woman reclines
Jenna Gribbon’s ‘Regarding Me Regarding You and Me’ (2020)

Contemporary female artists fared well at Christie’s 21st-century evening sale on November 7, where over-performers included Jenna Gribbon, Ilana Savdie and Jadé Fadojutimi. The latter’s painting, “A Thistle Throb” (2021), sold for $1.35mn ($1.7mn with fees, est $500,000-$700,000).

A notable difference this season is that the seemingly untouchable older guard at the higher end seems to have reached its price limit. Christie’s top lot was Cy Twombly’s 2004 “Untitled (Bacchus 1st Version II)”, which went for $17mn ($20mn with fees), against an $18mn-$25mn estimate. Two works of 43 were withdrawn prior to sale, by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mark Bradford, while Bradford was also one of two artists whose works went unsold. The other was John Currin, whose titillating “Nice ’n Easy” (1999) had been estimated between $7mn and $10mn. In 2016, this work sold for $12mn.

The sale overall made $88.4mn, below its $93mn-$134.2mn estimate ($107.5mn with fees).

A collage of a woman
Sarah Knights’ ‘Woman’ (2023)

Fresh from the Rugby World Cup, England’s Maro Itoje has another project afoot: he is co-founding an art gallery with the dealer Khalil Akar. Offering an international platform to African, Caribbean and diaspora artists, Akoje Gallery (a combination of their names) is close to the British-Nigerian sportsman’s heart. “When I bought my first flat in London [in 2015], I wanted to decorate it with African art and couldn’t really find any. And the few places that offered it were completely out of my budget,” Itoje says. The markets in Lagos proved more promising, and he confesses now to being an art addict. “My guest room has become a storage space,” he says. 

He initially joined forces with Akar, who was then running Signature gallery in London, in 2021 to co-curate a show on black histories. Since then, they have been planning their own project. Akar has subsequently closed Signature in London — although the gallery is still run by his father from its original base in Lagos — and plans for Akoje to run about four temporary exhibitions around the world each year. These start in London’s Spring Studios on December 13 with a group show of its represented artists (price range £7,000-£100,000). Among those on view will be the Trinidadian painter Sarah Knights, who was recently chosen to paint a portrait of King Charles III for the cover of Tatler magazine. 

Next up is a show in New York in May, Akar confirms, and the pair commits to showing in Nigeria too. “There needs to be two-way traffic [between Africa and the west]”, Itoje says. His passion for art “helps me maintain the balance of life, and I think tends to make me a better player”, he adds.

A man in a hat and glasses with a microphone in his hand
Peter Doig’s ‘Brixton Ritzy’ (2023)

The artist Peter Doig will donate all the proceeds from a new limited-edition print of the poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson to the George Padmore Institute, a London-based charity dedicated to documenting black communities in postwar Britain and continental Europe.

There are 150 available editions of the print that go on sale from November 9 through Paul Stolper Gallery, starting at £2,000 apiece. The immediate aim, Stolper says, is to raise £35,000 needed for urgent structural repairs to the GPI’s building on Stroud Green Road, which also houses the publishing business New Beacon Books. 

A woman sits on the floor touching the legs of a yellow dog with a human head
Aleksandra Waliszewska’s ‘Untitled’ (2022)

The gallerist Eva Presenhuber opens a group show in Zurich this week, giving equal prominence to the artists she represents and those she describes as having “different positions”, who are mostly lesser-known. The latter include Stanislava Kovalcikova, a Czech artist whose work Presenhuber discovered at Vienna’s Belvedere Museum last year, and Aleksandra Waliszewska, an artist with great success in her home country of Poland but less well known elsewhere. They join gallery stalwarts, including Ugo Rondinone, Franz West and Steven Shearer, in a show of about 80 works by about 26 artists (November 11 to February 24). 

The title of the exhibition is Melencolia, although Presenhuber says that the art is more “works that are all reflective and thoughtful”. This, she says, is relevant for some of today’s artists under the age of 40 who can get “abused by high prices at auction, when they need more time and energy to think about what they are making. I have a distinct preference for slow burners,” she says.

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Club to explore architecture photography

By in Photography

Club to explore architecture photography

Gary Thompson will present techniques and ideas for photographing buildings and architectural features at the Nov. 14 meeting of the Grand Canyon Photography Club. The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. after a short business meeting at the Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center in Wellsboro.

Architectural photography topics to be discussed include composition; curves and diagonals; reflections, light and shadow; perspective; distortionand architectural details.

Thompson retired in 2020 after 42 years of service as a principal of HUNT Engineers, Architects & Land Surveyors, P.C. where he was a NYS professional land surveyor and FAA certified drone pilot.

He is past president and currently a trustee of the NYS Association of Professional Land Surveyors in Albany, N.Y.

Thompson provided corporate photography of his company’s architectural and engineering projects for use in the firms’ publications and marketing materials. In his current ‘retired’ capacity, he continues to provide photography and drone services when requested.

An avid motorcyclist, Thompson is a staff photographer for the Harley Rendezvous Classic, an annual motorcycle rally hosting thousands of bikers. As a result, he has had many of his photographs published from this event in various promotional media and magazines. Thompson has completed other magazine and billboard assignments for Harley Davidson as well.

With a genuine passion for live music, Thompson has also photographed many local musicians and name band acts achieving what he calls “stage status.” Being on stage and back-stage with the big bands provides an entirely new perspective for concert photography.

Guests are welcome to attend a GCPC meeting as a guest before joining.

Prints before photography: Drawings say a thousand words about Egypt

By in Photography

Prints before photography: Drawings say a thousand words about Egypt
Fadi Awad Elsaid (right) introducing his talk in the William Benton Museum of Art. Photo by James Fitzpatrick/The Daily Campus

Hosted by the William Benton Museum of Art on Wednesday, Nov. 8, Fadi Awad Elsaid, a Ph.D. candidate hailing from universities in France and Egypt, spoke about the contributions of Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755 – 1805) on his documentation of modern Egyptian history in light of Ancient Egypt and the French expedition of Egypt at the time. Additionally, Elsaid emphasized the similarities and differences between the two epitomes of this documentation, the “Encyclopédie” and the “Description de l’Égypte.”  

Conté was portrayed as a jack of all trades who is more than deserving of acclaim. Despite his artwork being the focus of his legacy for the talk, he was a revolutionary inventor. The scope of his creations is great, considering he invented the contemporary pencil during an era that people associate with communication by ink and quill. Conté was also a proponent for the hot air balloon, and his fascination with machines made its way into his artwork. He drew people who manned machines — some of the last machines designed by craftsmen — showing why his artwork is analyzed to this day. 

As a French citizen, Conté played a pivotal role during Napoleon’s expedition, but not in the way one may expect. Despite setbacks, such as losing the Battle of the Nile on Aug. 2, 1798, rendering the army as “the prisoners of its own adventure” and the influence of Britain and the Ottoman Empire preventing any successes, Conté remained with the army. He developed a close relationship with Napoleon, inventing anything he could to aid them and this synergism allowed Napoleon to keep pushing with a desire to triumph. 

Elsaid described the period during Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, around the turn of the 18th century, as both an “interesting moment of history, and an interesting moment of art.” 

The colloquial “Encyclopédie” was compiled as a mid-1700s written collection of works. Its main function was its inclusion of both contextual and non-contextual drawings of machines and ordinary objects, either in isolation or accompanied by a scene that provides social context for the object’s use. Transposing the contextual image above the blueprint allows for a reading of the overall piece that starts with forming the conclusion, and ending with pondering the premise. 

This practice was repeated almost identically in sections of a loose successor, the “Description de l’Égypte,” first published in 1809. According to Elsaid, the “omnipresence” of the “Encyclopédie” in the newer work is undeniable, as it documents the same things using the previous transposing method, sometimes using identical methods. Also, Conté contributes the addition of workers of various classes only within their social context, re-incorporating a layer of ambiguity lost in the “Encyclopédie.” 

Elsaid claims that modern Egyptians had to pay the price for the colossal nature of ancient Egypt and modern France, which can explain why Egyptians are often depicted doing mundane tasks, since the other party assumed superiority. Considering this, and its narrow scope, focusing on Egyptian history specifically instead of universal history like the “Encyclopédie,” another strength of the “Description de l’Égypte” was that people were drawn in a different light, literally, in its depictions. 

The use of shadow in drawings included in the “Description de l’Égypte” brought Elsaid’s points full-circle, as they would have not been possible without pencil shading. One in particular depicts two slaves standing naked in a room, identifiable by their shaved facial hair, portraying the darkness they must’ve been feeling at the time.  

The slaves’ faces are also barely visible, showing a gray area between his usual use of faces to show someone focused on their work or observing the artist painting them. This is supported when an audience member asked why these drawings are in black and white; despite economic reasons that makes reproducing in monochrome more affordable, the style is used in particular scenes for a purpose. 

The art discussed is part of a larger exhibition currently on display at the Benton, titled “Prints and People Before Photography, 1490-1825,” available until Dec. 27, 2023. 

End of an era? Jussi Pylkkänen’s departure reveals much about today’s art market

By in Art World News

End of an era? Jussi Pylkkänen’s departure reveals much about today’s art market

So Jussi Pylkkänen, Christie’s star auctioneer and global president is stepping down next year, after 38 years in the company. He has said he will be working as an independent art advisor.

His last bang of the hammer will be on 7 December in London, where he will preside over Christie’s Old Master paintings sale. And of course, Jussi was the auctioneer for the most expensive painting ever sold, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi (around 1500). Unless you have been on the moon since 2017, you will know it made a stratospheric $450.3m with fees, and went to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, or Saudi Arabia, or the Saudi culture ministry, or some combination of the above. It has not been seen in public since.

But to get back to Jussi, I have covered many sales as a journalist and have seen him “come a long way” (insiders will recognise the expression) over the years. I recognise his other catch phrases, for example egging on bidders with: “It’s a beautiful thing” or “Thank you for your help,” as someone bows out.

Jussi wasn’t a natural showman, and in his early days as an auctioneer I hope he will forgive me for saying his…er…patience with bidders sometimes led to a few of us muttering sotto voce: “Get on with it, Jussi!”

But that was then, and as I say, he evolved to the successful auctioneer we have seen over the years. Today, as he leaves, he can boast billions of dollars in sales over his time at Christie’s.

But he is not leaving to breed rare sheep or take up paragliding (I invent). No, he is moving on, hopefully, to even bigger bucks. He said himself: “The art market continues to evolve and the extraordinary influx of buyers at the top of the market now offers me a unique opportunity to share my experience with a new generation of collectors who are keen to buy major works of art both privately and at auction.”

His decision reflects the top-heavy state of the market today. While the middle market weakens, there is ever more emphasis on the most expensive works of art. These are by a small group of artists, and indeed very specific works; Brooke Lampley, head of global fine art at Sotheby’s, recently said: “It’s not because one Magritte makes an enormous price, that all Magrittes are suddenly worth that much.”

To take just one example, Sotheby’s sold Magritte’s L’Empire des Lumières (1961), for £59.4m ($79.4m) in March 2022; it had been bought directly from the artist in 1961 and had been in the same collection ever since. But Magritte’s La Voix du Sang (1948), made one-third of that sum, $26.75m, at Christie’s New York in November 2022. And that despite coming from the incredibly storied Paul Allen collection…

Who better to guide the prospective buyer through these and other subtleties of the top end of the market than Jussi Pylkkänen? We all wish him well, and plenty of big bucks, in his new incarnation.

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