Alexa, who's paying for Penske's Art Week NYC?

Penske Media Corporation, which owns Artforum, ARTnews and Art in America, spent five months selling New York on its first Art Week. On Thursday, it parked an artist in a glass box on the back of an Amazon-branded truck and invited the public to watch him “create artwork on Amazon devices.”

Art Week NYC announced the installation in a press release Thursday, naming the artist Rostarr its artist-in-residence for a program called “On View by Amazon.” The truck’s wrap reads “Amazon. Where Art Lives,” Art Week’s Instagram stories show. The event runs through Saturday.

Hyperallergic’s Valentina Di Liscia flagged it first, in her Thursday Art Movements column, calling Penske Media “the ethically compromised owner of Artforum, Artnews, and Art in America.” On Instagram, she posted the release under a caption that ended, “you can’t make this shit up yall.”

The truck is the least of it.

Penske owns all three magazines through a subsidiary, PMX Global. In October, ARTnews wrote that the three had “launched Art Week NYC earlier this summer.” Amazon is the event’s only presenting sponsor, an events company Penske invested in is behind the truck, and the magazines’ publishers and top editors are listed on Art Week’s team.

Amazon is the only company under “Presented by” on Art Week’s website. Fourteen other brands are listed under “In partnership with,” including Louis Roederer, Piaget, Printemps and Bloomberg Connects.

The website and Penske’s announcements do not disclose how much Amazon or any partners contributed or whether their support was cash or in kind.

The release says Rostarr is working on Amazon’s Alexa Tablet. Amazon launched that line on October 8 and billed its top model as “the most advanced tablet we’ve ever built.”

Inside the truck, a TV played his work with a caption identifying it as the Amazon Ember Artline with Fire TV. Amazon sells the Artline as a TV for $899, with access to more than 2,000 pieces of free art at no extra cost.

In August, Artforum publisher Danielle McConnell said, “Our vision for Art Week NYC began with the galleries.” On Thursday, a city permit for the Amazon event covered 10th Avenue between 22nd and 23rd streets in Chelsea.

Rostarr, who describes himself on his website as “a multidisciplinary artist in painting, abstract calligraphy, large scale murals and experimental filmmaking,” has worked with brands before. The Korean American Story podcast’s page on him says he made a collection of sneakers and apparel with Nike in 2016 and has created work for the Standard hotels and Moncler.

Penske pitched Art Week big. When ARTnews announced it in June, it described itself and Artforum as “two of the world’s leading authorities on art.”

In Artforum’s announcement, Luke Bahrenburg, president of Penske’s Art and Luxury Group, said the company was building a platform where “deeper dialogues about art and its broader cultural connections can thrive.” The same announcement promised sponsor activations.

Art Week’s about page calls the event “a collaboration presented by PMC,” Penske’s corporate name. Its team list includes McConnell, Artforum editors Daniel Wenger and Rachel Wetzler, Erica Lubow Necarsulmer, publisher of ARTnews and Art in America, and Sarah Douglas, editor-in-chief of both.

When Penske bought Artforum in December 2022, the announcement said the magazine “will remain editorially independent of other Penske Media brands,” naming ARTnews and Art in America.

ARTnews’ share of the programming runs in the “PMC Ground Floor Studio,” Art Week’s events calendar shows. On Friday, Douglas talks with Sophia Cohen, arts editor-at-large at Cultured magazine, about the next generation of art collectors.

On Saturday, she sits down with Jerry Saltz of New York Magazine, another Art Week partner, to talk about art criticism.

Saturday afternoon’s session features Jenny B. Fine of WWD, another Penske title, and “a talk with Frédéric Rouzaud, president of Maison Louis Roederer, on modern patronage.” Louis Roederer is one of Art Week’s partners. The session ends with the announcement of the third annual ARTnews Awards.

News organizations hold sponsored events all the time. The nonprofit Texas Tribune’s festival in Austin had a presenting sponsor of its own this year, JPMorgan Chase, its sponsor page shows.

The Tribune publishes its corporate sponsors by year and by amount. Its ethics policy lets its journalists moderate panels at sponsored events “so long as their role is purely journalistic,” and says "sponsors do not determine the panelists, the subject matter or the line of questioning."

Art Week’s website and Penske’s announcements do not say who chose the speakers or what rules govern the editors on its team.

The host committee also includes Sophia Penske, founder of Penske Projects and an advisor at Gagosian Art Advisory. She writes a monthly art column for Coveteur, her author page there says, including the site’s 2025 insider guide to New York Art Week. Her Instagram bio lists her as art and culture editor at Whitewall magazine.

When Gagosian Art Advisory hired her in May 2023, the collector Alain Servais posted the news on X, crediting ARTnews, and called her the “granddaughter of billionaire Roger Penske & niece to publisher Jay Penske.” Jay Penske is Penske Media’s chairman and chief executive.

Gagosian is one of Art Week’s participating galleries. Gagosian describes its advisory as “an independent group distinct and separate from the gallery.” Art Week’s website does not explain what the host committee does or what role, if any, Sophia Penske played in organizing the event.

The truck comes from inside the house too. Art Week reshared photos from LDJ Productions' Instagram account, and the screen inside the truck tagged @ldjlaurie, the account of LDJ chief executive Laurie DeJong.

Penske announced a strategic investment in LDJ in May 2020, saying the agency would give its brands “an in-house live media team.” When Penske announced its LA3C festival the next year, it listed LDJ among its Penske Media properties.

LDJ’s portfolio lists events it produced for Penske titles including Rolling Stone, WWD, Sportico and Billboard.

Friday’s stop is Penske’s front door. Art Week’s Instagram tells followers to find Rostarr from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 41st Street and Fifth Avenue, outside Penske Media’s New York headquarters at 475 Fifth Avenue.

Penske also leases about 3,875 square feet of that building’s ground floor, a lease summary from the landlord’s law firm shows.

ARTnews’ Friday session in the “PMC Ground Floor Studio” is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.

The city’s Street Activity Permit Office issued four permits for events named “Amazon x Art Week NYC” or “Amazon Art Week NYC” in Chelsea, Tribeca, the Upper East Side and the Lower East Side, each closing a sidewalk and curb lane, city records show. None is at 41st Street and Fifth Avenue.

A separate permit for “Production Parking of Vehicles” covers the south side of East 41st Street between Fifth and Madison avenues all week. That is the side of the block where 475 Fifth Avenue has its secondary address, 2-6 East 41st Street. The city data does not say who holds the permit.

City traffic rules bar anyone from operating, standing or parking a vehicle “for the purpose of commercial advertising.” The rule lets a vehicle in normal business use carry notices for that business, as long as it is not used mainly for advertising.

Those notices cannot be lit, animated or put on the roof, and a vehicle cannot have a special body or other object added for advertising. I don’t know how the city applies that rule to a truck at a permitted street event, and the permit data does not say.

Penske and Amazon were already in business together. Dick Clark Productions, a Penske company, produces the Academy of Country Music Awards for Prime Video.

“We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Prime Video through 2028,” Jay Penske said in 2025, when the academy announced the renewal.

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has written about owners and conflicts himself. In October 2024, in a column defending The Washington Post’s decision to stop endorsing presidential candidates, the Post’s owner wrote: “When it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of The Post.”

On Wednesday, I reported that Artnet had become Kalshi’s official art partner, with a Kalshi filing naming Artnet’s Price Database as the source that settles bets on auctions Artnet News covers.

The two deals are different. Kalshi’s art bets settle on data from Artnet’s own database, while Penske’s deal puts its editors on the team of an event Amazon presents.

The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics tells journalists to “deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests.” SPJ’s ethics leaders cited that line in 2024, when they criticized editorial interference at the Post and the Los Angeles Times.

Seven of Art Week’s 14 partner brands sell alcohol: Louis Roederer, Cygnet, Dogfish Head, The Glenrothes, J. Lohr, House of Rare and Flying Whale.

If anyone wants to hold an art event with Urgent Matter tomorrow, we can grab coffee or something. I don’t really drink.

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