From Hollywood to the Art World, Sexual Harassment Crisis Widens
After nearly drowning Hollywood’s most celebrated artistes, the floodgates of sexual harassment are about to submerge the art world. Like it did with Hollywood’s movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, The New York Times few days ago published another investigative report on Benjamin Genocchio, a big player in the art world.
The report detailed various accounts of women who have had one ugly ordeal with the artist over the years. These women who mostly worked with him when he was the executive director of a top international art fair, Armoury Show claimed that Genocchio made sexual advances on them at work. One of the women, Colleen Calvo- the marketing coordinator at the time when Genocchio worked with Artnet News before moving to Armoury Show- told New York Times that he ran his hand up her sequin pants while she was helping check in guests at the company’s holiday party in 2014. He went on to make a lewd comment about that moment being the only time he could touch her rear without getting yelled at.
Another woman, Shane Ferro who worked at Blouin’s Artinfo said Geno loved to place his hands on her neck. She said that encounter made her to be afraid of male bosses.
Some of the words the women used to describe his actions include predatory, aggressive and frisky, although some of them claimed he stopped if being told that his lewd comments are offensive.
Genocchio an art critic started his career in The Australian. He was once an art writer for New York Times and an editorial director of Blouin Media.
These women, mainly colleagues or subordinates, are boldly speaking out now after the outcome of Weinstein sexual scandal. The ever-widening scandal has roped in many top players like the actor and producer Steven Seagal who was recently accused by the Portia De Rossi. Rossi claimed that Seagal harassed her during an audition for one of his films where he unzipped his pants before her to create an off-screen chemistry. Rossi is the fourth woman to accuse the actor of sexual misconduct. Comedians are not left out in the fray as comedian Louis C.K was also accused of masturbating in front of two women, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov in 2002. Other women has also spoken about his sexual misbehaviour.
Although, Genocchio’s actions didn’t fetch juicy headlines like Weinstein, they however cost him his job. Shortly after the report was published, Armoury Show announced that Genocchio was replaced by the deputy director Nicole Berry. At the time of this report, Genocchio only apologised for his behaviour while claiming that he has “never intentionally acted in an inappropriate manner nor spoke to or touched a colleague in a sexually inappropriate way.”