The Digest. 12.16.09.

A truck by Sqon. (Image courtesy of sqon_cat.)

• Julio Cesar Morales is a badass.
• ¡Art Critic Smackdown! The L.A. Times‘ Christopher Knight versus NY Mag‘s Jerry Saltz getting all East Coast-West Coast on the topic of Jeff Koons’ puppy. Bring it on!!!!!
• Artist Christmas tree at the Tate shocks audiences by being “Christmassy.” (Art Observed.)
• The contemporary art industrial average continues to float in the pooper. (In sort of related news: Better late than never: me, me, me on WNYC blabbin’ about the Basel Frazzle.)
• RIP Larry Sultan. See a slideshow of his work at Wallpaper.com.
• It’s Top 10 Time: Time‘s Top 10 exhibits of the year, plus the Times of London‘s Top 10 exhibits to check out in early 2010.
• James Rosenquist gets his autobiography reviewed in the NYT by Deborah Solomon, who describes it as “amiable and rambling.”
• The Day in Art Merch: A Jeff Koons watch. Art Observed reports that this little baby clocks in at $15K. I’ll take two.
• Johnny Cash’s boyhood home, as seen by Alec Soth.
• The hyper-organized assemblages of Michael Johansson.
• 19th century Japanese drawings of mermaids. Freaky.
• Mimi Mollica: Pictures of Palermo.
• Robbie Conal devotes his new book to his drawings of animals. See a small preview of it here.
• Today’s Graff: Revs. Definitely Revs.
• Trippy: The inflatable bubble-thingy by Diller Scofidio & Renfro that’s gonna top Washington’s Hirshhorn.
• Eric Owen Moss to curate the architecture exhibit at 2010′s Venice Biennale.
• A building clad in a topographic map in Brisbane. The pseudo-outdoorswoman in me finds this hopelessly cool.
• An LED building façade in Madrid.
• The recession is hitting Chicago architects hard. (Cityscapes.)
• Gnome Chomsky.