Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.
NEWS

British Museum to Digitize Collection

October 18th, 2023

Following a string of controversial thefts, the British Museum has announced ambitious plans to digitize its collection. “Following the discovery that objects have been stolen from the collection, we have taken steps to improve security and are now confident that a theft of this kind can never happen again,” says interim director Mark Jones. “It is my belief that the single most important response to the thefts is to increase access, because the better a collection is known – and the more it is used – the sooner any absences are noticed.”
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Ann Philbin, Hammer Museum Head, To Retire

October 18th, 2023

Ann Philbin, director of UCLA’s Hammer Museum, has announced plans to retire. She will step down from the post in fall of 2024.
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Arthur Brand Recovers Series of Works Stolen from Dutch Town of Medemblik

October 18th, 2023

Art sleuth Arthur Brand has recovered a bundle of six paintings, stolen from the Dutch town of Medemblik this month. The works were delivered to Brand’s home after a statement that the thieves would have a hard time selling the pieces. “I’m very thankful that they decided to do the right thing. Stealing is wrong, but if you return it, at least you do something right,” he said. 
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Alicja Kwade Joins Pace

October 18th, 2023

Alicja Kwade has joined Pace, Art News reports. “Alicja is an artist who reveals the unknowable,” says CEO Marc Glimcher. “In her practice, Alicja transforms our sense of perception and draws attention to nature’s relationship to human existence. There is deep affinity with our program in the philosophical and spiritual nature of Kwade’s work, and I’m honored to welcome her to our program.”
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Qatar Museums Postpone Opening of Landmark Minimalism Show

October 18th, 2023

Qatar Museums have postpooned the opening for an exhibition of work by Dan Flavin and Donald Judd this month, shortly after the beginning of Israel’s bombing of Gaza. “This turbulent and painful time is not a moment to celebrate,” a spokesperson for the Qatar Museums said in a statement.
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Pussy Riot wins Court Case Over Attack During 2014 Olympics

August 31st, 2023

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Moscow must pay more than $100,000 in damages to the collective Pussy Riot over a violent attack during the 2014 Olympics. “The attack has been established ‘beyond reasonable doubt,’ and that the situation in which the applicants found themselves during the attack was not compatible with respect for their human dignity,” the court ruled.
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Ace Gallery Works Liquidated to Cover Debts

August 31st, 2023

Hundreds of works from the collection of the Ace Gallery are to be auctioned off, Art News reports, and used to pay debts run up by its founder since closing.
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NYT Covers Controversies Around Work of Hilma af Klint

August 31st, 2023

A NYT article looks at the rise in popularity of Hilma af Klint and some surrounding controversies, including an IP battle and questions over the artist’s sole authorship of some works. “I have to shift my mind-set on how these are collaborative works and not Hilma works,” says Guggenheim curator Tracey Bashkoff.
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China State Media Demands Return of British Museum Artifacts

August 30th, 2023

A Chinese Media Outlet has demanded the British Museum return all artifacts held in its collection. “The huge loopholes in the management and security of cultural objects in the British Museum exposed by [a recent] scandal have led to the collapse of a long-standing and widely circulated claim that ‘foreign cultural objects are better protected in the British Museum’,” the piece reads. 
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Gagosian Hires Jiyoung Lee for South Korea Operations

August 30th, 2023

Gagosian has hired Jiyoung Lee to run operations in South Korea, as the gallery looks to expand its foothold there. 
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REFERENCE LIBRARY

London – Marina Abramović at Royal Academy Through January 1st, 2024

November 29th, 2023

Abramovic - Royal Academy

Modern art is full of determined characters. The ones who find success are visionary, changing the face of the contemporary art scene. Marina Abramović‘s exhibition at the Royal Academy marks the first retrospective of a female artist in the institution’s 255 years. The exhibition is one of the largest, occupying the academy’s previously unused rooms. While it was initially planned for September 2020, due to Covid-19 it was postponed numerous times. During this period Abramović suffered an embolism which prevented her from performing in the show as initially planned. It’s an unfortunate reality for an artist who is usually so generous with herself as a performer. Read More »

AO ARTIST-ON-ARTIST INTERVIEW: Maria Kreyn and Ellen Frances

November 21st, 2023

Maria-Ellen-AO COVER

Cover images courtesy of Ola Wilk via Maria Kreyn; and Ellen Frances.

For its first artist-on-artist interview, Art Observed sat down with New York-based painter Maria Kreyn and multidisciplinary artist and performer Ellen Frances to talk about their individual practices and their collaboration for the opening of Kreyn’s solo show Untune a String at The Hole in Tribeca earlier this month. In their conversation with Art Observed, the two artists discuss the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, the enduring resonance of classical artistic and literary forms, and their visions for the future. Read More »

Paris – Henry Taylor: “From Sugar to Shit” at Hauser & Wirth Through January 7th, 2024

October 19th, 2023

Henry Taylor, I Got Brothers All Ova The World But They Forget We're Related (2023), via Hauser & Wirth
Henry Taylor, I Got Brothers All Ova The World But They Forget We’re Related (2023), via Hauser & Wirth

Marking its inaugural outing at its new Paris exhibition space, Hauser & Wirth looks west to the work of critically acclaimed Los Angeles artist Henry Taylor, whose major career survey arrives at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York on 4 October 2023 and will remain on view through January 2024. Taylor’s exhibition in Paris, the artist’s first prominent show in France, comprises a wide range of over 30 paintings, sculptures and works on paper encompassing the remarkable breadth of his practice. Read More »

Paris – Alex Israel: “LA Californie” at Almine Rech Through November 10th, 2023

October 18th, 2023


Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Palette) (2023)Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Palette) (2023)

Alex Israel returns to Almine Rech in Paris this fall for his fifth solo show with the gallery, adding a new perspective and mode of interpretation to the understanding and recontextualization of Pablo Picasso on the 50th  anniversary of the artist’s death. Treating the artist’s life and work as a fitting jumping-off point for continued explorations of the intersections of art and pop culture, of image and practice, or even of ego vs. landscape, Israel turns his attention to another aspect of Picasso’s legacy: La Californie.

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Paris – Wade Guyton: “Galerie Matthiesen, Ausstellung, Edouard Manet, 1928, 6. Februar bis 18. März, Vol. II” at Galerie Chantal Crousel Through Novmeber 18th, 2023

October 17th, 2023

Wade Guyton, Galerie Matthiesen, Ausstellung, Edouard Manet, 1928, 6. Februar bis 18. März, Vol. II (2022), via Chantal Crousel
Wade Guyton, Galerie Matthiesen, Ausstellung, Edouard Manet, 1928, 6. Februar bis 18. März, Vol. II (2022), via Chantal Crousel

Opening in Paris during the run of Art Basel’s Paris+ art fair, Galerie Chantal Crousel has opened a solo show of works on paper by artist Wade Guyton, marking the artist’s first foray into lithography. Mining the intersections of digital graphics and analog printing, long a juxtaposition and source of both tension and inspiration in the artist’s work, the show features a range of sourced material from printed matter.  Read More »

Paris – Tony Matelli: “Displacement Map” at Andréhn-Schiptjenko Through November 25th, 2023

October 16th, 2023

Tony Matelli, Displacement Map 2 (2023), via Andréhn-Schiptjenko
Tony Matelli, Displacement Map 2 (2023), via Andréhn-Schiptjenko

Andréhn-Schiptjenko Paris presents Displacement Map this fall, a new solo exhibition with New York-based artist Tony Matelli. The exhibition, the 8th with the gallery and the second one in Paris, will feature recent works shown for the first time, among these, a life-sized self-portrait and a series of Arrangements, polychrome bronze bouquets of inverted flowers as well as a number of paintings, the first time the artist has shown in this medium.

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New York – Michael Dean: “Four Fuck Sakes” at Andrew Kreps Through November 4th, 2023

October 12th, 2023

Michael Dean, Four Fuck Sakes (Installation View), via Andrew Kreps
Michael Dean, Four Fuck Sakes (Installation View), via Andrew Kreps

Michael Dean’s idiosyncratic work draws on language in its wildest sense. Often based on his own writing, Dean broadens what we understand to be the written word into a manifestation of semiotics and typographical abstractions—such as emoticons and logos that morph into three dimensional glyphs. Regularly deploying accessible materials, Dean draws out new language with which the forms themselves are at once a personal vernacular, and a physical configuration. The transitional movement from word-to-image-to-being becomes an amalgamation of symmetrical and physical intimacy. Read More »

AO ON-SITE – LONDON: FRIEZE LONDON AT REGENT’S PARK, OCTOBER 11TH – 15TH, 2023

October 11th, 2023

Ai Weiwei at Galleria Continua
Ai Weiwei at Galleria Continua, all images via Art Observed

With the temperature cooling in the British capital, Frieze Art Fair has returned to Regent’s Park in London for its annual run, bringing with it a range international galleries, projects and talks that underscore its continued vitality in the world of contemporary art. The mood was high as collectors, gallerists and artists strode the fair’s aisle and booths in the early hours of the fair press preview, exploring the gallery booths and chatting below the bright lights of the fair tent, which lent a gleam to the impressive works on offer across the expanse of the fair.

Marguerite Humeau at Clearing
Marguerite Humeau at Clearing

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London – Ryan Gander: “PUNTO!” at Lisson Gallery Through October 28th, 2023

October 9th, 2023

Ryan Gander, School of languages (2023), via Lisson Gallery
Ryan Gander, School of languages (2023), via Lisson Gallery

Mining unique dialogues between studied sculptural modes and coy reinterpretations of readymade material, artist Ryan Gander has long created works and environments that work delicate interactions between the human and nonhuman materials of daily life. For his newest show at Lisson Gallery, the artist explores the relationship between our evolutionary past and the ways in which we live today in societies driven by capitalist growth, speed and progress. The exhibition raises pertinent questions; how would the world look if humans had not learnt to count? How do we place value on time in a 24/7 world that demands our constant attention? Read More »

London – Julie Mehretu: “They departed for their own country another way (a 9x9x9 hauntology)” at White Cube Through November 5th, 2023

October 6th, 2023

Julie Mehretu, TRANSpaintings (recurrence) (2023), via White Cube
Julie Mehretu, TRANSpaintings (recurrence) (2023), via White Cube

Julie Mehretu’s solo exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey, They departed for their own country another way (a 9x9x9 hauntology), debuts three new series of paintings consisting of nine works each. Presented alongside these works, in the 9x9x9 gallery Mehretu has paired her title track painting with a sculpture by visual artist Nairy Baghramian, in response to an ongoing dialogue between the two artists.

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