Archive for May, 2011

Go See: New York – Jaume Plensa ‘Echo’ AT Madison Square Park, through August 14th, 2011

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011


Jaume Plensa, Echo (2011) – All photos by Art Observed

Jaume Plensa’s latest site-specific installation titled ‘Echo’ marks his long anticipated debut for New York City and is both the largest and costliest project to date for the Madison Square Park Conservancy.  At 44 feet tall, the  portrait of a nine-year old girl from Plensa’s hometown Barcelona entrances spectators with its monumental scale, distorted facial features, and the white polyester resin and marble dust veneer that creates the illusion of an otherworldly apparition or hologram sprouting from the Oval Lawn.

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AO On Site Preview and Summary: 54th Venice Biennale 2011 Begins This Week

Monday, May 30th, 2011


The Biennale’s Central Pavilion in the Giardini. Image by Giulio Squillacciotti, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia.

Art Observed will be on site this week for the 54th Venice Biennale. Since its creation in 1895, the festival has filled the city every two years with artists, curators, critics, and curious onlookers. The exhibition is housed over 50,000 square meters of exhibition space in the historical pavilions in the Giardini, and 38,000 square meters in the Arsenale, as well as other numerous locations around the city. The preview runs June 1st through 3rd (a preview program is available for download) and the Biennale opens to the public on June 4th, running through November 27th, 2011.

Expect updates and photo sets throughout the week, as well as on our Twitter.


Director of the 54th Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, and Artistic Director Bice Curiger. Photo by Giorgio Zucchiatti, courtesy Fondazione la Biennale di Venezia.

More images, text, and extended coverage including national pavilions and collateral events after the jump…

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Go See – London: Tracey Emin’s major retrospective “Love is What You Want” at the Hayward Gallery through August 29th, 2011

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Tracey Emin, Love is What You Want (2011), all images via Hayward Gallery

London’s Hayward Gallery is currently showing Tracey Emin’s “Love is What You Want,” a retrospective show exhibited as part of the South Bank Centre‘s 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. Emin, a Turner Prize winner and Royal Academician, spoke at the press preview of the show, saying “This is the biggest defining moment of my art career. I am really proud of the exhibition. I don’t feel I have to defend it, I’m comfortable in it.” Emin is known for the expression of raw sexuality and emotion in her work, which has led to her status as an art world celebrity since having been a seminal part of the YBA’s (Young British Artists), a group led by Damien Hirst and backed by Charles Saatchi that grew in power and popularity in the 90’s.  While most of the YBAs produced work “both oppositional and entrepreneurial,” Tracey Emin’s work is entirely autobiographical, and draws from experiences as a young woman left scarred by rape, abortions and substance abuse (this fact has also led to the accusation that Emin’s work is exploitative of her own personal tragedies, an accusation not helped by a widely publicized outlandish personality).  Emin is also notable in how firmly established as a staple subject of British media she has become.  As such, in the eyes of the general public, the art she produces by default becomes a reflection of  the state of British art in general.


Tracey Emin, photograph from “Love is What You Want” (2011)

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Don’t Miss – Moscow: “New York Minute” curated by Kathy Grayson at The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture through June 5th, 2011

Sunday, May 29th, 2011


Dearraindrop, Mutant Pop (2010), via The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture

Organized by Kathy Grayson, director of The Hole and former director of Deitch Projects, in collaboration with exhibition designer Rafael de Cárdenas, “New York Minute” is in its current manifestation at The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow. The show features over fifty artists living and working in and around New York City, who are are entwined by professional and personal relationships and whose work overlaps similar themes and issues.

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GO SEE – New York: Louise Bourgeois ‘The Fabric Works’ at Cheim & Read, through June 25, 2011

Saturday, May 28th, 2011


All images are of “The Fabric Works,” an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois’s fabric drawings, sculpture, and installation at Cheim & Read.

New York gallery Cheim & Read is currently showing Louise Bourgeois’s self-defined “fabric drawings.” On display is 2002 – 2010, in form of appropriated clothing, that is, re-appropriated fabric. Closing on June 25, the exhibition is scissorwork, collage made from the very pieces that are necessary, to conceal to and to live. “The sewing,” Bourgeois wrote, “is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.”

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Go See – Munich: Lucian Freud’s “Portraits” at Galerie Daniel Blau through June 3rd 2011

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Untitled (1972) by Lucian Freud, via Galerie Daniel Blau
Currently on view at Galerie Daniel Blau in Munich is “Portraits”, an exhibition of the portraiture of English painter Lucian Freud (b. 1922). The faces of Freud’s sitters often reveal the complexity of the inner world of the sitter.  The exhibition contains a wide array of techniques from more developed paintings to works that are more studies on the form, the latter offering an interesting perspective of a distillation of the painter’s signature style.  Freud’s father Ernst Ludwig Freud, was a German architect and the son of the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. The exhibit displays works from a series of paintings of the artist’s mother Lucie Brasch as well as additional etchings and paintings Freud completed after his father’s death in 1970.
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Don’t miss – New York: Kara Walker, “Dust Jackets for the Niggerati—and Supporting Dissertations, Drawings submitted ruefully by Dr. Kara E. Walker.” at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Through June 4th, 2011

Friday, May 27th, 2011


Kara Walker, The Great Negro Heroine (2011). Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Sikkema Jenkins is currently presenting Kara Walker’s series of drawings titled “Dust Jackets for the Niggerati—and Supporting Dissertations, Drawings submitted ruefully by Dr. Kara E. Walker.” through June 4th. These series–based on Walker’s impressions during her visit to the Mississippi Delta region–compose a rhizomatic schema of particular intersections of sociocultural aspects and economic constraints, present in the everyday life of many southern African Americans since the end of the Reconstruction period, in 1876.


Kara Walker, And Encourages the Youth (2011). Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

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Go See – Long Island City, New York: “Time Again” at SculptureCenter through July 25, 2011

Thursday, May 26th, 2011


Rosalind Nashashibi, This Quality (frame shot) (2010). All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed.

SculptureCenter’s current exhibition, an exploration of temporality and the passing of time, reveals this theme both topically and literally to its audience. Time Again is a group exhibition involving nearly thirty artists of varying backgrounds that intersect in the way they explore how one views the past and present. Included in the showcase is a smaller exhibition, Novel, that organizes works dealing with experimental writing in a visual manner.


Installation view at SculptureCenter.

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Go See – Salzburg: Terence Koh "Adansonias" at Thaddaeus Ropac through June 18th, 2011

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011


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Terence Koh, The Self Become the Wood (f) (2009). Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac Galerie
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“Adansonias” is the most recent solo show of Chinese-Canadian artist Terence Koh, running through June 18th at Thaddaeus Ropac Galerie‘s Austrian space.  The exhibition was titled after Koh’s imaginary opera–first performed at the Parisian Thaddaeus Ropac Galerie in 2009–and it gathers vestiges of the piece’s conception and execution, including two white grand pianos, and photographies.  Koh’s “Adansonias” has been referred to as a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, involving sound, theatrical, and visual art. The stillness and silence in the space contrast with the dynamism of the documented opera piece, as this show barely echoes the performance itself, but elucidates on the aesthetic and intellectual aspects of Koh’s creative process behind the work, while attributing a perennial solemnity to the artifacts on display.


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Terence Koh, Installation View (2011). Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac Galerie

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GO SEE – New York: “New Sculpture and Works on Paper” At Matthew Marks through July 1st 2011

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011


0 – 9, recto (2010) by Jasper Johns, via Matthew Marks Gallery

New works by Jasper Johns are currently on display at New York’s Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea. Open through July 1st, “New Sculpture and Works on Paper” fills three galleries with Johns’ recent works from the past five years.

Jasper Johns works primarily in painting and printmaking and is often considered to be the bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Perhaps most famous work is Flag (1954-1955) a mixed-media painting of the United State’s flag. He is particularly known for using repetitive letters and numbers with the effect of reconsidering the meaning of everyday symbols in the context of a work of art.

All but one of the new sculptures use Johns’ grid of numerals 0 through 9. Each of the sculptures is first made in wax; the surface is then altered using a variety of textures, and added elements and impressions such as texts or his own hand. Johns then casts them in aluminum, bronze, or silver, covering the finished surface with a unique patina.

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Go See – Berlin: Ai Wei Wei “Rock and Tree” at Neugerriemschneider though June 4th, 2011

Monday, May 23rd, 2011


“Where is Ai Weiwei” banner by Rirkrit Tiravanija at entrance of Neugerriemschneider, via NY Times

Despite his current incarceration in China, Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at Galerie Neugerriemschneider opened over Gallery Weekend Berlin, and can be seen until June 4, 2011. The exhibition consists of two large wood sculptures and several porcelain pieces.  Ai designed the work specifically for the gallery site, which was produced before his arrest, and according to one source, Ai was clear in his desire that the show would go on in the event of his arrest.


Installation view of Ai Weiwei’s Rock (2011) and Tree (2011), photo by Jens Ziehe, courtesy of Neugerriemschneider.

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AO On Site – New York: The 2011 Art Award Gala in anticipation of the Whitney’s Groundbreaking

Monday, May 23rd, 2011


The Whitney‘s 2011 American Art Award Gala, all images Winston Morris for Art Observed.

AO was on site this Thursday for the Whitney Museum‘s 2011 American Art Award Gala, an event held for the presentation of the 20th Annual American Art Award, which honored Marissa Mayer and Google for their support of the arts in New York, and as celebration of the groundbreaking of the Whitney Museum’s new space in the Meatpacking district. The official groundbreaking, which will take place on May 24, marks the Whitney’s move from the Marcel Breuer-designed building it has been located in since 1966 on Madison Avenue and 75th Street. The event took place in a tent by the entrance to the High Line and ended with a performance by Debbie Harry and members of Blondie. The Annual American Art Award has been commissioned by the Whitney each year since 1992, and is designed by an artist. This year’s award was created by Ellsworth Kelly, and will be given to Marissa Mayer, Google VP of product management. The Whitney’s Education department has partnered with Google to hold a nationwide contest for young artists, Doodle 4 Google, which this year is themed “What I’d Like to Do Someday.” 40 Regional Finalists will have their drawings displayed at the Whitney from May 19th through June 16th, 2011.

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Go See – Berlin: Anselm Reyle and Raymond Pettibon at Contemporary Fine Arts until June 11th, 2011

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011


Raymond Pettibon No Title (Have You Seen) (2011), via CFA Berlin.

American artist Raymond Pettibon and German artist Anselm Reyle opened Contemporary Fine Art’s exhibition in this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin.  Pettibon’s show is titled “Looker-Upper”, and is composed of more than eighty new drawings, portraying themes from sports, sex, and popular culture.  Reyle’s show is titled “Little Cody”, and is made up of several painting/compositions, three foil-neon pieces, and collection of sofas.  Pettibon’s show takes up the ground floor of CFA, while Reyle’s show takes up the second.


Anselm Reyle Untitled (2011), via CFA Berlin.

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Go See – New York: ‘Soutine/Bacon’ at Helly Nahmad Gallery, through June 18, 2011

Friday, May 20th, 2011


Francis Bacon, “Portrait of Henrietta Moraes” (1969). All pictures courtesy of Helly Nahmad Gallery.

New York’s Helly Nahmad Gallery is currently showing the first comparative assembly of works by the painters Chaim Soutine and Francis Bacon. Connections between Soutine, whom de Kooning famously called his “favorite artist,” and Bacon, the subject of two Tate Modern retrospectives in his lifetime and one in 2008, have never before been examined by an exhibition at a museum or gallery. SOUTINE/BACON closes on June 18.


Chaim Soutine, “Autoportrait” (1918).

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AO On Site – Brussels: Opening of Donald Judd "Progressions" at Galerie Vedovi, through June 1, 2011

Friday, May 20th, 2011
Donald Judd by David Raskin
Click Here For Donald Judd Books


Installation view of Donald Judd’s “Progressions.” All images by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

Currently on view at Galerie Vedovi in Brussels is “Progressions,” a fresh look at the work of seminal American sculptor Donald Judd. The exhibition focuses on Judd’s use of mathematical algorithms to create geometrical progressions. These systems are non-representational tools that offers viewers a neutral way to view the works. With the object autonomous, the focus turns to the wall and its relation to the object.

Judd is also the subject of another concurrent exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery, which opened during New York Gallery Week. It is a restaging of Judd’s 1989 exhibition at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden, Germany.

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AO Breaking News: London's Frieze Art Fair coming to Randall's Island in 2012

Friday, May 20th, 2011


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Aerial short of Randall’s Island, via The Art Newspaper

Frieze, the hallmark London contemporary art fair which has steadily built itself up since 2003, today announced its expansion to New York where it will host a fair in Randall’s Island Park.  Frieze Art Fair will open on May 2nd for VIPs, with the public gaining access between May 3rd and 6th.

The fair will coincide with the city’s 2012 contemporary art auctions and will be around the same size as its London counterpart, with roughly170 galleries from 33 countries participating.  Notably, the fair fall outside of the traditional art fair week in March, anchored by the Armory Show.  This may prompt some galleries to re-evaluate which fairs they will participate in. Similarly, the timing of Frieze’s New York fair may affect galleries who may have opted for Art Basel in June.

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Go See – Berlin: Temporary Tattoo Parlor at Arratia, Beer until May 31st, 2011

Thursday, May 19th, 2011


Temporary Tattoo provided with exhibition statement As Long As It Lasts (2011), photo by A. Bogart for Art Observed

Arratia, Beer present “As Long As It Lasts…”, a group exhibition that is transitory in nature.  The gallery invited several artists and designers to design tattoos, which are inked on site by a professional tattoo artist, Sarah Bolen from AKA Berlin.  The tattoo artist was only on site for Gallery Weekend, April 29-May 1, so appointments need to be made for anyone wishing to be ‘signed by’ an artist.  Those who choose to have an artist’s design tattooed get a certificate of authenticity, thus certifying that a work of art is part of them.  Appointments can be made until the end of May.


Francesco Vezzoli Untitled (2011), via Arratia, Beer.

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Go See – New York: “Picasso and Marie-Therese: L’amour Fou” at Gagosian Gallery through June 25th, 2011

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011


Marie-Thérèse avec une guirlande (1937) by Pablo Picasso, via Gagosian Gallery

Currently on view at Gagosian Gallery in New York is Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou, an exhibition which reveals the paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures inspired by Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of the most inspiring models of Picasso’s life. The exhibition is a love story of the artist and his muse told through art and is curated by the renowned Picasso biographer, John Richardson in collaboration with Marie-Thérèse’s granddaughter, art historian Diana Widmaier Picasso. It spans the years from 1927 to 1940 and includes several works which have never before been exhibited in the United States.

Following the success of Picasso: Mosqueteros in New York in 2009 and Picasso: The Mediterranean Years in London in 2010, the exhibit presents the next chapter in a continuous exploration of Picasso’s fundamental themes.

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AO on Site- New York: Rene Ricard presented by Vito Schnabel through June 25th, 2011

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011


Installation view of Rene Ricard’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. All images Ian Hassett for Art Observed.

AO was on-site for the opening of Rene Ricard‘s “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” presented by Vito Schnabel at the former Heidi Cho Gallery in Chelsea.  This is the artist’s first solo painting show in over twenty years, and features paintings overlaid with sharp, evocative poems written by Ricard. The show is entitled “Sonnets from the Portuguese” after a book by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and is meant to “show [his] affection for the city of Lisbon.” It features sixteen canvases painted in basic “poison” green with short poems, and larger works featuring images based on those culled from family photo albums of Ricard’s friends, similarly painted over with text.

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Go See- Los Angeles: Kehinde Wiley ‘The World Stage: Israel’ at Roberts & Tilton through May 28th, 2011

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011


Kehinde Wiley, Alios Itzhak (2011), via Roberts & Tilton

Roberts & Tilton presents a new branch of Kehinde Wiley‘s The World Stage series entitled The World Stage: Israel. The artist traveled to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for inspiration for this particular set of works, which serve as a continuation of a dialogue on globalization that has included covered China, Africa, Logos-Dakar, Brazil and India. Wiley’s portraits of modern Israelis mix themes of classical portraiture with a sense of contemporary pomp.

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AO Breaking News: Ai Weiwei in good health under "form of house arrest," receives visit from his wife

Monday, May 16th, 2011


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Image courtesy The Guardian.

After 43 days of detention, reports broke earlier today that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was allowed a visit from his wife Lu Qing on Sunday. A friend of Weiwei’s, rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan, confirmed that the artist had not been tortured or ill-handled, and that he was receiving medication for his diabetes and high blood pressure.

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AO Onsite (with photoset) – White Column’s 2011 Benefit Auction, Saturday, May 14th 2011

Monday, May 16th, 2011


All photos by Lily Streeter for Art Observed

Last night, White Columns hosted their annual Benefit auction and exhibition at their space on 320 west 13th street. White Columns, founded by Jefferey Lew and art interventionist Gordon Matta-Clark, remains recognized as one of New York’s oldest non-profit art spaces, founded originally in Soho in 1970. It relocated four times before arriving upon the building it inhabits now, continously serving as a multi-purpose space for artists to exhibit, screen and present their work. White Columns upholds a tradition of showing new artists, and supporting artists in various experimental projects. The annual fundraiser auction gives artists a chance to return this support by contributing selected works to the silent auction. Various commissioned works were held at live auction this year as well; artists such as Peter Doig, Cecily Brown and Huma Bhabha created works in a series inspired by found vinyl record sleeves.


Peter Doig, Wishing It Would Rain (2011) being sold at live auction

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Go See – Berlin: Glenn Brown at Max Hetzler Gallery, until May 28th, 2011

Sunday, May 15th, 2011


Glenn Brown, The Shallow End (2011), via Max Hetzler

Presented through May 28, the exhibition of Glenn Brown’s recent work at Max Hetzler ’s satellite gallery presents fascinating examples of the Tuner Prize-nominated artist’s recent work. As part of Gallery Weekend Berlin, the solo exhibition is exhibiting portraiture and figurative paintings as well as “paint-sculptures” in a grandiose apartment in the chic Savigny-Platz district of Berlin.


Glenn Brown, Carnival (2011), via Max Hetzler

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Go See: Berlin- Cyprien Gaillard’s Beer Pyramid “The Recovery of Discovery” at Kunst-Werke Berlin Through May 22nd, 2011

Saturday, May 14th, 2011


Cyprien Gaillard The Recovery of Discovery (2011), via KW Berlin.

French artist Cyprien Gaillard’sThe Recovery of Discovery” is currently on view at KW Berlin.  The work consists of cardboard boxes of beer that form the shape of a pyramid, which are available to the public to open and drink, after signing a waiver.  The show opened on March 27th, and is in a continuing state of destruction until May 22nd.


Cyprien Gaillard’s beer pyramid opening night, via KW Berlin. More text and images after the jump…

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