AO Art Observed™

José Parlá, Character Gestures (2011). Via JoséParlá.com

Miami-born, New York-based artist José Parlá‘s current solo exhibition at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles blurs the line between street art and action painting. Entitled “Character Gestures,” the show at OHWOW synthesizes the ‘low’ of the urban graffiti sensibility with the ‘high’ of process-based painting as it emerged out of the material and conceptual legacies of Abstract Expressionism. Rather than reading as personal expression of an interior world, though, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures on view function as an archive of the the visual material that emerges from social-spatial politics of the street, their surfaces palimpsests.

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A door at a Williamsburg bodega (a drug front) may be last work of Jean-Michel Basquiat [AO Newslink]

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Lehmann Maupin Artist Teresita Fernández appointed to four-year term on United States Commission of Fine Arts [AO Newslink]

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American artist Spencer Tunick photographs over 1,000 nude Israelis on the Dead Sea [AO Newslink]

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All photos by Abbey Stone for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Wednesday evening’s opening of Richard Serra‘s new exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea was abuzz. The huge warehouse space seemed to vibrate as art enthusiasts made their way through the artist’s massive installation. Roughly 15 feet tall, the two separate pieces, Junction and Cycle, create a sloping, weaving maze, inviting and immersing viewers within. Whispering praise as they explored the labyrinthine pieces, one such patron murmured, “It’s like you’re in a whole new world.”

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Perfect Man 2 at White Columns, opening reception. All photos for Art Observed by Ana Marijanovic, unless otherwise noted.

Artist-curator Rita Ackermann and creative director Parinaz Mogadassi curate the Perfect Man II at White Columns, a group show exploring gender issues within contemporary socio-cultural norms. The exhibition features mostly male artists in different stages of their careers, including Richard Serra, Ken Okiishi, Ed Paschke, Rammellzee, Josh Smith, Dan Graham, Malcolm Morley, and the Bernadette Corporation, among others—a collection of thirty-four multimedia pieces: paintings, installations, sculptures, video art, and photography. The show succeeds Perfect Man I, curated by Ackermann in 2007, which brought together mainly female artists. The idea behind Perfect Man is derived from “a poem written by an American housewife that was originally published in a truck driver’s magazine,” according to White Columns. Less explanatory and highly experimental curatorship of the Perfect Man II allows viewers to draw their own conclusions on the complex gender issues.

Installation view.

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Jackie Wullshlager interviews Michael Craig-Martin: “It is hard to overestimate [his] significance in the revolution in British art and in Britain’s relationship with art, which followed in the 1990s.” [AO Newslink]

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All photos for Art Observed by Abbey Stone.

Newly nestled in its new home at 18 Wooster Street, the Swiss Institute (SI) continues to fulfill its mission of fostering “a way of thinking which asks audiences to break with traditional assumptions about art and national stereotypes,” presenting two inaugural exhibitions this fall. Wednesday, September 14, marked the opening of Books on Books, curated by Christoph Schifferli, and This is Not My Color/ The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by artists Pamela Rosenkrantz and Nikolas Gambaroff.

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Marina Abramović’s ‘The Artist Is Present’ Goes Virtual with Pippin Barr’s New Video Game [AO Newslink]

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Beatriz Milhazes, Gamboa Seasons Autumn Love (2010). All photos via Galerie Max Hetzler.

Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes begins Berlin Galerie Max Hetzler’s season with four large paintings, collages, and a mobile.  The paintings are titled after the four seasons and continue the artist’s engagement with bold, colorful explorations of familiar objects and ideas taken as geometrical abstractions.

Installation view

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Breaking: Richard Hamilton, the “Father of Pop,” designer of Beatles White album, died this morning at 89. Recently showed at Serpentine Gallery, was working on major retrospective to show next year.   Gagosian gallery confirmed his death, at an undisclosed location in Britain. [AO Newslink]

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Steve Powers, aka ESPO, is completing A Love Letter to Brooklyn, re-envisioning a mall garage on Hoyt street, part of the Fulton Mall [AO Newslink]

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The show’s title work, Alkahest (2011). Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, chalk, lead and glass on canvas. 280 x 380 x 19 cm (110.24 x 149.61 x 7.48 in). AKI 2059. All photos Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Paris/Salzburg. Photos Charles Duprat.

Currently showing at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac‘s Salzburg branch is “Alkahest,” sculptures and paintings by Anselm Kiefer, all of them related to alchemy, and collected under a title that means universal solvent. Explains Kiefer, “The term Alkahest signifies that there is a solution which can dilute any substance.” The exhibition runs through September 24, and is held in the HALLE, a special large-scale exhibition space within the museum.

Anselm Kiefer’s Der Wolken heitere Stimmung (2011). Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac and lead on canvas

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La Couleur en Avant at MAMAC, Nice. Martial Raysse, Nissa Bella (1964)  All pictures by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

The Museum of  Modern and Contemporary Art—MAMAC—in Nice, France is showing Arret sur image (which translates to ‘stop on image’) through October 23rd, and La Couleur en Avant (‘the color before’) through November 27th. Both exhibitions represent modern and contemporary artists, with an emphasis on the colors and fluidity within the contemporary. In Le Couleur en Avant, sculptures by Yves Klein and paintings by Henri Matisse, among others, are juxtaposed to show their influence on the pop art of Martial Raysse. Arret sur image, held in Ponchettes Gallery, displays work by living artists such as Gilbert and George, Robert Longo, and Barbara Kruger, expanding on the thematic influence of color in a contemporary context. The work in Ponchettes Gallery remains in MAMAC’s permanent collection.

Arret sur image by MAMAC at Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice.

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Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ed Ruscha drive around, talk about art, in multi-gallery project Pacific Standard Time’s newest ad [AO Newslink]

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David Byrne and Pace Gallery set to open Tight Spot, a 48-by-20-foot inflatable globe under the High Line on 25th Street in Chelsea, New York [AO Newslink]

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The Selby takes a look inside the home of New York artist Aaron Young [AO Newslink]

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Police arrest four alleged terrorists in Goteborg, Sweden’s 2nd largest city, and evacuate arts center during the Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art on Saturday [AO Newslink]

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As the first set of auctions following Lucian Freud’s death approaches, Sotheby’s to sell the painter’s 1952 work, Boy’s Head, for an estimated £4m [AO Newslink]

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All images by Peter Tiso for Art Observed, unless otherwise noted.

The experience of entering Cosmic Voodoo Circus, a new exhibition by Sanford Biggers that opened last night at SculptureCenter, is somewhat like entering a flea circus. A large sculpture inspired by traditional African spirit sculpture towers above the dwarfed crowd as an empty, motorized trapeze occasionally swings overhead.

A video entitled Shake (2011), is the center of the show; it stars Brazilian-born, Germany-based choreographer/clown/stuntman/DJ Ricardo Castillo as he journeys through Brazil. With his skin painted silver and his feet clad in knee-high platform boots, Castillo shines against a background of favelas, colonial palaces, and the roaring ocean. Funded by a Creative Time travel grant, Shake is the second portion of a trilogy, the first part of which will be on view in Biggers’ upcoming exhibition at Brooklyn Museum, opening September 23.

Artist Sanford Biggers, on the right, greets a friend.

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Teengirl Fantasy at MoMA PS1 Warm Up. All photos for Art Observed by Joachim Azoulay.

For the summer’s final ‘Warm Up’ at MoMA PS1, the all-afternoon courtyard party kept entertained by music from Kenny Dope, Tanlines, Syd tha Kyd, Teengirl Fantasy, and Physical Therapy. Some of the acts had been rescheduled from their earlier performances slated for August 27th, due to Hurricane Irene. Aside from dancing, art enthusiasts enjoyed drinks throughout the space, admiring a room of mirrors or playing ping pong. And while the anticipated 9/11 exhibition was off limits, the first floor shown the works of Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception.

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An itinerary for a pilgrimage to the remote art mecca of Marfa, Texas [AO Newslink]

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News that the Tate Modern extension may be delayed with 2nd phase to begin in 2016 due to lack of funds, but also, that the Tate family of galleries had its most successful year ever, making it the second most attended art institution behind the Louvre [AO Newslink]

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