MOCA’s newly appointed director Philippe Vergne will assume the Director position at MOCA starting on March 10th, the LA Times reports. MOCA announced the director’s start date via a press email this week. Vergne’s start date was accompanied by news of two new board members at the Museum: Maurice Marciano and Lilly Tartikoff Karatz, as well as a new endowment fundraising goal of $150 million. (more…)
China Poly Group Corporation, the state-run mega-conglomerate has announced that its cultural division will seek an Initial Public Offering this year, anticipated to raise up to $330 million for the company. China Poly is a major player in the Chinese auction market, pitted against Sotheby’s and Christie’s, but seems to have set its sights internationally. “We are very big in the art auction market in mainland China but still have a long way to go to become the biggest auction house worldwide,” said China Poly chief executive, Jiang Yingchun. (more…)
The Broad Museum’s Un-Private Collection series played host to a massively attended conversation between Jeff Koons and John Waters last night in Los Angeles. The two covered a broad list of topics during the talk, including both Waters and Koons’s first memories of their experience with art. “I remember when I first went to the Baltimore museum and bought a little Miró print and brought it home.” Waters said. “All the other kids said ‘Ugh, that’s ugly, why would you put that ugly thing on your wall?!’ I thought: ‘Ah, the power of art!’ It really made me feel glad everyone hated it.”
G.T. Pellizzi, Diagram, Figure 3 (2013), All images courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery.
Giandomenico Tonatiuh Pellizzi, better known as G.T. Pelizzi, is currently showing a selection of new works at Mary Boone Gallery in New York. Pellizi was born in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1978, and attended St. Johns College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, studying literature and philosophy before going on to the Channin School of Architecture at Cooper Union, NYC, where he received some training in visual arts by attending courses at the School of Art with Walid Raad and Joan Waltemath, among others. He currently lives and works between New York City and Mexico. (more…)
The Eyebeam Center has selected the designer for its new center in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, choosing a multi-tiered structure by WORK Architecture Company (WORKac). “It’s a great moment in Eyebeam’s trajectory to think about the relationship between art and technology,” said WORKac Principal Dan Wood. (more…)
Ann S. Moore, former CEO and Chairwoman for Time Magazine, has announced plans to open a gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The Curator Gallery, located on 23rd, close to the High Line, will open on March 7th. “At my age,” Moore says “you can either put your money away, or you can spend it and have fun and that’s what I’m doing. Maybe I’m crazy, but I’ve decided to see what I can do.” (more…)
Mayor of London Boris Johnson is actively courting the Guggenheim Foundation to open a location on the grounds of the 2012 London Olympics, the Art Newspaper reports. The area, which has already been earmarked as a new cultural quarter called E20, will be home to a new location for the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Johnson wants the Guggenheim to set up shop as well. “We are in talks with other global cultural brands, as we will need at least one more cultural institution to achieve the critical mass and very high visitor numbers the site deserves,” Johnson says. (more…)
The Armory Show’s commissioned artist Xu Zhen has unveiled a plan for New York’s Citibike program during the art fair next week, covering a 10 bikes with a special graphic. 20 fair attendees who ride to the Armory Show on the bikes and post an image to social media of the bike at the fair will earn free admission to the event. (more…)
Pawel Althamer, Mezalia (detail) (2010), via Art Observed
There’s something decidedly ephemeral about the work of Pawel Althamer. The Polish artist who, over the past two decades, has created a body of sculpture, video and installation work that consistently toys with formulations of identity and society, collaborative practice and mythology. Works can hinge on a simple conceit, or careful placement of a minimum of elements, often leaving major aspects of the piece unseen or unexpressed. His Black Ebony (??) piece, for example, stands as a testament to an incomplete work, activated by a group of African sculptors he invited to utilize the workstation-like installation to create sculpture during a show.
Massimo Gioni takes Part in Draftsmen’s Congress (2012), via Art Observed (more…)
U.S. Lawmakers have put forth a proposal that would pay 5% of any auction proceeds to the creator of the work on sale. The royalty proposal looks to bring U.S. art auction procedures in line with those of the European Union, and would cap royalties at $35,000 for a work. “Just as our copyright laws extend to musicians and authors to encourage their artistic creativity, they should also apply to our visual artists,” sponsoring Senator Tammy Baldwin says. “The ART Act is a common-sense measure that helps protect the intellectual property of our artists.” (more…)
Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Camille Henrot’s Grosse Fatigue seeks an experience akin to the slow trawls of internet message boards, Wikipedia pages, and Google searches that mark the contemporary search for information, a compartmentalized seeking after discrete bits of data. Running from image to image, many culled from the archives of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Henrot’s project offers a condensed experience of information overload, cramming the story of the earth’s creation into 13 minutes.
Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)
The Guardian takes a look at the faked and forged paintings often accepted as real works by master artists, and the conditions that produce these falsely attributed works. “There’s lots going on, from academic incompetence to really dirty stuff,” says Oxford professor Martin Kemp. “Documentation, scientific analysis and judgment by eye are used – and ignored – opportunistically in ways that suit each advocate, who too frequently has undeclared interests.” (more…)
Andy Warhol, Illeana Sonnabend (1973), via Museum of Modern Art
The career of pivotal art figure of the twentieth century Illeana Sonnabend (1914-2007) is celebrated in Illeana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New, an exhibition currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While Sonnabend’s work might be controversial in its scope and vision, her legendary eye was instrumental in pinpointing some of the twentieth century’s most sought after artists, including Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. The exhibition traces Sonnabend’s career over half a century through selected works that she presented in her eponymous galleries in Paris and New York.
Considering a recent figure counting a total of 278 art fairs happening each year around the world, the New York Times looks at the successes of Arco in Madrid this past weekend, and the fair’s increasingly global focus in attempt to sidestep a struggling Spanish economy. “We sell mostly to museums and foundations at Arco,” said Galeria Vermelho director Marina Buendia. “We’ve been at Arco for six years and things are getting better.” (more…)
A group of nine collectors have filed a lawsuit against the Keith Haring Foundation, claiming that the organization’s judgement of works in their collections has “wrongfully destroyed” their value. The lawsuit, which seeks $40 million in damages, has been flatly rejected by the foundation. Its lawyer, Michael Ward Stout, claims, “We believe that the allegations are not supportable, and we will address them going forward.” (more…)
Artist Mickalene Thomas premiered a film eulogizing her late mother on HBO last night, titled Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman. Capitalizing on the film’s release, Thomas has also published an essay and a number of new paintings and photographs of her mother on Creative Time Reports. “As an artist I have always been astonished not only by my mother’s strength and tenacity but also by her sustained elegance and charisma in spite of harsh obstacles,” she writes. (more…)
Georg Baselitz is profiled in The Telegraph this week, as the artist prepares for three concurrent shows in London over the next few months. Speaking the anniversary of the bombing of his hometown, Dresden, Baselitz reflects on how the violence of World War II found its way into his art: “the degree of destruction I’ve seen, which I’ve been surrounded by, is no longer comprehensible. It was so radical, so absolute. Today you’d ask: how could it even happen? But that was my time.” (more…)
Darren Almond, Fullmoon at Volcanic Archipelago (2013)
Photographer Darren Almond is currently exhibiting a selection of works from both his “Fullmoon” and “Present Form” series, alongside a group of small bronze sculptures at White Cube’s location in the Bermondsey neighborhood of London. The works will remain on view through April 13, 2014. Over a period of 13 years, Almond has worked on a photographic series entitled Fullmoon picturing scenes from every continent, all taken under the light of a full moon. Utilizing long exposure times and well-placed cameras, the images capture details within the darkness that the human eye is normally unable to see, all while adding an eerily surreal atmosphere to the environments on view, stuck somewhere between the bright light of day and dark night. These works represent a continuing effort by Almond to follow themes of geology, myth, and history alongside his fascinations with time and light themselves.
Darren Almond, To Leave a Light Impression (2013), all photos via White Cube
The FIAC Art Fair will launch a Los Angeles edition in April of 2015, bringing the organization to the US for the first time. The inaugural fair will include about 150 exhibitors, and chose Los Angeles for its “extremely dynamic” location and proximity to Asia and Latin America, according to director Jean-Daniel Compain. (more…)
Donald Judd, Untitled (Schellman 24), (1961-1978)
Now through March 1st, the David Zwirner gallery hosts a group exhibition of the printed works of Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Fred Sandback. The three artists’ shared Minimalist aesthetics unite this work of prints made between 1961 and 1994. Though predominantly known for their three dimensional work, printmaking and drawing were significant practices for all three artists throughout their respective careers, and ultimately helped to shape and reshape their practices throughout their broader body of work. (more…)
YaÅŸam ÅžaÅŸmazer, via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
The winter conditions in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul often border on excessive damp and gloom, but the coastal city’s burgeoning art scene maintains the city’s status as a location for adventurous art-lovers year-round, particularly given the strength of several shows currently on view across the city. Mostly located around the Taksim area of the city, art spaces in Istanbul have been popping up at a remarkable pace, marking the city as a destination for the global art cognoscenti, while introducing young Turkish artists to the wider market. (more…)
The Economist reports on an ongoing restoration effort towards several Mark Rothko paintings previously on view at Harvard’s Holyoke Center. The paintings, badly damaged by sunlight, have undergone rigorous chemical analysis, using various samples to determine the reaction times and fading of color that would have brought the works to their current state. (more…)
Animal New York reports that this year’s edition of the Bruce High Quality Foundation’s Brucennial will be the collective’s last, as it shifts its attention to its University operations and other projects. The Brucennial, set to open on March 7th, will also focus solely on women artists. “We’ve grown this show big enough to command an audience of thousands and thousands of visitors, not to mention media attention,” the organization said in an e-mail statement. “So for The Last Brucennial, we will spotlight all women artists.” (more…)
Laure Prouvost, For Forgetting (Installation View), via Art Observed
Laure Prouvost has a lot to say. Creating multifaceted, occasionally dizzying multimedia installations using wood, paint, video and various props, the 2013 Turner Prize Winner’s work is hyper-loaded in its signifiers and subjects, moving rapidly from the divine to the profane and back, all expressed with a masterful storytelling bent. It’s just this line, in fact, that the artist makes express use of in her first U.S. installation, occupying the lobby of the New Museum, telling a lightning-fast narrative of identity theft and financial scamming in the post-digital economy.
Laure Prouvost, For Forgetting, 2014 (still). Installation and video. Copyright the artist. Courtesy the artist and MOTINTERNATIONAL, London and Brussels (more…)
