David Salle, Fooling with Your Hair (1985), via Skarstedt

The Skarstedt Gallery continues its series of summer group exhibitions in Chelsea this month, presenting another series of works by artists sharing common interests in production, appropriation and the potential for painting after the advent of widely distributed photographic technologies.  The exhibition, featuring work by Martin Kippenberger, George Condo, Richard Prince, David Salle and Albert Oehlen, is spread across the two rooms of the Skarstedt space on 21st Street, offering ample space to pass back and forth between the monumental canvases, and examine the various artist’s techniques and formal interests. (more…)

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Nancy Rubins, Our Friend Fluid Metal (2014)

Nancy Rubins has not been hesitant about creating mammoth works of art, as seen in her first public installation at a shopping center in Illinois in 1981 or her 1995 installation of salvaged airplanes at MoMA.  Exhibiting objects collected from thrift stores and and secondhand shops, the artist’s sculptural assemblages are charged with an eclectic energy.  Televisions, planes, surfboards, heaters and mattresses are just a few source materials transformed into complex structures, charged with tangible energy and an inexplicable resistance to gravity.  (more…)

Jeremy Deller, English Magic (2012),  All images courtesy of Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Jeremy Deller’s English Magic has come to the United States this summer.   The artist’s video and installation work, created specifically for the British Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale, addresses British society and politics through a complexly intertwined mythology and cultural iconography.  It’s the latest participant in the Hirschhorn’s Directions series, an on-going program which has been running since 1979, and which has seen the likes of Tacita Dean, Juan Munoz and Pipilotti Rist bringing works to the Hirshhorn, aiming to engage with emerging and established artists showcasing both new and old works. (more…)

Artists Gilbert and George are interviewed in the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing their most recent exhibition at White Cube, Scapegoating Pictures for London. “We thought it strange that the world’s governments, churches, mosques and schools are all confronting the issue of Islamist fervor, but the world’s artists aren’t touching it,” says George Passmore. “We try to create art we feel the world need.” (more…)

Miranda July’s Somebody app, via Miranda July

Artist Miranda July has announced a unique new app design, titled Somebody, which uses active participants and users to deliver messages to other users rather than receive a standard text-based message or email.   (more…)

Ai Weiwei is currently under house arrest in Beijing, but that hasn’t stopped the artist from planning and overseeing the installation of his largest UK exhibition to date at Blenheim Palace.  Ai has had a 3-D digital model of the space created, and has used it to plot out the placement of works meticulously without leaving his home.  “In the beginning, we sent him photographs and detailed plans, but he’s an absolute perfectionist and every inch of where works are placed matters to him. So in the end we lasered all the rooms to make the model for him,” says Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill said. (more…)

Anne Collier, Developing Tray #2 (2009)

In the winter of 2012, a gigantic human eye was gazed out intently on Chelsea and the Hudson River from the High Line billboard on 18th street. The billboard installation, Developing Tray #2, belonged to Anne Collier, an artist known for her appropriation based photographs culling a wide range of printed media from popular culture, suggesting a reinterpretation of otherwise neglected statements. Utilizing minimalistic techniques and a neutral white surface as a background, Collier photographs album covers, commercials, magazine pages or calendars, revealing the subtle ideological undertones related to feminism, consumerism and gender politics. (more…)

As Detroit’s “grand bargain” draws nearer to realization, The New York Times notes that parts of the deal for the city’s exit from bankruptcy may in fact be illegal.  This news comes as a lending company, Art Capital, has offered the city $3 billion in aid using the city’s art collection as collateral, an offer that the city has yet to respond to.  “The museum is owned by the city, and the city is, in fact, in bankruptcy. That asset lawfully should be available to assist in the plan of exit,” said Ian Peck, Art Capital’s chief executive. “But we also believe that this art is a national treasure and should be preserved as such.” (more…)

German artist Michael Sailstorfer is preparing a “participatory” installation work for the arts festival at Outer Harbour beach in Folkestone, UK, claiming that £10,000 in gold bars have been hidden across the beach.  The work, titled Folkestone Digs, opens today at 4PM, around low tide. (more…)

Aram Saroyan, Lighght (1989), All images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed.

Aphasia, a brain dysfunction resulting in the failure of comprehension of language, is the starting point of Lisa Cooley’s summer group show Itself Not So.  Curated by staff member Rachel Valinsky, and titled after a poem by Susan Howe, the selection grabs this condition as a metaphor for the disconnect between mind and speech, examining the possible fractures causing intellectual and emotional failures regarding the self. The exhibition argues that, with the corruption of the harmony among sound, thoughts and speech, a possible chaos and detachment brings an individual’s functionality to a standstill. Both intellectual and emotional, social and biological, this turmoil challenges the autonomy of those inflicted. (more…)

James Meyer, a former studio assistant to Jasper Johns, has plead to selling a series of the unfinished works by the artist, and fraudulently covering his sales with false inventory.  Meyer ultimately made over $3 million off the sales.  “Meyer will now have to pay for that decision,” says US Attorney Preet Bharara. (more…)

Phyllida Barlow at Tate Britain (Installation View), all images via Tate Britain

‘Our era has been defined by falling monuments’ says Phyllida Barlow in an interview with The Guardian about her Tate Britain commission. She points out the tragedy, triumph, beauty and the immense grief evident in the collapse of a public icon; underlining the extraordinary range of emotive qualities that such a public piece of imagery conveys.  Barlow is delivering another major show defining the notion of monuments in a collaboration with Tate Britain as a part of the museum’s annual artist commissions. (more…)

Dan Graham, Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout (2014), All Images Via Kelly Lee for Art Observed

The annual rooftop commission at The Metropolitan Museum of Art always manages to draw a crowd, whether it be Imran Quereshi’s bloody installation last year, or Tomás Saraceno’s vastly popular Cloud City.  For this year’s Rooftop Commission at , the Met has sided with a more heritage artist, Dan Graham, working in conjunction with Swiss landscape architect Günther Vogt to create the work Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout (2014).  Graham, 71, known for his conceptual bent and exploration of multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and performance art, has long focused on how architecture directly impacts its occupants and shapes their experiences of looking, a strikingly perfect fit for the Met’s scenic view and unique location.

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Marianne Boesky Gallery has announced a group of new directors taking over at both New York locations.  Kristen Becker, who previously worked as Director at Luhring Augustine, will take over at Boesky’s Chelsea location, while the gallery’s new downtown space will be co-run by Kelly Woods and Veronica Levitt.  “I’m thrilled to be expanding our dedicated and talented team with these new additions,” Boesky told Art Observed.  “Kelly is a perfect fit to co-direct our new Lower East Side location with Veronica Levitt who will be moving there from Chelsea into her new role. Kristen brings a great depth of experience and energy to our Chelsea team. All three will surely augment our service to our artists and our clients in every way.” (more…)

A recent discovery by Dr. Ricardo De Mambro Santos, associate professor of art history at Willamette University in Salem, OR, has resulted in the authentication of an early Peter Paul Rubens portrait to the The Hallie Ford Museum of Art.  “We did know Rubens’ early work between 1596 and 1599, but we didn’t know any works from the very beginning of his career in Rome,” says De Mambro Santos. “The Rubens we know today started in this portrait that we’re bringing to the Hallie Ford. This particular portrait could be considered the preliminary workshop for his future baroque style.” (more…)

An article in the Washington Post this week highlights one favorable effect of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s merger with the National Gallery: permanently free admission to the museum collection.  As of today, the merger is official, making the Corcoran collection part of the National Gallery, and open to all visitors. (more…)

Manifesto 10, Installation View, all photos courtesy of Manifesto 10

Despite a steady stream of critiques, criticism and outright protest over the current political climate in Russia, Manifesta 10, one of Europe’s leading contemporary art biennials, has pressed on.  The exhibition, which opened late last month, has made much of its presence in Russia, presenting an exhibition that addresses its own political background while using it as a spring board to broader issues. (more…)

The New york Times has published an interesting video piece this week, a 24-second stop-motion piece showcasing 156 wigs used by Cindy Sherman in her photographic work.  The wigs were shot in Sherman’s New York studio by Leanne Shapton.  (more…)

The Financial Times reports on the newly opened Hauser and Wirth location in the Somerset town of Bruton, and the anticipated boon the space may offer for the area’s arts community and real estate.  “Somerset is a large county but there are not many galleries exhibiting contemporary art,” says director Alice Workman. “So as well as the space being for the local community, we’re confident we’ll attract a national and international art-loving audience who will probably bring new custom to Bruton and have a positive impact on the local economy.” (more…)

The New York Times continues its thorough investigations into the contemporary art and auction markets, noting struggling stock prices for Sotheby’s and mammoth Chinese auction house Poly Culture Group Corporation, and the statistical dissonances in the claims of auction houses trumpeting a new golden age for the market.  “There’s a feeling among financial analysts that the valuations of art-related companies are peaking,” says Fabian Bocart of Tutela Capital. “These valuations are based on expected volumes at auction. Very expensive items have almost no impact.” (more…)

Zhang Huan, Shanxi Door No. 49 (2206), all images courtesy Pace Chesa Büsin

Pace Gallery has taken up space at Chesa Büsin in the Swiss town of Suoz this summer for a retrospective of works by Chinese artist Zhang Huan. Known for his especially visceral brand of performance art and his equally meticulous and exacting documentations, this exhibition primarily focuses on some of Zhang’s lesser known paintings, photography and works on paper. (more…)

Marking an ambitious exchange between three New York galleries this summer, the exhibition Multiplicity is currently spread across the city’s varied arts communities for a three part show exploring the intersections of meanings, behaviors and interpretations of urban life around the globe.  Taking up space at NURTUREart in Bushwick, the LES’s Invisible Exports and Mixed Greens in Chelsea, the exhibition culls work from artists in Tirana, Belfast, New Dehli, Tel Aviv, New York, and Hong Kong.   (more…)

Giulio Paolini, Young Man Looking at Lorenzo Lotto (1967)

Arte Povera, meaning ‘poor art’ in Italian, contained a profound criticism towards commodification and consumeristic production. Among its key figures stands Giulio Paolini, who was invited to Arte Povera’s first exhibition by art historian Germano Celant.  But Paolini also occupies a separate position in terms of focusing on a noticeably historical examination of the artistic state in turn. Related to his critical approach towards production dynamics in art, Paolini on the other hand has been investigating the duality between the seer and the seen, questioning the exchange not only between the artwork and the viewer but also between the subject matter and the artist. (more…)

Thomas Slaughter, Boy Scout Jack Knife (2014), all images courtesy of The Drawing Center

On view at The Drawing Center in New York is a comprehensive group show including work by over 65 artists, curated by Lisa Sigal and organized by Heather Hart, Steffani Jemison, and Jina Valentine. Entitled The Intuitionists, the show explores themes and aesthetics of the database, and how collections of information “in flux” are organized.

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