W Magazine takes an inside look at the design and architecture of artist Ugo Rondinone’s New York studio and loft, built in an abandoned church in Harlem Rondinone gut renovated for $4 million. “Somehow I thought it was a bargain,” the artist says. “I love the church. I can stay here for weeks without going out.” (more…)
Malaysian curator and art adviser Adeline Ooi has been named Art Basel’s new Director for Asia, the New York Times reports, replacing former Director Magnus Renfrew. ‘‘We wanted someone who we thought could catalyze the growth of the art market across Asia,’’ says Marc Spiegler, the director of Art Basel. (more…)
Artist Tania Bruguera has been detained in Cuba, following the performance of an art piece designed to test the U.S.’s resolve to renew diplomatic ties with a country known for censoring free speech. Bruguera was arrested as she walked towards Havana’s Revolution Square, and is currently being held by the government. (more…)
Douglas Gordon, tears become…streams become… (2014), via Art Observed
Douglas Gordon’s work often takes its strength from its simplicity. Using minimal alterations and contextual wrinkles in the selections of his exhibition spaces, works and collaborations, Gordon seems to draw a certain pleasure from bringing out deeper recognitions of the space and structure of art as presentation, as experiential and institutional meditation. (more…)
Since opening in 2012, Shanghai’s Power Station of Art has become a central player in the rapidly expanding Chinese contemporary arts scene, as evidenced by the success of its recently opened 10th Shanghai Biennale. “We want the Shanghai Biennale to be more international,” says Li Xu, deputy director of the Power Station. “This is a new kind of cultural confidence.” (more…)
The New York Times notes the rush of interest by art buyers towards Cuba since President Obama lifted the economic embargo on the country earlier this month, with collectors fighting for first access to the country’s long-praised arts culture. “They’re saying, ‘I want to go before everyone else does,’ ” says dealer Alberto Magnan, who specializes in Cuban art. (more…)
The Ace Hotel, in collaboration with the opening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest film Inherent Vice, is presenting a trio of exhibitions in Los Angeles, London and New York, including an immersive installation by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe in NYC. The exhibitions run from January 5th – 11th. (more…)
The Smithsonian is reportedly receiving an additional $14.5 million in government funding next year, bringing the total funding received for 2015 to $819.5 million. Most of the funding will go to maintenance and salaries for the Institution’s various outposts and services, while some has been set aside for an ambitious renovation project for the Smithsonian’s South Mall. (more…)
The LA Times sits down with Broad Museum Curator Joanne Heyeler to discuss the completion of city’s new art museum, set to open in late 2015. “I have to say, living and breathing with these renderings and plans for almost five years now,” Heyeler says, “I am absolutely thrilled to see it finally revealed as a whole exterior.” (more…)
The Museums Association, Britain’s governing body for arts and historical institutions, is strengthening its ethics code, including sanctions and penalties for museums selling off parts of their collections for financial gain. “We recognize local authorities face a tough time,” says MA Director Sharon Heal. “We just want to caution that if you’re going down this road, follow the process and you’re acting in the public’s best interest.” (more…)
Painter Peter Doig is highlighted in the Wall Street Journal this week, as he opens a broad exhibition of works at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. “I think you only have so many ideas that you think are good ideas,” Doig says. (more…)
The 2015 Edition of the Armory Show has announced its list of exhibitors for its March opening, with 197 galleries attending. The fair will run from March 5th through the 8th. The selection process for the upcoming edition was particularly rigorous and I am thrilled to see a number of notable galleries returning to the fair,” says Executive Director Noah Horowitz, “as well as a strong presence of young, geographically diverse galleries who have chosen to show with us for the first time.” (more…)
A recent article on Arnet reviews the story over assailant Andrew Shannon’s attack on a Claude Monet painting, and notes that he is not the first to punch one of the artist’s Impressionist masterworks. In 2007, a group of vandals entered the Musée D’Orsay and punched a hole in another of the artist’s Argenteuil landscapes. (more…)
Ryan Foerster, Green Day (2012-2014), via C L E A R I N G
For C L E A R I N G’s second exhibition in its new 5,000-square-foot Bushwick space, the Brooklyn and Brussels-based gallery presents a sprawling showcase of multimedia work by Canadian artist Ryan Foerster. Winding fluidly through the venue’s four airy rooms, strewn across the floors and walls in a seemingly impromptu array, the featured works exploit the possibilities of the photographic medium while charting the artist’s latest forays into installation, video, and sculpture. (more…)
Amid charges of plagiarism, Jeff Koons’s work Fait d’Hiver has been pulled from exhibition at the artist’s expansive Centre Pompidou retrospective. The work’s owner made the request for its removal, while the museum made a point of expressing its desire to leave the work in the show. “It is essential that museums be able to continue to give an account of these artistic endeavors,” said president Alain Seban. (more…)
The Metropolitan Opera, currently in need of cash, has collateralized two of its Marc Chagall works as part of a line of credit from Bank of America. The organization has placed The Triumph of Music and The Sources of Music as collateral, both of which hang in its lobby, until it can balance its budget. “Recent changes at the Met – including the implementation of our historic new union agreements, and a program of institution-wide cost controls – are expected to lead to balanced budgets in fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2016 while significantly strengthening the long-term financial prospects of the institution,” says Met spokesman Sam Neuman. (more…)
Anish Kapoor will be the next artist given a solo show at the Palace of Versailles, the organization announced this week. Kapoor’s show will run from June to October of 2015, and was chosen “because he has something particular to say in this setting,” says Chief Administrator Catherine Pégard. (more…)
The trailer for Woman in Gold has been released, a film focusing on the attempts of former refugee Maria Altmann to reclaim the Gustav Klimt masterwork Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, stolen from her family during the reign of the Third Reich. (more…)
The Detroit Free Press reports on the $100 million sale of Paul Cézanne’s La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue du bosquet du Château Noir by the The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in 2013, which would make it one of the 15 most expensive works ever sold. “This was really a once-in-a-lifetime offer,” says Ford House president Kathleen Mullins. “The family thought it was a way to guarantee the estate would be taken care of the way Eleanor would have wanted.” (more…)
Michael Anthony, the executive chef of Gramercy Tavern, has been named as the head chef for the Whitney’s new Meatpacking District location. The museum will include two restaurants: Untitled, a fine dining establishment run out of the museum’s ground floor, and the Studio Cafe, which will be located on the Museum’s 8th Floor. (more…)
As the U.S. renews diplomatic relations with Cuba, critics and market leaders are predicting a new rush of interest in the island’s arts community. “I believe Cuban art has been a best-kept secret among a few collectors,” says collector Howard Farber, “and now that Cuba is opening up to us I think more people will discover a genre that’s fresh and great.” (more…)
Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria (1993), all photos via Emily Heinz for Art Observed
The first sight of the Louise Bourgeois Suspension exhibition at Cheim & Read must be the closest simulation available of watching artworks ascending to heaven. There is a sense that each of the pieces are being called upwards, as their weight hangs below them, pulling them back towards the ground. However, the works don’t fight this strange, heavenly magnetism, and in fact, seem to accept to their celestial trajectory.
“Hanging is an ambivalent gesture,” says Jerry Gorovoy, her assistant and close friend of thirty years, who was kind enough to expand upon her works on the opening night of the show. “It’s as though they’ve given up.” It’s this sense of the works’ submission that makes the tension of their bold physical presence so palpable.
Camille Henrot, The Pale Fox (2014), all photos by Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Camille Henrot’s The Pale Fox is an immersive journey through the artist’s conceptual creative process. Imagined as a multidimensional extension of the artist’s award-winning film Grosse Fatigue, 2013 (Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale), this itinerant exhibition is currently presented at Bétonsalon – Centre for art and research in Paris.
Camille Henrot, Baby (2014) and The Principles of Being (2014), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
R. H. Quaytman, O Tópico, Chapter 27 (Installation View)
Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery’s 21st street location is O Tópico, Chapter 27, R. H. Quaytman’s latest chapter in her ambitious, ongoing project of cohesive, site-specific installations. Quaytman started her serial painting project in 2001 with eighty paintings she made to be exhibited at the Queens Museum, and has now reached the 27th installment of the project, this one inspired by Inhotim, a botanical garden and art park located in the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais. (more…)
