Art News has a piece surveying the fallout over the firing of Helen Molesworth at MOCA, including a series of interviews with artists and collectors over the move.  In one interview, a donor recounts a time that Molesworth failed to show up for a tour of their collection. “I don’t show my collection to many people—it’s in my home. But Helen begged me twice to see the collection and then when I set it up, she no-showed me—and then never contacted me again,” an unnamed donor says. “Are you just supposed to put up with this sort of thing over and over again?”  (more…)

Marina Pinsky, Trigger Trace 1 (2018), via 303

The Russian-born artist Marina Pinsky’s work is political in the most expansive sense of the word. Delving into intersections of spatial, material and ideological models of the world and its inhabitants, her pieces examine personal relationships, contractual agreements and concrete localities as part of an ongoing continuum, working at specific narratives and sites in a mode of process that seems as inspired by social research strategies as they are by the writings of Foucault. Delving into both sculptural and photographic practices, her works seem to both model and reconstruct environments and situations while also actively documenting them in real-time. In her most recent show at 303 in New York, the city’s origins become her focus. (more…)

Barnaby Furnas, The Wrangler (2018), via Art Observed

Barnaby Furnas returns to Marianne Boesky Gallery this month, opening his seventh exhibition with the gallery with an act of both reflective meditation and an unflinching eye on the present.  Bearing the title Frontier Ballads, Furnas’s work is a sort of inverted nostalgia, recalling the golden age of the American West, and the political analogs of this era that seem to echo forth in the current wave of populist politics in the United States.     (more…)

Yinka Shonibare, Wind Sculpture (2018), via Art Observed

With the weather turning slowly towards the gentle breezes and sunshine of spring in New York, a new sculpture by Yinka Shonibare has sprung up on the corner of 5th Ave and 57th, the southeastern corner of Central Park and long-running home to the Public Art Fund’s ongoing commission project.  The piece is a particularly resonant one for the current juncture, mixing bright colors and a fluid, windswept form that carries deeper political subtexts and histories of capitalist exploitation of the African continent.  (more…)

Sue Williams, Black and White and Red All Over (1998), via Skarstedt Gallery

For artist Sue Williams, the body always takes primacy. The painter, who began her career during the 1990’s, has long tweaked and twisted the female form, pushing it and painting it into any number of surreal arrangements. Multiplying that practice over any number of permutations, her canvases eventually arrive at a breathless final product containing massive flurries of activities and bodies, simultaneously personal and sexual, and often underscoring distinct facets of the hyper-mediated experience of modern life. Taking a retrospective angle on Williams’s work this month, Skarstedt Gallery in New York is currently presenting a body of paintings from 1997 and 1998, formative years in Williams’s body of work, and striking introductions to a practice that has only continued to evolve and develop over the following 20 years. (more…)

Hannah Levy, Untitled (2018), via Art Observed

Hannah Levy has exhibited broadly since receiving her Bachelor’s degree from Cornell in 2013, showing at such distinguished venues as MoMA PS1, the Palais de Tokyo, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, James Fuentes, and Marlborough Contemporary. She also appeared on Cultured Mag’s 2018 list of Young Artists. Her work typically contrasts metal, modernist, work-a-day design with fleshy silicone forms, departing most prominently from late Surrealism’s similar juxtaposition of materialities.  For the artist’s most recent show, one view now at C-L-E-A-R-I-N-G in Brooklyn, her practice gets a concise review.   (more…)

Kelly Akashi at Sculpture Center, via Art Observed

For those looking for new insights and fresh perspectives on contemporary art practice, its hard to ignore the call of the NADA New York art fair during Armory Week.  Set up in the sprawling Skylight Clarkson Square complex on downtown Manhattan’s western edge, the show is a dense pathway through the landscape of new art, mixing playful performance pieces, studied painting and anything in between, making the fair one of the more expansive and freewheeling events of the week. (more…)

Terence Koh at Andrew Edlin, via Art Observed

Situated in a beautiful lofted space in the heart of TriBeCa, Independent NY is easily one of the most picturesque of the fairs returning to Armory Week this year.  Looking out at the towering skyline of downtown Manhattan, the viewer’s gaze alternates between works hung close to the floor to ceiling glass paneling and on the erected walls nearby.  The open plan and imaginative projects chosen only adds to the atmosphere, making Independent simultaneously a relaxed, mellow browsing experience and a deep dive into impeccably selected works. (more…)

Pablo Picasso, La Dormeuse (1932), via Phillips

With Thursday drawing to a close in London, the final night of Contemporary auctions was in the bag, as Philips capped an impressive outing, bringing a final tally of £97 million that made it the most successful and high-grossing sale in auction house history.  The sale saw some particularly strong results over the course of 50 lots, ultimately hitting several impressive auction tallies on the way to the week’s conclusion.  Marking another major statement for an auction that has increasingly staked out a space for itself in the higher ends of the secondary market, Phillips planted a flag this evening, selling several works at prices that could compete with either Sotheby’s or Christie’s premier pieces.

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Yinka Shonibare at James Cohan, via Art Observed

As Wednesday winds down, this year’s edition of the annual Armory Show has gotten underway, with the doors of Piers 92 and 94 opening on to an expansive array of booths and art objects.  Marking its most recent iteration since first opening in 1994, this year’s edition of the Armory Show also marked its first for new director Nicole Berry, who took over following Benjamin Genocchio’s ouster over reports of sexual harassment.  Berry brings years of experience with EXPO Chicago, and it shows, with a relaxed pacing and well-curated body of main booths and special exhibitions keeping the fair at the top of its game. (more…)

Gerhard Richter, Gelbgrün (1982), via Sotheby’s

The second night of London’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sales has wrapped, as Sotheby’s capped a 61-lot auction outing that reached a final tally of £109,292,700.  Achieving a solid price for the sale despite some underperforming lots and a handful of unsold works.  The sale seemed to underscore a market whose highest selling works are still stuck in a state of relative uncertainty, with certain bets and guaranteed prices far less reliable than in recent years.

Peter Doig, The Architect’s Home in the Ravine (1991), via Sotheby’s

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Brooke Nicholas, via Art Observed

As the Armory Week begins to heat up, and turns towards the centerpiece of the week’s proceedings at Piers 92 and 94 tomorrow, the first night of SPRING/BREAK was underway at 4 Times Square.  Holding its seventh edition this year, the fair has grown into one of the more enigmatic and exciting events of the week, with this year being no exception.   (more…)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Multiflavors (1982), via Christie’s

The art world’s market focus has split between London and New York this week, as Armory Week kicks off in New York, and a trio of major contemporary auctions hit the British capital.  The week’s sales got its first indicator of health for the Contemporary and Post-War Market as Christie’s capped the first night of sales, closing a 65-lot offering with moderately strong results, ultimately achieving a final tally of £137,989,750 with only five lots going unsold. (more…)

Hannah Van Bart, The Waiting (2017), via Marianne Boesky

As the winter months draw slowly to a close, and the weather shifts into more temperate conditions, New York City will once again step into its role as a central hub of the contemporary art market, and the global art fair circuit, as a string of fairs and exhibitions open up across the city.  Centering around the annual Armory Show Art Fair on the West Side, the scale of the proceedings seem to only get larger each year (so much so that this year mainstay the ADAA Art Show branched out into its own week), yet attention continues to center around a selection of fairs spread across Manhattan.

Nam June Paik, Lion (2005), via Gagosian

Bruce High Quality Foundation, Ways to Die (House of Turds) (2018) via Pippy Houldsworth

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Tomas Saraceno at Tanya Bonakdar, via Art Observed

The early weeks of March in New York are notoriously packed with art.  There’s the usual string of exhibitions and openings, coupled with the ever-growing number of art fairs taking up space across the city during Armory Art Week.  With that in mind, it’s no wonder that the ADAA might look outside this marathon week in hopes of reaching a broader fair-going public. That gambit seems to have paid off this year, as the ADAA Art Show opened its doors at the end of February, setting itself apart from the mass of exhibitors opening their doors in the coming days.   (more…)

Sophie Kitching, Ausblick (2018), Rasmus Søndergaard Johannsen, LL 31012018 (2018), installation view -46,08°, fffriedrich, photo by Robert Schittko

The night sky, with the reflecting light of the full moon or the gloom of the new moon, offers a polarity of attraction and rejection that not only affects natural phenomena like high and low tide but also works as a mirror for the contemplation of basic human dispositions. Gazing into the stars, the astronomical objects or their formal representation, comes from the curiosity to see what lies beneath the surface of things. This ability to go beyond the boundaries of time, space and fiction, and the fascination for the infinity of the outer space has been a constant source of inspiration for artists.

-46,08°, fffriedrich, installation view

Frankfurt-based project space fffriedrich presents such parallel visual worlds in the exhibition ‘-46,08°’ featuring works by Rasmus Søndergaard Johannsen, Sophie Kitching and Anselm Schenkluhn. For all three artists, the moon and the stars function as symbols, become subjects of iconographical experiments or are actively implicated in their creative process. The works on view move between personally and scientifically oriented approaches and explore various craft techniques in their artistic development. Presence and absence, shadow, illusion and dissolution are recurring concepts in their work.

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Pablo Picasso, Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937), via Sotheby’s

The first tests of the  Impressionist and Modern market for 2018 are now in the books, as Sotheby’s capped a brief but action-packed sale this evening in London, ultimately achieving a final of £118,932,000 despite a handful of unsold works.  There was little room for error in the 21-lot sale, which seemed primarily organized around several marquee works and a selection of works that garnered very little interest. (more…)

Pablo Picasso, Mousquetaire et nu assis (1967), via Christies

With a few brief wobbles, the first evening of two weeks of auctions in the British capital has concluded, bringing solid results and a final of £114,103,000 for Christie’s auction house this evening.  The sale saw most of its premiere works moving quickly over the course of the evening, with 11 works going unsold, including one of the sale’s lead lots, a Kees van Dongen portrait.

Edgar Degas, Dans les coulisses (1882-1885), via Christies

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Pablo Picasso, Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937), via Sotheby’s

Marking the first major test of the secondary market for this 2018, the major auction houses are preparing to open their doors for a series of marquee evening sales in London this coming month.  Trying both the Impressionist/Modern and Post-War categories with top selections of works, the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips will offer a look at just how strong the market is rebounding since a long stretch of inactivity and stagnancy. (more…)

Pierre Klossowski at Gladstone Gallery, Brussels (Installation View) all images Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels Photography by David Regen

Unlike his younger brother Balthus, Pierre Klossowski rarely enjoyed critical and popular acclaim in Europe as an artist during his lifetime, receiving even less attention from scholars and curators in the United States. However, his expansive oeuvre in drawing, in addition to his work in literature and translation offers an uncharted window to the cultural progressions of 20th century Western culture, complemented by his impressive painted oeuvre. Gladstone Gallery’s Brussels location is currently presenting a selection of works on paper by the artist, dated to the ‘80s, when the artist had finally focused his attention solely around art making. Before his late venture into art, Klossowski wore many different hats in his early years, translating works by Wittgenstein, Kafka, Nietzsche, and most importantly de Sade, whose notorious novel The 120 Days of Sodom was reprinted in the ‘60s under his helm, and led to the creation of one of Pasolini’s most notorious filmic adaptations. (more…)

Fabio Mauri, Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) (1985), via Art Observed

Over the course of five decades, artist Fabio Mauri, worked across a broad range of media and formats, always focused around the visual languages and vocabulary of 20th Century political spheres, specifically in Europe.  Exploring the mechanics and visual exponents of varied ideological states and their attendant political movements, Mauri’s work was an often brutal condemnation of World War II, the rise of Fascism and the Holocaust, while simultaneously examining these events’ lingering echoes in the post-war landscape.  Mauri’s work gets a fascinating second look at his current Hauser & Wirth retrospective in New York, spreading his pieces across the spacious 22nd Street flagship location in an attempt to understand both his own meandering aesthetics, and the political situations they address.   (more…)

Sondra Perry at Bridget Donahue (Installation View), via Bridget Donahue

In Sondra Perry’s first solo exhibition at Bridget Donahue, the linked subjects of representation and ownership are taken to task. The gallery, with all walls painted “Rosco Chroma Key blue”, is sparsely inhabited by a few black metal structures and one projected video, a stark arrangement that focuses the viewer’s attention tightly on the few elements there. (more…)

Catherine Opie, Sheats-Goldstein #3 (2016), via Art Observed

Currently on view at Regen Projects in Los Angeles, Catherine Opie returns to her home city for a show of new works that present the city in all of its fascinating, and occasionally frightening nuances.  Continuing her photographic practice through a wide range of images and iconographies, the current show, The Modernist also features the artist’s debut filmic project.

Catherine Opie, The Modernist (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (7-10) (1992), via Art Observed

“I like paintings that balance contradictions. I like paintings that look clear and simple at first glance and then sort of crumble under your gaze,” says painter, Thomas Nozkowski, the American painter whose work over the past several decades has spanned a range of styles and techniques, approaches and modes of seeing throughout his career. “And it’s even better if further looking enables you to put it together again, understand it in a new way.”  Such modes of seeing and making pictures is presented this month at Pace Gallery in New York, running throughout the artist’s 50+ year career as a striking, and refreshing survey of his practice. (more…)