Sarah Lucas, Sitation Classic Pervery (Installation View), via Sadie Coles

In February 2012, Sarah Lucas opened her first Situation exhibition in a project space above Sadie Coles headquarters in Burlington Place. This was the beginning of a project that Lucas has continued as curator and artist ever since.  Her most recent installation, Situation Classic Pervery, was a continuation of this project.

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Song Dong, Facing the Wall (1999), via PACE Gallery

On view at both of Pace Gallery’s New York exhibition spaces is an exhibition of work by Chinese artist Song Dong, compiling the artist’s recent work from dOCUMENTA 13 and the Kiev Biennial, as well as older work.

Song Dong, Doing Nothing Mountains (2011-2012), via PACE Gallery (more…)

Tracey Emin, Floating, (2012), via Galleria Lorcan O’Neill

Currently open in Rome, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill’s fourth presentation of Tracey Emin’s work is a mature, low-key, yet penetrating selection of the artist’s diverse practice, showcased in both of their spaces on Via Orti D’Aliberti.  Emin has recently been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), as well as a professor of drawing at the Royal Academy (RA) along with Fiona Rae, making them the first two women to be elected into the academy.  Given her entrance into these exclusive circles as an official representative of British culture, the Italian location of this show offers an interesting reevaluation of Emin’s art.
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Entrance to Hauser and Wirth’s second gallery in New York, where Martin Creed’s ‘Work No. 1461′ greets visitors

At 511 West 18th Street, in the 24,700 square feet that formerly housed the roller disco known as “The Roxy,” Hauser & Wirth have found their second home in New York. Maintaining their other location on the Upper East Side, the expansion to Chelsea is their fifth location worldwide, and celebrates an important landmark: the gallery’s twentieth anniversary. A hefty book of over 1,000 pages, edited by Hatje Cantz, accompanies the event: Hauser & Wirth 20 Years. The exhibition inaugurating the space could not be more fitting: a father-and-son collaboration which took place over that same twenty year period: Dieter and Björn Roth.

Artist Dieter Roth smokes a cigarette in Roth New York Bar.

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Installation view, Cellblock I, Andrea Rosen Gallery. All photos on site by Erica Simone for Art Observed

The Andrea Rosen Gallery opened Cellblock I at its main space on December 1st, 2012, and simultaneously inaugurated its new, second location–just down the street at 544 West 24th Street–with Cellblock II. Both shows, held together under the theme (and anti-theme) of imprisonment, were curated by the prominent scholar and curator Robert Hobbs.

Robert Motherwell’s Dover Beach III at Cellblock II, Andrea Rosen Gallery

Hobbs is well-known for his work as an art historian and writer. He has been the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1991, and a visiting professor at Yale University for eight years. He is known as the definitive Robert Smithson scholar, and has contributed seminal writings on many of the artists he selected to show, including Alice Aycock, Beverly Pepper, and Kelley Walker. (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach VIP Preview Entrance, all photos on site for Art Observed by Erica Schwartzberg

On Wednesday, December 5th, 2012, Art Basel Miami Beach hosted its 11th annual VIP Preview at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Organizers claim Art Basel Miami has surpassed its Swiss sister Art Basel in size and popularity, though it has yet to surpass attendance figures (62,500 people in 2010). This year, 680 galleries competed to show at Art Basel Miami and 257 were selected. More than 2,000 artists are represented and attendance is expected to top last year’s 55,000 figure. Though definitive sales reports are difficult to pin down (Art Basel Miami never releases official records), $2.5 billion worth of art was on offer in 2011, and several galleries reported record sales. VIP guests include business magnates Steve Wynn, who purchased a Roy Lichtenstein, and Eli Broad, who purchased a Jeff Koons sculpture. Newsprint mogul Peter Brant gave Owen Wilson a tour, and Will Ferrell ceded the stage to his wife Viveca, who sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum. Also spotted: Sean “Puffy” Combs purchasing an Ivan Navarro sculpture, Diane von Furstenberg, comedian/actress Chelsea Handler, and music mogul Russell Simmons. The following is a photoset from the 2012 Art Basel Miami Beach VIP Preview.

Jesús Rafael Soto, Cubo de Roma, Galeria Elvira Gonzalez

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Installation view: Bjarne Melgaard “A New Novel” at Luxembourg & Dayan, New York. All images by Jennifer Lindblad for Art Observed unless otherwise noted.

The door of Luxembourg & Dayan’s historic townhouse on Upper East Side—the second most narrow in New York City— opens to a visual assault: sequined dolls wearing Proenza Schouler-designed evening gowns and Pink Panther figurines perch atop neon-colored piles of books just narrow enough to snake through, violent sexual vignettes are played out by clay figures, and 1970s-style wallpaper and overlapping area rugs serves as a rough-and-tumble backdrop. All comprise Bjarne Melgaard’s twisted vision for “A New Novel.”

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Fischli / Weiss, DÜNNWANDIGE RÖHRE AUS TON, LIEGEND, 2012, courtesy of Sprueth Magers

Peter Fischli and David Weiss currently have an exhibition at the Sprueth Magers gallery in London, which displays somber overtones coinciding with Weiss’ untimely death in April of this year.

An array of clean-cut unfired clay and industrial-looking rubber has been meticulously molded and scrupulously carved to mimic everyday objects of construction in the form of “walls, corners and tubes”. The works, executed between 2010 and 2012, and are connected to the group of works that the artists displayed at the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011. The clean, particular presentation of the scaled objects on virgin white plinths is a visual departure from earlier works.

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The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone Whitechapel Gallery, Installation View, Photo: David Parry / PA Wire, all photos courtesy of Whitechapel Gallery

Work by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone is being highlighted at two locations in London(although not an organized collaboration), the longer of which will remain until August 2013. Spazio di Luce, created by Giuseppe Penone  for the Bloomberg Commission, opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London on September 5th and will remain installed until August of next year, while Intersecting Gaze/Sguardo Incrociato is taking place currently at Gagosian Gallery at Davies Street London and will remain until November 27th, 2012. The works continue along themes Penone has been exploring throughout his 40-year long career, this time specifically exhibiting the idea that, in Penone’s words, “The stretching of a branch through space in search of light has the same structure as a glance.”

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Theaster Gates – Raising Goliath (2012), courtesy White Cube Gallery

The work of Theaster Gates addresses social engagement using shared images of American life as a way to challenge cultural norms and to subvert singular readings of American history.  White Cube Bermondsey is hosting a major installation by the Chicago-based artist, entitled “My Labor is My Protest.”  Blending the cultural, social and personal, the show is a bold statement on the roles of identity and meaning in the construction of history and art history.

Theaster Gates – My Labor Is My Protest (Installation View) (2012), courtesy White Cube Gallery (more…)

Franz West, Untitled, 2011 courtesy Gagosian Gallery

The Gagosian Gallery is currently exhibiting what can only be described as a eulogy of works that embodies the life of the late Franz West, who sadly passed away early this summer in July 2012.

A sea of freestanding, ambiguous, figurines adorn the gallery, doused in multicolored luminescent paint. Light-hearted sculptures interact with viewers, inspiring feelings of elation and freedom. Surreal structures almost wrap around onlookers in a fairytale-like setting.

Franz West, Installation view, 2011 courtesy Gagosian Gallery

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Scott Campbell, Our Secret (2012), courtesy the artist and OHWOW

Scott Campbell, whose Saved Tattoo parlor in Brooklyn is a destination for ink aficionados such as designer Marc Jacobs, has in recent years branched out into the contemporary art world, presenting bodies of work that dynamically comprise the “alternative” aesthetic and draftsman’s expertise of his trade. Using an array of unique materials, such as US currency and ostrich eggshells, employing a highly technical creative process born from the precision of tattooing, Campbell’s work rests comfortably in the space between high and low, art and fashion, gallery and street.

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Artists Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe will transform Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery into a “junkyard fantasy” as part of their latest project, which hosts a grimy subterranean world with elements of sci-fi and squalor, described by Freeman as the debris after “some horrible event had happened and everyone had to evacuate.” Since their breakout work, Hello Meth Lab In The Sun, in 2008, (beginning in Marfa, reiterated in Art Basel Miami and Deitch projects in New York) shows of varying edginess have followed. “Shadow Pool: A Natural History of the San San International,” held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, was the pair’s most recent solo venture.

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Crowd Shot at the opening of People Who Work Here at David Zwirner. All photos by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

On a hot summer evening, David Zwirner’s 19th Street Chelsea location held an opening for its artist employees titled People Who Work Here. The show is curated by Rawson Projects co-directors James Morrill and Chris Rawson, who are also fellow David Zwirner employees.

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Marlene Dumas, Gravita (2012). All images courtesy of Fondazione Stelline.

This spring at the Fondazione Stelline in Milan, Marlene Dumas celebrates the Christian season’s Resurrection by examining what came before: the crucifixion. Sorte, Dumas’ exhibition, consists of 22 works—15 of them new—plus an additional 15 historical drawings and watercolors. Per the exhibition’s press release, “[Dumas'] Milan exhibition will portray some of the themes most dear to the artist: the crucifixion, famous people linked to dramatic events, and those ‘people in extreme suffering’ who represent the humanity that is the focus of her painting.”

Installation view
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All images courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, Paris

Following a year in the public eye for Jaume Plensa, the artist’s current show at Galerie Lelong in Paris is comprised of steel and rock creations as well as accompanying drawings. These “modern hermits” follow in the wake attention Plensa garnered last year via large scale sculptural installations in Madison Square Park, M.I.T. and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The mid-sized works and drawings are approachable, “silent observers of the hustle and bustle,” according to the press release.

Jaume Plensa, The Hermit VI (2012)

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Katie Paterson, 100 Billion Suns (2011). Images courtesy of Haunch of Venison.

In July 2011, Katie Paterson blended science with art in the work 100 Billion Suns for the Venice Biennale—the photo documentation of which is now on view as the first exhibition in Haunch of Venison‘s new Fitzrovia gallery space in London. Paterson was the 2010–11 Artist in Residence at University College London’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, and at the Biennale, the artist placed confetti canons throughout the city and set them off at regular intervals in a gesture to reenact Gamma Ray Bursts—the brightest explosions in the universe. During the Haunch of Venison show, one confetti canon will explode at 1:00 pm each day, littering the floor with small fragments of paper color-matched to the Gamma Ray Bursts Paterson has documented. In addition to the canon and its Venetian archive, two other astronomy-related works are on view as well, The Dying Star Letters and Ancient Darkness TV.

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Jeff Wall, standing with Young man wet with rain (2011). Images via PinchukArtCentre © 2012. Photographed by Sergey Illin

Canadian photographer Jeff Wall presents his first ever solo show in Eastern Europe at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, Ukraine, titled In light, black, colour, white, and dark. The exhibition includes 16 photographs and 7 light boxes, a mixture of Wall’s recent works and iconic images from the artist’s personal collection.

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Martin Creed, Work No. 890, DON’T WORRY (2008).  Image courtesy of the Tate Liverpool.

Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed brings seven new works to the Tate Liverpool this spring as part of their ARTIST ROOMS collection, in conjunction with the National Galleries of Scotland. Creed’s works range in media from paintings to a neon installation; “Refreshing, unexpected and humorous, Creed’s work challenges our preconceptions and rearranges the rules of conceptual art,” reads the exhibition’s press release.

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David Shrigley, I’m Dead (2010). All images courtesy of the Hayward Gallery.

Brain Activity, David Shrigley‘s first survey show in London, brings together choice examples of his photography, sculpture, and drawings to highlight the artist’s humor and wit. While he was classically trained at the Glasgow School of Art, Shrigley’s characteristic style today is stripped down, sketchy and, to use his own word, “misshapen.” The exhibition is organized into four basic themes: death, misery, characters, and misshapen things.”The big themes are the ones that interest me, and the ones that have the potential to be the most comic,” Shrigley says of his work. “Making artwork is kind of one of the most fun things that one can do. It’s fun, I like it.”

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Gary Hume, The Indifferent Owl (2011). All images courtesy of White Cube.

Gary Hume returns to London for his first exhibition in the city in four years with The Indifferent Owl at White Cube Gallery. Occupying both the Mason’s Yard and Hoxton Square locations, Hume presents a collection of paintings and sculpture that shows off his streamlined aesthetic. With a muted palette and naturalistic subject matter—representations of birds and flora are dominant—The Indifferent Owl is a study in subtlety.

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Ernesto Neto, installation view of Crazy Hyperculture in the Vertigo of the World (2012). All images courtesy of Faena Art Center.

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto inaugurates Buenos Aires’ new art space, the Faena Art Center (which opened in September 2011), with a massive net-like installation he calls Crazy Hyperculture in the Vertigo of the World. In Neto’s installation, jewel-toned webs of crocheted ropes and fabric fill the entire Cathedral Room to create a woven bridge that welcomes visitors to explore. Neto’s vision stems from the Neo-Concreto art movement, which, according to the exhibition’s description, “places the spectator at the centre of the creative action, thereby converting physical interaction into a key aspect of his work.”

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JR, The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles 2010 (2011). All images courtesy of Galerie Perrotin.

Urban artist and 2011 TED prize recipient JR, who eschews the title “street artist,” comes to Galerie Perrotin in Paris with Encrages, his first major solo exhibition. In addition to new works, the show includes several previously seen plastered on city walls worldwide—those of Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Shanghai, and Los Angeles, among others. “After displaying his work in the biggest museum of the world, the walls of the cities, JR faces the walls of the gallery,” states the exhibition’s press release. The artist also transformed the gallery itself, covering the entrance with a two-story strained and staring eyeball, framed by wiry eyebrows and leathery skin.

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Outside view of Galerie Perrotin, Paris

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Martin Boyce, Do Words Have Voices, installation view (2011). All images courtesy of BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art Gateshead.

The Turner Prize, began in 1984 to honor an outstanding British artist under the age of fifty, has announced the 2011 shortlisted artists: Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd, and George Shaw. Judged on work from the previous year, the four nominees also present an exhibition from October through January, this year at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Gateshead— the first time outside a Tate venue. A program featuring the live announcement of the winner, decided by jury, will be broadcast on the British Channel 4 on December 5, 2011.

Karla Black, Doesn’t Care In Words, installation view (2011).

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