AO Art Observed™

Jim Dine (Installation View), via Pace Gallery

In a refreshing break from his figurative painting and Pinocchio art, Pace Gallery presents a collection of new abstract paintings by Jim Dine.  The paintings are large, romantic, intense renderings of universal situations and emotions – sometimes literally, with titles like “A Fingerprint of Stars”, a painting that reaches fourteen feet wide and five feet tall.

 
Jim Dine, Late Friends (2012), via Pace Gallery

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Anthony McCall, Face to Face (2013), via Sean Kelly Gallery

Anthony McCall’s body of work is punctuated by decades of silence.  Withdrawing from the art world in the late 1970′s after a number of promising exhibitions and installations around the globe, the artist completely ceased his artistic production until 2003, when he began experimenting with digital film projectors.  10 years later, the artist is presenting Face to Face at Sean Kelly Gallery, showing two works from the opposite ends of the artist’s career.

Anthony McCall, Face to Face (2013), via Sean Kelly Gallery

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The Opening for Doug Aitken, 100 YRS, Courtesy of 303 Gallery

Working across a broad body of media and techniques, including photography, sculpture, video, installation, sound art and architectural interventions, Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken’s work frequently explores concepts of rhythm, repetition and duration, exploring interrelations between time, memory and space and the subsequent fluctuations of meaning and understanding caused by their interactions.  His work has been ehxibited in a variety of institutions and contexts, including his enormous Song1 installation on the outside of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, as well as his upcoming video art installation at the Seattle Art Museum.

Doug Aitken, MORE (Shattered Pour) (2013), Courtesy of 303 Gallery

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Outside the Park Ave Armory for the ADAA Art Show

With another hectic Armory Week comes another edition of the Art Dealers Association of America’s Art Show, open at the Park Avenue Armory.  Now in its 25th edition, The Art Show is the nation’s longest continually running art fair, offering viewers a smaller, more scaled back experience in contrast with The Armory Show held out on New York’s Hell’s Kitchen Piers.  The show’s more focused collection of 72 leading dealers and galleries allow viewers a slightly less overwhelming experience moving from booth to booth, and also provide slightly more space for the work to breath.

Damien Hirst at Van de Weghe (more…)

James Lee Byars, Early Works and The Angel (Installation view) via Michael Werner Gallery, London

Early Works and “The Angel,” currently on view at Michael Werner Gallery in London, exhibits major works from the late sculptor and performance artist James Lee Byars.  Combining a selection of the artist’s early sculptural works, painted scrolls, and performative objects with the impressive glass sculpture “The Angel,” the show provides an interesting look into the artist’s formative influences and practices.  The gallery is an apt location for this collection, as Michael Werner, the German art dealer and gallery’s namesake, historically had close ties with Byars, as well as his contemporary, Joseph Beuys.

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The View from Outside The 2013 Armory Show

The doors opened this morning on the 2013 edition of the Armory Art show, welcoming press and VIP’s into the massive exhibition halls of Piers 92 and 94 on the waterfront of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.  It was a special year for New York’s biggest annual art event, marking the 100 year anniversary of its namesake, the 1913 exhibition that welcomed the European avant-garde to American shores, and gave many their first glimpses of Marcel Duchamp, Matisse and Edvard Munch, among many others.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Makes the Opening Remarks at The 2013 Armory Show (more…)

Art Club 2000, Untitled (Conran’s I) (1993), Courtesy of The New Museum

Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, on view now at The New Museum, is a look 20 years into the not-so-distant-past, using 1993 (and the works produced and shown within that calendar year) as a critical reflection point into recent art history and practice.

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Tacita Dean, Fatigues (F) (2012), via Marian Goodman Gallery

Marian Goodman Gallery is currently hosting the first showing of Tacita Dean’s, Fatigues, a recent series of drawings initially exhibited in Kassel at this past summer’s documenta (13).

Tacita Dean, Fatigues (Installation view), via Marian Goodman Gallery

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Julie Mehretu, Mind Breath and Beat Drawings (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris is currently exhibiting a new series of works by painter and illustrator Julie Mehretu. in a show which Mehretu described as a ‘self-ethnographic project,’ involving a dissection of her identity as an artist through a free abstraction of her personal creative practice. The show is Mehretu’s first solo exhibition in France.

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Zhang Xiaogang, Beijing Voice (Installation View), Courtesy of PACE Beijing

PACE Beijing is currently exhibiting a selection new works by Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang, showcasing the artist’s interpretations of Chinese identity, memory and relation.  The exhibition, part of PACE’s annual Beijing Voice’s event, is the first stop on the artist’s work in a global tour which will also include PACE exhibitions at their locations in New York and London. (more…)

Angus Fairhurst, Un-titled (Installation View) via Sadie Coles HQ

Sadie Coles HQ‘s current exhibition by the late Angus Fairhurst (1966-2008), Un-titled, explores notions of “doing and undoing, absence and presence, thinking and feeling.”  Culling from Fairhurst’s broad body of sculpture, painting, collage and photography, the show is a testament to the artist’s brief but impressive output.

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Trevor Paglen at Metro Pictures (Installation View), via Metro Pictures

American artist, geographer, and author Trevor Paglen’s first solo exhibition at Metro Pictures has opened this month, a selection of large color prints and black-and-white diptychs related to his ongoing project, The Last Pictures.  Compiling a striking collection of photographs from across the wide spectrum of human experience, Paglen creates a static document of mankind, flung into the Earth’s orbit.

Trevor Paglen opening at Metro Pictures (Installation View), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved

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Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery

“My grandfather died when I was fourteen and became an abacus. In the way ice turns into water, he became this object he left behind.”  So begins the performance of Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto’s Talking in Circles Talking, an immersive performance and installation at Soloway Gallery in South Williamsburg.  Exploring the notions of value and vibrancy at play in the space between human relationships and physical objects, Sasamoto effectively fuses personal discourses with her surrounding environment.

Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery (more…)

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…)

Keith Sonnier, Lit Circle Blue with Etched Glass (1968), via Mary Boone Gallery

Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery is currently glowing with Keith Sonnier’s early fluorescent works from 1968 – 1970, on view through February 23. Along with Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, and Donald Judd, Sonnier’s approach to spatial and aesthetic considerations  radically changed the conceptions of sculpture, embracing experimentation with unconventional materials and approaches to presentation.  The works on view at Mary Boone mark the period in which Sonnier first began working with neon light tubes, using them as a method to explore everyday materials, and to examine the impact that light makes on the surrounding environment.

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James Franco, Gay Town (2012), via Peres Projects

Peres Projects located in Berlin is presenting a month-long, solo exhibition by American actor, filmmaker, writer and artist James Franco from Saturday February 9th, titled GAY TOWN.

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Anselm Kiefer, Die Ungeborenen (Installation View) via Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

Exploring the origin and creation of life, Die Ungeborenen (“The Unborn”) is a new collection of canvases and sculptures by German artist Anselm Kiefer, currently on view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac’s new Pantin location in Paris.

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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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Paul Klee, Comedians’ Handbill (1938), via Metropolitan Museum of Art

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 24, “Late Klee” presents a concentrated survey of the last fifteen years of Paul Klee’s life and career. The one-room exhibition consists largely of small-sized works on paper and cardboard, each representing a facet of the artist’s prolific oeuvre and wide-ranging interests. (more…)

Jim Shaw, Untitled (US Presidents), 2006, Courtesy of the artist and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead

The Baltic Centre in Gateshead is currently holding the first-ever retrospective of works by American Jim Shaw outside the United States. Including over one hundred works in a variety of media, from video and sculpture to paintings and installations, the show explores Shaw’s ongoing examination of American life, and his unique set of aesthetic signifiers at play throughout his career.

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Daniel Buren, “Electricity” at Petzel Gallery (Installation View) Photo by Elene Damenia

This January, Daniel Buren presents his third solo exhibition across two New York gallery venues; his work will be showcased at the Bortolami Gallery at 520 West Street and Petzel Gallery at 537 West 22^nd Street. The galleries will simultaneously exhibit works from the series Electricity, Paper, Vinyl – WORKS IN SITU & SITUATED WORKS. Bortolami is showing Buren’s recent works from 2012, while pieces from 1968 – 2012 will be on view at Petzel through February 16th.

Daniel Buren, Projection, travail in situ (2012) at Petzel Gallery, Photo by Elene Damenia

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Cyprien Gaillard, Artefacts (2011), via MoMA PS1

Over the past several years, French artist Cyprien Gaillard has created a body of work that negotiates the complex spatio-political, geographical and cultural maps of contemporary culture.  Continuously revisiting themes of decay, flux, erosion and conflict, his work picks through the saturated visual landscape of modernity, and exposes the interlocking mechanisms of destruction and creation at work, as well as the grey area between these polar states. (more…)