AO Art Observed™

Andrea Pinheiro, via Cooper Cole Gallery

Perhaps one of the best located of the fairs during Miami Beach’s annual December Basel onslaught, Untitled Miami once again set up  on the Miami Beach, bringing a number of smaller galleries from the United States and abroad into the fray of Miami Art Week.  Taking cues from last year’s successful week of sales,curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud brought forth another carefully chosen group of galleries and contributing artists for the fair, emphasizing both overall cohesion and stylistic divergence at its picturesque beachfront location.

Rachel Foullon at Halsey McKay, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

A car designed by Keith Haring, photos by Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

The iconic Herzog & de Meuron-designed parking garage at 1111 Lincoln Road is a beacon of Miami Beach’s car culture, with a tony parking fee that guarantees one of the finest collections of automobiles parked in one location in the city on any given night.  Taking  inspiration from the boldly designed structure, Adam Lindemann and his team at New York’s Venus Over Manhattan have opened the space up to one of the more interesting thematic shows of this year’s Art Basel festivities: Piston Head, a show of artist-designed cars. (more…)

NADA, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Another year of Art Basel Miami Beach means another year of the New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, which opened its doors yesterday for the first day of its run at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach.

Tony Matelli at Marlborough Chelsea, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

VIP’s prepare to enter at Art Basel, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Another year of Art Basel Miami Beach is officially in full swing after a bustling first day of sales, exhibitions, installations and parties has wrapped up.   The crowds were out in earnest for the press and VIP previews yesterday, as the convention center opened its doors to welcome in a swarm of interested collectors who made no delay in picking up some of the most significant pieces.  Collectors and art advisors could be seen frantically talking to cell phones, and dealers jotted down quick figures as the first hours of the fair counted up a solid series of sales.

Anish Kapoor at Lisson Gallery, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

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The collaboration between Ai Weiwei and Alcatraz National Park has been officially announced, with the Chinese artist installing a number of site-specific works that respond to the former prison’s long history.  “The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned,” Ai said in a statement. “This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.”  The show will run September 27, 2014 to April 26, 2015. (more…)

The newest issue of W Magazine is out, featuring a cover shot of actor George Clooney dressed by artist Yayoi Kusama.  Dressed in Kusama’s signature polka dots, Clooney is also profiled in the issue, promoting his film The Monuments Men, about a group of American G.I.s stealing masterpiece artworks back from the Nazis.  “Art takes different forms,” Clooney says in the interview. “But it represents something that is basic in all of us—our history.” (more…)

Martin Creed, Work No. 1690: Self-portrait (2013), Courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

On November 8th, Hauser & Wirth and Gavin Brown’s enterprise opened parallel solo exhibitions in New York City featuring works by Scottish artist Martin Creed. The exhibitions will present new works in addition to selections from the past thirty years of his career. The display will remain on view at the two New York locations through December 21st 2013.

Martin Creed at Gavin Brown (Installation View), via Gavin Brown

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Collector Budi Tek’s Yuz Museum in Shanghai is looking to be the first museum of Contemporary Western Art in China, showcasing the flexibility and freedom that privately-owned museums hold as an advantage over government-run institutions.  The trend looks to continue, with 400 new private museums already opened in the country this year. (more…)

Laure Prouvost, via The Guardian

Tonight Laure Prouvost was awarded the Turner Prize of £25,000 ($33,850).  Prouvost was nominated for her works, Wantee, commissioned with Grizedale Arts, which was shown as part of the Schwitters in Britain exhibition at Tate Britain, and Farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells, which was made during her residency in Italy as the recipient of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women and which was exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery.  Born in Lille, France in 1978, Prouvost has lived in London since she began studying at Central St. Martins arts college.  Prouvost is known for films which frequently employ deliberate language misuse, text and image juxtapositions, fast-paced cuts, montage, and which are situated within atmospheric installations.  The 2013 Turner Prize exhibition runs until January 5th, 2014 at Ebrington in Derry~Londonderry. (more…)

Pablo Picasso, Tête d’homme, 1969, Acquavella Galleries, Art Basel Miami Beach 2013

As December begins, the art world prepares yet again for the grand spectacle of Art Basel Miami Beach, with its sprawling rows of booths and late-night parties that have defined it as the apex social event of the Art world’s calendar.  Over 250 galleries will be at the main fair this year, alongside numerous public exhibitions, talks, performances and more.  Art Observed will be on site in pursuit of coverage for the duration of the week.

Marcel Duchamp, 1935/41-1958, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, Art Basel Miami Beach 2013

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Another lawsuit has been filed against the now-closed Knoedler Gallery, this time alleging that its dealers willfully sold a Malibu couple a pair of paintings attributed to Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning.  The federal suit is filed against the Knoedler Gallery, president Ann Freedman, chairman Michael Hammer and worker Jaime Andrade, along with dealer Glafira Rosales, who has just recently agreed to a plea deal in her criminal case.  “Defendants showed virtually no interest in the authenticity or origin of the works,” the lawsuit says. (more…)

David Shrigley, Life Model (2012), via Turner Prize

As the 2013 art calendar draws towards its conclusion this December, the annual Turner Prize exhibition has opened its doors, this time in the Northern Irish town of Derry-Londonderry, to four of Great Britain’s most prominent and talented artists: Tino Seghal, David Shrigley, Laure Prouvost and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.  The annual prize, which will be awarded today, December 2nd, opens to one of its most diverse sets of final entries in past years, spanning a complex body of work that includes performance, choreography, video, sculpture, drawing, and painting among a worldly group of artists that call the UK their home.

Tino Seghal, via Turner Prize (more…)

The Qatar Museums Authority has announced that Sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al-Thani will take the position of Director for the National Museum of Qatar.  While an opening date for the new museum has yet to be announced, the museum’s construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2014. (more…)

Coinciding with Art Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami will open Tracey Emin’s first American museum show, exhibiting a selection of the artist’s neon works.  Confronting spiritual and human concerns, the works offer a strong overview of the artist’s career, even though some may overlook her more religion-focused pieces.  ”Because sex sells, they actually filter out the ones about love or God,” the artist notes. (more…)

The New York Times has published a profile on Salon 94 owner Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and her quiet influence on the contemporary art landscape in New York.  “The interesting thing about Jeanne is how involved she is in the ‘becoming’ of an artist’s creations,” says artist Terry Adkins. (more…)

Forbes Magazine profiles Guilty, the gargantuan yacht of Dakis Joannou which was commissioned as a collaboration between Jeff Koons and yacht designer Ivana Porfiri.  Inspired by the World War I technique of Razzle-Dazzle camouflage painting, the boat is hand-painted, and features a portrait of Iggy Pop on the roof.  “The process was extremely complex,” Joannou says. “Ivana sent the design to Jeff, and he did some 3-D designing in his studio. I did not interfere at all.” (more…)

A Dublin man who put his fist through a €10 million painting by Claude Monet has stated in court that the incident was a complete accident.  Andrew Shannon was at Dublin’s National Gallery of Ireland last year, when, feeling faint, he fell forward, putting his hand directly through the canvas of Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, and tearing it.  However, other testimony was less forgiving.  ”It was no accident. I did not believe what he was saying as regards his condition. His whole manner was unconvincing. His behavior didn’t ring true to me,” said Christian Clotworthy, the guard at the museum who detained Mr. Shannon. (more…)

A coalition of the largest creditors in Detroit’s current bankruptcy has made the initial movements in court to push Detroit to sell works from the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.  The motion formally brings the dispute into court, which has been hinted at for several months.  “We recognize that this is a very sensitive issue,” says Derek Donnelly, managing director of Financial Guaranty Insurance Co.. “Whatever process we undertake here, we would hope would create a win-win situation — that ultimately there will be a viable DIA that will survive this process and possibly even thrive. But at the same time there needs to be a construct that addresses the fact that the DIA, or art, is not an essential asset and especially not one that is essential to the delivery of services in the city.” (more…)

Sotheby’s first auction in mainland China closed today with an impressive final sales tally of over $37 million.  The final results included a record-setting $14,725,457 final price for Zao Wou-Ki’s 1958 canvas, Abstraction.   (more…)

Architect Maya Lin and her husband, art dealer and collector Daniel Wolf, have purchased a former jail house in Yonkers, NY, with the intention of converting it into an arts space.  The 10,000 square-foot space will include place for performances, lectures, and exhibitions of the couple’s large collection of works.  “The jail offers enormous potential but the breathtaking view of the Palisades from the doorstep of the Hudson inspires a vision as unique and beautiful as the building itself,” Lin says. (more…)

Steven Parrino, Skeletal Implosion, 2001

Dedicated to the movement of abstraction throughout the past decades of art, and equally to the divisive concept of “the end of painting,” The Show is Over is an exhibition presented by Gagosian Gallery in London, combining works from a variety of artists to point to a single thesis: that painting as a medium of expression will never be quite be “over.”

Richard Prince, “Untitled,” 2012

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The global recovery rate for stolen art has been placed at a strikingly low 1.5%, The Art Newspaper reports.  Partially caused by the low priority given to such crimes by most police forces, the field is generally led by private companies, which charge a high percentage of the work’s value for recovery, leaving many dreaming of a better system.  “There is a certain need for an international database,” says Mark Dalrymple, a loss adjuster at London’s Tyler and Co. (more…)

A once Nazi-looted painting has been returned to its rightful owner, who in turn donated it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  The donation is a rare occurrence for looted works, which are often sold to cover inheritance claims.  The 17th century Baroque portrait by Bernardo Strozzi was installed Monday on the third floor of LACMA. (more…)

A group of Detroit’s creditors are pushed for an independent valuation of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection, marking a tense escalation between the city and its debt collectors, with the embattled museum caught in the middle.  ”This motion doesn’t compel a sale,” said Derek Donnelly of Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. “It just establishes a communal framework for addressing value maximization of the artwork.” (more…)