A new report from the Center for an Urban Future charts the impacts of coronavirus on small arts orgs, surveying a broad range of venues and galleries on the impacts that pandemic-related closures and cancellations are causing. “Small, community-based arts venues are the cultural lifeblood of New York City and cities around the world. But unlike larger institutions and museums, few smaller cultural groups have the benefit of endowments or large donor bases to help cushion the blow as they experience staggering declines in revenue,” says Eli Dvorkin, Editorial & Policy Director, Center for an Urban Future. “Without immediate financial support to offset these losses, there’s a real danger that many of these organizations will not make it to the other side of this crisis. And the loss to our collective cultural lives is incalculable.”
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AO On-Site – Mexico City: Zona Maco Art Fair at Centro Banamex, February 6th – 9th, 2020
February 6th, 2020 
Ai Weiwei at Lisson Gallery, all photos via Anfisa Vrubel for Art Observed
Zona Maco has opened the doors for its 17th year this week, celebrating the milestone event today with the first day of its VIP preview yesterday at the Centro Banamex. Offering a look at the stature of the fair in relation to the burgeoning artistic community in Mexico City in relation to the art and artists flying in from around the globe, the fair’s dynamic program included conferences with international guests, a section with specialized publications and editorials, and the widest program of parallel activities with exhibitions at the most outstanding galleries and museums in the country. Read More »
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AO Auction Recap – London: Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Sales, February 4th-5th, 2020
February 5th, 2020
Tamara de Lempicka, Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (1932), final price: £16,280,000, via Christie’s
With the UK now into its first days of Brexit, attention turned to London this week for a string of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Sales that looked to take the first test of the market. Considering the results this week, a path forward seems uneasy but possible, as mixed results between the auction houses made for a series of compelling auctions and unpredictable results Read More »
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New York – Robert Grosvenor at Karma Through February 23rd, 2020
February 4th, 2020
Robert Grosvenor, Untitled (2020), via Karma
Artist Robert Grosvenor could perhaps best be described as an artist invested in space. His interests rely not only on how the object exists within it, but equally how the space around an object twists and responds, moves and carves up space. His sculptures capture a similar idea, pulling the viewer through their specific materiality and unconventional formal language that at one point might incorporate a distinct industrial materiality, while at others moving into a hard-edged, classic minimalism. Each of the elements of this historical movement’s conceptual interests are there: heft and weight, density, scale, and even color, yet Grosvenor, more and more over the past years particularly, seems to take these principles and turn them towards the everyday, mining the language of the world around him to find new ways to ask similar questions . For his third show at Karma in New York, Grosvenor continues this particular interest in the realm between space and object, presenting a room-sized sculpture that the artist refers to as a “block of water,” as well as a collection of found and variously altered models of aircraft, watercraft, and automobiles.
Robert Grosvenor, Untitled (2020), via Karma Read More »
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AO Auction Preview – London Impressionist/Modern and Post-War/Contemporary Sales, February 4th – 13th, 2020
February 3rd, 2020
David Hockney, The Splash (1966), via Sotheby’s
As the first batch of major art fairs gets underway in North America, the secondary market turns its attention to Frieze London this week, as the first test of its health gets underway in the British capital. Kicking off two weeks of auctions at the major auction houses, there should be ample chance for bidders to show just how confident they are on the current state of Britain, its place in the European art market, and how Brexit might have changed those forecasts. With Impressionist and Modern Sales scheduled for this week, and a trio of Contemporary and 20th Century Sales next, the month of February should be an intriguing bellwether for the coming months, and perhaps for 2020 more broadly.
Ed Ruscha, God Knows Where (2014), via Phillips
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New York – Erwin Wurm: “Yes Biological” at Lehmann Maupin Through February 22nd, 2020
February 3rd, 2020
Erwin Wurm, Urinal (2011/2019), via Lehmann Maupin
Currently on view at Lehmann Maupin in New York, artist Erwin Wurm brings forward a new body of work that marks an expansion and elaboration on his already precise and peculiar style of sculpture. Titled Yes Biological, the show utilized biological effects and elements to create a new series that pushes the boundaries of sculpture ever further. Read More »
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NEW YORK – THEATER OF OPERATIONS: THE GULF WARS 1991-2001 AT MoMA PS1 THROUGH MARCH 1ST, 2020
January 30th, 2020
Jamal Penjweny, Saddam is Here (2010), via MoMA
Military engagement in Iraq over the last 30 years has had a unprecedented impact on contemporary culture and society, with American intervention in the Gulf and Iraq Wars opening a debate on American values and beliefs, in turn influencing the work of artists around the world. Exploring this concept MoMA PS1 presents Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011, a large-scale group exhibition analyzing the legacy of the U.S. military presence in the region. The exhibition spans four floors, including more than 250 works featuring over 80 artists and collectives, including thirty-six Iraqis and Kuwaitis.
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New York – Noah Davis at David Zwirner Through February 22nd, 2020
January 30th, 2020
Noah Davis, Man with Alien and Shotgun (2008), all images via Art Observed
In the all-too-short run of his life as both an artist and organizer, Noah Davis was a larger than life energy. He was a tireless advocate for black arts in Los Angeles, and a relentless energetic painter whose lush figurative style tied together signifiers and concepts from across the expanse of modern painting. As curator and organizer at the Underground Museum, a black-owned-and-operated art space dedicated to the exhibition of museum-quality art in a culturally underserved African American and Latinx neighborhood, he was a central figure in advocating and advancing the work of his peers and predecessors, creating historical dialogues on the back of his own vision. This energy serves as the underlying power of his current exhibition at David Zwirner in New York, where the late artist’s work is succinctly summarized and celebrated.
Noah Davis, 1975 (8) (2013)
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Berlin – Hanne Darboven: “Erdkunde Und (Süd-) Koreanischer Kalender” at Sprüth Magers Through February 26 2020
January 29th, 2020
Hanne Darboven, Erdkunde I, II, III (1986), via Sprüth Magers
Currently on view at Sprüth Magers in Berlin, the gallery presents a selection of works by Hanne Darboven, the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work at the Berlin gallery. Compiling her works Erdkunde I, II, III (Geography I, II, III) (1986) and (Süd-) Koreanischer Kalender / (South) Korean Calendar (1991), the exhibition marks the beginning of the gallery’s worldwide representation of the Darboven Estate. Read More »
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New York – Jon Pylypchuk: “Waiting for the Next Nirvana” at Petzel Gallery Through February 29th, 2020
January 28th, 2020
Jon Pylypchuk, Cast your empire on a kingdom of doubts (2019), via Petzel
On view in its Chelsea exhibition space, Petzel Gallery presents Waiting for the Next Nirvana, an exhibition of new paintings by Canada-born, Los Angeles-based artist Jon Pylypchuk. On view through the end of February, the show draws on his work as a musician, and as an artist, exploring concepts of nostalgia, anticipation, energy, confidence, and, foremost, seductive and rebellious emotion. Read More »
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London – Fischli/Weiss: “Should I paint a pirate ship on my car with an armed figure on it holding a decapitated head by the hair?” at Sprüth Magers Through March 14th, 2020
January 27th, 2020
Fischli/Weiss, The Raft (1982/83), via Sprüth Magers
Currently on view at Sprüth Magers’s London exhibition space, Should I paint a pirate ship on my car with an armed figure on it holding a decapitated head by the hair? marks the fifth exhibition by the pair of Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss at their London gallery. The exhibition presents a concise overview of the artists’ transformations of the commonplace in the form of three seminal works from throughout their collaborative career, a subtle investigation of their core themes in a minimal selection of pieces. Read More »
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