As art sales go online, the NYT notes an increasing generation gap, with older buyers tapering off their purchases and younger buyers continuing to collect. “The resistance from older collectors is still there,” says Anders Petterson, founder of analytics firm ArtTactic. “When there is no physical art world, how do you substitute that experience?” he added. “Younger people are a lot quicker to adapt.”
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New York – Andrea Bowers: “Think of Our Future” at Andrew Kreps Through February 22nd, 2020
February 20th, 2020
Andrea Bowers, Ecofeminist Sycamore Branches: Women Have Always Thought Like Mountains (2019), all images via Andrew Kreps
Currently on view at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York, artist Andrea Bowers presents Think of Our Future, a show of new sculpture and wall-mounted works that continue her engagement with online movements, the cultural zeitgeist, and possible expressions of new social modes and possible futures. Bowers, whose work of late has mined the cultural upheaval and power of the #MeToo movement, here turns in particular to the protests around the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the confrontations between the company building the line and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe that has fought to prevent its construction on tribal lands.
Andrea Bowers, Think of Our Future (Installation View)
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Los Angeles – Nicolas Party: “Sottobosco” at Hauser & Wirth Through April 12th, 2020
February 18th, 2020
Nicolas Party, Portrait with Snakes (2019)
Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth’s Los Angeles exhibition space, the Swiss artist Nicolas Party has inaugurated his representation with the gallery, opening up an impressively arranged exhibition of new works just in time for the bustle of Frieze Week in the Californian metropolis. Born in Lausanne, Party’s figurative technique has earned him critical admiration for his familiar yet unsettling landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, celebrating and challenging conventions of representational painting, taste, and form. Read More »
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AO On-Site – Los Angeles: Spring/Break LA at Skylight ROW DTLA, February 14th – 16th, 2020
February 16th, 2020
Continuing its own intriguing and honed perspective on booth its surroundings in Los Angeles and on the model of the art fair, SPRING/BREAK has once again touched down in the City of Angels, launching a supplementary event that offers an ample supply of artists and galleries presenting in a concept that stands as a stark contrast to the traditional fair model. Read More »
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AO On-Site – Los Angeles: Felix LA at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, February 14th – 16th, 2020
February 15th, 2020
Korakrit Arunanondchai at Clearing, all images via Art Observed
As Frieze opens up shop for the week on the West Coast, the bevy of satellite fairs and event openings are underway across the city. One particular highlight, and also a second-time event for Frieze Week, Felix LA, the joint effort of collector Dean Valentine and dealers Al and Mills Morán, has returned to the rooms and public spaces of the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles for the week. One of the more compelling fair entries of the week, the work’s program, which sees gallerists taking over rooms in the hotel, allows a unique mixture of intimate exhibitions and adventurous concepts that felt well-suited to the well-heeled patrons of the contemporary art market, both looking for a good piece of work and a unique experience shopping for it. Read More »
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AO On-Site – Los Angeles: Frieze Los Angeles at Paramount Studios, February 16th, 2020
February 14th, 2020
Lorna Simpson, all images via Art Observed
As the early hours of the second Frieze Los Angeles Art Fair draw to a close this evening, and the sun sets over the Pacific, the fair seems to have once again hammered home its vital engagement with the city, and with its thriving art scene, launching another strong event spread across the grounds of the Paramount Studios. With strong sales reported and an energetic atmosphere across the fair, it would seem that the small-scale and focused approach of the fair had once again seen the fair brand making its case as an arbiter of thoughtful, curated approaches towards the market and its participants.
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AO Auction Recap – London: Post-War and contemporary Evening Sales, February 11th-13th, 2020
February 13th, 2020
David Hockney, The Splash (1966), final price: £23,117,000, via Sotheby’s
With the bustle of LA’s numerous art fairs opening their doors across the Atlantic and all the way across the country, one could be understood for overlooking the string of auctions taking place in London this week. Yet a trio of sales went over all the same this week, testing the secondary contemporary market just as the primary market was having a test of its own in Los Angeles. The results were mixed, with a number of strong performances, but a sense of stagnation also seems to have set in over some artists, particularly with the future of British trade with Europe looking so unsteady.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Mosque (1982), final price:£3,951,729, via Christie’s Read More »
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AO Preview – Los Angeles: Frieze Los Angeles at Paramount Studios, February 14th – 16th, 2020
February 10th, 2020
Jeff Koons via Almine Rech
Opening for its second year in the Californian sprawl of Los Angeles, the Frieze Art Fair returns for a second year under the sunny skies of the Golden State. Taking its place once again at Paramount Studios, the fair has quickly planted its flag as a major part of the early weeks of the annual fair calendar, and has become the flagship fair in the run up to the Armory Show in New York next month. Read More »
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Barbara Kruger Retrospective Set to Open in Chicago this November
February 7th, 2020Barbara Kruger will launch a major museum survey at the Art Institute of Chicago this November. “Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.” is set to run at the Art Institute of Chicago through February 14, 2021, then travel to MoMA PS1 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, thento London’s Hayward Gallery and LACMA. Read More »
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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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