Nate Lowman

All photos by E. Damenia for ArtObserved

This past Sunday, The Brant Foundation Art Study Center held the opening party and preview for Nate Lowman: I wanted to be an artist but all I got was this lousy career. The exhibition features recent and new work including paintings, collage and sculpture. Also on view on the foundation lawn was the actual White Ford Bronco from OJ Simpson’s June 17, 1994 car chase, and Gang Gang Dance performed. Artists such as Scott Campbell, Adam McEwen, Richard Prince, Kalup Linzy, Kaws and Aaron Young were in attendance, as well as dealers, collectors and museum directors such as Eli Broad, Jeffrey Deitch, Larry Gagosian and the Mugrabi family.

Gang Gang Dance performing

The OJ Simpson White Bronco brought in for the event from Los Angeles

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Toby Ziegler‘s The Cripples, image via Art Observed

Back in 2003 in Frieze’s first year, no major international art fair had ever been hosted in London before. Frieze Art Fair, organized by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, has helped take London from being a city without a focused art scene to its current state at the center of the European art market. Now in its tenth year, Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regent’s Park has seen around 60,000 visitors, with 264 dealers from 35 countries hoping to sell work (valuing an estimated  £230m) created by more than 2,400 artists within 175 of the world’s leading galleries.

An Aaron Young motorcycle burn out work at Massimo de Carlo in Milan, photo via Art Observed

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Photograph by James Franco

CoSTUME NATIONAL opened its “NEW NO DARK WAVE” exhibition, featuring a film installation and photographs by James Franco, as well as work by Tobias Wong, Frédéric Beigbeder, Aaron Young and Daniel Firman.

Exterior View

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Aaron Young discusses his work in Matt Black’s “Reflections” series. The New York artist explains his development and use of minimalism in the short film: “I always feel like it can pull one step back and strip it down a little bit more… you can talk about the process as erasure, but what it really breaks down to is a kind of loss.”

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Harmony Korine, Still from Caput (2011). All images courtesy of Megan Hoetger for Art Observed.

Hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art but housed at an off-site location, James Franco’s current exhibition, Rebel, has garnered a lot of attention in Los Angeles for its play on the artist/actor’s own celebrity status. Bringing together Franco’s contemporary fame with Nicholas Ray’s masterpiece Rebel Without A Cause (1955), the exhibition explores the contours of a life lived in Hollywood.

James Franco, “Rebel” Installation View (2012) featuring Ed Ruscha’s Rebel (2011).

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Louise Bourgeois, Untitled (2004). All photos on site by Art Observed.

The last of the throng at the first Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island in New York City petered out Monday afternoon yet, the most avid collectors simply shifted course to the remainder auction sales at Christie’s and Philips de Pury. Overall, gallerists at the fair appeared to be immensely pleased with the inaugural event, some booths claiming blowout sales, while others were content with merely executing reserve transactions.

John Ahearn casts a fairgoer in plaster as part of Frieze Projects

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‪‬James Franco and LA MoCA will screen ‘Rebel’ film at “unusual” venue of JF Chen’s furniture boutique, with work shown also by Douglas Gordon, Harmony Korine, Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Terry Richardson, Ed Ruscha, and Aaron Young [AO Newslink]

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Agathe Snow, Hear No Evil, See No Evil (2008-2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Alexandra Bregman.

OHWOW’s It Ain’t Fair lived up to its name as a successful destination apart from the Art Basel main fair last week. Located in Miami’s Design District, the show featured 20 artists in the fourth consecutive curated group show by OHWOW, this year’s theme: Materialism. As explored in Marxist philosophy, materialism at its most literal, tangible entity, focuses on the tactile rather than the abstractly metaphorical. Experimental materials served to manifest the ideology, with David Benjamin Sherry’s sand-filled photograph frame, Justin Beal’s use of plexiglass and plastic wrap, and the unique approach of Angel Otera, peeling and reapplying paint. “There’s not a bad piece in here,” said Operations Director Lydia Ruby. By Saturday evening, the gallery had sold most works on view, and had noted the remarkable curiosity and intellectualism overheard in the showroom.

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Marina Abramović, Waris Ahluwalia, and friend in the back of Paris Paris. All photos by Caroline Claisse.

The grittier, satellite party to Le Baron, André Saraiva’s ‘Paris Paris’ pop-up karaoke club opened its exclusive downstairs doors Wednesday night. Paris Paris is something of a throwback, taking place in the original home of Le Baron after the latter jumped from the basement of Shelborne to Delano, with a few stops in between. Artists Marina Abramović, Aaron Young, and Nate Lowman, among others, arrived sometime after midnight, a full-band-backed karaoke session awaiting. Featuring mixologist Charles Vexenat’s Pernod Absinthe infused “Green Beast,” Paris Paris remains open through Saturday night, with Saraiva closing out the week with a Sunday BBQ at the Standard Hotel.

Karaoke on the stage

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The Selby takes a look inside the home of New York artist Aaron Young [AO Newslink]

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Move over vaporetti — there’s a new barge in town. Slated to gracing the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice over the past five days was a project by The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, entitled “Commercial Break.” The exhibition is organized by Neville Wakefield, a contemporary art writer prolific curator globally. Powered by POST Magazine, “Commercial Break” considers itself to be a provocative architectural intervention in a city where no advertising is traditionally displayed. Unfortunately, as Artinfo reported, the city pulled permits a few days before and the videos were instead screened at the project’s Bauer Hotel party. The woman behind the “GCCC” is Dasha Zukhova, girlfriend of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich; it is the institution’s second project in Venice.  All videos are now viewable on the exhibition’s website.

Among videos featured is one by  Richard Phillips, starring Lindsey Lohan.

More text and images after the jump…

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Simone de Pury gets down to close a bid from Jen Brill, Kaws and others fill the crowd.  All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

Last night was the annual benefit for RxArt, held on 29th Street, just off 6th avenue in Chelsea, New York.  RxArt is a charity organization which fosters ” artistic expression and awareness through the challenging yet rewarding task of engaging patients through contemporary art in healthcare facilities.”  The non-profit organization curates and installs art work, from some of the most recognizable contemporary artists working today, in hospitals and other healthcare locations.   Last night was, again, a success with artist’s work for silent auction along the walls of the event space and with a live auction that took place at 9 o’clock which featured the master of ceremonies Simone de Pury in rare auctioneer form.  The event never fails in gathering many notable artists and art world professionals as attendees, this year bringing Kaws, Dan Colen, Will Cotton, Nate Lowman, Aaron Young, Terry Richardson, Ryan McGinley and others.

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David H0ckney, Autumn Pool, 1978 (est 700,000 – 1 million GBP, realized 1,329,250 GBP), via Phillipsdepury.com

Wednesday’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Phillips de Pury in London, which carried a presale estimate of 5.6 – 8 million GBP, brought in 6,562,900 GBP, with 21 of 56 lots unsold (86% by value, 69% by lot). The featured lot, David Hockney‘s Autumn Pool, sold for 1.3 million GBP against a high presale estimate of 1 million GBP. This also broke the record for a work on paper by the artist at auction.

Andy Warhol, The Scream (after Edvard Munch), 1984 (est. 500,000-700,000 GBP), via Phillipsdepury.com

more story and pictures after the jump…

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Aaron Young, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, 2009. [Gagosian Gallery]

Aaron Young, the so-called “Hellraiser” (Christopher Mooney, ArtReview), shakes-up the Beverley Hills neighborhood with his uniquely American brand of biker-nihilism. With a proliferation of riotous and destructive objects, including life-size wrecking balls and battered iron barricades, casually littering the gallery floor one would initially interpret this exhibit as a punks advert for hard living. Yet the sadist exterior gives way to a masochistic interior: the wrecking ball is made of glass, bound for self-destruction if it ever fulfilled its function; similarly the razor-wire sculptures have a soft core, made from delicate Murano glass, and turned on its side to become sculptural; the barricades are made of plated gold not iron, they are precious rather ruined

Goner, 2009. [Gagosian Gallery]

More text, images and related links after the jump….
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Futura, Jules de Balincourt, Dustin Yellin, Eric White, Tom Sachs, Shepard Fairey, Jeffrey Deitch, Lance Armstrong, Mark Parker, Geoff McFetridge, José Parlá, Dzine posing in front of a painting by Cai Guo Qiang; photo courtesy of Black Frame

A day before seven bicycles with frames designed by contemporary artists, and used by Lance Armstrong in his comeback season for July’s Tour de France, raised $1.3 million, an exhibition of artwork commissioned to benefit the legendary cyclist’s cancer foundation opened at Deitch Projects.  Launched in Paris at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, STAGES- the exhibit comprised of commissioned works created by over twenty established contemporary artists, is currently on view at New York’s Deitch Projects. Artists involved include Cai Guo-Qiang, Rosson Crow, Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, Catherine Opie, Os Gemeos, Raymond Pettibon, Andreas Gursky, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha and Tom Sachs. STAGES will run through November 21, 2009.  AO interviews some of the artists to find out their personal connection to the cause of STAGES, their view on creating commissioned work and the story of their involvement with the project powered by Lance Armstrong Foundation and Nike and its goal of raising awareness of cancer.

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Rosson Crow in front of her piece “Texas Cycle Show”

Works presented in STAGES manifest not merely a vast array of mediums and stylistic approaches, they also speak of a multitude of equally appropriate paths the artists have taken in building the show.

Rosson Crow about STAGES: “This whole thing is incredible and overwhelming, it is a really awesome show with a great cause. Charity work is something that I love doing so this was a really cool opportunity. This painting that I did for the show is called ‘Texas Cycle Show’ and is based on an 1800′ cycle exposition. I made it Texas because both Lance and I are from Texas… kind of bringing the historical Texas vibe… and of course the bicycles I thought were perfect for a Lance Armstrong show [laughs]” When asked about any personal connections that the artist has with the cause, Rosson Crow comments that “it is hard to find anybody whose life has not been affected by cancer, so I think that everybody has a personal relationship to it in some way.”

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Yoshitomo Nara, “Fire” via STAGES

More text, images and interviews after the jump… (more…)

Ed Ruscha’s ‘Vital to the Core’ via STAGES

On view now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris is ‘STAGES,’ a fundraising exhibition organized by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong, featuring artists such as Ed Ruscha, Shepard Fairey, Richard Prince, and a number of others. The exhibition runs concurrently with the Tour de France, which ends on Sunday, July 26th. In addition to the gallery exhibition, which is planned to tour the world after its run at Emmanuel Perrotin, Livestrong has teamed up with Nike and Supertouch to curate a line of artist-designed bikes for Lance to ride during the Tour. Those artists include KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, and Damien Hirst, who designed the bike for the final stage of the Tour de France. ‘STAGES’ runs July 15-August 8, 2009 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, after which it will open at the Armory Center in New York on October 2, according to the LA Times.

The Bike Shepard Fairey designed for Lance Armstrong via Supertouch

STAGES09
Hirst to Help Lance Armstrong’s Health Charity Raise $4 Million [Bloomberg]
Damien Hirst Has Designs on Lance Armstrong’s Bike [NY Times]
Nike Livestrong STAGES Exhibition [High Snobiety]
Preview: Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG x Nike Stages Exhibition @ Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin [Arrested Motion]
Lance Armstrong x Nike Sportswear – “Stages” Touring Art Exhibition Supporting Livestrong [Arrested Motion]
Lance Armstrong x Nike Sportswear “Stages” Touring Art Exhibition [Hypebeast]
Lance Armstrong x Trek x Damien Hirst Stages Project Bike [Limited Hype]
Marc Newson for Lance Armstrong – TREK Art Bike [Freshness]
Lance Armstrong’s New Trek Madone Bikes By Kaws & Barry McGee [High Snobiety]
Tom Sachs‘ Lance’s TequilaBike For Girls [The World’s Best Ever]
Stages exhibition, Paris [Wallpaper]
Interview: KAWS @ Stages, Paris [DailyduJour]
AFC+: Will Damien Hirst Remind Lance Armstrong of His Mortality? [Art Fag City]
PARIS///LANCE ARMSTRONG’S TREK ART BIKES COME TO LIFE IN THE WINDOW OF COLETTE [Supertouch]
NEWS///LANCE ARMSTRONG SURGES BACK TO ACTION IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE ON A MARC NEWSON TREK TTX ART BIKE [Supertouch]
ANNOUNCING “STAGES”: LANCE ARMSTRONG’S SUPERTOUCH-CURATED ANTI-CANCER ART SHOW OPENING JULY 16TH [Supertouch]
Lance Armstrong rides bike decorated by Damien Hirst [Art Review]
L.A. artists lend a hand to Lance Armstrong [LA Times]
Livestrong x Stages | Recap [Limited Hype]
Trek Lance Armstrong STAGES Bike by Yoshitomo Nara [Hypebeast]

The bike Yoshitomo Nara designed for Lance Armstrong for the Tour de France via Hypebeast

more images and story after the jump…

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A sculpture of horses and a carriage at Versailles by Xavier Veilhan via artcollc

On September 13, Xavier Veilhan will follow in Jeff Koons’s footsteps by bringing contemporary sculpture to the Chateau de Versailles [ArtCoLLC]
On the lack of transparency in the art market reflected in this year’s Art Basel [Economist]
An interview with Chuck Close in which he discusses how his perceptive disabilities are reflected in his work [Wall Street Journal]

A still from Deadpan by Steve McQueen via the GuardianUK

Beginning July 1st, Creative Time will present Turner Prize winner and current UK Venice Biennale representative Steve McQueen’s Deadpan on the MTV screen in Times Square [Creative Time]
Parkett Art magazine marks 25 years this June 25th in Chelsea, NY [EFlux]
Conceptual artist Dan Graham is speaking at 192 Books in Chelsea, New York on Wednesday, July 1 [192Books.com]

Trafalgar Square’s empty fourth plinth, which will host Antony Gormley’s ‘One & Other’ via Guardian UK

The first round of participants have been announced for Antony Gormley’s living statue project: ‘One & Other,’ on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth in ondon [BBC]

A previous installation of Terracotta Army via VisitStHelens

In related, Anthony Gormley sets up his 40,000 figure “Terracotta Army” in a Devon, UK barn [TelegraphUK]
Dartmouth receives a $50 million donation to support the visual arts [Dartmouth]
Architect Richard Meier is designing major expansion for the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills [LA Times]

Picasso’s ‘Le Moulin de la Galette’ owned by the Guggenheim, allegedly sold under Nazi duress, via Artnet

Judge issues written memo chastizing MoMA and Guggenheim and heirs of Nazi victim for secret settlement over two Picasso paintings in restitution case [Bloomberg]
The Whitney kept it festive this week for its annual Art Party and auction in West Soho, New York [Park Avenue Peerage]
Behind the scenes shots of the making of Banksy’s Bristol exhibition [The WorldsBestEver]

‘Screentest’ for designer Adam Kimmel’s new campaign via Hint

Black and white films and stills by Andy Warhol’s long-time assistant Gerard Malanga from Designer Adam Kimmel’s look book, exhibited at Thaddeus Ropac gallery, feature art world figures Matthew Barney, Francesco Clemente, Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, Aaron Young and Nate Lowman [AdamKimmel]

Still from Brett Gorvy’s interview with Andy Warhol’s assistant, Gerard Malanga, via Christie’s

In related (to the Kimmel story), Christie’s Brett Gorvy speaks Gerard Malanga on Warhol’s ‘Death and Disaster’ series [Christie’s via Art Market Monitor]

Moody’s, which currently has Sotheby’s bonds below investment grade placed its debt on review for a possible downgrade [Bloomberg] More on the damage to Sotheby’s profits here [ArtNewspaper]
Guy Bennett, co-head of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art department worldwide, resigns [NY Times]
Christie’s begins more salary cuts [Bloomberg]
Citing financial difficulties, Bellwether Gallery closes after a ten year run [Art Fag City]
the Art Institute of Chicago lays off 20 staff members [Chicago Tribune via Artsjournal]
With its endowment down by 18%, the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum will lay off 25 full-time staff [CrainsNewYork]
Art museum attendance in the US is down 23%-26% [ArtReview]
And a summary on the methods New York galleries are using to deal with the recession [NYTimes]

PTG.75 (2007) by Eric and Heather ChanSchatz, via Saatchi

Currently on display at the Saatchi Gallery is “Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture.” Saatchi presents the work of more than 30 artists, mostly from New York and Los Angeles many of which have never been previously shown in the United Kingdom. The exhibition highlights the ambition and breadth of new ideas being explored by American artists such as Francesco DiMattio and Gedi Sibony, Aaron Young and Agathe Snow from New York, Guerra de la Paz from Miami, and Mark Grotjahn and Sterling Ruby from Los Angeles.

Exhibition Page [Saatchi]
Saatchi Gallery’s Abstract American Show [The TimesUK]
Saatchi Shows Young American Artists [Artinfo]
Never mind the Pollocks: The New Generation of American Art [The Indpendent]
“Abstract America” at Saatchi Gallery [FT]
America Abstracted in London’s Saatchi Gallery [The Guardian]
Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture on View at the Saatchi Gallery [Artdaily]

Greeting Card 10a (2007) by Aaron Young, via Saatchi

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‘Smoke Flows in All Directions’ by Aaron Young via Galerie Almine Rech

On the first floor of Galerie Almine Rech in Paris is Aaron Young’s first solo exhibition in France, ‘Introducing Aaron Young.’ The show brings together a number of Young’s signature works. The young New York-based artist is most well-known for his September 2007 performance of ‘Greeting Card’ original video of which was taken by Art Observed and can be seen here. For that show, Young hired professional motorcyclists to skid around and “burnout” over painted wooden panels in the Park Avenue Armory, inviting hundreds of art world notables to see the show. The event was derided by some as thin spectacle, embodying the Gilded Age decadence seen before the financial crisis but it’s resonance in the media was strong.  According to Roberta Smith of the NY Times, some spectators called the result ‘the world’s largest Brice Marden painting.’ A diptych of panels from one of Young’s motorcycle performance is included in ‘Introducing Aaron Young.’

Original Performance of Aaron Young’s ‘Greeting Card’ in New York recorded by Art Observed

Galerie Almine Rech
Aaron Young: Galerie Almine Rech [The Parisian]
Locals Only [Purple]
Warhol’s Child (Interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist) [Flash Art]

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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s ‘Strazzenszene (Street Scene)’ via Artdaily

Claude Monet’s ‘Dans La Prairie’ via Daylife

Sotheby’s London to sell rare work by Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner tomorrow night [Artdaily]
and Monet’s ‘Dans la Prairie’ headlines Christie’s Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art, the night after [Artdaily]
Jeff Koons honored at National Arts Club in New York [NY Observer]
and more on the artist’s multimillion dollar townhouse acquisition woes [NY Times]
An excerpt from Philip Hook’s upcoming book on how in the 50’s, Impressionist works became blue-chip investments through the auction frenzy of nouveau-riche [Financial Times]

Glenn O’Brien for Adam Kimmel via The World’s Best Ever

Interview’s Glenn O’Brien models for Adam Kimmel’s Fall 2009 Collection along with Nate Lowman, Aaron Young, Dan Colen and other downtown art world denizens [The World’s Best Ever]
Jenny Holzer talks about her solo exhibition at MoCA, Chicago [Art21]
The legal ambiguities behind the copyright dispute regarding Richard Prince’s recent Canal Zone show [Wall Street Journal]

The winning design of P.S. 1’s Young Architects Program via NY Times

P.S.1 announces the winning design of its Young Architects Program, described as an ‘afterparty’ of the market boom and bust [NY Times]
The BBC will put 200,000 of the UK’s publicly owned oil paintings online [GuardianUK]
The Economist provides a provenance background of the rare Lucio Fontana soon to be up for sale at Sotheby’s [More Intelligent Life]
Damien Hirst is #13 on GQ’s list of Britain’s 100 most powerful men [Daily Mail]

New view of the planned Tate Modern Extension via Londonist

New renderings released of upcoming Tate Modern extension [Londonist]
Value of Warhol sales have gone down more than 50% in the past 18 months [Artnet]
After the success of Jeff Koons, Versailles is set to exhibit the work of contemporary French artist Xavier Veilhan [Artforum]
Several London Old Master dealers consort to attempt to de-leverage art fairs in favor of a gallery week held in conjunction with Christie’s and Sotheby’s [The Art Newspaper]

Larry Gagosian at the opening of Center of Contemporary Culture Moscow (CCCM) via Style.com

Moscow is anticipating a worthy contemporary art scene brought by Larry Gagosian. Building upon the strong review from last year’s first show, Gagosian Gallery is making its presence in Russia. “For what you are about to receive” is Gagosian’s a second exhibition will be held at Red October Chocolate Factory, opening on September 18th until Ocober 25th. Artist Aaron Young will be presenting a motorcycle performance Arc Light for the opening of the show (AO has exclusive video from Aaron Young’s motorcycle show in New York here). This show will exhibit works by well-known contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons, Willen de Kooning, Richard Serra and Takashi Murakami. Curated to explore the conceptual relationship between commercial production and artistic abstraction, the show is intended to engage the viewers with modern materialism.

Gagosian Gallery in Moscow [Artnet News]
Gagosian Gallery
Read more about the exhibition at the Russian art blog IZO here and here.

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