All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.

Five tons of porcelain sunflower seeds—made in China—cover the floor of Mary Boone Gallery in Ai Weiwei‘s latest installment of Sunflower Seeds. Ai Weiwei employed nearly 1,600 artisans for two years in the traditional porcelain-producing city of Jingdezhen in northern Jiangxi, China, to individually craft and paint each actual-size seed by hand. Proclaimed one of the most influential artists of 2011 by several authorities, the work explores social, political, and economic issues of contemporary China. The seemingly uniform floor covering is composed of millions of the unique seeds, drawing attention to the role of the individual versus the masses, as well as China’s history of mass-production and export.

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Trailer released for the documentary film ‘Ai Weiwei Never Sorry’ [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei speaks on video about paying government tax, feels as though “being robbed” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei to show his multiple tons of porcelain sunflower seeds at Mary Boone gallery in January while prohibited to leave China [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei has been offered the opportunity to rebuild his demolished Chinese studio on Belgian artist Wim Delvoye’s manor [AO Newslink]

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Ai Weiwei is fined $2.4 million for tax evasion by the Chinese government [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei to be named WSJ Innovator of the Year in Art, Marina Abramović to accept on his behalf at MoMA award ceremony this Thursday [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei shoots Rikers Island photoset for W Magazine remotely via Skype from China [AO Newslink]

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Ai Weiwei named ‘most powerful’ artist of 2011 according to annual ‘Art Review 100′ [AO Newslink]

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Detail of Dog head from Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2011) All photos by Megan Hoetger for Art Observed.

The installation of the first major public sculpture work by well-known Chinese artist Ai Weiwei opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on August 20th, its West Coast stop on a global tour. Encircling the elevator up from the parking structure in the North Piazza of LACMA’s sprawling campus, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads functions as a marker of a heavily trafficked threshold. Its position outside the parking is particularly suited to the car-dominated geography of Los Angeles, but it also allows multiple points of approach for those visitors ambling between the Ahmanson and Broad buildings, or just arriving through the Chris Burden street lamps.

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Ai WeiWei pens an editorial on Beijing that is, considering his recent incarceration, strikingly direct, yet also somehow resigned: “you truly believe they can do anything to you. There’s no way to even question it. You’re not protected by anything” [AO Newslink]

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Ai WeiWei interview with LATimes regarding his Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads at LACMA; preoccupation with missing cat [AO Newslink]

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An analysis of Ai WeiWei’s possibly censored statements to the press [AO Newslink]

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Ai Weiwei, Washington Square Park Protest (1988), all photos courtesy of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and Chambers Fine Art, via Asia Society.

Art Observed was on site at the Asia Society’s Ai Weiwei retrospective, which comprises over 200 photographs taken by the artist in some of his most pivotal years. Between 1983 and 1993, Weiwei documented protests of system, political, gender, and artistic. The show is a collection of black and white photographs, numbered simply and elegantly. The titles are Weiwei’s own, scrawled at the bottom of each piece. A visitor follows Weiwei through his life in the East Village. “New York Photographs” chronicles Weiwei’s interest in transformations, as they manifest through the artist’s perspective, and closes August 14.

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Ai Weiwei, Robert Frank & Allen Ginsberg (1989)

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Ai Weiwei after being released from detention on Wednesday, via New York Times

Ai Weiwei, who has been detained by the Chinese authorities since April on charges of tax evasion declared in May, was released today. “I’m released, I’m home, I’m fine,” he told the media in English. “In legal terms, I’m — how do you say — on bail. So I cannot give any interviews. But I’m fine.” According to a report by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, the artist was released on bail because of his “good attitude in confessing his crimes,” and because he was willing to pay the taxes he allegedly evaded. The same report claimed that Ai Weiwei’s company, the Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., destroyed accounting records which showed the evasion of “a huge amount of taxes.”

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Marya Kazoun, They were there (2011). All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed unless otherwise noted.

Glasstress 2011 is an exhibition devoted solely to glass, featuring internationally renowned artists, architects, and designers such as Zaha Hadid, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Kiki Smith, Doug and Mike Starn, Fred Wilson, Marya Kazoun, Huan Zhang, and even musician Pharrell Williams. It is one of the official 37 collateral events of the biennale, and also includes a reinstallment of Doug and Mike Starn’s Big Bambú on the roof of the Dorsoduro, next door to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

The walkway of Doug and Mike Starn’s Big Bambú. Image courtesy NYT.

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“Where is Ai Weiwei” banner by Rirkrit Tiravanija at entrance of Neugerriemschneider, via NY Times

Despite his current incarceration in China, Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at Galerie Neugerriemschneider opened over Gallery Weekend Berlin, and can be seen until June 4, 2011. The exhibition consists of two large wood sculptures and several porcelain pieces.  Ai designed the work specifically for the gallery site, which was produced before his arrest, and according to one source, Ai was clear in his desire that the show would go on in the event of his arrest.

Installation view of Ai Weiwei’s Rock (2011) and Tree (2011), photo by Jens Ziehe, courtesy of Neugerriemschneider.

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Image courtesy The Guardian.

After 43 days of detention, reports broke earlier today that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was allowed a visit from his wife Lu Qing on Sunday. A friend of Weiwei’s, rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan, confirmed that the artist had not been tortured or ill-handled, and that he was receiving medication for his diabetes and high blood pressure.

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Ai Weiwei, Colored Vases (2009), all images by Soraya Gilanni for Art Observed

AO was on site for the preview of Lisson Gallery‘s major survey show of work by Ai Weiwei. Any reading of the exhibition cannot help but be inflected, if not radically transformed, by the knowledge that the artist’s whereabouts and condition are still unknown after being detained by authorities in Beijing on April 3rd, 2011. The exhibition, which will open to the public on May 13th, coincides with the London display of Ai Weiwei’s Animal/Zodiac heads at Somerset House.

Lisson director Greg Hilty and founder Nicholas Logsdail began the day by addressing the absence of the artist directly. They explained that Lisson Gallery had considered canceling the show, but that the “general consensus” among all involved was that it should “absolutely go ahead” despite the fact that Logsdail described the opening day without the presence of the artist as “mortifying.”

Ai Weiwei, Surveillance Camera (2010)

Weiwei often pushes the boundaries of institutions that exhibit his work, therefore the difficulty of putting on a survey show lies in that the nature of his practice is hard to define. The selection is curtailed to video and sculptural works in a kind of redress of the attention attracted by works like his famous Sunflower Seeds and Template.

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All photographs by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

MONUMENTA is an invitation from the French Ministry for Culture and Communication for an internationally-renowned contemporary artist to create a site-specific work for the Grand Palais in Paris; this year’s invitation went to Indian-born Anish Kapoor. With 13,500 square meters of space, the Palais serves as a magnificent backdrop for artistic interaction. Previous invitations include Anselm Kiefer (2007), Richard Serra (2008) and Christian Boltanski (2010).

Entitled Leviathan, Kapoor’s sculpture is a breathtaking 35 meters high. “My ambition,” the artist shares, “is to create a space within a space that responds to the height and luminosity of the Nave at the Grand Palais. Visitors will be invited to walk inside the work, to immerse themselves in colour, and it will, I hope, be a contemplative and poetic experience.”

Although Kapoor was all smiles during the inauguration of the sculpture, he took the publicity as an opportunity to show solidarity for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Kapoor dedicated the sculpture to his incarcerated colleague, and issued a call to museums and galleries of the world to close for a day in protest of Wei Wei’s detention by the Chinese government.

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Ai Wei Wei’s Animal/Zodiac Heads, unveiled today outside the Plaza Hotel. All images Ian Hassett for Art Observed.

In conjunction with an exhibition on the third floor of the Arsenal Building, the Pulitzer fountain outside the Plaza Hotel by Central Park is currently the site of Ai Wei Wei’s Animal/Zodiac Heads, as part of a multi-year touring exhibition that will cross the United States.  The exhibition takes place in the wake of international uproar and protests over the disappearance of artist and activist Ai Wei Wei, who was taken into custody by the Chinese government on  April 3rd, 2011 and has since been missing. The unveiling had been moved up to Wednesday from Monday due to the Mayor Bloomberg’s wish to postpone it to attend a news conference responding to the death of Osama bin Laden, which had been announced the night before.

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All photos by D. Terna Art Observed.

Yesterday, a crowd congregated outside the Chinese Consulate in New York City, protesting for the detention of artist Ai Weiwei on April 3rd, 2011.  Ai has been missing since, and the international community has expressed concern for his personal safety, as he has not been formally arrested yet and the circumstances surrounding his detention. The protest started at 1 pm EST. It was named “1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei,” and was organized by Anne Pasternak–Creative Time’s President and Artistic Director–with the objective of promoting public awareness on this important issue of political and ideological censorship.

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Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei at the Sao Paulo Biennale, via Artdaily

One of China’s most controversial and celebrated artists, Ai Weiwei will exhibit Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads, his first major public art installation in Central Park from May 2nd- July 15th confirmed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday.  The sculptural works are comprised of 12 monumental bronze animal heads inspired by the fountain clock at the 18th century Chinese imperial retreat of Yuanming Yuan just outside of Beijing. The heads will be placed at the historic Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza in front of the Plaza Hotel on 59th Street and 5th Avenue.

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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1990 (est. £5-7 million, realized £7.2 million ), via Sothebys.com

February’s Contemporary Art auctions began Tuesday night at Sotheby’s London. The auction house offered fifty-nine lots (a work by Anslem Kiefer was withdrawn) with a presale estimate of £30-43 million. The sale just beat its high estimate, raising £44.4 million with a 91.5% sell-through rate by lot and 95% by value. Sotheby’s noted that this is the strongest sell-through rate they’ve had in several seasons and that combined with the Contemporary offerings at the “Looking Closely” sale last week, the auction house has sold £88.2 million worth of Contemporary art in 2011 thusfar, making it the most successful Contemporary sales season at Sotheby’s London since July 2008.

Tobias Meyer standing in front of Andy Warhol‘s Marilyns at Sotheby’s London, via Art Observed

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