Alex Hubbard, (to be titled) (2015), via Maccarone

Maccarone Gallery has tapped Alex Hubbard for its inaugural show in Los Angeles, opening the doors on its impressively spacious South Mission Street exhibition space with a series of large-scale paintings that lean on a diverse set of materials including urethane, resin, and fiberglass in their challenging, polymorphous constructions.   (more…)

Alex Hubbard, Bent Paintings (Installation View), Courtesy of Galerie Eva Presenhuber

Bent (Why Horses Paint), is a selection  of new works by multimedia artist Alex Hubbard, and his first solo show with Galerie Eva Presenhuber in the gallery’s Löwenbräu complex exhibition space. Hubbard’s paintings move beyond the medium’s traditional two dimensional form, bending into shapes and structures which often seek complete autonomy from the wall.

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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.

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Dirty Brian, Nigel Cooke (2010) Retail value: $2,500 – 3,500+ Opening bid: $2,000

This Saturday, May 15, New York’s oldest alternative and non-profit art space, White Columns, will host a special reception featuring a live auction.  Silent bidding has already begun on many of the works that are currently on view at the gallery on West 13th Street, New York – and a select group of works are to be sold at the live auction, conducted by White Columns director Matthew Higgs. White Columns wanted the works in the auction to be viewed as a curated exhibition, and indeed, the works have been on view for the past two weeks.  Last Saturday White Columns hosted a preview breakfast as part of New York Gallery Week.  Director Matthew Higgs explains, “we think it is important that the donated works have a chance to be seen by a wide public, and seen within the context of an exhibition…as opposed to the works being sold at a one-night only, ticketed event.”

Fallen Angels – Julie London, David Byrne (2010) Retail value: $1,000+ Opening bid: $500

Now entering their fifth decade of operation, White Columns has supported and launched the careers of literally thousands of artists.  Founded in 1970 by Jeffrey Lew and Gordon Matta-Clark, the space is one of the first artist-run organizations  intended to promote artistic communal solidarity. Many of the 75 artists who have contributed works have a historic, or more recent, connection to the organization – emphasizing an inter-generational ‘peer’ philanthropy so inherent to not-for-profit gallery culture. Among the artists who donated works are Peter Doig, Maurizio Cattelan, David Byrne and many others.  Bidders should have the opportunity to acquire choice works at a variety of price ranges. The top lot of the live auction is Mary Heilmann’s For Malcolm – a tribute to the recently deceased London-born impresario Malcolm McLaren, the work is one of a number of music-inspired works that feature in both the silent and live auctions.

As a special feature of the 2010 benfit, Higgs invited more than 30 artists to create a new work that incorporates an existing record sleeve, or to create a work that uses a record sleeve as its point of departure.  in this section include: Nigel Cooke, Brendan Fowler, Wade Guyton, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jutta Koether, Josephine Meckseper, Dave Muller, David Noonan, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Pierson, Richard Phillips, Cheyney Thompson, Kelley Walker, among others.

Musicians of the British Empire, Peter Doig (2010) Retail value: $25,000+ Opening bid: $12,500

More images and lot info after the jump…..
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Uri Aran, All This Is Yours, (Detail), Mixed Media, 2010.

Over 900 people were in attendance at the opening last Sunday, May 2 for “Knight’s Move,” the new show at SculptureCenter, running through July 26, 2010. The exhibition brings together artists prominent to the dialog of New York’s recent past as well as those at the very beginning of their careers.  Curated by Fionn Meade, this survey of new sculpture in New York embodies an informed yet playful and questioning view of the contemporary.  Working within this theme, the exhibition’s title refers to the chess piece whose move is tactical, stealthy, and surprising.

The exhibited artists include Uri Aran, David Brooks, Nikolas Gambaroff, Tamar Halpern, Alex Hubbard, Esther Kläs, Daniel Lefcourt, Joanna Malinowska, Ohad Meromi, Virginia Poundstone, Cassie Raihl, Erin Shirreff, Alexandre Singh, Matt Sheridan Smith, Mika Tajima, Tom Thayer, Sara VanDerBeek, and Allyson Vieira.

No Neck Blues Band performs on David Brook’s installation in SculptureCenter courtyard. All opening images by Su Beyazit, courtesy of SculptureCenter.

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Honoree Gabriel Orozco (with Matthew Barney behind) at BOMB magazine’s 29th Anniversary Gala & Silent Auction at the National Arts Club, New York   All photos by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved

Last night, BOMB magazine kicked-off their 29th Anniversary Gala at the National Arts Club in New York with a Silent Auction. Since the magazines’ founding in 1981, its pages have featured over 900 interviews comprised of 1,800 artists’ voices. Many of the featured artists contributed works to last night’s auction which featured both renowned and emerging names such as Alex Hubbard, Joan Jonas, Nan Goldin, Alex Katz, Julie Mehretu, Roxy Paine, Guy Maddin, Richard Serra, Joel Shapiro, Carrie Mae Weems, most of whom were in attendance. At 7.30pm, attendees were called to honor 4 individuals whose work and vision speak directly to BOMB’s mission of creative excellence. Rob Pruitt raised slices of toast to Honorees Cecily Brown and her husband, the New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.  Brice Marden introduced the next Honoree artist Gabriel Orozco while Matthew Barney toasted honoree Nancy Spector, curator of Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim.  Along with Rob Pruitt’s generous offerings of slices of golden toast, the honorees were presented with “Pink Bomb” awards created by sculptor Tom Otterness.

Brice Marden introducing Honoree Gabriel Orozco

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Strange Attractors, Aki Sasmoto – all photographs by Oskar Proctor for Art Observed.

This week the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York opened its doors for the 75th edition if its defining exhibition: The Biennial. Simply titled, 2010, the show rejects an organizational theme and instead uses time as its marker in a matter-of-fact cross-section of American art today. The show is one of the smallest in the Biennial’s history – works by only 55 artists and collaborative teams are displayed on four floors of the museum’s ‘Breur Building’ in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. This year the entire third floor of the building has been taken dedicated video installation – first exhibited at the Biennial in 1975 – a sure sign that video work has now reached maturity, worthy of recognition as an independent art form. In addition, the museum’s fifth floor is devoted to artists in the Whitney’s permanent collection who have shown in past Biennials.

Francesco Bonami, Curator of Whitney Biennial 2010

Whitney Biennial 2010 – Interview with curator Francesco Bonami via VernissageTV

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Curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari announce the artist list for the Whitney Biennial, 2010 – video by Pierce Jackson via Whitney.org

Today the Whitney Museum of American Art announced the list of fifty-five artists who will participate in the upcoming Whitney Biennial, 2010, which is to take over the Museum from February 25 through May 30 2010. The Biennial is the Whitney’s signature panoramic survey of the latest in American art that blends well established artists together with a predominance of emerging artists from all over the country. This is the 75th in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932.  Traditionally the Whitney Biennial seeks to reflect the way in which art is shaped by the particular historical moment in which it was created and so in 2010 the curators, Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari, have told us to expect works reflecting diverse responses to the anxiety and optimism of the past two years.

More text, related links and a full list of participating artists after the jump…..

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