The Venice Biennale, via Art Observed

As May begins, the city of Venice is preparing for the the 56th edition of the Biennale, set to open doors to press this week.  With the sheer scale of events, openings and exhibitions set to open this coming Wednesday through Saturday, the art world will turn its attention to the City of Bridges in earnest. (more…)

W Magazine has published a power list of 60 luminary artists, collectors, gallerists and other art world leaders, including among them, Michael Slotover and Amanda Sharp (co-founders of Frieze Art Fair), Larry Gagosian, and Kara Walker.  “The weirdest thing I get all the time is ‘I thought you’d be shorter,'” Walker says. “I think it’s because I put a lot of small, childlike bodies in my work: not-quite-to-scale caricatures enacting terrible power games. Some folks see the figures and assume they’re based on me.” (more…)

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Hannibal, seized by U.S. authorities during the investigation of Brazilian collector, former banker and convicted embezzler Edemar Cid Ferreira, has cast light on the use of fine art as an outlet for money laundering.  The current market for blue-chip fine art is often conducted with few questions asked, opening the door for an easy disposal of illicitly got income.  “You can have a transaction where the seller is listed as ‘private collection’ and the buyer is listed as ‘private collection,’ ” says Sharon Cohen Levin, chief of the asset forfeiture unit of the United States attorney’s office. “In any other business, no one would be able to get away with this.” (more…)

Paula Cooper, 74, discusses why she thinks the art world has become too homogeneous and ruminates that perhaps she’ll leave Chelsea. The first gallerist to open a space in Soho and one of the first to move to Chelsea in the 90s, she has seen major changes in her 40+ years in the business, but continues to draw crowds and run her gallery’s program with a youthful energy. (more…)