The Museum of Modern Art and Basel’s Schaulager Collection are partnering to present a major retrospective focused on the work of Bruce Nauman, set to open in Switzerland in March of 2018. The show will then cross the Atlantic to MoMA for a September opening. (more…)
The Art Newspaper notes the impact that the soaring price of the Swiss Franc has had on the market at Art Basel this year, pushing Switzerland’s high prices even higher, with prices about 15% higher than last year as a result. “Even the bratwurst is unaffordable,” jokes Andreas Gegner of Sprüth Magers. (more…)
In the Courtyard of Messe Basel
As the opening previews draw to a close in Basel today, the 46th edition of Switzerland’s massive art fair and exhibition is well underway, capping two initial days of strong sales and attendance during the VIP Previews that have set a brisk tone for the week’s proceedings. (more…)
Art Basel’s Popular large-scale installation section, Unlimited, has released a 74-artist roster for its upcoming edition next month in Switzerland, including work by Martin Creed, Olafur Eliasson, Jeppe Hein, Robert Irwin, and many more. (more…)
Artist Ryan McNamara is interviewed in the New York Times this past week, following the opening of the artist’s performance ballet ME3M 4 MIAMI at Art Basel Miami Beach. “I’ve obviously done a lot of things here, but for me it’s just another context,” McNamara says. “It’s super-specific and super-bizarre. I feel most at home at galleries and museums, but I would get bored if I were only performing there. It’s a different kind of excitement.” (more…)
A silver plate created by Pablo Picasso, and worth nearly $90,000 was stolen from the Art Miami fair this past week, part of a daring heist that has police still searching for the culprit. “I’ve been doing art shows all my life,” says David Smith, the owner of the Leslie Smith Gallery and the victim of the theft. “I’ve never, ever had anything stolen.” (more…)
Art Basel Miami Beach Opens its Doors, all images via Art Observed
The doors have opened for Art Basel Miami Beach 2014, the 12th edition of an art fair that has since become synonymous with big events, bigger celebrities, and even bigger price tags serving as a year’s end bacchanal for the contemporary art market.
Work by Christopher Wool at Helly Nahmad (more…)
As the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami prepares its launch party tomorrow night at its temporary site in Miami’s Design District, the museum has released its plans for a 37,500-square-foot, privately funded permanent home in the area. The museum is funded by car dealership billionaires Irma and Norman Braman. “We love this museum, and we felt it was the right time, and the right place, and with the right museum,” says Ms. Braman, who also serves as co-chairwoman of the city’s museum’s board. (more…)
Panterapantera’s Zerzura (2014) outside Messe Basel, photo by Maria-Anna Goess for Art Observed
The doors have opened at Messe Basel for the VIP preview of Art Basel this year, launching the sales of the franchise’s flagship art fair into full swing. Despite the crowded schedule of major fairs this year (Basel Hong Kong closed less than a month ago), the first hours of the fair were as packed as expected, as all-star dealers and collectors vowed for the works on sale. Tico Mugrabi, Dasha Zhukova, Steven Cohen, and the Rubell family could all be seen wandering the aisles of the fair, and the brisk pace of sales seemed to match the star power of those in attendance. (more…)
Outside Art Basel, via Art Observed
The works are hung, the location is set, and the doors will soon open on the 2014 edition of Art Basel’s flagship art fair in its namesake city, bringing an estimated $4 billion in art to the Swiss city alongside an enthusiastic flock of collectors, dealers, artists and visitors.
Paola Pivi, Titled to be determined (2014) at Galerie Perrotin (more…)
The Swiss Art Awards have kicked off the proceedings around Art Basel this week, as eight artists, one architectural collective, and one curator have received the prize’s $27,765 award. Winners include: BITNIK (Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoji Smolji), Vancessa Billy, Kim Seob Boninsegni, Claudia Comte, Emilie Ding, Andreas Hochuli, Emanuel Rossetti, Jules Spinatsch, CKÖ (Daniel Lütolf and Sarah Widmer), and Emilie Bujès. (more…)
Art Basel has announced its selections for the Parcours section of the Swiss fair, installing public works by, Darren Bader, Pierre Bismuth, Ryan Gander, and more. The show will consist of 15 site-specific projects installed around the city, and will also include Seth Price’s audio work 8-4 9-5 10-6 11-7, an eight-hour dance track meant played around Basel. (more…)
Writer Melanie Gerlis summarizes her book Art as an Investment? in the Financial Times this week, which reports on the current interest in the art market by major banking and investment firms, and questions the assurances of its value and use in the market. While often compared favorably to other assets, analysis shows that it is not quite as ideal of a market as some would attest. She writes: “Equating a popular asset with a profitable asset is misleading. From an investment point of view, art seems to be a very fragile prospect.” (more…)
The Financial Times looks at the enormous final sale prices achieved this year at auction, and questions where the art market is headed in the future. Deep pockets and an increasingly deep market pool have led to growing sales, and a number of art fairs springing up to meet the demand. “In sheer defiance of other global economic trends, or perhaps because of such trends, there is an unprecedented flow of money into the art market. For some, this could represent a flight of capital from other conceivably more unstable harbours to comfortably park one’s wealth,” says dealer Edward Tyler Nahem. (more…)
Brendan Lynch, Coming Home (2013), via Art Observed
Located just off the main strip of Lincoln Road, the office building at 1632 Pennsylvania Avenue in Miami Beach has a lot going for it. Gently curving walls, a white and teal color scheme, and ample space for movement and installation. It was just this space that Brooklyn collective The Still House Group took over for its annual pop-up show during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Alex Perweiller and Zachary Susskind at Straight II DVD, via Art Observed (more…)
Andrea Pinheiro, via Cooper Cole Gallery
Perhaps one of the best located of the fairs during Miami Beach’s annual December Basel onslaught, Untitled Miami once again set up on the Miami Beach, bringing a number of smaller galleries from the United States and abroad into the fray of Miami Art Week. Taking cues from last year’s successful week of sales,curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud brought forth another carefully chosen group of galleries and contributing artists for the fair, emphasizing both overall cohesion and stylistic divergence at its picturesque beachfront location.
Rachel Foullon at Halsey McKay, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)
A car designed by Keith Haring, photos by Daniel Creahan for Art Observed
The iconic Herzog & de Meuron-designed parking garage at 1111 Lincoln Road is a beacon of Miami Beach’s car culture, with a tony parking fee that guarantees one of the finest collections of automobiles parked in one location in the city on any given night. Taking inspiration from the boldly designed structure, Adam Lindemann and his team at New York’s Venus Over Manhattan have opened the space up to one of the more interesting thematic shows of this year’s Art Basel festivities: Piston Head, a show of artist-designed cars. (more…)
VIP’s prepare to enter at Art Basel, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed
Another year of Art Basel Miami Beach is officially in full swing after a bustling first day of sales, exhibitions, installations and parties has wrapped up. The crowds were out in earnest for the press and VIP previews yesterday, as the convention center opened its doors to welcome in a swarm of interested collectors who made no delay in picking up some of the most significant pieces. Collectors and art advisors could be seen frantically talking to cell phones, and dealers jotted down quick figures as the first hours of the fair counted up a solid series of sales.
Anish Kapoor at Lisson Gallery, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed
The New Yorker has published an in-depth profile on dealer David Zwirner, taking time at the Art Basel fair earlier this year to watch him in action as he sells his works, while offering interesting perspectives on the current state of the art world. “One of the reasons there’s so much talk about money is that it’s so much easier to talk about than the art,” he says. (more…)
The New York Times profiles Adam Szymczyk, the current curator of Kunsthalle Basel, examining his current contributions to contemporary art, and some of the groundbreaking work he has done in the past years. “He is able to identify what is happening in the zeitgeist,” said Iwona Blazwick of Whitechapel Gallery, “to have his finger on the pulse and create the intellectual framework within which to understand it.” (more…)
Art Basel Miami Beach has announced the contents of this year’s “Public” section in Collins Park, under the title Social Animals. Including work by artists Olaf Breuning, Jeppe Hein, Thomas Houseago, Alicja Kwade, Richard Long, and many more, this year’s edition of the show explores the concept of art objects themselves as a community. (more…)
Maurizio Cattelan, KAPUTT (Installation View), via Fondation Beyeler
KAPUTT, an installation by Italian-born sculptor, painter, and installation artist, Maurizio Cattelan is currently on display at the Fondation Beyeler until October 6th. Known for his humor and morbid imagery, especially in his use of taxidermied animals, Cattelan has been described as “as one of the great post-Duchampian artists, and a smartass, too” by Jonathan P. Binstock, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This installation draws upon many of the themes found in the artist’s previous work, and viewers may be reminded of the numerous tongue in cheek sculptures Cattelan has already exhibited at the Vienna Secession; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Kunsthalle Basel; MoMA and MoMA PS 1, New York; Museum Fridericianum, Kassel; The Tate Gallery, London; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. (more…)
The Exhibitor List for the 2013 Edition of the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair has been announced, featuring a list of 258 galleries from 31 countries around the world. The fair has also announced a number of new programming choices for this year’s fair, including the announcement of New York’s Public Art Fund Director Nicholas Baume as the lead curator for the fair’s “Public” section. Art Basel Miami Beach Opens on December 8th. (more…)
KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery
Opened during Basel Week Switzerland, More Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition by American artist KAWS, entitled “GISWIL,” composed of paintings and two large-scale wooden sculptures culled from the artist’s recent output.
