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…)
Following numerous set-backs and a potential cancellation, the second Kiev Biennial will open this September, the Art Newspaper reports. The rescheduled event will be hosted at the Visual Culture Research Center, a target in the past for right-wing protests and activists. Speaking of the Euromaidan revolution, Curator Georg Schöllhammer noted that the political upheaval in the country “spoke loudly about what the people of the Ukraine want to get rid of. I think we have to follow that.” (more…)
With renewed diplomatic activities between Cuba and the United States this year, the Independent forecasts massive interest in this year’s Havana Biennial. “Most of us are expecting that for the Biennial there will be an explosion of American collectors coming to buy,” says artist Mario González. “It should be a stampede.” (more…)
The continued instability of Ukraine has led to cancellation of the second Kiev Biennale, the New York Times reports. The 2014 edition had been postponed due to conflict, and the ongoing military confrontation in the eastern portion of the country has ultimately led to the event’s cancellation. “Due to the fact that the armed conflict in the East of Ukraine does not stop,” a release from the organization says, the event has become “absolutely impossible.” (more…)
The city of São Paulo is preparing for its 31st Bienal (Biennial) this month in Ibirapuera Park, and hopes for the event are high. The event boasts an international curator team, fronted by Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, and former curator for biennials in Gwangju (2002), Istanbul (2005), Riwaq, Palestine (2007 and 2009) and Ljubljana (2010), as well as an $11 million budget, marking a considerable step forward for the event. “I don’t think we need to once again announce that we’re going to reinvent the idea of the Bienal,” says Esche. “We need to make a really good Bienal. We need to make an event, an exhibition, an experience that touches people.” (more…)
The Hammer Museum has announced the price winners for its “Made in LA” Biennial, which is running through Sept. 7, with the $100,000 Mohn Award going to Alice Könitz for her mobile exhibition platform The Los Angeles Museum of Art. Other prizes were awarded to Michael Frimkess and Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (a lifetime achievement prize), and to Jennifer Moon, whose work was selected by popular vote. (more…)
Curators, artists and museum directors are preparing to open the 2014 Pittsburgh Biennial this month, a 10 month long event focusing on Pittsburgh-based artists and special events at many of the city’s arts organizations. “We want to show how rich an environment this is for artists,” says Laura Domencic, the director of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. (more…)
Wolfgang Tillmans, Eastern Woodlands Room (2014), Photo: Anders Sune Berg Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York
The 8th edition of the Berlin Biennale has opened its doors, taking up space within the Haus am Waldsee and Museum Dahlem, the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, as well as a number of satellite events, projects and talks spread across Berlin, running through the beginning of August. Curated by Juan Gaitán, the exhibition this year features an explicit look at the nature of images in contemporary society, in their proliferation, reception and interpretation.
Tonel, Commerce (2014), Photo: Anders Sune Berg; Courtesy Tonel (more…)
The list of artists participating in this summer’s Manifesta biennial has been released, including Guy Ben-Ner, Maria Lassnig, and Francis Alÿs, among others. The 10th edition of the event will begin on June 28th in St. Petersburg. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal reports on musician and artist Charlemagne Palestine’s special sound installation in the stairwell of the Whitney Museum for this year’s Biennial. Featuring a set of speakers ascending the museum staircase, covered in stuffed animals and fabric, the work plays off the reverberant nature of Eli Breuer’s concrete architecture. “I’ve been coming to the museum since it was built, and I’ve always loved the staircase,” says Palestine. “This particular kind of concrete has a fantastic resonance. It’s Taj Mahal-esque.” (more…)
Bjarne Melgaarde, via Art Observed
Plurality suits the Whitney Biennial. It’s long embraced the diffuse narratives and varied identities of a nation as broad and intricate as the United States, and this year is no different, with 103 participants (both artists and several collectives) from around the country. But the 2014 event, and the last to take place in the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer-designed space on Madison and 75th, has taken this interest in the varied artistic practices and themes dominating the American contemporary, and opened it to even wider dialogues, welcoming three separate curators (Michelle Grabner, Anthony Elms and Stuart Comer) with varying backgrounds to each select one floor of the museum, and explore their own particular concerns. The result is a set of three almost completely separate thematic projects, each of which leaves itself open to dialogue with the floors nearby.
Works by John Mason, via Art Observed (more…)
The New York Times has a published a preview piece on next week’s opening for the Whitney Biennial, which will open concurrently with Armory Week next Friday. The 77th edition of the event will be the last in the Whitney’s current home before it moves to its new location in the Meatpacking District, and features the collaborative vision of three separate curators, each of which are occupying a single floor of the museum. “It’s as if you’re on your laptop and have three windows open,” said Stuart Comer, one of the curators and the head of media and performance at MoMA. “It’s not a collaboration but a conversation, a dialogue.” (more…)
The Hammer Museum has named its list of artists for Made in L.A., which will open in June. The list of 35 artists participating in the exhibition include Piero Golia, Tony Greene, Wu Tsang, and project space Public Fiction. (more…)
The upcoming Whitney Biennial, opening next March, has announced its initial list of artists for the 2 month exhibition. Featuring work by Triple Canopy, Uri Aran, Bjarne Melgaard, Charlemagne Palestine and more, the 2014 edition of the Biennial will be the final in the museum’s current building before moving to the Meatpacking district in 2015. (more…)
Acknowledging a recent petition that the Manifesta 10 Biennial boycott Russia in light of its recent anti-LGBT laws, the organization has responded, refusing to abandon the festival location, and emphasizing the festival’s role examining contemporary Russian society. “We are conscious of the political climate and the significant conservative shift taking place in Russia, of which this issue is but one example. It is also helpful to know that the leading LGBT organizations in Russia do not support a boycott of the Olympics or other events. They know engagement is important.” Said Viktor Misiano, Chair of the Manifesta Foundation. (more…)
In anticipation of the upcoming Istanbul Biennial, opening later this fall,the New York Times has published a profile on the emerging contemporary art scene of the Turkish metropolis, exploring both the largest new galleries like SALT, and the fervent underground political arts scene of artists like Ha Za Vu Zu. (more…)
New York’s popular Performa biennial has announced the commissions for this year’s edition of the festival, including new works by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Subodh Gupta, Marianne Vitale, Raqs Media Collective, Ryan McNamara, and Pawel Althamer, among many others. Centered around a loose theme of “citizenship,” the festival will also feature a special segment on black performance at the Studio Museum in Harlem, as well as the Grey Art Gallery at NYU. “We have a thrilling line-up of new work this year,” said Director and Curator, RoseLee Goldberg, “showing that more and more visual artists consider performance an important medium for expressing their ideas, and that cultural institutions now appreciate performance for its communicability to a broad public and as essential to their programs.” (more…)
Calling itself the first online-only art biennale, BiennaleOnline has announced that it will launch its exhibition on April 26th. Featuring a high-profile curatorial team, including Hans Ulrich Obrist and Daniel Birnbaum, and a strong roster of artists including Ed Atkins, Tony Chakar and Ragnar Kjartansson, the online exhibition will have a total roster of 180 artists, and will charge $10 for admission to the site. BiennaleOnline will also feature a separate exhibition curated by Jan Hoet. “Great contemporary art is the sum of reflection and imagination,” said Hoet. “The artist adds his or her personal vision to history and the memory of history. I hope this combination of factors will be present in every single work in this biennale. In this way we’ll come to a new world and new art.” (more…)
St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum has been announced as the location for next year’s Manifesta 10 exhibition. The biennial exhibition of contemporary European art will see mark its 20th anniversary, as well as its first version of the event in Russia. “With the arrival of Manifesta, the Hermitage will highlight its traditions: its roots within the epoch of Catherine the Great and her passion for the contemporary art of her time, and the role that the museum’s collections and exhibitions have always played in the artistic life of Russia. We see contemporary art is a natural, albeit intricate, development of these age-old traditions.” Says Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky. (more…)
Photos for Art Observed by Charles Shoener
Every year, the Whitney Contemporaries, a group of young art patrons and enthusiasts, host a night of art, fashion, food, and entertainment on behalf of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Sponsored this year by fashion frontrunners Theory and Saks Fifth Avenue, the 2012 Whitney Art Party attracted the familiar well-dressed and named gathering. However, the true spotlight remained on the artists and live performances of the evening.
Committee Co-Chairs Bettina Prentice and Margaret Betts and Social Tom Dunn, with Mark Amadei, Owner of The Lion, one of the event’s restaurant caterers
