Jason Rhoades, The Grand Machine / THEAREOLA (2002) (Installation view), PeaRoeFoam, David Zwirner, New York (2014) © The Estate of Jason Rhoades. Courtesy The Estate of Jason Rhoades, Hauser & Wirth and David Zwirner, New York/London

When the notorious Los Angeles artist Jason Rhoades passed away in 2006, he left behind a massive, “messy” inventory, open to various interpretations and institutional contextualizations that are still being untangled and understood today. The current survey at The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Connecticut serves as both a tightly compacted and ambitious tribute to the West Coast artist’s legacy, reflecting his work in one giant, shifting installation. Focusing mostly on works produced in the early 2000’s just prior to the artist’s death, the exhibition presents Rhoades at the peak of his career and fame. Although My Madinah: in pursuit of my ermitage, a post 9/11 ceiling spanning neon installation of countless words referring to the female reproductive organ, stands out as somewhat troublesome in the current socio-political climate, each work helps fathom an intricate mind that challenges the ideology systems of his viewers, and himself. (more…)

Brant Foundation

Dash Snow’s work came of age during the dark years following 9/11 in New York City, a time when paranoia, violence and empire had written themselves large against the American consciousness.  Turning this dark, visceral atmosphere back outwards in his body of sculptures, installations, photographs and other works, Snow’s pieces demanded attention as much as his behavior did, part of a downtown ensemble of artists including Dan Colen, Ryan McGinley, Nate Lowman, Hanna Liden, and others, each of whom brought their own take on urban grit and anarchic living to their work. (more…)

The Real Deal reports that collector Peter Brant has recently purchased a large property in Manhattan’s East Village for $27 million. The space was originally a Con Edison substation in the 1920s before being purchased in 1980 and repurposed by artist Walter de Maria as both an art space and private home. Although Brant’s plans remain unclear, the article speculates that the space might serve as the New York City outpost for the Brant Foundation’s Art Study Center, which is based in Greenwich, CT.  (more…)

The New York Times takes a look inside the bi-annual Brant Foundation Art Study Center opening last week, held in honor of the space’s new Dan Colen show, and noting its place as a haven away from the bustle of Frieze week.  “Frieze week is a nightmare,” says Nate Lowman. “To have the same limp handshake 400 times? I don’t go to anything except this.” (more…)

Art collector and Newspaper Magnate Peter Brant is selling Jeff Koons‘ Balloon Dog (Orange) from his collection to auction this November at Christie’s in New York.  The sale will go to benefit his Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, CT, and is estimated at $35 to $55 million, a noteworthy figure that places the low estimate well-over Koons’ current auction record of $33.6 million. (more…)

Andy Warhol (Installation View), via Alexandra Bregman for Art Observed

On May 12^th, The Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut opened its first show of the year with a selection of works by Andy Warhol. Paper mogul and avid collector Peter Brant has been personally buying Warhol’s work since 1968, and has amassed a reported 200 paintings, prints, polaroid portraits and magazine covers, from which he has pulled for this impressive show. Mr. Brant co-curated the exhibition with Heiner Bastian, the latter of whom worked on the traveling Warhol retrospective of 2001-2002, which traveled from Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, London’s Tate Modern, and MOCA LA in Los Angeles. (more…)

All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

Karen Kilimnick is showing at the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut. The opening event occurred this Sunday with a preview by founder Peter Brant and a list of other art world notables such as Jeffrey Deitch, Gavin Brown, Julian Schnabel and May Anderson, John McEnroe, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, Hanna Liden, Elias Hanson, Rikrit Tiravanija, and Elizabeth Peyton amongst other collectors and members of the press. Backing up to the expansive Greenwich Polo Grounds, the event mostly took place outdoors, under and around a tented table area where visitors snacked on steak frites and lamb roasted within view.

Cell phone video of the festivities

(more…)

David Altmejd, The University 1 (2004). Images courtesy The Brant Foundation Art Study Center / Farzad Owrang.

For sculptor and installation artist David Altmejd, structure continues to play an integral role to the exhibition layout as well as the conceptual art itself. Currently on view at The Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut, the chronological and aesthetic diversity of the showcase lends itself to many labels, potentially defined as a small-scale retrospective or a massive installation. Altmejd explained on a tour of the exhibition that he intensively sought the corporeal as cognitive—the use of the human body as an artistic commentary.

(more…)