Bruce Nauman, Disappearing Acts (Installation View), via Art Observed

The long-awaited career retrospective of artist Bruce Nauman is now open in New York City, filling both MoMA PS1 and the sixth floor of MoMA’s main exhibition building in Midtown with the artist’s challenging, often outrageous body of work in sculpture, video, light works, and other formats.  The show, which is on view through February, is an intriguing and in-depth look at the work an artist always looking to push the boundaries of his craft, and often the viewer’s comfort level. (more…)

Rachel Whiteread, Yellow Edge (2007-2008), via Art Observed

Continuing its slow but steady expansion around the globe, Gagosian Gallery has inaugurated a new exhibition space in downtown San Francisco, opening a spacious and beautifully lit gallery on Howard Street, just across from the recently re-opened SFMoMA.  Taking the opportunity to flex its roster in its new home, the gallery has curated a strong exhibition, Plane.Site, taking intersections of form, practice and material across a variety of artists from the gallery’s expansive representation. (more…)

Maurizio Cattelan, Him (2001), via Christie’s

This week’s marathon series of art auctions is underway in New York City, as Christie’s launched a rare, specially-curated Sunday sale, ending its 39 lot Bound to Fail auction with a final tally of $78,123,250, with only a single lot going unsold.  The fair, which followed hot on the heels of the last hours of Frieze, saw modest bidding and consistently dependable sales, although several works sold for final prices below estimate. (more…)

Bruce Nauman, Carousel (1988), via Hauser and Wirth

Turning a fresh perspective on the works of American artist Bruce Nauman, Hauser and Wirth is currently presenting a curated retrospective of the artist’s work, focusing on his large scale installations and neon works.  Organized by Hauser and Wirth curator Philip Larratt-Smith, the exhibition presents Nauman’s work through a Freudian lens, using psychoanalytic evaluation and subconscious motivators as organizing principles in the presentation of Nauman’s work. (more…)

Glenn Ligon, “Untitled (If I Can’t Have Love, I’ll Take Sunshine),” 2006, Neon and paint, Courtesy of Luhring Augustine

Currently on display at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea is Glenn Ligon: Neon, his first solo exhibition at the gallery. Over the past seven years, Ligon has created these neons, which relate to his famous text paintings that he created back in the 1980s. The pieces address a variety of historical, social and political issues, all with the underpinning of the use and re-use of language.

Glenn Ligon, “Palindrome #1”, 2007, Neon, Courtesy of Luhring Augustine (more…)

Installation view, Cellblock I, Andrea Rosen Gallery. All photos on site by Erica Simone for Art Observed

The Andrea Rosen Gallery opened Cellblock I at its main space on December 1st, 2012, and simultaneously inaugurated its new, second location–just down the street at 544 West 24th Street–with Cellblock II. Both shows, held together under the theme (and anti-theme) of imprisonment, were curated by the prominent scholar and curator Robert Hobbs.

Robert Motherwell’s Dover Beach III at Cellblock II, Andrea Rosen Gallery

Hobbs is well-known for his work as an art historian and writer. He has been the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1991, and a visiting professor at Yale University for eight years. He is known as the definitive Robert Smithson scholar, and has contributed seminal writings on many of the artists he selected to show, including Alice Aycock, Beverly Pepper, and Kelley Walker. (more…)

MoMA has just published a new book called “What Is Contemporary Art? A Guide for Kids,” ($19.95), featuring the work of over 70 artists, such as Gillian Wearing, Louise Bourgeois, Bruce Nauman, Olafur Eliasson, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Koons. It is written to make contemporary art more understandable and accessible. (more…)

All photos taken on site by Aniko Berman

On Monday, September 24, Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, the New York gallery for the famed Los Angeles print workshop, hosted its Artists for Obama event celebrating the Artists for Obama 2012 limited edition portfolio created and sold to support Obama’s reelection efforts. For the campaign, 19 artists have come together to create a portfolio of limited edition prints, with all proceeds going to the Obama Victory Fund. Of the 150 examples, 60 have already sold at $28,000 each; at the end of the project, Gemini G.E.L. hopes to raise 4.2 million dollars for the campaign. An additional sweepstakes offers supporters a chance to win the full portfolio for a $250 contribution to the fund.

Image: Artist James Rosenquist

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Image: Daniel Buren, “Le Décor et son Double”. Photo Dirk Pauwels via S.M.A.K.

In 1986, French artist Daniel Buren created an installation for the home of collectors Annick and Anton Herbert called “Le Décor et son Double”. He installed a copy of the room in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent. This second copy was recently conserved and acquired by the museum (now renamed S.M.A.K.) and is being exhibited once again.

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Bruce Nauman, Days (2009) (Installation View)

At Bruce Nauman‘s “Days” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, a voice recites the days of the week, moving at its own pace, order and cadence along the seven item list, repeating it ad infinitum.  It is joined by thirteen other voices doing the same, each one listing the days in their own unique rhythm and order, creating a cacophony of human sound, calling to attention our own treatments of time, and gently playing with the concepts of relative values.

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Bruce Nauman, One Hundred Fish Fountain, via Gagosian

Bruce Nauman’s body of work has long incorporated elements of identity, the potentials of art and the artist, and an interplay between himself and the viewer. These aspects converge in his One Hundred Fish Fountain (2005), on view at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue headquarters.

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All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

“In Praise of Doubt” is the second half of two exhibitions currently staged by the Francois Pinault Foundation. It housed in the Punta della Dogana just a stone’s throw from Palazzo Grassi, where part one, “The World Belongs to You” can be found. The two exhibitions share a curator, Caroline Bourgeois, and both run in parallel with the Venice Biennale 2011.

The exhibition presents both historical pieces and new works, several of which are site-specific projects. The theme, as hinted by its title, is uncertainty, the questioning of identity, and revisiting intimate space in relation to the space of the artwork. The artists included are art world regulars Adel Abdesemed, Marcel Broodthaers, Maurizio Cattelan, Subodh Gupta, David Hammons, Roni Horn, Thomas Houseago, Donald Judd, Edward Keinholz, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Julie Mehretu, Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Schutte, Sturtevant, Tatiana Trouve, and Chen Zhen. Out of these twenty, a surprising half have never been exhibited before in an exhibition by the Francois Pinault Foundation.

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The Brooklyn Artist’s Ball 2011 took place at The Brooklyn Museum on April 27th.  It was chaired by museum trustee Stephanie Ingrassia, and  co-hosted by actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler.  The traditional annual gala of the museum was given a twist this year in order to celebrate the creative and influence of Brooklyn’s artists. This year’s honorees were the artists Fred Tomaselli, Lorna Simpson, and Fred Wilson, as well as the retiring Brooklyn Museum Chair, Norman M. Feinberg. The Ball was followed by an after party in the Museum’s Great Hall, and featured live DJs.

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Bruce Nauman, Parallax Shell (1971-2000).

Currently on view at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery is The Parallax View, an exhibition curated by Manuel E. Gonzalez exploring the nature of conflict in the works by acclaimed artists Teresita Fernández, Dan Flavin, Gego, Mary Heilmann, Eva Hesse, Robert Irwin, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, and Robert Smithson. Centered around the notion of “parallax,” which is defined as “the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer,” the exhibition examines how each artist confronts notions of space, light, and observation in their work. Works by such stylistically disparate artists spanning the course of post-war 20th century confront each other through various shapes and forms resulting in an expression of conflict and disharmony.

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Jeff Koons, Ushering in Banality, 1988. Polychromed wood. All photos by Christian Saltas, unless otherwise noted.

The Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe (FACE) is a collaboration between five non-profit art foundations: the Deste Foundation in Athens, Greece; the Ellipse Foundation in Cascais, Portugal; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy; La Maison Rouge in Paris, France; and Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 2008, the FACE alliance is dedicated to the promotion of emerging international artists by supporting the production and exhibition of new works. Their first initiative takes the form of a traveling exhibition entitled “Investigations of a Dog.”

Bruce Nauman, Untitled (Suspended Chair, Vertical III), 1987.

The exhibition draws its title from a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka, and the selection of works take up the existentialist themes present in Kafka’s work: disillusionment, humanity, and marginalization. Among participating artists are: Maurizio Cattelan, Roberto Cuoghi, Mark Dion, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Urs Fischer, Fischli & Weiss, Claire Fontaine, David Hammons, Thomas Hirschhorn, William Kentridge, Kimsooja, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mark Manders, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Martin Parr, Aurel Schmidt, Santiago Sierra, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker.

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But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter (2009); Caligula (2010). All images courtesy Bonniers Konsthall unless otherwise noted.

Gardar Eide Einarsson is one of the fastest rising Scandinavian contemporary artists, and his exhibition Power Has a Fragrance currently on view at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm is a testament to his momentum. Addressing themes of violence, authority, power, paranoia, and alienation, Einarsson draws heavily on graffiti and street culture, transforming appropriated imagery into sophisticated installations that land like spaceships in a minimalist’s paradise.

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Installation image, all photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at the Palais de Toyko is Fresh Hell, a group exhibition curated by British-born New York-based artist Adam McEwen.  Shedding a bit of dark humor on the city of Paris, McEwen brings together medieval sculpture and conceptual work from artists long forgotten as well as contemporary artists, pondering just what sort of position and creative endeavors an artist can make in today’s world. The works deal with morbidity, decay, and notions of ‘the end,’ making Death the principle theme.

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Bruce Nauman For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers), 2010. All images courtesy of Sperone Westwater.

Currently on view at Sperone Westwater‘s new Bowery location are new video and sound pieces by artist Bruce Nauman. According to a statement given by Assistant Director Maryse Brand to The Huffington Post, the inspiration for the new works on display arose when the artist read the words ‘for children’ in a book, which made Nauman consider piano pieces written specifically for children learning to play the piano. This in turn, led to the piece For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers), two large video projections of the Nauman’s hands in all 31 different possible combinations of each finger and thumbs. Each video is accompanied by an audio feed of the artist reading instructions for each combination. The two videos are the same except for the background color, but are not synchronized, making a layering of sound.

Bruce Nauman For Children/For Beginners, 2010.

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Dara Friedman, Bim Bam, 1999, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art is the first part of a two-part exhibition titled “Off The Wall.” The exhibition at large brings together thirty works from 1946 to the present involving performative actions and seven iconic works by Trisha Brown. Part one, “Thirty Performative Actions,” was curated by Chrissie Iles, the Whitney’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkrnaz curator and is scheduled to be on display until September 19th. Part two, “Seven Works by Trisha Brown,” will run from September 30^th to October 30^th. This section features the return of the Trisha Brown Dance Company to the Whitney. Many of Brown’s dances were performed at the museum in 1971, so in addition to the performances taking place in the fall there will be video footage of Trisha Brown’s past work.

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“Off The Wall” Opening at The Whitney Museum of American Art on June 30^th, 2010, photograph courtesy of Taylor Derwin.

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Eva Hesse, No Title, 1969

Currently on show at Hauser & Wirth, through April 24, is a series of small sculptures by Eva Hesse that are essentially fragments rescued from her studio. They are fragile and diaphanous in substance, almost anti-sculptures. A year before her death, in 1969, Hesse wrote of her desire “to get to non-art, non-connotive, non-anthropomorphic, non-geometric, non-nothing; everything…It’s not the new, it is what is yet not known, thought, seen, touched; but really what is not and that is.” Though not quite there, or not quite anything, the works, nonetheless, feel significant and demanding. As Leslie Camhi wrote for the New York Times blog, though the work in the exhibition seem closer to prototypes to autonomous works of art, they are compelling in revealing those familiarly Hesse-ian themes: “plasticity, an engagement with ephemeral materials, the elusive and incomplete nature of memory, and a redolent corporeality.”

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Another Nauman piece at PMA, which is exhibiting his audio shows “Days and Giorni” through April 4. Image via Art21.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, home to one of Bruce Nauman‘s earliest pieces, “The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths” (1967), is showing two new audio series by this much beloved contemporary artist. With this new exhibition, he tampers with time: in both “Days” and “Giorni,” multiple voices recorded separately recite the days of the week. “Days” is in English; “Giorni” is in Italian, and was recorded in a single day. Both fill the echoing gallery spaces of PMA until the show’s close on April 4.

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Tacita Dean’s Christmas tree, ‘Weihnachtsbaum‘ at Tate Britain via Zimbio

The Tate has been embracing the Christmas spirit this week with a series of headlining seasonal happenings.  The Tate Christmas Tree 2009, “Weihnachtsbaum” designed by Tacita Dean, shocked critics by actually appearing “Christmassy”[Bloomberg]  This weekend, Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall was taken over by Rob Pruitt‘s festive ‘Flea Market’ – originally held at Gavin Brown’s Passerby gallery in New York in the late 1990s, this event was programmed to coincide with the Tate Modern exhibition Pop Life: Art in a Material World, in which Pruitt also appears [POP Magazine]

Italian police have seized works of art belonging to Carlisto Tanzi – founder of the Italian firm Parmalat who collapsed in a massive fraud scandal in 2003. The 19 paintings and drawings, included works by Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh, and is estimated to be worth more than 100million euros [BBC News]

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Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon that will appear in New York’s Madison Square Park in March 2010 via ArtInfo

Antony Gormley has announced plans to install 31 nude sculptures cast from his own body in and around Madison Square Park in Manhattan’s Flatiron District beginning March 26 [NY Times]

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The Royal College of Art Secret Postcard fundraiser via The Guardian

-The Royal College of Art’s Secret 2009 event has 2,500 postcards for sale for £40, made by artists including Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry and Yoko Ono.  Though buyers don’t know who the artist is until after they buy. [Times UK]

-Penelope Curtis has been appointed director of Tate Britain, the first woman to hold a directorship at Tate. [Guardian]

-Tracey Emin opens a new exhibition in New York, that, while popular, comes nowhere near the levels of sales or attendance she normal receives in Britain. [NY Times]

An artist’s rendering of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Cirkelbroen’ bridge to be built in Copenhagen via Artinfo

-Olafur Eliasson has designed a bridge to be completed by 2012 in Copenhagen’s harbor. Called ‘Brikelbroen,’ the bridge is comprised of five circles that take pedestrians on a winding path rather than straight across. [Artinfo]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)