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Quilt by Alexandre da Cunha, and Six Billboards by Angus Fairhust, Art Basel.  Image via Art Daily, AP Photo/Keystone/Georgios Kefalas.

Yesterday marked the end of the most highly-attended Art Basel to date. The 41st annual contemporary art fair boasted 306 galleries from 36 countries, and AO was on site to peruse the work of some 2,5000 artists.  62,500 dealers, collectors, curators, high-profile shoppers, artists, and art appreciators navigated installations, browsed gallery booths, mingled, and enjoyed the city of Basel.  Artists, established and newcomers both, showcased works ranging from Polaroids to performance pieces, paintings to videos, sculptures to large-scale installations.  A social and teeming affair with an obvious commercial edge, Basel’s sales were optimistic.  Picasso, Warhol, Prince, Hirst, de Kooning, Pollock, and other similarly established artists reigned supreme as the focus of this year’s event.  Franck Giraud, a New York dealer, spoke to the New York Times about the lack of prominently featured up-and-comers: “Is it because that’s what the market wants, or is it because dealers didn’t want to take risks? I think it was a bit of both.” Nonetheless, certain galleries used Basel as a platform to introduce new artists and show off their latest signings.

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In an attempt to encourage the public to visit gallery exhibits, Casey Kaplan, David Zwirner, Friedrich Petzel, and other gallerists organized the first ever New York Gallery Week occurring this weekend from May 7-10th 2010. The event brings together fifty galleries and non profit organizations, spanning Chelsea, Midtown, SoHo, the Lower East Side, and the Upper East Side. In addition to the galleries remaining open for extended late hours and on Mondays, the events program includes numerous free lectures, performances, book signings, panel discussions, and gallery tours with prominent art historians and gallerists.  Art Observed will be on site to selectively cover the happenings.

More on the event after the jump…

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Liam Gillick, Discussion Bench Platform, 2010. Exhibition View

Currently on show at Casey Kaplan Gallery is an exhibition of new works by Liam Gillick. This is an exhibition of three parts; however, each eloquently converse and all display Gillick’s familiar brand of socially motivated neo-Minimalism and neo-Conceptualism. The Discussion Bench Platforms in particular demonstrates Gillick’s concern for public/audience participation and integration into the work. Furthermore, it is another manifestation of Gillick’s attempts to level the balance of functionality and aesthetic quality. Powder-coated aluminum benches are set up in the gallery space to compliment new discussion platforms converting the gallery into a designated space for thought.

Liam Gillick, Discussion Bench Platform, 2010. Exhibition View

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Jonathan Monk at Casey Kaplan – March 30 to May 5, 2007

“…Jonathan Monk, will present a new body of work that takes shape from key principles of Conceptual art — the favoring of ideas over object-making, serialism, the dematerialization of the art object — interpreting them with a playful sensibility and through a variety of media: 16 mm film, painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and a laser light installation.”

– Casey Kaplan Gallery

To read the entire press release click here.

Andreas Hofer at Metro Pictures – March 23 to April 21, 2007

“For his New York debut, Andreas Hofer presents “Only Gods Could Survive,” a haunting and hallucinogenic installation of sculpture, painting, drawing and collage…Using subject matter that includes comic book heroes, science fiction, bygone Hollywood and symbols of the Third Reich, Hofer extracts these signs from a forbidden world, producing artworks that traverse time to become an ominous and fanciful meditation on history and popular culture.”

– Metro Pictures Gallery

Photo courtesy of of the artist and Metro Pictures Gallery

To read the entire press release click here.

Karel Funk at 303 Gallery – March 10 to April 7, 2007

“Karel Funk’s paintings are made with layers of thin paint that reflect light, influenced by Dutch and Flemish painters of the 17th century and Renaissance portraiture, as well as by American figurative painters from the past 20 years and their relationship to photography based work. In the end, the tenderness of each painstaking detail that goes into Funk’s handling brings the viewer closer to the subjects, even as they turn further away from us.”

– 303 Gallery

To read the entire press release click here.