Andra Ursuta, Scarecrow (2015), all photos via Connie Huang via Art Observed

Andra Ursuta has never shied away from a challenging, multifaceted study of global culture, executing monumentally-scaled works that are often just as imposing in their materiality and contextual weight as they are in size alone.  For the artist’s most recent exhibition at Ramiken Crucible, she turns her attention once again to these juxtapositions of commercial and cultural might through the imposing forms of industrial, cultural, athletic and financial prowess. (more…)

As London auction houses prepare for this week’s Impressionist and Modern sales, Bloomberg recaps the battles between giants Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and the aggressive stance on auction guarantees that have helped to define the massive prices achieved in recent sales.  “Our profit margin is good,” says Christie’s recently appointed CEO Patricia Barbizet. “Guarantees are risk management and offer an assurance to the seller.” (more…)

The New York Times reports on the move of Christie’s Impressionist and Evening Auction for Modern Art to the second week of May, a move that crowds the market with 5 major sales in the same week.  “Fatigue may have set in by then, but it is very hard to predict,” says gallerist and former Sotheby’s exec David Nash. (more…)

As Sotheby’s prepares a new round of auctions in the upcoming weeks, the company has announced a series of increases in its sales percentages.  Buyers at upcoming auctions will now pay 25 percent on the first $200,000 of a work’s hammer price, 20 percent on the value between $200,000 and $3 million, and 12 percent on any amount remaining above $3 million, up from the previous upper threshold of $2 million.  “This will improve Sotheby’s revenue, strengthen the company’s profit margins,” says current CEO Bill Ruprecht. (more…)

The New York Times spotlights Phillips new flagship location in London, and the auction house’s renewed efforts to challenge the duopoly between Sotheby’s and Christie’s at the highest end of the secondary market.  “It’s a statement of intent,” says Phillips’s new chair Edward Dolman.  “This gives us the best space for viewing contemporary art in London. It’s potentially a game changer.” (more…)

The Rauschenberg Foundation has launched a competition for young curators, inviting proposals for exhibitions using works from the Foundation’s extensive collection.  Winners will be selected by a panel of judges, including curator John Elderfield and artist Shirin Neshat. (more…)

The New York Times addresses the publication of Thomas Piketty’s critically-lauded book on capital accumulation and income inequality this week, questioning how the work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, can be applied to the art world, where the vast increase in high-figure spending has priced many interested parties out from buying works  “The art market has become an excuse for banking in public,” says dealer Ivor Braka. “People are displaying wealth in the most ostentatious way possible. It’s luxury goods shopping gone wild.” (more…)

The lawsuit by Daniel Loeb against Sotheby’s, filed over its attempts to prevent him from taking over 10% ownership in the company, has been fast-tracked by a Delaware judge.  “Here we have an uncommon rights plan that on its face discriminates between activist and passive investors,” says Vice Chancellor Donald Parsons, who presided over the telephone hearing. “It is sufficiently possible that the board is attempting to tilt the playing field for proxy contest in its favor and make for an unfair fight.” (more…)

Mark Tansey, The Raw and the Framed (1995), via Christie’s

The last major auction of Frieze Week in London concluded this evening at Christie’s, a strong sale that saw nearly all of the 55 lots on sale finding a buyer, bringing the total sales for the evening up to £27,788,900, placing the auction house as the clear leader in a week of busy auctions and impressive sales figures.

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets (T.W.A.) (2000), via Christie’s (more…)

As Christie’s concludes its first auction in mainland China, The Economist has released an article forecasting a rocky road ahead for foreign auction houses entering China’s already competitive market.  With 70 auction houses already operating inside the country, high taxes and rampant concerns over counterfeiting and rigged auctions, the way will not be easy for major international companies looking to cash in on China’s growing market. (more…)

This year’s ArtPrize awards are now underway, with the public voting on works in 16 categories to distribute over $560,000 in prizes.  Held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the award was created by one Rick DeVos, a philanthropist looking to shake things up in the small town. “I wanted to help develop a creative culture, one that’s open to new experiences and ideas,” DeVos said. “We’re very Midwestern here in Grand Rapids. Everybody does their thing and goes about their business. ArtPrize disrupts that.” (more…)

The New York Times reports on the impacts of a globalized art market, and the near constant travel to China, Southeast Asia, Europe and elsewhere to cater to any number of growing markets.  With the massive increase in art fairs from 4 major events during the 1970’s to today’s 180 fairs worldwide, gallerists are feeling the pressure to be everywhere at once, a feeling that many feel detracts from the act of buying or selling works of art.  “Fairs are beneath the dignity of art,” says Arne Glimcher of Pace. “To stand there in a booth and hawk your wares — it is just not how you sell art.” (more…)

Ghost of a Dream’s Living Trophy Sculpture, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

This past friday, Creative Time returned to the beaches of Far Rockaway for its second annual “Creative Castles” sand castle building competition, welcoming a diverse group of artists to the redeveloping waterfront at Beach 86th Street for another year of bizarrely original sand sculptures, structures and imaginative installations.

Rachel Owens’ Sperm Whale Car, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

Multimedia arts publication DIS Magazine has announced a new partnership with 89plus, the young artist program co-founded by Simon Castets and Hans Ulrich Obrist, for the arts grant competition Younger Than Rihanna, aimed at offering money for young artists and their creative proposals.  Hosted on the DIS website, the competition welcomes young artists born in 1989 or later to upload their work and statement, placing them in contention for over $19,000 in grant money, and a gallery exhibition this fall. (more…)