Jeff Koons is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist prepares to open his traveling retrospective at the Guggenheim Bilbao this month, and his views on critiques of his work as trophies for multi-millionaires.  “It happens to everybody – the work is held by someone who doesn’t even particularly enjoy the work, and just has it stored in some warehouse and will sit there for 20 years,” he says.  “Or someone doesn’t understand it physically, and their motivations are just to show that they have the power to purchase. There’s not much you can do; that’s about educating people, and the way you can educate them is through your art. And I try to educate people about materialism through my work. I try to show them real visual luxury.” (more…)

At the entrance to the Biennale’s Central Pavilion, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

The Central Pavilion in Venice’s Giardini is the second site for All the World’s Futures, the main curatorial project around which the Biennale centers itself.  Featuring another series of artists spread out inside the exhibition space’s remarkable white facade, the exhibition continues its investigation of debris and late capitalism through a more playful, yet equally critical set of works from its counterpart at the Arsenale. (more…)

Mario Schifano, Propaganda (1965), *All artwork images Courtesy of Artist Rights Society and Luxembourg & Dayan, installation shots Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan

Luxembourg & Dayan is presenting the New York leg of the gallery’s acclaimed London show from this past summer, Mario Schifano: 1960-67, which celebrated the seminal post-war Italian artist’s impressive career. Titled The ‘60s, the selection for thisshow delivers an ambitious look at a crucial period in the late artist’s life and career. Less known compared to his fellow counterparts, such as Pistoletto or Manzoni, Schifano had his breakthrough in the New York art scene with the infamous New Realists show at Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962.  (more…)