A series of six new public commissions spearheaded by Norman Rosenthal, former head of exhibitions at the Royal Academy, have been announced for Embassy Gardens, the site of the new U.S. Embassy in London. “Each show is a germ of an idea that could become a museum exhibition,” Rosenthal says. “They are all shows I have dreamt of doing.” (more…)
Roni Horn, Gold Field (1980-82), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Taking over the Punta Della Dogana for the dizzying months of the Biennale is Slip of the Tongue, a Danh Vo curated exhibition in collaboration with Palazzo Grassi and The Pinault Collection. Slip of the Tongue features the work of 35 artists, including pieces from Felix Gonzalez- Torres, Andres Serrano, David Hammons, Sigmar Polke, David Wojnarowicz and the curator himself. Working in conjunction with a large number of artists, the artist-run show is a first for the exhibition space. (more…)
Golden Lion for Best Pavilion amongst Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas, When counting loses its sense (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
In 1915, during the clashes of WWI, the Ottoman Empire set out on a path of systemic destruction of its Armenian subjects, massacring male Armenians or forcing them into conscripted labor, while leading women, children and the infirm on arduous death marches off into the Syrian desert. The brutal and politically contentious genocide killed, on estimate, up to 1.5 million citizens, and stands as one of the Twentieth Century’s most horrific episodes of war. Even so, the political body of Turkey still refuses to acknowledge the term genocide in relation to these war crimes, and the historical scars of the killings run through the distributed population of the Armenian diaspora worldwide. (more…)
The Venice Biennale, via Art Observed
As May begins, the city of Venice is preparing for the the 56th edition of the Biennale, set to open doors to press this week. With the sheer scale of events, openings and exhibitions set to open this coming Wednesday through Saturday, the art world will turn its attention to the City of Bridges in earnest. (more…)
Sotheby’s has announced a partnership with Drake, welcoming the rapper to partner with the auction house during an exhibition and private sale of works by black artists in the coming months. The artist will select music to play during the exhibition, part of Sotheby’s increased focus on private sales. (more…)
Mark Flood at Peres Projects, via Art Observed
Taking up the full 4 floors of Center 548 in Chelsea, the Independent NY fair returns for another year of its annual exhibition offering a slightly smaller, more cohesive take on the fair experience. (more…)
Polly Apfelbaum, HWP 10-20 (2014), via Art Observed
The White Columns Annual offers a particularly resonant opening note for New York’s art world each year. Refusing an overly objective approach to the curation of a “year in review” style group show, the event encourages, and even emphasizes subjectivity, turning the keys over to one group or person each year. This year, the all-female art collective Cleopatra’s has been handed the reigns for the Annual’s 9th Edition, with the end result being a colorful, expansive show that is at turns somber, wry and compelling. (more…)
Marcel Duchamp, Comb (1916), via Andrea Rosen
Taking its title from Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Andrea Rosen Gallery is currently presenting a small exhibition of works incorporating readymade materials, minimalist techniques and surrealist tropes to explore notions of form and execution as only a medium for the transmission of deeper understandings of the work at hand. (more…)
Dash Snow, Untitled (2008), all images courtesy Blain|Southern Berlin
On view at Blain|Southern Berlin is a group exhibition examining the use of text and poetics in art objects from the 1960s to the present day. Entitled Sed Tantum Dic Verbo (Just Say The Word), the exhibition was curated by American writer and editor Glenn O’Brien and will remain on view through December 20th.
The New Museum has announced the list of artists for its 2015 Triennial, Surround Audience, which will be curated by Lauren Cornell and artist Ryan Trecartin. The exhibition will include work by DIS, Casey Jane Ellison (who will be filming her web series Touching the Art at the museum), and Ed Atkins, among others. According to the press release, Surround Audience “explores how artists are currently depicting subjectivity, unpacking complex systems of power, and claiming sites of artistic agency.” (more…)
Cao Fei, HIP HOP NY (2006) via Art Observed
There’s few places in New York that one could find a small-scale show pushing the envelope the way that Brooklyn Rail’s Phong Bui is currently pushing it at Red Bull Studios. Combining historically rich pieces with a number of young artists and many frequently outside the spotlight of New York’s blockbuster arts calendar, the exhibition is a dizzying combination of forms, spaces and images, from surrealist painting to bizarre installations and architecture and back. (more…)
Duane Hanson at Karma, all photos via Art Observed
Spanning two separate weekends this November, the Independent Projects fair is an interesting take on the the art fair as an exhibition opportunity. Rather than rely on an initial rush of collectors, the fair is spread out over two separate weekends, allowing collectors an initial crack at the works offered before they go on public view the next week. Combining this with a small selection of forty galleries and exhibitors, the Projects fair offers a considerable opportunity to expand the concept and execution of the fair environment.
Independent Projects (Installation View) (more…)
Art Basel Miami Beach has announced its selections for the 2014 edition of its special section, Kabinett. Focusing on special curated shows and group exhibitions, Kabinett this year will feature a solo exhibition of work by Mickalene Thomas by Kavi Gupta, and an installation by James Turrell at Mexico’s GalerÃa OMR, among others. The fair will open on December 1st. (more…)
Liz Cohen, Hood (2006), via Marianne Boesky
The city of Detroit seems to be popping up frequently on the art world radar as of late. While the ongoing bankruptcy crisis in the Motor City threatens to place the Detroit Institute of Arts’s vast collection on the auction block, a new generation of young artists has swarmed to the midwestern metropolis, lured by cheap rents and a the freedom to explore their work in earnest. Taking this renewed interest in Detroit as its starting point, Marianne Boesky and Marlborough Chelsea have teamed up on a summer show of works and artifacts exploring the creative and economic history of the embattled powerhouse of American industry.
Another Look at Detroit at Marlborough Chelsea (Installation View), via Marlborough Chelsea (more…)
A Machinery for Living at the Petzel Gallery, installation view, via Art Observed
On view at Petzel Gallery is a group exhibition organized by Walead Beshty entitled “A Machinery for Living.” Composed of over 100 photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptural and installation works, the exhibition approaches a concept of embracing the subversive within everyday life.
The Shaped Canvas Revisited (Installation View), via Luxembourg and Dayan
On view at Luexembourg & Dayan in New York City is an exhibition focusing on painted works with a non-rectangular canvas. In 1964, The Shaped Canvas was an exhibition held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, curated by Lawrence Alloway, revealing the desire to overthrow existing aesthetic hierarchies. The current exhibition revisits this 1964 exhibition, featuring more than two dozen works connecting the postwar history of the genre to present day use of the shaped canvas.
Ragnar Kjartansson, Me and My Mother (2010), via Art Observed
When The New Museum opened its doors for its spring season last month, curator Massimo Gioni noted subtle threads of comparison in the pieces on view. Meant to be a concise yet meticulous look into a series of individual works or focuses from a disparate group of artists, the series of exhibitions currently on view play on a series of common threads, incorporating mixes of sound and music, documentary, performance and history from artists Camille Henrot, Hannah Sawtell, David Horvitz, Jeanine Oleson and Roberto Cuoghi, arranged in a way that perhaps makes best sense to address as a singular experience the artists’ works, shared themes, and interests.
Hannah Sawtell, ACCUMULATOR (2014), via Art Observed (more…)
Art Basel has announced its list of talks and salon discussions for next week’s fair in Switzerland. The offering of talks will include Wolfgang Tillmans reviewing his career output and a talk with Baer Faxt publisher Josh Baer, who will review the current state of the art market. (more…)
Outside the Park Ave Armory, via Art Observed
Tucked away at the Park Avenue Armory uptown, the ADAA’s annual Art Show offers a more subdued fair experience versus the immense proceedings of the Armory Show across town. With less than half the number of participating galleries, and a more focused exhibition policy leaning towards solo artists and thematic presentations, the fair is a strong counterpart to the Armory, one that invites a lingering, open browsing experience below the Armory’s softly lit drill hall.
Pablo Picasso, Tête de Jeune Fille, via Art Observed (more…)
Bjarne Melgaarde, via Art Observed
Plurality suits the Whitney Biennial. It’s long embraced the diffuse narratives and varied identities of a nation as broad and intricate as the United States, and this year is no different, with 103 participants (both artists and several collectives) from around the country. But the 2014 event, and the last to take place in the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer-designed space on Madison and 75th, has taken this interest in the varied artistic practices and themes dominating the American contemporary, and opened it to even wider dialogues, welcoming three separate curators (Michelle Grabner, Anthony Elms and Stuart Comer) with varying backgrounds to each select one floor of the museum, and explore their own particular concerns. The result is a set of three almost completely separate thematic projects, each of which leaves itself open to dialogue with the floors nearby.
Works by John Mason, via Art Observed (more…)
Looking Back / The 8th White Columns Annual (Installation View)
The White Columns Annual is open again this year, presenting a series of works centered around the title Looking Back. This year, curator Pati Hertling has been invited to select works based on her “personal experience of looking at art in New York” over the past year.
Lucy Dodd and Sergei Tcherepnin at The White Columns Annual, All Images via White Columns
The first episode of Ambiance Man, a project by artist Alix Lambert for MocaTV, has gone up on the Museum’s YouTube page, starring Fred Armisen as the titular superhero, with Jack Black and Jibz Cameron taking on the role of his nemeses “Unidentified Odor” and “Buzz Kill.” (more…)
Walter Dahn, Walter (1984/85), via Venus Over Manhattan
Walter Dahn’s 4th Time Around (My Back Pages), an exhibition curated by Richard Prince, is a presentation of paintings, “anti-silkscreens,” and rare bronze sculptures by artist Walter Dahn, presenting a taste of his artistic practice since 1981. The title of the exhibition is derived two Bob Dylan songs, both favorites of the two artists (who have been friends since the late 80’s early 90’s).
Walter Dahn, 4th Time Around (My Back Pages) (Installation View), via Venus Over Manhattan Gallery
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Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1 (1927), via The Whitney Museum of Art
On view currently at the Whitney Museum is a showcase of some of the museum’s deeper holdings of American artwork from the first half of the twentieth century, exploring the years before the mid-century advent of Abstract Expressionism. This part of the rotating exhibition, which began in December 2012, will continue through May 2013 before moving on to a new selection of works.
