Pace Gallery has announced an ambitious architectural expansion for its 540 West 25th Street location in New York, turning the building into an 8 floor gallery and office complex with 60,000 square feet of space.  “The last ten years have seen incredible changes in the art world as creative communities from different parts of the world have started to connect. Now it’s time for the art galleries to change too. This new building gives us the chance to reimagine what we are all about and that’s exactly what we plan to do,” says President Marc Glimcher. (more…)

The New York Times profiles the development of Vantablack, a new surface material that uses carbon nanotubes to trap light more effectively than any previous material, and which is currently being tested by artist Anish Kapoor.  “When you look at Vantablack on some wrinkled aluminum foil, it looks like a black, flat, featureless void, even with your eyes right up to it,” says developer Ben Jensen. (more…)

Frank Gehry is reportedly in talks with Philip Vergne and the rest of the MOCA board regarding a potential renovation of the Geffen Contemporary branch in downtown Los Angeles.  “It is a priority and a necessity to make the Geffen a true public space and to use the plaza and the canopy as a civic, urban and spontaneous gathering place for our visitors and for the citizens of downtown. It should be a town square,” Vergne says. (more…)

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red (1937-42) © 2014 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust c/p HCR International

Running in tandem with the Turner Contemporary in Margate’s expansive Piet Mondrian retrospective, the Tate Liverpool is currently exhibiting an immersive exhibition focusing on the Dutch artist’s creative process and physical locales. (more…)

The North Devon District Council has approved Damien Hirst‘s plan to build an entire town in the area. Known as the South Extension, the development will include shops, offices, a school, and over 750 residential homes. While the plan’s supporters point to the construction opportunities the development will bring to the area, critics are more focused on the longterm repercussions, expressing concern over the future town’s effect of the environment and calling it “an unemployment black spot”. (more…)

Philanthropist and longtime Los Angeles arts supporter Eli Broad is currently developing his contemporary art museum, The Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, and has offered a first look at the space.  Costing over $130 million, the 120,000-square-foot museum is set to open late next year. (more…)

Amy Cappellazzo, Christie’s Chairman of Postwar and Contemporary Art Development, has announced that she will be leaving the company this February to work as a private dealer.  Cappellazzo joined the auction house in 2001, and is frequently touted as the reason Christie’s has experienced such profound success in the past years, but has decided to focus on more private sales and transactions.  “When I think about private sales,” she said in 2012, “I think about matchmaking—it’s literally about arranging love.”  (more…)

In a recent article for New York Magazine, Jerry Saltz critiques the effects of the mega-galleries on their artist rosters, and asserts that the galleries often encourage artists to overproduce critically weak work in favor of sheer salability.  ” By now, these galleries are essentially exploiting the potential of artists who have been carefully nurtured for years by other galleries. And often ruining them.”  He writes. (more…)

In an effort to lure new buyers to his oceanfront Miami property, developer Eduardo Costantini has purchased a pair of sculptures by Jeff Koons for $14 million.  Ballerina, and Pluto and Prosperina will be placed outside of the Oceana Bal Harbour condos, at opposite ends of a breezeway.  “Miami is becoming truly a metropolis, and Jeff Koons is a representation of that, with the visibility that he has, and the quality of his art,” Mr. Costantini says. “You have like, citizens of the world, who travel a lot, and have more than two residences, but they have the sensitivity to appreciate good things, good quality.” (more…)

A new development on the Lower East Side has been green lighted by city authorities, and will include a New York outpost for Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum.  Essex Crossing, a $1.1 billion development planned by L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, will include a community center, rooftop garden, as well as the 10,000 square foot space occupied by the museum. (more…)

A range of new real estate projects worldwide are embracing the intersections of luxury living and artistic communities, using local artistic cultures to bolster the property offerings of new developments.  Tying creative culture closely with high-value properties, developers and real estate agents are using the creative spirit of their property locations to lure interested buyers. “(These developments) encourage buyers to truly invest in an area and not buy and sell simply to make money.”  Said Argentinian developer Alan Faena.
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Despite public protest, work crews have begun dismantling several sections of the Berlin Wall decorated with large-scale murals, known as the East Side Gallery, making way for a new luxury apartment development.  The wall was removed early in the morning, clearing about 20 feet of art-covered cement from the longest section of the wall still standing..  “If you take these parts of the Wall away, you take away the soul of the city,” said resident Ivan McClostney. “This way, you make it like every other city. It’s so sad.” (more…)

A number of paintings on the Berlin Wall’s East Side Gallery segment are under threat of demolition in the face of property development.  The stretch of wall is slated for demolition to make way for a set of luxury condominiums, and would see see the disappearance of the infamous mural of Soviet and East German leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Eric Honecker (respectively) locked in a passionate kiss.  “In this very place people died, and the idea of building luxury flats here would be like erecting a petrol station in front of one of Berlin’s museums,” said Sascha Disselkamp, manager of the Sage nightclub, who represents several high-profile Berlin nightclubs. (more…)