Douglas Gordon is premiering a film in Locarno, Switzerland this month at Concorso Cineasti del presente, a work that focuses on the life of Jonas Mekas, with little information offered on the artist’s approach or strategy.  “Although I do not want to reveal any more about this extraordinary project, I can say that Douglas Gordon offers us a truly sensorial experience, which challenges the concept of seeing, and links the idea of the present with that of memory,” the Concorso artistic director Carlo Chatrian said. (more…)

A solid gold sculpture called The Left Hand and the Right Hand Have Abandoned One Another by Douglas Gordon has been stolen from Christie’s in London. The scrap value alone is estimated at £250,000, while the insured value is £500,000. “I don’t think this is an art theft,” Gordon said. “I’m pretty sure it has been melted down.” Gordon said that a curator had told him about the theft and then later a Christie’s representative informed him on November 29th that it had been stolen, 16 days after the crime was reported to the police. Christie’s has said the incident is under investigation and did not comment on the matter. (more…)

Joseph Kosuth, Neon, 1965

All images courtesy MACRO Rome.

MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, has filled its expansive Enel Hall with close to 70 illuminated works for its show Neon: the Luminous Matter of Art.  An exhibition dedicated solely to the use of neon, the show brings together 50 artists who have worked with the medium in contemporary practice. The sculptures, installations and textual works lay the art-historical framework for conceptual practice based on semiotics while also (more literally) paying homage to the medium’s origins as material for signage.

Delving into the past 50 years, on view are works by Dan Flavin, Joseph Kosuth, Tracy Emin, and Jason Rhoades, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Maurizio Cattelan, Spencer Finch, Dan Flavin, Claire Fontaine, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Alfredo Jaar, Gyula Kosice, Mario Merz, François Morellet, Bruce Nauman and Keith Sonnier, among many others.

Bruce Nauman, Raw/War, 1970, MACRO Rome.

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Harmony Korine, Still from Caput (2011). All images courtesy of Megan Hoetger for Art Observed.

Hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art but housed at an off-site location, James Franco’s current exhibition, Rebel, has garnered a lot of attention in Los Angeles for its play on the artist/actor’s own celebrity status. Bringing together Franco’s contemporary fame with Nicholas Ray’s masterpiece Rebel Without A Cause (1955), the exhibition explores the contours of a life lived in Hollywood.

James Franco, “Rebel” Installation View (2012) featuring Ed Ruscha’s Rebel (2011).

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‪‬James Franco and LA MoCA will screen ‘Rebel’ film at “unusual” venue of JF Chen’s furniture boutique, with work shown also by Douglas Gordon, Harmony Korine, Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Terry Richardson, Ed Ruscha, and Aaron Young [AO Newslink]

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Turner Contemporary, via Turner Contemporary

David Chipperfield’s Turner Contemporary was opened today in Margate by artist Tracey Emin and muscian Jools Holland on the site where J.M.W. Turner (1775- 1881) often visited. Emin grew up in Margate and the grandmother of Holland lived in the Kent town.  It was here on the spot of the new museum that Turner was enraptured by the skies which he called “the loveliest in all of Europe.”  The stunning light and landscape of the coast of Kent stimulated his imagination and inspired his painting. The dynamic new visual arts venue thus takes heed from Turner’s artistic spirit of curiosity and discovery. The opening exhibit, Revealed displays the work of six contemporary artists, four of which have made new work specifically for the exhibition. Like Turner, they create their art while employing the same spirit of exploration and intrigue into the natural world around them.

Ellen Harvey, Turner Contemporary Revealed Opening, via Turner Contemporary

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Loved Despite Great Faults (2008) by Andrea Da Corte, via Yvon Lambert Gallery.

Currently on view at Yvon Lambert in New York is “Christmas in July,” a group show which features the work of John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, Michael Brown, Alex Da Corte, Douglas Gordon, Christian Holstad, and Katja Strunz among others. The exhibit also includes a section of the gallery designated to artist Jonathan Horowitz who creates a “Free Store” where visitors can drop off their belongs and take things if they please. The work displayed reveals the multiple meanings of the spirit of Christmas.

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Installation View  All photographs are via Gagosian Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, 6-24 Britannia street, London is the exhibition titled “Crash, Homage to J.G. Ballard” , a group show dedicated, as the name suggests, to the oeuvre of J.D. Ballard, a prominent British novelist and short-story writer, a representative of the New Wave movement in science fiction.  The exhibition was put together to pay tribute to the enormous cultural influence of J.D. Ballard’s fiction on many visual artists. The impressive selection of works by  such prominent artists as Ed Ruscha, Richard Hamilton, AndyWarhol and Helmut Newton illustrates profound engagement of the writer with the works of visual artists of his generation and their mutual influence.

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