Gabriel Orozco , Untitled (2016), all images courtesy Aspen Art Museum

Maneuvering between various genres and mediums since he began his practice during the 1990’s, Gabriel Orozco has been returning frequently to strategies in blurring and abstracting distinctions between art and reality.  The Mexican artist’s current exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum signals his departure from recent experiments with the breadth of photography and sculpture, while charting a renewed interest in geometric abstraction, drawing particular strength from operations with the color green, a hue the artist has rarely explored since the beginning of his career. (more…)

Jan Peter Hammer at Labor Gallery, all photos via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

As Sunday drew to a close, another week of fairs, openings and events concluded in Mexico City, centered around the Zona Maco and Material Art Fairs in the sprawling metropolis. (more…)

Artist Gabriel Orozco will be honored this week with the Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award, a prize that acknowledges the artist’s ongoing commitment to the development and perpetuation of a global language for Latin American contemporary art.  “As we prepare to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our organizations in 2015, the creation of the first Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award reaffirms our commitment to highlight and support culture in the hemisphere,” says Americas Society and Council of the Americas President and CEO Susan Segal. “Gabriel Orozco is a truly worthy recipient of this very important recognition.”  (more…)

Mexican tequila brand Casa Dragones has partnered with artist Gabriel Orozco to release a series of special edition tequila bottles.  Each bottle bares Orozco’s signature and Black Kites motif, and is available at select retailers in the United States, Mexico and London.  “Our collaboration with Gabriel Orozco marks an extremely exciting moment for Casa Dragones as we celebrate Mexican contemporary art and Mexican craftsmanship with the world.” Says Bertha González Nieves, Co-Founder and CEO of Casa Dragones Tequila. (more…)

Gabriel Orozco, Astroturf Constellation (2012), courtesy The Guggenheim Museum

Having just ended its opening run at the Guggenheim Deutsche in Berlin earlier this year, Gabriel Orozco‘s two-part set of taxonomic installations, collectively titled “Asterisms,” is now on view at The Guggenheim in New York City.  The eighteenth and final project in the Guggenheim’s commission series, the piece continues Orozco’s ongoing exploration into the nature of environments, and the interactions of humans with these spaces, as well as with each other. (more…)

Gabriel Orozco is profiled in the Wall Street Journal, as his show, Asterisms, opens tonight at the Guggenheim. The show contains photographs and sculptural vignettes of thousands of pieces of debris collected by the artist from the wildlife reserve Isla Arena in Mexico and from Pier 40 in Manhattan. “It’s amazing how the nature, and the accident, and the sand, the elements make them look very—they’re very suggestive of things you know,” he said.

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Maria Gutierrez and Gabriel Orozco

All photos by C. Daleli for ArtObserved

The 2012 Guggenheim International Gala took place Thursday, November 8th in celebration of Picasso: Black and White organized by Carmen Giménez. Guests were able to view artworks for the upcoming benefit auction at Sotheby’s on November 13-14th with lots by Gabriel Orozco, Georg Baselitz, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Prince, and James Turrell, among others. Funds raised at the gala and auction are in support of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Atmosphere

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Gabriel Orozco, Sandstars (2012)

Exploring qualities of taxonomic classification, Mexican-born artist Gabriel Orozco frequently picks his subjects apart, examining numerous elements before assembling or arranging them in the gallery context.  His pieces have explored the interaction between nature and culture on micro and macro levels, using scientific forms to classify and categorize these encounters.

Gabriel Orozco, Astroturf Constellation (2012)

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‪‬Model, actress, and Cambridge art history graduate Lily Cole will become the host of a six-part television series Art Matters, in which she will meet with contemporary artists such as Gabriel Orozco, Christo and Tacita Dean.
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Allora & Calzadilla, Umbrella and Bell (2011), front; Anish Kapoor, Untitled (2011), behind. At Lisson Gallery, booth J1. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

International collectors and art enthusiasts filled the Miami Beach Convention Center for the Wednesday preview of Art Basel Miami Beach 2011. While the maze of gallery booths could seem overwhelming, buyers were able to navigate through for a solid day of sales and works placed on reserve. Larger galleries such as Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Sprüth Magers sold several works and editions thereof. Speaking with Neil Wenman of Hauser & Wirth, “We’ve had a great response on the opening day. In particular for works by Thomas Houseago, Rashid Johnson, Paul McCarthy, Matthew Day Jackson, Richard Jackson—all works sold and all available editions.” Jenny Holzer’s new paintings at Sprüth Magers sold for upwards of $300,000, as well as Condos and Krugers at the booth. Lesser-known galleries were pleased to gain the exposure the fair offers; if not selling right away, interest was high and therefore also prospects for the remainder of the fair. Gallery Arratia Beer said the crowd was very engaged and informed, also saying, “The fair feels very international. It’s also good to see young internationals here too.” The newer Latin American presence was reportedly strong, both exhibiting and buying, as expected in Miami as opposed to the Frieze or FIAC fairs across the Atlantic earlier this year. Celebrities on hand included Julian Schnable, Eli Broad, Brett Rattner, Naomi Campbell, and Sean Combs/P. Diddy.

Larry Gagosian

Entrance D at the Miami Convention Center

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Will Ryman’s Roses being installed on Miami Beach. Image via The Art Newspaper.

Art Observed is on site for this year’s 10th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach which officially runs December 1–4, with previews and parties throughout the entire week beginning on Tuesday, November 29th. More than 260 galleries from around the world will be representing over 2,000 artists, not including the several satellite shows taking place simultaneously across Miami, including NADA, SCOPE, Pulse, and the original Art Miami—twelve years Basel’s senior. Attracting 46,000 visitors in 2010, the fair is expanding every year, with various collaborations and special additions celebrating its 10th. The Swiss-based Basel art fair installment in Miami has evolved into something that may have lost some of its innocence from its earlier days but in the end has become the definitive closing party for the art market’s year. There have been many previews and summaries of the fair, the following is our view of the week to come.

Hennessy Youngman, still from ART THOUGHTZ: Relational Aesthetics. Via Youtube.
Youngman will be speaking at NADA Deauville Beach Resort on Thursday at 5 pm.

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The Lehman Brothers corporate sign enters Christie’s, London. Image via the NY Times.

Two years after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the art that once decorated its offices is continuing to be sold off as part of their effort to repay creditors. Today, “artwork and ephemera” which once hung in the defunct bank’s European headquarters fetched £1,631,238 ($2,573,685) in a mammoth 6-hour sale at Christie’s in London. Today’s auction follows the September 25th sale at Sotheby’s in New York that raised $12.3 million.

The auction attracted over 1,100 registered bidders from around the world, including a record 330 clients who registered to bid via the internet using Christie’s LIVE. Many former Lehman employees were present for the bidding, one former staffer told AFP before the sale “It’s a memory I want. It was a sad end to it all but I had a lot of good times there, it was where I started off my career.”

Atomists – Jump over, Gabriel Orozco. Estimate: £60,000 to £80,000. Price Realized: £99,560 ($157,305)

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Gabriel Orozco, Black Kites Perspective (right), 1997, digital C-print, 41 x 51 cm. Courtesy of Marian Goodman.

Last weekend marked the opening of “Thrice Upon A Time” at Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. The exhibition, which runs through December 12, 2010, is the institution’s most comprehensive to date. Curated by Richard Julin, Elisabeth Millqvist, and Tessa Praun, the exhibition draws on Magasin 3’s rich collection of works by established international and emerging contemporary artists. The ambitious show features over 200 pieces of photography, drawing, painting, film and sculpture. Just a week away from the Swedish elections, the opening was filled with political hopefuls and those in the know in Stockholm’s growing art scene.

On the role call are recognizable international names such as Uta Barth, Walter De Maria, Gabriel Orozco, Chris Ofili, Tal R, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Fred Sandback, and Richard Tuttle. Many of the fresher faces are included in Moderna Museet’s fall show “The Moderna Exhibition 2010” opening October 2, 2010.

Sculptures by Danish artist Tal R, Hyacint, 2008, glazed ceramic, 107 x 28 x 34 and 105 x 36 x 49 cm. Photo by Christian Saltas.

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Field, Ai Weiwei.  Ming Dynasty-patterned Chinese ceramic structure in front Art 41 Basel’s entrance, with White Cube‘s Jay Jopling in the background, sitting at the fountain.

Art 41 Basel begins this week in Switzerland.  The international art show, featuring approximately 300 galleries and 2,500 artists, coming from 30 countries and every continent, will take place from June 16 to June 20.  Media include painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and editioned works.  Over 60,000 gallerists, art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators, and reporters will flock to the banks of the Rhine, at the border between Switzerland, France, and Germany, to view the works of established masters and up-and-coming talents alike.

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Honoree Gabriel Orozco (with Matthew Barney behind) at BOMB magazine’s 29th Anniversary Gala & Silent Auction at the National Arts Club, New York   All photos by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved

Last night, BOMB magazine kicked-off their 29th Anniversary Gala at the National Arts Club in New York with a Silent Auction. Since the magazines’ founding in 1981, its pages have featured over 900 interviews comprised of 1,800 artists’ voices. Many of the featured artists contributed works to last night’s auction which featured both renowned and emerging names such as Alex Hubbard, Joan Jonas, Nan Goldin, Alex Katz, Julie Mehretu, Roxy Paine, Guy Maddin, Richard Serra, Joel Shapiro, Carrie Mae Weems, most of whom were in attendance. At 7.30pm, attendees were called to honor 4 individuals whose work and vision speak directly to BOMB’s mission of creative excellence. Rob Pruitt raised slices of toast to Honorees Cecily Brown and her husband, the New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.  Brice Marden introduced the next Honoree artist Gabriel Orozco while Matthew Barney toasted honoree Nancy Spector, curator of Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim.  Along with Rob Pruitt’s generous offerings of slices of golden toast, the honorees were presented with “Pink Bomb” awards created by sculptor Tom Otterness.

Brice Marden introducing Honoree Gabriel Orozco

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“Mobile Matrix” in situ at the Mexico City Library where the work was installed in 2006. Via NY Times

On Tuesday evening of December 15th, in the smaller of the two Titus theaters at the Museum of Modern Art, Ann Temkin enthusiastically beckoned Gabriel Orozco to take the stage. The premise of the followed conversation was, of course, the recently opened retrospective of Orozco’s lifetime body of work. At 47, the Mexican artist seemed grave and stoic in his words, although that may have been the fatigue of several weeks of preparation for the launch of the exhibition taking a toll.

Behind the Scenes: Gabriel Orozco. The artist talks about his long evolving relationship with the Museum of Modern Art and the experience of participating in a retrospective exhibition. Via MoMA

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