Joan Jonas, What is Found in the Windowless House is True (Installation View), via Art Observed

Taking over almost the full expanse of Gavin Brown’s impressive Harlem exhibition space, artist Joan Jonas returns to New York with a body of work in tow that mingles previous explorations and new meditations on man’s relationship with the natural world.  Pulling the viewer along a meandering pathway up through the gallery’s multi-floor exhibition space, Jonas’s work greets the viewer with visual twists and turns of their own, each time dwelling on the act of perception and understanding, natural phenomena and man’s modern contexts.

Joan Jonas, What is Found in the Windowless House is True (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Joan Jonas, They Came to Us Without a Word II (2015), via Art Observed

This week, Joan Jonas returned to The Kitchen to present They Came to Us Without a Word,” a reprisal and reimagining of her work from the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale last year.   Working closely with a group of schoolchildren, and featuring a live score by her longtime collaborator Jason Moran, the show takes her initial project, and moves it closer towards a standalone stage production, dwelling on her interests in fragmented media, interrelated histories and meanings, and human understandings of the world.   (more…)

Country Life, Jack Pierson (2010) goes under the hammer at White Columns Live Benefit Auction, 2010. All photos by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved.

The generosity was very evident on Saturday, May 15, when a crowd of artists, collectors and other art-world regulars packed into White Columns‘ West Village headquarters for the not-for-profit’s Annual Benefit Auction. Organized by the gallery to benefit their ongoing mission to support and expose emerging artists, the evening showcased a live auction that included work by long-time supporters of the gallery such as Anne Collier, Peter Doig, Adam McEwen, Rob Pruitt and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The live portion of the sale was complimented by a silent auction of work donated by coveted artists David Byrne, Spencer Sweeney, Andy Coolquitt and Joan Jonas, alongside contributions from newcomers such as Amy Yao and Ned Vena.

The top lots from the evening’s live auction were Peter Doig’s Musicians of the British Empire, a painting dedicated to his long-time friend Billy Childish, which sold for $62,000, and Mary Heilmann’s For Malcolm, another of the night’s music-inspired lots, which earned $22,000. Other highlights in the live sale included Wade Guyton’s Untitled, one of the sale’s lots to incorporate a record sleeve, fetched $9,500 and Anne Collier’s photograph of two copies of Norman Mailer’s book ‘Marilyn’ on her studio floor raised $19,000. The remainder of the evening was given over to the silent auction, during which time attendees can jot their bidder numbers on clipboards next to works. The works that generated the most frenzied competition in this section were the contributions of Andy Coolquit, Shio Kusaka, and Tauba Auerbach. White Columns’ famous xerox prints – 11” x 8 ½” prints produced in signed editions of 50 copies – saw great competition, most notable in this category were Ann Craven’s Heart of Gold, Adam McEwen’s Unisex and Elizabeth Peyton’s Flaubert in Egypt (After Delacroix). Another work to be picked up through the silent auction was Nigel Cooke’s title, (2007-08) which was purchased for $6,800, approximately $4,000 over its estimated retail value.

White Columns Director, Matthew Higgs, commands the impressive sale of Peter Doig’s Musicians of the British Empire, Peter Doig (2010) Retail value: $25,000+ Price Realized: $62,000

More images and video of live auctions after the jump…..
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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

More photos and related links after the jump…..
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