Employees at The National Gallery in London have planned a five day strike in response to the museum’s privatization of their positions, which union general secretary Mark Serwotka claims “risks damaging the worldwide reputation of what is one of the U.K.’s greatest cultural assets.” (more…)
Walead Beshty, Performances Under Working Conditions (Installation View) via Emily Heinz for Art Observed
Following Petzel Gallery’s open invitation for Walead Beshty to curate its summer group exhibition, the Chelsea space is presenting his first solo show with the gallery, titled Performance Under Working Conditions. Examining modes of work and the kinetic, human element of labor, the exhibition uses minimal, repeated actions to underline the interaction of human and non-human agents.
Rock Climbing Wall at DISown, via Art Observed
Dis has always had one foot in the world of fashion. Its close ties to Hood by Air and Telfar Clemens notwithstanding, the New York-based collective has a long history of covering contemporary fashion and arts with a similarly detached eye, always seeking to underline the commodity culture lurking behind the guise of both “high arts.” Now, the group is taking its longtime skirting of the line between art and commerce to a new level, opening its “retail diffusion” shop DisOwn at Red Bull Studios this week during Armory Week.
DISown at Red Bull Studios (Installation View), via Dis (more…)
Louise Lawler, Detail, Chicago (placed and pulled) (2011-2013), via Casey Kaplan
The arrangement of works for Liam Gillick and Louise Lawler’s current show at Casey Kaplan in New York is an interesting one: long strings of Gillick’s text hang from the ceilings of the space, while long, blurred images from Lawler’s archival image collection are stretched across the walls. It seems an almost deliberate attempt to escape the stationary logic of the art object, constantly forcing the viewer to move between rooms and works, always reappraising position and meaning as they go.
Louise Lawler and Liam Gillick (Installation View), via Casey Kaplan (more…)
