President Obama has designated three new sites for federally protected land in the United States, including Basin and Range in Nevada. The site serves as the home of Michael Heizer’s landmark installation City, effectively preserving the work within the 704,000 acres of desert being set aside for protection. (more…)
Michael Heizer, Altars, via Art Observed
In Gagosian Gallery’s 24th Street Outpost, lithe, twisting steel platforms sprawl across the floor, smooth lines that undulate across the faded, industrial steppes that they lay across. In another room, an immense boulder hangs suspended from the ceiling, displayed in a case cut between two walls of the gallery so that viewers can see the rock’s sides from two separate rooms. The show could only be the work of Michael Heizer, one of the founding voices of American land art, whose new work continues his pioneering investigations into the construction of space and time along abstract, self-realized formats. (more…)
Michael Heizer is profiled in The Guardian this week, following the opening of his newest show in New York. “Years ago, when I had no money and I made a work of art, maybe I couldn’t afford to make it more resistant to the weather. I did, however, exploit that situation,” he says of his early work. “I wasn’t an environmental, greenie artist making things out of moss and leaves. But I knew that some things dissipate, and I factored that into the work.” (more…)
The New York Times visits Michael Heizer at his Nevada ranch and studio, and explores his ongoing project City. “It epitomizes a fusion of ancient and modern forms,” Heizer says. “It’s huge in size, but antimonumental in its relentless horizontality and its sinuous, continuous curves. It’s also unphotographable and impossible to capture in its totality. It has to be experienced in time and space — over time, and distance.” (more…)
LACMA has published an editorial on its blog this week, calling for renewed efforts in preserving the Nevada region of desert called Basin and Range, where artist Michael Heizer is working to complete his monumental City project. “As the possibility for protecting Basin and Range comes close to a reality, LACMA and other museums around the country are hoping to bring attention to the positive cultural impact protecting this land would have,” the article states. (more…)
Richard Serra has unveiled a massive new public installation in Qatar, funded by the Qatari Museums Authority. Stretching across the desert, the metal plates of East-West/West-East are all of identical height, and all match the height of the gypsum plateaus that sit to either side of the piece. The project coincides with Serra’s first solo exhibition in the Middle East at Al RIWAQ DOHA Exhibition Space and QMA Gallery at Katara. (more…)
Tacita Dean, c/o Jolyon, 2012-2013 (detail), courtesy Frith Street Gallery
The current exhibition on view at Frith Street Gallery in London features Tacita Dean’s 2012-2013 projects, JG (a 26.5 minute film shot on 35mm anamorphic film) and c/o Jolyon, a series of 100 original postcards of pre-war Kassel in Germany, overpainted with contemporary scenes from the same place.
Dealer Virginia Dwan, who earned a reputation for her ongoing support and collection of a number of pioneering “Land Art” works during the 1960’s and 70’s, has pledged the donation of 250 works from her collection to The National Gallery in Washington. Among the works donated are Marcel Duchamp’s iconic recreation of the Mona Lisa with a mustache drawn on, and Michael Heizer’s Double Negative, a monumental piece in the Nevada desert. “I want the collection to have the largest audience of people possible, not just art world types who have a to-do list.” Dwan commented. (more…)
Richard Serra’s Shift, a series of zigzagging wall structures built along the changing elevations of the field it moves through, has been designated as a cultural heritage site in North Toronto. Voted through by the township council of King City, Ontario, the work was the subject of fierce and ongoing debate, finally pushed through by a group of concerned citizens called “Friends of Shift.” “It is especially gratifying that it was the result of the initiative of a group of private citizens who care about art.” Mr. Serra commented. (more…)
Artist Doug Aitken is currently preparing to unveil a “digital land artwork” at the Seattle Art Museum. Titled Mirror, the work consists of thin strips of LED lights and digital video of Seattle and the surrounding regions, and will be on view for the public beginning on March 24th. “Land art from the 1960s and 1970s exists in remote locations. I was interested in creating something very urban,” Aitken says. (more…)
