Martin Creed, Work No. 2721: Shutters Opening and Closing (2016), via Art Observed

The long-awaited Martin Creed retrospective at the Park Avenue Armory has opened its doors, bringing an almost exhaustive survey of the artist’s work to New York for one of the summer’s more peculiar, and ultimately, more striking exhibitions.  Pulling from the artist’s 20+ year career, the exhibition offers a fascinating and adventurous exhibition, that asks as much from the viewer as it presents, allowing free-roaming exploration and rewarding it with a range of shocks and surprises.

Martin Creed, Work No. 548 (2006), via Art Observed

(more…)

Martin Creed is interviewed in the NYT this week, as he opens his retrospective at the Park Avenue Armory.  “I feel bad to say I’m an artist, because I don’t really know what art is,” Creed says. “I would say I’m a person who tries to do things and work in a field that is commonly known as art. I try and do things because I find life is difficult and I want to make it better. More bearable.” (more…)

Martin Creed is profiled in The Guardian this week, as the artist prepares for his major exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory, and another at Hauser and Wirth Somerset.  “I don’t throw anything away. One of the ideas of the show was to try to make work out of things that I have kept over the years,” he says.
“What you think you are creating or making is not necessarily what you’re really doing. It’s like body language – it’s for other people to say what you are expressing or doing. It’s not a matter of being in control, really, but more like recognizing that that’s the way you are.” (more…)

The Park Avenue Armory will play host to Martin Creed’s first U.S. retrospective this June, titled The Back Door.  The planned installation will take up both the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall, as well as a number of other spaces in the building.  Creed will also be presenting an installation of his Work No. 2630, UNDERSTANDING concurrently at Brooklyn Bridge Park.  A collaboration with Public Art Fund, the massive red neon piece will be viewable from both sides of the river.  (more…)

Martin Creed, Work No. 2209, Woman with a dog at a table (2015), Photo: Todd White © Martin Creed Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth London

Martin Creed is the subject of a solo exhibition of recent work at Hauser & Wirth Zurich this month, once again delving into his signature, multimedia-based interdisciplinary practice.  Among the most controversial contemporary British artists, Creed came into global recognition with his 2001 Turner Prize winning installation Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, presenting, as its self-descriptive title suggests, a vacant room in which the lights go on and off in five second breaks.  Like much of the artist’s work, the minimal gesture drew staunch criticism due to Creed’s endorsement of such a simple act in endless repetition. (more…)

Martin Creed performs at The Kitchen, via Art Observed

Martin Creed took the stage last week at the Kitchen last night for the first of three consecutive, part of his ongoing series of exhibitions in New York City that show the former Turner Prize winner at the top of his game, continuing his series of reductive, simplistic works with Work #1020, a performance piece that combine repeated gesture and dance, crass video and his own brand of buoyant, bizarre rock and roll. (more…)

Martin Creed’s Olympic-specific work, entitled Work No 1197, All the Bells in a Country Rung as Quickly and Loudly as Possible for Three Minutes occurred this morning at 8:12 in the morning to herald the opening of the games.

(more…)

Sketch Restaurant, London. All photos on site for Art Observed by Ryann Donnelly.

In celebration of their 10th anniversary, London’s Sketch restaurant in Mayfair unveiled a new installation from Turner prize winning British multi-media artist Martin Creed on March 1st, 2012. Creed’s installation is comprised of three main components: opulent marble tiling, large-scale murals, and an assemblage of mix-matched furnishings and tableware, each piece as functional as it is aesthetically compelling and intricate.

Martin Creed, Sketch Installation View (2012)

(more…)

Martin Creed, Work No. 890, DON’T WORRY (2008).  Image courtesy of the Tate Liverpool.

Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed brings seven new works to the Tate Liverpool this spring as part of their ARTIST ROOMS collection, in conjunction with the National Galleries of Scotland. Creed’s works range in media from paintings to a neon installation; “Refreshing, unexpected and humorous, Creed’s work challenges our preconceptions and rearranges the rules of conceptual art,” reads the exhibition’s press release.

(more…)

Turner Prize winning British Artist Martin Creed announces ‘Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes’ to herald the start of the 2012 Olympic Games [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪‬London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic posters unveiled featuring 12 UK artists including Tracy Emin and Martin Creed, to be displayed at Tate Britain next year [AO Newslink]

(more…)

Martin Creed, Work No. 1219 (2011), all images via Johnen Galerie Berlin

Martin Creed’s solo exhibition ‘Paintings’ is approaching its final weekend at Johnen Galerie Berlin. Known primarily for his cheeky sculptural works, Creed’s Berlin show is made up of a sincere selection of paintings in which the artist uses his physical materials and certain formulas to dictate the resultant artworks.

Martin Creed, Work No. 1198 (2011)

More images and text after the jump…

(more…)

Martin Creed, Mothers (2010). Via Time Out London

Martin Creed’s Mothers at Hauser & Wirth nearly beats viewers over the head with his exploration of relationships. The centerpiece, a huge sculpture bearing the same title as the exhibition, bears the word “MOTHERS” in neon above the heads of the audience. Creed is also releasing a new single and music video, Thinking/Not Thinking, at this show.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Installation image, all photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at the Palais de Toyko is Fresh Hell, a group exhibition curated by British-born New York-based artist Adam McEwen.  Shedding a bit of dark humor on the city of Paris, McEwen brings together medieval sculpture and conceptual work from artists long forgotten as well as contemporary artists, pondering just what sort of position and creative endeavors an artist can make in today’s world. The works deal with morbidity, decay, and notions of ‘the end,’ making Death the principle theme.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Tiermetabolismus V (Katzchen) by Jonathan Meese at Bortolami Gallery, Art Basel Main Fair, Hall B, Booth I-09.

Art Observed will be on site as of today for the ninth edition of the America’s biggest contemporary art fair: Art Basel Miami Beach which will open to the public on Thursday December 2 and will run through Sunday, December 5.

The main section of the fair will house over 180 galleries and over 40,000 are expected following the December 2nd opening.  Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler are the main fair organizers alongside its main sponsor UBS with Cartier, NetJets and AXA Art as the associate sponsors.  While Art Basel is still the main draw, the NADA Fair (the New Art Dealers Alliance) up the road at the Dauville Beach Resort will open to the public Thursday December 2. It will run through Sunday December 5 and also should not be missed.

Untitled (Art Fair Floor) by Ryan Reggiani.  Kate Werble Gallery at Nada Art Fair, booth 312.

The fair week is notable for its bridging of the Latin American buyers with American and British art centers as well as its uniquely intense amalgamation of social, media, fashion and other spheres of influence into the business of selling art.

The global art market seems to have stabilized this year and the main fair, along with its very significant satellites, should be met with lively buying this round.  Beyond this, all around Miami, the social calendar will be infused with events to the point where there is little chance to avoid regretfully missing something.

A view of an installation by Terrence Koh at The Island, an event during the week (see bel0w).

More text and related links after the jump… .

(more…)

Martin Creed, Work No. 928, 2008, courtesy of The Guardian.

As part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival, Fruitmarket is honoring one of Britain’s most popular and esteemed artists, Martin Creed, in a major solo exhibition of recent and newly-commissioned work. Entitled “Down Over Up,” the show focuses on basic visual properties like the differentiation of size, proportion, and tone of everyday objects such as chairs, tables, boxes, and Lego pieces. Creed has often been criticized for the accessible quality of his materials and technique; while this aspect of his practice is visible in “Down Over Up,” the artist has also incorporated more conventional art forms such as paintings, drawings, and sculpture into the exhibition.

Creed initially won critical acclaim for his minimalistic sculptures, in which he rearranges everyday objects. He manipulates the common as a material representation of his primary preoccupation: modern culture. The artist often creates work in order to elicit particular responses from the viewer, by deploying a spectrum of motifs ranging from the absurd to the familiar.

(more…)

Installation views, Martin Creed & Jonathan Horowitz at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.
All images via Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

On view at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise are concurrent solo shows by artists Martin Creed and Jonathan Horowitz. Creed has fashioned a site-specific installation by remaking the gallery floor into a collage of more than 100 different slabs of marble. The exhibit also includes paintings, performance works, and the premier of a new film. The multi-room installation “Go Vegan” by Horowitz offers a unique perspective on vegetarianism and sustainability, and addresses the ever growing consumption of commoditized pop culture in contemporary society. This marks the inaugural exhibition of the newly expanded space at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, which now extends into the 10,000 square foot space formerly occupied by the butchery and meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda Meats.

more story, images and links after the jump…

(more…)

All photographs by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved

Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth New York is “Else,” the first exhibition in the United States devoted exclusively to the drawings of Roni Horn.  The show, composed of six new large-scale works up to eight by ten feet in size, will remain on view through June 19, 2010 at 32 East 69th Street.

The new works lend themselves to multiple viewing angles: from far away they appear as densely-packed thumbprints and dissipating hearts. A closer look reveals involved diagrams reminiscent of tesselations and multiplying cells. The heavily textured images are composed of cut paper, red painted lines, and the artist’s fractured pencil notes. Ever aware of the material, the stamp of the paper manufacturer feature prominently on the outer edges of several works. The intricacy and density of the compositions are contrasted with the artist’s simple, large scrawled signature, which floats, relaxed, detached from the rest in a sea of oaktag.

Björk at Friday night’s opening

More text, images and related links after the jump…

(more…)

Judith Supine, Above the City in a Summer Night Dream via Wooster Collective

Judith Supine installs his “Above the City in a Summer Night Dream” on top of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York [Wooster Collective]
Ryan McGinley writes on Dash Snow in Vice Magazine [Vice via Art Fag City]
India’s contemporary art “superstar,” Subodh Gupta, before his first UK solo show at Hauser & Wirth, speaks of his Western influences [Financial Times]
In related, The Economist discusses the state of Indian Contemporary art with a summary of the International Art Fair in Delhi [Economist]

Julien Fronsacq (Palais de Tokyo, Paris), Olivier Sailliard (Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Paris),and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery, London) model for Yohji Yamamoto’s Y, via ArtJetSet

The spring lookbook for Yohji Yamamoto’s Y features curators as models [ArtJetSet]
Gagosian Gallery sues Lufthansa and Art Crate Inc. over the destruction of a 1969 Brice Marden painting worth $3 million [NY Times]
Russian artist, Presniakov, to sue Hilton heiress for failing to pay $10 million for his artwork [Reuters]
Meanwhile a Moscow dealer sues Luhring Augustine over George Condo paintings [Bloomberg]
Graffiti charges against Yoshitomo Nara dropped after 6 months of proper behavior [Artforum]
The Norton Simon Museum’s ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ become the center of a legal battle after an heir to the work claims the paintings were looted by the Nazis [LA Times]

Gavin Turk’s ‘Brillo 5’ a bronze sculpture of a cardboard box for sale via Christie’s

Christie’s announces its First Open Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, scheduled for September 23rd [Artdaily]
LA art gallery Blum and Poe expands its gallery into a new space launching October 2 in related both Sotheby’s and Christie’s downsize their LA operations [Lindsay Pollock]
Christie’s converts an icon Brooklyn warehouse into a rigorously guarded storage space [The New York Times]
With 372,000 visitors, the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit was the most attended show in the Guggenheim Museum’s history [NY Times]
In related, Banksy’s guerilla Bristol Museum show reaches over 300,000 visitors [Guardian]

Posters for the New York Minute exhibition at Macro in Rome via OHWOW

An interview with Charles Saatchi, who is releasing a book on September 8th detailing his experiences as an art collector [Guardian]
Daniel Richter leads a protest against the demolition of artist studio and gallery space in Hamburg [Artinfo]
Moscow International Biennale for Young Art- an ambitious art initiative announces call for applications [Art Daily]
AMR- a new index by analysts for tracking prices aimed solely on post-war art is created [Financial Times]
The Scotsman Steps built in 1899 will become a panel for famous contemporary artist- Martin Creed’s installation [News Scotsman via ArtInfo]
A painting uncovered in Iraq is picked up by the media as a Picasso but is likely inauthentic [ArtMarketMonitor]

Pipilotti Rist via Panache

The Gucci Group award, previously awarded to artists including Steve McQueen and Julian Schnabel, has announced its 4 nominees, among which is artist Pipilotti Rist [Vogue]
This year’s Frieze Music Presentation will be a performance choreographed by artist Martin Creed [Frieze]
In response to LACMA’s decision to end its long standing weekend film program, two outside organizations step in with $150,000 pledge in an attempt to save it [Los Angeles Times]

Skewville wooden sneakers via C-Monster

The ubiquitous Skewville wooden sneakers have online documentation [Skewville via C-Monster]
The latest V magazine profiles 6 projects presented at the 53d Venice Biennale, including those by Tauba Auerbach, Aurel Schmidt, Dan Colen and the late Dash Snow [V magazine]
Art exhibitions to see this fall as suggested by New York art critic Jerry Saltz [Artnet]
The values of art related financial indexes increase as the market is possibly recovering [ArtInfo]
Townhouses restored and owned by photographer Annie Leibovitz could potentially cure her $24 million loan obligations to Art Capital Market [Bloomberg]

Nils Folke installation via Phillips De Pury

Phillips De Pury & Co installs sculptures by Nils Folke in its windows to be viewed from High Line park in New York [Phillips De Pury]
Newly created Arts Editor role at the BBC News is being assumed by Will Gompertz who is the current Director of Tate Media at the Tate [BBC]
This year’s Vanity Fair 100 includes art world figures Bernard Arnault (#10), François-Henri Pinault (#20), Miuccia Prada (#40) and Jean Pigozzi (#74) [Vanity Fair]
Ed Ruscha will receive the Artistic Excellence Award from the National Arts Awards on October 5, 2009 [Americans For The Arts]
The Guardian investigates the art scene in Moscow complete with the listing new exhibition spaces [Guardian]

Eva Rothschild at Tate Britain. Via Art Knowledge News.

The Duveen Comission series presents a hitherto relatively unknown artist, Eva Rothschild, at the Tate Britain.  The exhibition consists of just one work, which fills the 70-meter space.  Accordingly, the piece explores volume and space, as it (per Tate) “fills and disrupts the grandeur of these neoclassical galleries with a chaotic, energetic presence.”  Says the artist, “I’m hoping to create something that will agitate the architecture of the Duveens Galleries, tangling with your perception of the space.”

Related links:
Tate Britain: British Art from 1500
Tate: Tate Britian Duveens Commission 2009 Supported by Sotheby’s
Lost in triangulation [The Guardian UK]
Eva Rothschild’s Tate Britain girders get an angle on high-minded art [Times UK]
Eva Rothschild to Create Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2009 [FineArtPublicity]
Little-known artist takes over the Tate [The Independent]

Eva Rothschild at Tate Britian, via The Guardian.

(more…)

Work No. 660, 2007 via Hauser & Wirth.

On display now at Hauser & Wirth is a collection of new and recent work by conceptual artist Martin Creed. The works were created using simple materials such as paint, boxes, masking tape, and human excrement. Typical of all of Creed’s work it is the materials that inspire and determine the final product.  Several new paintings are on display all mirroring each other in that they are all composed of a single color and consist of horizontal brush-marks. The paintings are intended to be a visual homage to the different brush sizes Creed uses and is clearly displayed as the brush-marks decrease in width as they climb the page.  Also included is a sculpture made of cardboard boxes that similarly explores size, and a short film that  reflects Creed’s interest in producing that shows a woman defecating in an empty room.

Press Release [Hauser & Wirth]

(more…)

Running in the Tate via Bloomberg

Head’s up to visitors of the Tate Britain: from now until November 16, every thirty seconds from 10am – 6pm, an athlete will make a fast 85 meter dash from one end of Duveen Hall to the other. While running is not normally encouraged at the Tate, this particular athletic display is actually a commissioned artwork entitled Work No. 850 by British artist Martin Creed. Creed has instructed the runners, who he recruited from athletic magazines and are being paid an hourly wage, to “run like their life depended on it.” The artwork is part of an ongoing series of commissioned contemporary sculpture in the Duveen Galleries of Tate Britain, sponsored by Sotheby’s.

Tate Britain [Tate]
Martin Creed [Martin Creed]experience of life. The runners i
Dashing Through the Tate Britain [NY Sun]
Interview with Martin Creed [Bloomberg]
Duveen Commission 2008 [ArtDaily]
An Idea with Legs [Guardian UK]
Sprinting Runners by Martin Creed [Telegraph UK]
View video of the exhibit at Artreview.com

(more…)