Pace Gallery has announced that it now represents Leo Villareal, marking the announcement with a show of his recent pieces at Frieze London. Villareal will also be involved with Future/Pace, a public arts partnership that the gallery is currently undertaking with the Futurecity group to examine approaches to urban planning, art and architecture. (more…)
Zhang Huan, Spring Poppy Field No. 34 (2014), via Pace Gallery London
One of the most influential and prolific contemporary artists from China, Zhang Huan has worked across a wide spectrum of practices including performance, installation, photography and sculpture, reflecting his personal history as well as the collective consciousness of the present society. As a body artist, Huan has delivered performances in which he pushed the limits of physical and psychological endurance, echoing the issues such as war, social injustice and alienation while simultaneously commenting on concepts of spirituality and transcendence. Using his own body as his main tool along with different materials such as blood, meat, brushwood and live animals, he has given impressive and challenging performances in different art institutions around the world, provoking the viewers to contemplate on issues that are often ignored and avoided.
Zhang Huan, Spring Poppy Field No.14 (detail) (2014), via Pace Gallery London (more…)
Kiki Smith, Rogue Stars (2012), all images courtesy Pace Gallery
On view at New York’s Pace Gallery is artist Kiki Smith’s first major New York exhibition in four years, presenting new works made from aluminium, bronze, fine silver, textile, stained and hand-blown antique glass, and paint.
Kiki Smith, Crescent Bird (2011), (more…)
Richard Tuttle, a work from Looking for the Map, via Art Observed
On view at Pace New York from February 7th through March 15th is an exhibition comprised of drawings and studies artist Richard Tuttle has made to prepare for his large-scale commission at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, opening in October of this year.
Oldenburg and van Bruggen, Study, Soft Shuttlecock (1994). All Images Courtesy The Pace Gallery.
Now through February 22, Pace Gallery‘s 534 W. 25th Street location is hosting “Grounded”, an exhibition featuring floor-based sculpture by major figures in contemporary art. The show contains work produced from 1967 to 2013 that invite the viewers to experience a new perspective on sculptural forms. The artists that contribute to this show include works by Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, Tara Donovan, Tom Friedman, Tim Hawkinson, Maya Lin and others, focusing on the spatial interactions between art, the ground, and the viewer’s perception. (more…)
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Appearance of Collage #6 (2012), Courtesy Pace Gallery
Though Soviet-born artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are New York-based, they were little known in the New York art scene until this Fall season. Popular in Europe, their 2013 New York tour started with their successfully-launched, 8th rendition of the floating installation, “The Ship of Tolerance”, at the Dumbo Arts Festival. Ilya Kabakov, a former childrens’ book illustrator and graphic artist did his conceptual art work in secrecy until he accepted a grant to work in Austria and grew to prominence in Europe. Upon arriving to New York, he reconnected with his distant cousin, Emilia, a former pianist and linguist, and presently an art advisor and curator. She helped him navigate the arts scene in New York and the two soon began collaborating. They married in 1992 and have been sharing credits ever since on everything they have produced with the exception of several of Ilya’s paintings. (more…)
The chairman of the Pace Gallery, Arne Glimcher, has been appointed to the rank of Officer in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the French Republic. The highest honor bestowed on either French citizen or foreigner, Glimcher joins the ranks of fellow Americans Thomas Edison, Simon Newcomb, and John Singer Sargent, as thanks for his “exemplary commitment to the vitality of art worldwide.” (more…)
Robert Irwin, Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue³ III, all images courtesy Pace London
Currently, Pace London‘s 6 Burlington Gardens location is presenting the gallery’s first exhibition of works by American artist Robert Irwin. The new work springs from the artist’s pioneering practice during the West Coast’s monumental Light and Space movement. Born in 1928, Irwin has been exploring the concepts of perception and space for over sixty years. Beginning as a painter, he was a foundational member of the Light and Space movement in the 1960s, helping to develop a concept of art as a response to specific life experiences in equal measure with the work’s surrounding environmental conditions.
Rapper Jay-Z appeared at New York’s Pace Gallery today, performing his song Picasso Baby for 6 hours straight. The marathon performance was part of the artist’s “Docu-music” video for the song, and featured a moment where the rapper danced with Marina Abramovic. Other notable attendees included Marilyn Minter, Laurence Weiner, Klaus Biesenbach, Aaron Young, among many more. (more…)
Yoshitomo Nara, Missed Autumn Rendez-Vous (2013), via PACE Gallery
The images of Japanese kawaii have become, at this stage of the contemporary arts dialogue, something of a trope, an analytical signifier earmarking a work for commentary on Japan’s encounters with global pop culture. Creeping into press releases, catalogues and countless reviews as a convenient sounding point for Japan’s obsession with the bizarre and the cartoonish, the use of the word often leaves something to be desired, doing little to quantify the aspects or implications it actually carries.
Yoshitomo Nara, (Installation View), via PACE Gallery (more…)
The New York Times reports on how artists are increasingly making large scale work, galvanizing a trend in commercial galleries in London, Los Angeles and New York to provide massive spaces in which to show it, formerly the role of the museum. With the increase in not only monumental sculpture and installation, video pieces also require large amounts of space, often incorporating multi-channel projections. (more…)
Moto (1963). All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.
John Chamberlain: Choices opened at the Guggenheim on February 24th, and will remain on view through May 13th, after which it will travel to Bilbao, Spain. Chamberlain was preparing for the current Guggenheim retrospective from his studio in Shelter Island when he passed away this December, aged 84. Although the exhibition officially began to coordinate in 2010, Senior Curator Susan Davidson told the press conference that the idea had been brewing for over a decade. The museum currently showcases almost 100 works from a lifetime of aesthetic development, garnered from private collections in America and Europe, as well as more recent works by the artist before his death.
Jean Dubuffet, Fluence (1984). All photos on site for Art Observed by Rachel Willis.
On January 19 The Pace Gallery debuted its newest exhibition, Jean Dubuffet: The Last Two Years. The show is made up of approximately 20 paintings chosen from the artist’s final body of work, from the years 1983-4. Viewers are immediately confronted with a yellow wall and a red neon sign, written in Dubuffet’s script, with the title of the show. The colors of the sign are evocative of the highly saturated primary colors present within the exhibition. The paintings are divided amongst the gallery’s two rooms; the front room is filled with the artist’s large, more cheerful paintings, while the back room hosts smaller, dark, more intimate and brooding works. These expressive acrylic paintings, with their minor figurative references, are adamantly abstract and indicative of Dubuffet’s uncompromising creative mindset during the last years of his life.
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.
The Pace Gallery‘s current exhibition, Surface of the Third Order presents a collection of cerebral sculptures and objects by Hiroshi Sugimoto. The exhibition features two groups of work: small crystal pagodas and larger aluminum sculptures. Surface of the Third Order is on view through December 23, 2011, displayed concurrently with an exhibition of twenty-four of the crystal pagodas at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.
Mircea Cantor’s work in FIAC 2011, image by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed, all photos by Art Observed unless otherwise noted.
By the close of FIAC on Sunday evening, some 68,000+ visitors had come through the fair. These attendance figures represent a 6% increase from the previous year, reports the New York Times. Housed this year in the exuberant Grand Palais, the fair showed strong sales from the get go. Despite the global economic downtown of recent years, the atmosphere was effervescent. French, American, and German galleries dominated the space (55, 26, and 21, respectively), but participants from Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa showed a strong presence at the fair for the first time. New York newcomers Matthew Marks, Eleven Rivington, Andrew Kreps, Michele Maccarone and Friedrich Petzel did well, and Pace Gallery made a comeback after a long absence. Compared to Frieze the week before in London, many fair-goers felt that the Parisian fair was riskier in content, creating a more exciting and eclectic display of artworks.
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Crowds outside the Grand Palais on the public opening of FIAC, October 21, 2011. All photographs for Art Observed on site by Caroline Claisse.
After two days of previews, FIAC opened its doors to the Paris public on Friday, October 21st. Jill Silverman, Director of Paris/Salzburg-based gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, tells Art Observed that the fair presents “a very good cross section of European collectors.” FIAC is one of the most nationally-focused art fairs, boasting a solid 32% of French exhibitors, whereas last week’s Frieze in London had only 25% British galleries. American presence increased this year with several New York galleries making their debut at the fair: Matthew Marks, Eleven Rivington, Andrew Kreps, Michele Maccarone and Friedrich Petzel. After a 30+year absence, Pace Gallery made a comeback to the fair. Works by seasoned veteran Damien Hirst are exhibited at both White Cube and Gagosian. Anish Kapoor also has work spread across the fair, whose gargantuan installation Leviathan filled the entire interior of the Grand Palais earlier this year. Lisson is showing one of his signature colored concave mirrors in fire-engine red; Kamel Mennour has wine-red, Galeria Continua has green, and Kukje/Tina Kim has purple; all have different price tags. Sales have been strong thusfar; Pace Gallery’s Arne Glimcher told Artinfo, “We had sales right off the bat, it was really fascinating. I hadn’t anticipated this kind of rush, especially in this economy, where Europe is not in as good of shape as America. But I think we have the right artists.” He added, “FIAC is certainly an enormous cut above Frieze.”
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Two Less One (2011) at Galleria Continua
More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)
Doug Aitken, Now (2011) at 303 Gallery NY. All photos for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
AO is on site in London for this week’s Frieze Art Fair. With 173 galleries selling an estimated $350 million worth of art, a level of anxiety pervades as the week’s results will be indicative of the overall international contemporary art market. Works like Christian Jankowski’s droll The Finest Art on Water and Michael Landy’s Credit Card Destroying Machine directly comment on the world economic state, while the overall demeanor remains upbeat, with art world moguls and A-list celebrities enjoying the festivities.
Michael Landy’s Credit Card Destroying Machine (2011), Thomas Dane Gallery
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