The New York Times looks at the contemporary performance art scene in Belgrade, Serbia, where a group of young artists are continuing the city’s rich history in the medium, centered around the Galerija 12 Hub.  “The way they work with the artists, how they present the artists and how they think about the common good of the independent sphere is what I think makes a huge difference between the Hub and other spaces,” says choreographer Acin Thelander.   (more…)

Artist Tania Bruguera has been freed following three consecutive detentions, and is planning to fight her imprisonment in both Cuba and at the UN.  “This served to unmask everyone,” Bruguera said in an interview. (more…)

Embracing performance and creative theatrics, a group of protestors converged on the Tate Modern yesterday, protesting the ongoing sponsorship of the institution by petroleum giant BP.  Chanting snippets from the corporation’s court proceedings over the Deepwater Horizon spill (yesterday was the disaster’s three-year anniversary), the group sought to underscore the corporation’s ties to the art community. “It’s not only BP that’s on trial for the devastation it has caused to Gulf Coast communities and ecosystems, it’s also Tate and other cultural institutions that provide BP with the social legitimacy to continue operating with such destructive consequences,” said performer Paul Brady.  “We’re making a performance that brings the BP trial into Tate Modern because BP’s arts sponsorship cannot be separated from the irrevocable damage it does to communities and the climate.” (more…)

L Magazine has published a a selection of talented, Brooklyn-based artists under 30, highlighting the rising talent coming from the borough.  The list includes 8 young artists, including Brad Troemel, Trudy Benson, and Ann Hirsch. (more…)

Andy Kaufman “On Creating Reality”  (Installation View)

Revered for his vast wealth of original material and unique approach to performance, comedian and performance artist Andy Kaufman left an enduring legacy that challenged and transcended conventional assumptions of genre and presentation.  Frequently characterized as a comedian or “personality,” Kaufman’s work on television and in live performance frequently confounded and amazed his audience, and positioning him as a pioneer of new media performance and relational aesthetics.  His work in the 1970’s and 80’s before his death in 1984 included turns as an Elvis impersonator, “The Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World,” and even a foul-mouthed lounge singer named Tony Clifton. (more…)

Gillian Wearing, Self Portrait at 17 Years Old (2003). All images courtesy Maureen Paley.

On view through January 6^th at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf is a survey of Gillian Wearing’s film and photographs. The 1997 Turner Prize recipient’s work explores the relationship between one’s public and private personas, and the difference between reality and fiction.

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VICE Magazine interviews Marina Abramović about her view on what constitutes a performance, on young artists and fashion: VICE: “I put some crystals in my cleavage because I know you use crystals in your work.” Abramović: “I’ve never put crystals in my cleavage, but OK.” (more…)

Martha Roesler is hosting her Garage Sale at MoMA, starting today. Although it is not intended to be a performance piece, the artist stated that “It’s not symbolic activity. It’s real activity. Like most things, it has symbolic dimensions. But it is what it is.” (more…)

Joseph Beuys, I like America and America likes Me, 1974, courtesy MMOMA

Appeal for an Alternative is a manifesto of the late Joseph Beuys’ works and the first and thus far most comprehensive retrospective of his to be shown in Russia. It features excerpts from his Marx series, the collection fromThe Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, The Van der Grinten collection, the Joseph Beuys Archive and the Joseph Beuys Media Archive.  It has been curated by Eugen Blume, a major Joseph Beuys specialist and Head of the Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof − Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin. The title for the show is based around his 1950s Western Man project, which incorporated elements of World War II in which Beuys himself was enlisted as a soldier.

Joseph Beuys, 1983, courtesy MMOMA

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Franz West, Untitled, 2011 courtesy Gagosian Gallery

The Gagosian Gallery is currently exhibiting what can only be described as a eulogy of works that embodies the life of the late Franz West, who sadly passed away early this summer in July 2012.

A sea of freestanding, ambiguous, figurines adorn the gallery, doused in multicolored luminescent paint. Light-hearted sculptures interact with viewers, inspiring feelings of elation and freedom. Surreal structures almost wrap around onlookers in a fairytale-like setting.

Franz West, Installation view, 2011 courtesy Gagosian Gallery

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Tino Sehgal, Installation view, 2012, courtesy Tate Modern

The Turbine hall has been home to the Unilever series and currently welcomes its thirteenth commission in the form of These Associations by Tino Sehgal. Despite Sehgal being the thirteenth artist to exhibit as part of the series, he far from blends into the crowd of his predecessors. Sehgal gives the inaugural ‘Live Art’ performance of Unilever coinciding with the Olympics as part of London 2012.

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Paul McCarthy – Dirty Dotty, Yellow (1995), Hauser and Wirth, Zurich

Currently on view at Hauser and Wirth Zurich is a selection of 60 photographs from PROPO, the ongoing project of American multi-media artist Paul McCarthy.  Examining the ongoing process of work, documentation and presentation constantly at play in an artist’s career, the PROPO photographs present a new facet to McCarthy’s already diverse body of work.

Paul McCarthy – Daddies Ketchup (1995), Hauser and Wirth, Zurich

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The Guardian speculates on the rise and evolution of performance art, placing current exhibitions in the context of past extremes. Looking to the upcoming live performances at the Tate Modern‘s Tanks, Adrian Searle comments that: “performance, in fact, is now where it’s at; it’s hard to think of much recent art that isn’t, at some level, performative.”

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Portrait with a Golden Mask, Marina Abramovic (2010) All images via Sean Kelly Gallery.

Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is “Marina Abramovic: Personal Archaeology.”  While the Abramovic retrospective at MoMA recently ended, this show continues until mid-June. Compared with MoMA, the relatively smaller space and the less crowded galleries at Sean Kelly Gallery gives the viewer a chance to engage with Abramovic’s work in a more intimate setting. Personal Archaelogy presents many of the iconic works of this seminal performance artist from the 1970s up until the present day.

More text and images after the jump…

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Preview of Yeondoo Jung’s piece – Cinemagician, commissioned by Performa 09 and presented at Asia Society. Video courtesy of Asia Society

On November 19th and 20th, Asia Society hosted one of 9 individual artists commissioned to conceive a piece of interactive art specifically for the 3nd Performa Biennial that has been remastering the landscape of New York art scene for the last two weeks. Yeondoo Jung’s Cinemagician is a project of one of the most prominent Korean artists working today. Combining theater, cinema, and performance, Jung create a trompe d’oeil effect that is both highly innovative and amusing. He tackles the often overlooked process behind creating a video work, art form that increasingly pervades modern practice. By allowing the audiences to witness first hand the making of Jung’s video work, he activates the space between the artist and the public. Jung recognizes the importance of the creative process to the final product and thus implicates the audience in actively participating in creating the work. (more…)