The London Underground has announced a year-long series of artist commissions in the newest iteration of its ongoing arts patronage, including video work from Liam Gillick, and new design commissions from Giles Round and Design Work. “Gillick has taken his camera, picking out features of the Victoria Line in an unfolding narrative,” says Eleanor Pinfield, the head of Art on the Underground. (more…)
A public sculpture by Erwin Wurm, depicting a full-size Mercedes transporter MB100D truck bending slightly up a wall, has been hit with a parking ticket for its placement outside of the German city of Karlsruhe’s Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in a parking restricted zone. Karlsruhe mayor Frank Mentrup has stated that he will try and fix the ticket, so that the work may remain parked in the space, albeit illegally. (more…)
The Iranian government has adopted a new policy using billboards in Tehran to exhibit classic works of art rather than the usual consumer products and political slogans. “It’s pretty exciting. It’s wonderful to see billboard ads of laundry machines or big corporate banks being replaced by a Rembrandt or a Cézanne or a Picasso, what better than that?” says journalist Sadra Mohaqeq. “For 10 days, people have time off from the usual billboard ads just promoting consumerism. It is going to affect people’s visual taste in a positive manner.” (more…)
The New Yorker has a profile on sculptor Charles Ray this week, the Californian sculptor known for his occasionally disturbing and lifelike works, including Huck and Jim a statue based on the inseparable pair of Mark Twin’s classic novel, which was initially intended for the plaza outside the new Whitney before it was declined over fears of controversy. “I don’t want whatever becomes of it to be less than the original idea, and the original idea was for it to be there,” Ray tells the magazine. “I’m not naïve to the controversies this would generate—I told them that controversies would be a forest we had to navigate through.” (more…)
Artist Thomas Houseago is the latest artist to install a major large-scale commission at Rockefeller Center this week, as his immense Masks installation finishes completion this week for a Tuesday unveiling. “It’s so risky, and it’s so terrifying,” Houseago said. “Hopefully kids will enjoy walking in it. And maybe one of those kids will think about being an artist, and that would be fabulous. That’s always the dream, that you give people that space to wonder.” (more…)
The Public Art Fund and Brooklyn Bridge Park will host an exhibition of public works by Danish artist Jeppe Hein this summer, the New York Times reports. “One of the brilliant things about Jeppe’s work is he can engage you no matter what your background or experience or age in a very direct way,” says chief curator Nicholas Baume. (more…)
Aaron Curry, Vertical Wood Sculpture (2013), via Almine Rech
Just one week after The Armory Show closed its doors in New York, the sixth edition of Art Basel Hong Kong is preparing to open halfway around the world, with many familiar names vying to court collectors from Asia, Oceania and abroad. The fair, which shuffled its calendar this year in response to the Venice Biennale opening in early May, is presenting something of a scaled-back experience this year, running just three days from Sunday to Tuesday, but should nevertheless prove successful as one of Asia’s largest art fairs. (more…)
Artists Elmgreen and Dragset will install a commissioned sculpture on the High Line next month, a “dysfunctional” telescope that plays on lines of site for New York landmarks. “The telescope will be located at a point where it is possible to see with the naked eye landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty,” Elmgreen says. “It is an oversized black structure with very thin legs; it looks a little like an insect.” (more…)
Artist Hans Haacke’s commission for London’s Fourth Plinth is the subject of an article in The Guardian this week, examining the work’s ties to money, power and speculation in the arts. “The reason I thought it would not be accepted was that I knew what would have happened in New York,” Haacke says. “There is no way that something that plays with Wall Street in this fashion would ever be approved under the auspices of the mayor.” (more…)
Jeff Koons has reportedly been given an $8 million commission from the government of Sacramento to build one of his Coloring Book works at the city’s new basketball arena. This is the most the Californian capital has spent on a public work of art to date. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal embarks on a tour of the MTA’s public arts projects, profiling some of the New York Subway’s most iconic murals, installations and pieces, including Roy Lichtenstein’s classic Times Square piece, and Sol LeWitt’s mural at 59th and Columbus. (more…)
The New York Times reports that two young German artists have come forward as the perpetrators in the Brooklyn Bridge flag swap. On July 22nd, Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke scaled the Brooklyn Bridge and replaced the traditional American flags atop its towers with white versions of the flag, a switch that prompted embarrassed city officials to reevaluate security on the bridge. The article reports that, although the swap has garnered publicity as a possible anti-American stunt, the two artists intended the white flags to honor the bridge’s history and especially the birthday of its German-born architect, John Roebling.
Artist Ryan McGinness’s public street sign commission for New York City has seen widespread enthusiasm in the past few days since its initial installation, with most of the first set of signs disappearing within hours. “When I caught one of the first few disappearing, I was mildly amused,” McGinness says. But when he realized the majority had gone missing, “It felt a little more aggressive. It made me just plain angry.” (more…)
A public art collaboration between the Whitney Museum and the Highline will debut work by Alex Katz on the façade of 95 Horatio Street, just south of the elevated park. The work, titled Katherine and Elizabeth, will remain on view for 8 to 12 months. (more…)
A group of artists including Jeff Koons, Catherine Opie, and Carrie Mae Weems are contributing to the Water Tank Project this summer, a public art installation that will place various artists’ work on water tanks around New York. “Water is our most challenged but taken-for-granted resource. It’s all around us but virtually invisible,” curatorial team member Neville Wakefield says. “By drawing attention to the water tanks, we hope to alert the world to the wastage of our most precious commodity.” (more…)
Artists David Shrigley and Hans Haacke have been announced as the 2015 and 2016 commissions for London’s Fourth Plinth sculpture project. Shrigley will install an enormous hand giving a thumbs up on the plinth in 2016, while Haacke will show a skeletal horse sculpture as next year’s piece. “What’s exciting for me is the opportunity to make something on a scale you couldn’t possibly imagine making yourself.” Shrigley says. (more…)
Public art pioneer Suzanne Lacy has announced a major project coming to Brooklyn on October 19th. Created in collaboration with Creative Time, the project will install “300 women and a few men” on the stoops of apartments in Prospect Heights, and on the steps of the Brooklyn Museum to engage pedestrians and visitors in dialogues on contemporary gender politics. The project is informed by 5 months of research Lacy completed this year with an advisory board of 16 activists. (more…)
Six artists have been named in the shortlist to produce the latest in the rolling series of sculptures featured on Trafalgar Square’s empty Fourth Plinth – including British artists David Shrigley, Mark Leckey and Marcus Coates. Competing for time slots in 2015 and 2016, two artists from the shortlist will be selected early next year. Miniature versions of the proposed works will be on display in nearby church St. Martin-in-the-Fields starting September 25. (more…)
Orly Genger, Red, Yellow and Blue (2013) via Madison Square Park
On view in Madison Square Park through September 8, Orly Genger’s Red, Yellow and Blue is an astounding yet whimsical feat of sculpture. Commissioned by Madison Square Art, Red, Yellow and Blue is constructed from 1.4 million feet of rope from repurposed lobster traps, crochet stitched into braids, covered with over 3,500 gallons of paint and stacked and twisted into over 100,000 pounds of colorful and continuous wave-like shapes.
Orly Genger, Red, Yellow and Blue (2013) via Madison Square Park
Genger, 34, is known for pushing the limits of sculpture using rope and found materials. Her large-scale installations play with the language of the Minimalist, Post-Minimalist and Feminist art historical canon, often utilizing massive installations of repurposed materials. Past works have referenced Tony Smith, Donald Judd and Walter de Maria, and 2010’s Big Boss at Mass MoCA included 100 miles of red rope that suggested a play on abstract painting. Though executed in a vocabulary all her own, Genger’s Red, Yellow and Blue also recalls the monumental forms of Richard Serra and the pop textures of Claes Oldenburg. (more…)
“Art Within One Mile,” a new project by artist Bundith Phunsombatlert, has made its debut on New York City Streets. Aiming to increase New Yorker’s awareness of art around the city, the series of taxicab yellow signs directs pedestrian’s attention to nearby sculptures and murals. “It’s a form of generosity, a gesture toward an environment, like New York, that’s rich in a way that sometimes we take for granted,” says Prerana Reddy of the Queens Museum. “It’s a way of recuperating our hidden heritage, our hidden richness.” (more…)
The final selection of 57 works for the United Kingdom’s ambitious Art Everywhere project have been announced, covering a broad spectrum of British art that includes works by Peter Blake, Edward Burra, Francis Bacon, Peter Doig and John Constable. The Guardian has published a photo gallery of the works, allowing interested parties a sneak peak at the works before they appear on billboards across the country. (more…)
Artist Giuseppe Penone will bring a trio of monumental bronze tree sculptures to Madison Square Park this fall and winter, exploring the relationships between humanity and nature through art. Meticulous reproductions of 40 foot high trees, Ideas of Stone marks Madison Square Park’s 26th exhibition of outdoor sculpture. “A tree summarizes in an exemplary way the contrast between two forces: the force of gravity and the weight of life we are part of. The need and the search for balance, which exists in every living being to counteract the force of gravity, is evident in every step and in every small action of our lives.” Penone said in a statement. (more…)
Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette has spoken out on the proposed plan to auction off parts of the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection to pay off some of the city’s considerable debts. Speaking on Thursday, Schuette emphasized the public nature of the collection, and its role as part of a public trust. “The art collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts is held by the city of Detroit in charitable trust for the people of Michigan, and no piece in the collection can thus be sold, conveyed or transferred to satisfy City debts or obligations.” He said. (more…)
