Raymond Pettibon, A Pen of All Work (Installation View), via Art Observed

Over the past 50 years, few artists have produced a body of work as expansive, multivalent, and formally diverse as Raymond Pettibon, the longtime illustrator whose early work for the Los Angeles punk band Black Flag set the stage for his later career delving into the often elusive, twisting histories of American culture.  Ranging from literary rumination on baseball, surfing and poetry through to comical interpretations of the dark history of the American counterculture, Pettibon’s endlessly evolving body of work, often executed in pen and ink, twists and turns varied histories into an endlessly flowing stream of images, one that often functions as an alternative to the prolific mass media systems of modern American culture.  This restless approach to his craft is on view this spring at the New Museum, where his first major retrospective, A Pen of All Work, has brought hundreds of the artist’s works to bear on the walls of the institution. (more…)

Marcel Dzama & Raymond Pettibon, Beware Diamond Dog (2016)

Forgetting the Hand, a novel collaboration between Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon, is currently on view at David Zwirner Gallery.  The show pulls together two artists, who, though emerging from vastly different generations and backgrounds, share noted parallels in the conveyance of the ridicule of contemporary culture.  Even the exhibition title emphasizes the interconnectedness between the two artists’ practices, where distinction of authorship between the two evaporates. Both represented by David Zwirner since the 90’s, Pettibon and Dzama embarked on this collaboration in the summer of 2015 on the occasion of New York Art Book Fair, where David Zwirner Books presented a zine printed with many of these pieces. (more…)

Image: Sean Daly, Shaun Regen, Kathryn Bigelow, and John Loga via Vogue

Shaun Caley Regen opened her new location in Los Angeles last night at 6750 Santa Monica Boulevard, in a newly developing section of Hollywood, just east of Highland Avenue. The new space was designed by architect Michael Maltzan, creating a museum-like exhibition venue.

Image: Regen Projects’ inaugural exhibition via Regen Projects

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Paul McCarthy, Cultural Gothic (1992). All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

Art Observed was on site for the private Tuesday evening preview of the Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation show American Exuberance. Throughout 28 gallery spaces in a 45,000 sq ft museum, 190 works by 64 artists explore the American condition today through art, dissecting the paradoxical arenas of culture, economics, and politics. A 244-page catalog includes written commentaries by 13 of the artists from the notable roster, as follows: Thomas Houseago, Richard Jackson, Rashid Johnson, Nate Lowman, Richard Prince, Sterling Ruby, Haim Steinbach, Ryan Trecartin, and to name a few. About a quarter of the works were made in 2011 specifically for the show.  Also, Art Observed returned the next morning on Wednesday for Jennifer Rubell’s 11th annual breakfast, which is presented every morning throughout the week, treats visitors to a small jar of fresh yogurt, to be ‘anointed’ with honey dripping from the ceiling.

Collecting dripping honey at Jennifer Rubell’s Incubation yogurt and honey breakfast.

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Raymond Pettibon, Desire in Pursuyt of the Whole, 2011. Image via Re-Title.

In his current solo exhibition at Regen Projects, Desire in Pursuyt of the Whole, Los Angeles-based artist Raymond Pettibon shows a range of his works, from the more recent densely-woven collages to his well-known heroic surfers. Pettibon is one of the few artists whose work moves fluidly between the pages of Juxtapoz magazine and the walls of the Whitney Biennial, sustaining both the criticality of a conceptually-oriented practice and the cool ease of a graphic novelist.

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‪‬Raymond Pettibon lends imagery to Red Hot Chili Peppers music video [AO Newslink]

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Raymond Pettibon, No Title (From life to…), 2011 (est. $200,000-300,000, realized $760,000), via Christies.com

Dasha Zhukova launches Garage magazine with fashion/art collaborations from Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, John Baldessari, Raymond Pettibon, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy and Richard Prince [AO Newslink]

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Move over vaporetti — there’s a new barge in town. Slated to gracing the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice over the past five days was a project by The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, entitled “Commercial Break.” The exhibition is organized by Neville Wakefield, a contemporary art writer prolific curator globally. Powered by POST Magazine, “Commercial Break” considers itself to be a provocative architectural intervention in a city where no advertising is traditionally displayed. Unfortunately, as Artinfo reported, the city pulled permits a few days before and the videos were instead screened at the project’s Bauer Hotel party. The woman behind the “GCCC” is Dasha Zukhova, girlfriend of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich; it is the institution’s second project in Venice.  All videos are now viewable on the exhibition’s website.

Among videos featured is one by  Richard Phillips, starring Lindsey Lohan.

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Raymond Pettibon No Title (Have You Seen) (2011), via CFA Berlin.

American artist Raymond Pettibon and German artist Anselm Reyle opened Contemporary Fine Art’s exhibition in this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin.  Pettibon’s show is titled “Looker-Upper”, and is composed of more than eighty new drawings, portraying themes from sports, sex, and popular culture.  Reyle’s show is titled “Little Cody”, and is made up of several painting/compositions, three foil-neon pieces, and collection of sofas.  Pettibon’s show takes up the ground floor of CFA, while Reyle’s show takes up the second.

Anselm Reyle Untitled (2011), via CFA Berlin.

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Scott Campbell, Untitled (2011). All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed.

Friday evening marked the opening of Marc Jancou Contemporary’s exhibition Blankness is Not a Void, a group show of works by Steven Parrino, Raymond Pettibon and Scott Campbell. Encouraging a dialogue between three artists of disparate time and locale, the exhibition showcases the overlapping thematic and formal references each artist drew not only from their social milieu, but also from each other.

Artist Scott Campbell (left) and gallerist Marc Jancou (right) with friends.

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Berlin will host its ersatz spring art fair, Gallery Weekend Berlin (GWB), this weekend, Apr. 29 – May 1, with over 44 galleries participating. Now in its seventh installment, GWB has an air of excitement about it – perhaps due to the number of buyers, dealers, and other visitors flying in, which also coincides with the yoke of the winter season being thrown off.  In any event, GWB promises some interesting viewing experiences, and brings a concentrated selection of strong art and events to a city is a prime destination for the creatives of the world.

Albert Oehlen, Stars (2005), via Galerie Max Hetzler

More images and text after the jump…

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No Title (We embrace them), Raymond Pettibon (2010). All images via Gladstone Gallery

On view at Gladstone Gallery Brussels is a collection of new works on paper by renowned Southern California artist Raymond Pettibon. This exhibition further delves into Pettibon’s fascination with American culture and iconography, with an assortment of drawings executed in his signature style. Combining imagery and text from a wide array of sources, Pettibon has increasingly explored new applications of color and collage, creating densely fragmented scenes that inspect the disjointed and sometimes sinister impulses at work in past and present constructions of Americana.

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Dirty Brian, Nigel Cooke (2010) Retail value: $2,500 – 3,500+ Opening bid: $2,000

This Saturday, May 15, New York’s oldest alternative and non-profit art space, White Columns, will host a special reception featuring a live auction.  Silent bidding has already begun on many of the works that are currently on view at the gallery on West 13th Street, New York – and a select group of works are to be sold at the live auction, conducted by White Columns director Matthew Higgs. White Columns wanted the works in the auction to be viewed as a curated exhibition, and indeed, the works have been on view for the past two weeks.  Last Saturday White Columns hosted a preview breakfast as part of New York Gallery Week.  Director Matthew Higgs explains, “we think it is important that the donated works have a chance to be seen by a wide public, and seen within the context of an exhibition…as opposed to the works being sold at a one-night only, ticketed event.”

Fallen Angels – Julie London, David Byrne (2010) Retail value: $1,000+ Opening bid: $500

Now entering their fifth decade of operation, White Columns has supported and launched the careers of literally thousands of artists.  Founded in 1970 by Jeffrey Lew and Gordon Matta-Clark, the space is one of the first artist-run organizations  intended to promote artistic communal solidarity. Many of the 75 artists who have contributed works have a historic, or more recent, connection to the organization – emphasizing an inter-generational ‘peer’ philanthropy so inherent to not-for-profit gallery culture. Among the artists who donated works are Peter Doig, Maurizio Cattelan, David Byrne and many others.  Bidders should have the opportunity to acquire choice works at a variety of price ranges. The top lot of the live auction is Mary Heilmann’s For Malcolm – a tribute to the recently deceased London-born impresario Malcolm McLaren, the work is one of a number of music-inspired works that feature in both the silent and live auctions.

As a special feature of the 2010 benfit, Higgs invited more than 30 artists to create a new work that incorporates an existing record sleeve, or to create a work that uses a record sleeve as its point of departure.  in this section include: Nigel Cooke, Brendan Fowler, Wade Guyton, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jutta Koether, Josephine Meckseper, Dave Muller, David Noonan, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Pierson, Richard Phillips, Cheyney Thompson, Kelley Walker, among others.

Musicians of the British Empire, Peter Doig (2010) Retail value: $25,000+ Opening bid: $12,500

More images and lot info after the jump…..
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Raymond Pettibon, No Title (As he enlarged)

Raymond Pettibon brings a collection of new and early works to Sadie Coles HQ in London through January 9th. A prolific artist who has exhibited hundreds of times over a span of decades, the exhibition will convey interesting juxtapositions throughout his aesthetic formation.

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Futura, Jules de Balincourt, Dustin Yellin, Eric White, Tom Sachs, Shepard Fairey, Jeffrey Deitch, Lance Armstrong, Mark Parker, Geoff McFetridge, José Parlá, Dzine posing in front of a painting by Cai Guo Qiang; photo courtesy of Black Frame

A day before seven bicycles with frames designed by contemporary artists, and used by Lance Armstrong in his comeback season for July’s Tour de France, raised $1.3 million, an exhibition of artwork commissioned to benefit the legendary cyclist’s cancer foundation opened at Deitch Projects.  Launched in Paris at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, STAGES- the exhibit comprised of commissioned works created by over twenty established contemporary artists, is currently on view at New York’s Deitch Projects. Artists involved include Cai Guo-Qiang, Rosson Crow, Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, Catherine Opie, Os Gemeos, Raymond Pettibon, Andreas Gursky, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha and Tom Sachs. STAGES will run through November 21, 2009.  AO interviews some of the artists to find out their personal connection to the cause of STAGES, their view on creating commissioned work and the story of their involvement with the project powered by Lance Armstrong Foundation and Nike and its goal of raising awareness of cancer.

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Rosson Crow in front of her piece “Texas Cycle Show”

Works presented in STAGES manifest not merely a vast array of mediums and stylistic approaches, they also speak of a multitude of equally appropriate paths the artists have taken in building the show.

Rosson Crow about STAGES: “This whole thing is incredible and overwhelming, it is a really awesome show with a great cause. Charity work is something that I love doing so this was a really cool opportunity. This painting that I did for the show is called ‘Texas Cycle Show’ and is based on an 1800′ cycle exposition. I made it Texas because both Lance and I are from Texas… kind of bringing the historical Texas vibe… and of course the bicycles I thought were perfect for a Lance Armstrong show [laughs]” When asked about any personal connections that the artist has with the cause, Rosson Crow comments that “it is hard to find anybody whose life has not been affected by cancer, so I think that everybody has a personal relationship to it in some way.”

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Yoshitomo Nara, “Fire” via STAGES

More text, images and interviews after the jump… (more…)

Ed Ruscha’s ‘Vital to the Core’ via STAGES

On view now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris is ‘STAGES,’ a fundraising exhibition organized by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong, featuring artists such as Ed Ruscha, Shepard Fairey, Richard Prince, and a number of others. The exhibition runs concurrently with the Tour de France, which ends on Sunday, July 26th. In addition to the gallery exhibition, which is planned to tour the world after its run at Emmanuel Perrotin, Livestrong has teamed up with Nike and Supertouch to curate a line of artist-designed bikes for Lance to ride during the Tour. Those artists include KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, and Damien Hirst, who designed the bike for the final stage of the Tour de France. ‘STAGES’ runs July 15-August 8, 2009 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, after which it will open at the Armory Center in New York on October 2, according to the LA Times.

The Bike Shepard Fairey designed for Lance Armstrong via Supertouch

STAGES09
Hirst to Help Lance Armstrong’s Health Charity Raise $4 Million [Bloomberg]
Damien Hirst Has Designs on Lance Armstrong’s Bike [NY Times]
Nike Livestrong STAGES Exhibition [High Snobiety]
Preview: Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG x Nike Stages Exhibition @ Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin [Arrested Motion]
Lance Armstrong x Nike Sportswear – “Stages” Touring Art Exhibition Supporting Livestrong [Arrested Motion]
Lance Armstrong x Nike Sportswear “Stages” Touring Art Exhibition [Hypebeast]
Lance Armstrong x Trek x Damien Hirst Stages Project Bike [Limited Hype]
Marc Newson for Lance Armstrong – TREK Art Bike [Freshness]
Lance Armstrong’s New Trek Madone Bikes By Kaws & Barry McGee [High Snobiety]
Tom Sachs‘ Lance’s TequilaBike For Girls [The World’s Best Ever]
Stages exhibition, Paris [Wallpaper]
Interview: KAWS @ Stages, Paris [DailyduJour]
AFC+: Will Damien Hirst Remind Lance Armstrong of His Mortality? [Art Fag City]
PARIS///LANCE ARMSTRONG’S TREK ART BIKES COME TO LIFE IN THE WINDOW OF COLETTE [Supertouch]
NEWS///LANCE ARMSTRONG SURGES BACK TO ACTION IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE ON A MARC NEWSON TREK TTX ART BIKE [Supertouch]
ANNOUNCING “STAGES”: LANCE ARMSTRONG’S SUPERTOUCH-CURATED ANTI-CANCER ART SHOW OPENING JULY 16TH [Supertouch]
Lance Armstrong rides bike decorated by Damien Hirst [Art Review]
L.A. artists lend a hand to Lance Armstrong [LA Times]
Livestrong x Stages | Recap [Limited Hype]
Trek Lance Armstrong STAGES Bike by Yoshitomo Nara [Hypebeast]

The bike Yoshitomo Nara designed for Lance Armstrong for the Tour de France via Hypebeast

more images and story after the jump…

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Christian Marclay, Untitled, 1987 via Art Daily.

Sonic Youth etc. : Sensational Fix is on display now at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. The exhibition explores the collaborative works of the historic experimental band Sonic Youth and the artists, filmmakers, designers, and musicians they have worked with since their formation in 1981. The exhibition illustrates the history of the New York City band through records, posters, T-shirts, instruments, and photographs which serve to encourage the audience to consider the division between “high” and “popular” art. The works themselves, much like the music of Sonic Youth, document an alternative coming of age including teenage rebellion, restlessness of youth, the search for fame, identity, gender roles, sexuality, and religion. The show features the work of notables Jenny Holzer, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Jeff Wall, among others., and will conclude with a sold-out Sonic Youth performance on April 24, 2009. Sonic Youth etc. : Sensational Fix has previously been displayed at LiFe in Saint-Nazaire, France and the Museion Bozen in Italy, and will move to Malmö Konsthall in Sweden, and the Centro Huarte de Arte Contemporaneo in Spain following its current stay in Düsseldorf.

Press Release [Kunsthalle Düsseldorf]
Sonic Youth etc. : Sensational Fix [Sonic Youth Media]
Sonic Youth etc. : Sensational Fix [Art News]
Sonic Youth etc. : Sensational Fix at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf [Art Daily]
Fountain of Sonic Youth [Hint Mag] (more…)

Installation view of Raymond Pettibon’s ‘Cutting Room Floor Show: Part II’ via SuperTouch

Raymond Pettibon is well known for his stark black-and-white ink drawings, with rough comic-like images and often ambiguous captions. But Pettibon’s current show at Regen Projects II in Los Angeles is awash with color and full of layers in a reinvention of the artist’s familiar vocabulary of politics, pop culture, nature, and sexuality. This exhibition of new works complements the gallery’s retrospective of Pettibon’s work from the 70s and 80s earlier this fall. The artist’s latest oeuvre stands in stark contrast with those simpler, sparer works. The notoriously prolific artist has plastered the walls with dozens of pieces, as well as painting onto the wall to incorporate the paintings and collages on paper into a larger installation.

Raymond Pettibon – Cutting Room Floor Show: Part II [Regen Projects]
Raymond Pettibon’s ‘Cutting Room Floor Show: Part II’ at Regen Projects [SuperTouch]
Raymond Pettibon at Regen Projects (Part II) [Art21]

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A beach towel by Ed Ruscha via the Art Production Fund

Just in time for Art Basel Miami Beach, new beach towels by Ed Ruscha, Karen Kilimnik, Raymond Pettibon and Julian Schnabel are ready, catch them at the Raleigh Hotel [Art Production Fund]
A Page Six roundup of some of the Art Basel Miami Beach parties, as usual, the Raleigh hotel is front and center [NYPost]

“Paysage, le mur rose” (Landscape, the Pink Wall) by Henri Matisse via Artsjournal

France gives back Henri Matisse painting, once seized by Nazi SS officer, proceeds from sale to go to British charity for medical rescue in Israel [Artsjournal] more here [AP]

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar via The New York Times

Qatar opens the 41,000 square foot, IM Pei designed Museum of Islamic Art in Doha; Robert de Niro, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and London dealer Jay Jopling attend festivities [NewYork Times]

Portrait of a lady as Flora , by Italian master Giambattista Tiepolo

A lost painting by Giambattista Tiepolo, discovered in a chateau attic, may sell for £1m at Christie’s sale in London next week [FinancialTimes]
City of San Francisco not accepting $1 billion gift to build space to show Gap Inc. founder Don Fisher’s 1,000 work strong collection due to aesthetics of architecture [Bloomberg]
A review of Calvin Tomkins’s ‘Lives of the Artists’ which profiles headliners such as Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Schnabel, Serra, Koons, Currin and others [NYObserver)

Portrait Ria Munk III – by Gustav Klimt via Linz Presse

Lentos Museum in Austria may have to give a $10 million Gustav Klimt painting to heirs of Holocaust victim [Bloomberg]

The artist Steve McQueen via GuardianUK

Turner prize winning video artist Steve McQueen interviewed, and more, on his new film, ‘Hunger’ [GuardianUK]

No Title (They’ve shot the) (1982), Raymond Pettibon via Regen Projects

A little-known fact about Raymond Pettibon is that he raised “sporting” pitbulls and mastiffs in the backyard of his home in Hermosa Beach, California.  For someone so inextricably linked to the punk and hardcore music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980’s, this may not come as such a surprise to some.  Pettibon won wide-spread appeal for his ambiguous and irreverent monochromatic comic-like posters and album covers for the band Black Flag and SST records, both founded by his older brother Greg Ginn. One can digest Pettibon’s work as a type of stark and detached reenactment of a depraved silent-film with wry, tongue-in-cheek undertones. Even Pettibon’s use of “sporting” rather than “fighting” with reference to his dogs exemplifies his seemingly caustic dryness.  Part one of a two part Pettibon solo exhibition at Regen Projects in Los Angeles runs from September 13th to October 18th and features seminal works showcased in some of his early ‘zines. His second exhibit runs from December 13, 2008 to January 24, 2009 also at Regen Projects.

Raymon Pettibon Part I: Seminal Early Works 1978-88 [Regen Projects]
Raymon Pettibon Seminal Early Works 1978-88 [LA Times]
Raymon Pettibon Exhibit at Regen Projects [LAist]
Interview with Raymond Pettibon [Believermag]

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“untitled” by Raymond Pettibon via BFAS

From May 22 through July, 19, BFAS Blondeau Fine Art Services in Geneva is hosting the new exhibition of Raymond Pettibon entitled “Punk Epocha” which is composed of 70 drawings from the eighties.
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Raymond Pettibon [BFAS]
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Raymond Pettibon – Punk Epocha: 70 drawings from the Eighties [Artnet]

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