Voice of America (Installation View), via Gladstone

In 1975, Vito Acconci installed his now classic piece Voice of America at Portland Center for Contemporary Arts.  The piece was a love letter by way of a music lesson, according to the artist, an attempt at getting under the skin of the nation, and to speak to the inner spirit of the nation. “One kind of American music drifts into another: America presented in a music lesson, a geography lesson: from Ozark fiddle to California harmonica to New Orleans piano,” Acconci says. “My voice is the voice of a mythical Mr. America talking to Mrs. America: we’re giving voice to an American dream… There is a voice calling out from the wilderness, jabs of voice…here’s the response from the children of America.” (more…)

Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija releases his first film ‘Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbors’, which follows a 60 year-old retired rice farmer based in Chiang Mai, a rural province of Thailand. The film, released today in Manhattan, maintains no story line or screenplay in its minimalist progression.

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Gavin Brown and Mark Ruffalo cooking sausages. All photographs by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

The always fresh but now venerable Frieze Art Fair of Regent’s Park, London, has successfully completed its maiden voyage to this side of the Atlantic. The pavilion, designed by Brooklyn-based SO-IL Architects, places Frieze New York on Randall’s Island Park from May 4-7, 2012. The fair is being held in a distinctly snakelike structure that houses 180 leading contemporary galleries presenting works by more than 1,000 artists. There are a number of culinary options as well: Roberta’s, The Fat Radish Café, Frankie’s Spuntino Restaurant, Sant Abroeus Café and the Standard Biergarten.

Entrance to the Frieze Art Fair

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‪‬Rirkrit Tiravanija to host 12 hour soup banquet, ‘Soup/No Soup’ within Grand Palais in Paris as prelude to La Triennale 2012, noon to midnight tomorrow, April 7 [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.

More text and images after the jump…

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A view of the exhibit at Gavin Brown Gallery. All photos by L. Streeter, Art Observed.

On Saturday night, Rirkrit Tiravanija opened a new exhibition at Gavin Brown Enterprise in the West Village, completely redesigning the gallery space and re-purposing various rooms in order to host a dinner party of sorts. The show, entitled “Fear Eats the Soul” was named after the 1974 Fassbinder film “Ali – Fear Eats the Soul” which portrayed the story of two lovers together in Germany, who live in opposite worlds and fight to protect their love from racial tension and the scrutiny of others. Tiravanija himself comes from a widely diverse background; he was raised in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Canada and currently divides his time between New York, Berlin, and Bangkok. His acute global awareness certainly has an influence in this exhibition, which features a T-shirt printing factory producing shirts with equally politically-aware and nonsensical slogans in block print. The slogans feature a range of phrases, from solemn ones such as “BEHOLD YOUR FUTURE EXECUTIONERS” to silly word games and statements like “BRING ON THE LOBSTERS” which are hand-screened onto plain T-shirts.

A view of the silk-screening workshop.

More text and images after the jump…

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Rirkrit Tiravanija Untitled (Asile Flottant), 2010. Installation view. Via Galerie Chantal Crousel.

Rirkrit Tiravanija‘s fourth solo show at Galerie Chantal Crousel combines the artist’s interest in social architecture and the intersection between politics and everyday life into an installation entitled Asile Flottant (Floating Asylum). Tiravanija has re-created Le Corbusier‘s barge of the same name (1930), designed for the Salvation Army as a floating refuge for Parisian vagrants and prostitutes in the winter, and as a playground for children in the summertime. Le Corbusier conceived of the work as a model for a new social community for the underclass. Tiravanija’s re-creation of the barge was made by workers in Thailand and is on a half-scale proportion to the original, exploring the barge as a structure for living and socializing in a new context.

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Country Life, Jack Pierson (2010) goes under the hammer at White Columns Live Benefit Auction, 2010. All photos by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved.

The generosity was very evident on Saturday, May 15, when a crowd of artists, collectors and other art-world regulars packed into White Columns‘ West Village headquarters for the not-for-profit’s Annual Benefit Auction. Organized by the gallery to benefit their ongoing mission to support and expose emerging artists, the evening showcased a live auction that included work by long-time supporters of the gallery such as Anne Collier, Peter Doig, Adam McEwen, Rob Pruitt and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The live portion of the sale was complimented by a silent auction of work donated by coveted artists David Byrne, Spencer Sweeney, Andy Coolquitt and Joan Jonas, alongside contributions from newcomers such as Amy Yao and Ned Vena.

The top lots from the evening’s live auction were Peter Doig’s Musicians of the British Empire, a painting dedicated to his long-time friend Billy Childish, which sold for $62,000, and Mary Heilmann’s For Malcolm, another of the night’s music-inspired lots, which earned $22,000. Other highlights in the live sale included Wade Guyton’s Untitled, one of the sale’s lots to incorporate a record sleeve, fetched $9,500 and Anne Collier’s photograph of two copies of Norman Mailer’s book ‘Marilyn’ on her studio floor raised $19,000. The remainder of the evening was given over to the silent auction, during which time attendees can jot their bidder numbers on clipboards next to works. The works that generated the most frenzied competition in this section were the contributions of Andy Coolquit, Shio Kusaka, and Tauba Auerbach. White Columns’ famous xerox prints – 11” x 8 ½” prints produced in signed editions of 50 copies – saw great competition, most notable in this category were Ann Craven’s Heart of Gold, Adam McEwen’s Unisex and Elizabeth Peyton’s Flaubert in Egypt (After Delacroix). Another work to be picked up through the silent auction was Nigel Cooke’s title, (2007-08) which was purchased for $6,800, approximately $4,000 over its estimated retail value.

White Columns Director, Matthew Higgs, commands the impressive sale of Peter Doig’s Musicians of the British Empire, Peter Doig (2010) Retail value: $25,000+ Price Realized: $62,000

More images and video of live auctions after the jump…..
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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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Installation view of Liam Gillick: Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Currently on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, through January 10, is an extensive exhibition of a size and significance previously unprecedented in an American museum, featuring British artist Liam Gillick. “Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short Scenario,” interestingly marks the final installment of an elaborate multi-part, multi-national project, in association with Witte de With in Rotterdam, Kunsthalle Zurich, and the Kunstverein in Munich, that represents this celebrated artist. Each location offered a unique, yet complementary, investigation into Gillick’s practice resulting in a rigorously comprehensive mid-career survey.

Liam Gillick, Rescinded Production, 2008. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Image courtesy of Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York.

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Installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s ‘Less Oil More Courage’ via Kunsthalle Fridericianum

Running January 17-March 15 and April 4-June 21, 2009 at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany is Rirkrit Tiravanija’s ‘Less Oil More Courage,’ a large wall painting comprised of those words. The phrase comes from an invitation that Tiravanija received to a posthumous exhibition of painter Peter Cain. The invitation featured a reproduction from Cain’s notebooks with the words ‘More courage less oil.’ What for Cain was a painter’s mantra is opened to many more possibilities of interpretation through Tiravanija’s grammatical reversal and recontextualizations.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: ‘Less Oil More Courage’ [Kunsthalle Fridericianum]
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Kunsthalle Fridericianum to Open Rirkrit Tiravanija: Less Oil More Courage [Artdaily]

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Terence Koh in United  Bamboo via Refinery29

Artist and downtown NYC fixture Terence Koh Models for United Bamboo [Refinery29]
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A review of director of Hauser and Wirth gallery Gregor Muir’s book on the seminal period of the Young British Art movement of the 80’s “They were too drunk, too coked up, too busy scrounging up some rent, too out of work and squalor-happy to remember much about the glory days.” [TimesUK]
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Art Tactic reports 81% fall in confidence levels in contemporary-art market, predicts 3-5 years to recovery, institutes new “survival rating” to predict artists to be considered still relevant in 10 years [Bloomberg]
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In related, the Art Newspaper offers predictions for the market in 2009 [ArtNewspaper]
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Olafur Eliasson’s book via Space Invading

Commissioned by MOMA, Olafur Eliasson creates 454 page, 85:1 scale, laser-cut negative space rendering of his home [SpaceInvading]
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Video of Rirkrit Tiravanija serving up vegetarian curry at a grafitti’d construction installation at David Zwirner [NewArtTV]
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The Louvre begins managing its first ever endowment of $230m received from the United Arab Emirates to build a museum there [NYTimes]
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When artwork decays and requires reproduction [WallStreetJournal]
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Anthony Haden-Guest on Yves Saint Laurent’s 700+ work art collection to be auctioned in February by Christie’s Paris at a £200m to £300m estimate [GuardianUK]
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Still from JG Reads, a film by Rirkrit Tiravanija, via Gavin Brown’s  enterprise

John Giorno–poet, musician, performance artist, and collaborator with William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol–is the protagonist of a film by Rirkrit Tiravanija, currently showing at Gavin Brown’s enterprise.  Giorno, who was the subject of Warhol’s first film (Sleep, 1963), is considered a fixture of the New York creative community.  His studio was an experimentation hub for the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, John Cage, and other groundbreaking postwar artists.  The film, which runs for 10 hours, incorporates five decades of John Giorno’s music, poetry, and memoirs from a very interesting life, aiming to capture what the gallery’s press release refers to as a “New York that now exists only as an idea.”

JG READS by Rirkrit Tiravanija
through December 20, 2008
Gavin Brown’s enterprise
620 Greenwich St, New York, NY
Open Tues – Sat, 10am through 6pm

Gallery: Gavin Brown’s enterprise
Exhibit site: JG Reads
JG Reads Press Release
Video: JG Reads

‘Revolving Hotel Room,’ by Carsten Holler, on display at ‘theanyspacewhatever’ at the Guggenheim, via New York Times

‘theanyspacewhatever,’ which opened at the Guggenheim on October 24th, aims to capture and evoke the zeitgeist of the early 1990s art world. The exhibition contains installations, pieces, and performances by Pierre Huyghe, Angela Bulloch, Liam Gillick, Maurizio Cattelan, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, and Rirkrit Tiravanija–artists who primarily come from the non-visual arts. The opening event, entitled ‘Opening,’ was a participatory piece by Pierre Huyghe where most of the museum’s lights were shut off, with the only illumination coming from headlights distributed to the attendees. The gaze of those in attendance defines the artwork both literally and figuratively–a self-consciously contrived conceit which reflects the spirit of the exhibition. ‘Opening’ will occur again on November 17th and December 8th. Another notable piece is the Revolving Hotel Room by Carsten Höller, a rotating bed and hotel room set that can be booked by visitors who wish to sleep there, offering a chance to live at the Guggenheim, if only for a night (unfortunately however, it’s sold out).

theanyspacewhatever
through January 7th, 2009
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NY

Exhibition page: theanyspacewhatever
A Nighttime Spin at the Guggenheim [New York Times]
Museum as Romantic Comedy [New York Times]
Night at the Museum [ArtForum]
Night at the Museum [NewYorkMagazine]
theanyspacewhatever at the Guggenheim Museum [VernissageTV]

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Rirkrit Tiravanija, “Untitled (demonstration no. 138), 2006. via the Drawing Center

The Drawing Center will present over 200 works on paper in Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings. The series is the artist’s first U.S. museum exhibition displaying drawings he commissioned derived from demonstrations published in the International Herald Tribune. Composed by Thai artists, many of whom were students of Tiravanija, his visions convey a photorealistic portrayal of immediacy responding to power, oppression, and global capital. Curated by João Ribas, Demonstration Drawings fashions a perspective centered on popular sovereignty movements worldwide and ongoing forms of social strife.  In part know for his cooking-sessions-as-art in gallery exhibitions, Rirkrit’s work usually deals with “relational aesthetics,” a theoretical departure from private space while creating inclusion of the whole of human relations and their social context.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings [Drawing Center]
The Conceptual Provocateur: Rirkrit Tiravanija [NewYorkSun]
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Demonstration Drawings at Drawing Center [ArtFagCity]
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Demonstration Drawings [ArtCal]
RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA Demonstration Drawings at the Drawing Center
by David Cohen [ArtCritical]

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Rob Pruitt, Viagra Falls (2008) via Tony Shafrazi Gallery

“Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns?” runs from May 9 – July 12 at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York. Gavin Brown and Swiss artist Urs Fischer organized this show, which has been garnering a strong amount of publicity. Be sure to click on Art Observed’s exclusive covering of the opening. The exhibition celebrates juxtapositions throughout art and pays homage to Shafrazi’s legendary defacing of Picasso in the seventies by irreverent displays of art work out of context with traditional presentation. Different mediums, spaces, and uses of objects are shown. There are works from a wide range of artists, including,  Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, Cindy Sherman, to Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Tony Shafrazi Gallery
When Artworks Collide [NY Times]
Tony Shafrazi Defaces ‘Guernica’ Again [NY Magazine]
Picks: Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns?” [ArtForum]
Tony Shafrazi Defaces ‘Guernica’ Again [NYMag]
AO on site: Fischer & Brown at Tony Shafrazi Gallery [ArtObserved]

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