Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (1983), via Sotheby’s

The Contemporary Evening sale at Sotheby’s has concluded, following a sale of works that was fairly by the book in comparison with past auctions, with the exception of a massive new auction record for artist Gerhard Richter just one day after his 83rd birthday.  Despite a lack of exceptionally competitive bidding, the 77-lot sale still brought in impressive returns, finishing at a tally of £123,515,250. (more…)

Ragnar Kjartansson, Me and My Mother (2010), via Art Observed

When The New Museum opened its doors for its spring season last month, curator Massimo Gioni noted subtle threads of comparison in the pieces on view.  Meant to be a concise yet meticulous look into a series of individual works or focuses from a disparate group of artists, the series of exhibitions currently on view play on a series of common threads, incorporating mixes of sound and music, documentary, performance and history from artists Camille Henrot, Hannah Sawtell, David Horvitz, Jeanine Oleson and Roberto Cuoghi, arranged in a way that perhaps makes best sense to address as a singular experience the artists’ works, shared themes, and interests.

Hannah Sawtell, ACCUMULATOR (2014), via Art Observed (more…)

This spring, three shows of work by artist Ai Weiwei are opening in London, Berlin and New York, with a major retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, an exhibition at Lisson Gallery in London, and the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date at the Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin.  The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum includes the artist’s S.A.C.R.E.D. works, half-sized dioramas depicting his 81-day imprisonment that commanded major critical attention at the Venice Biennale last year.  The exhibitions come with a hope that Chinese tourists may be exposed to Ai’s work outside his own country.   “Because my work is banned from being shown inside China, the only way they can become aware of it is from the outside,” he said. (more…)

Inside the Brooklyn Artists Ball at the Brooklyn Museum

The annual Brooklyn Artists Ball took place last week on April 24th, featuring award presentations to Barbara Knowles Debs, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu and Roxy Paine for their collective contributions to the vibrant and growing arts scene of New York’s second borough.  The event also featured a series custom designed table settings from a number of New York artists, including Jules de Balincourt, Njideka Akunyili, Daniel Arsham, FAILE, Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw, a performance by Brooklyn’s The Push Pop Collective, and more.  Art Observed was on site for the event, and took these photos showcasing the highlights of the night.

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Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, French Horns, Unwound and Entwined (2005), via PKM Gallery

Since they began working together in 1971, Claes Oldenburg and his late wife Coosje van Bruggen have created a dense body of work melding together their creative approaches in a variety of large-scale public installations and gallery works.  Appropriating the form of conventional, commonplace objects and recasting them at enormous proportions, the couple’s art simultaneously plays at the viewer’s perceptions of reality and the irony of the subject matter on view. (more…)