Joseph Kosuth, Neon, 1965

All images courtesy MACRO Rome.

MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, has filled its expansive Enel Hall with close to 70 illuminated works for its show Neon: the Luminous Matter of Art.  An exhibition dedicated solely to the use of neon, the show brings together 50 artists who have worked with the medium in contemporary practice. The sculptures, installations and textual works lay the art-historical framework for conceptual practice based on semiotics while also (more literally) paying homage to the medium’s origins as material for signage.

Delving into the past 50 years, on view are works by Dan Flavin, Joseph Kosuth, Tracy Emin, and Jason Rhoades, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Maurizio Cattelan, Spencer Finch, Dan Flavin, Claire Fontaine, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Alfredo Jaar, Gyula Kosice, Mario Merz, François Morellet, Bruce Nauman and Keith Sonnier, among many others.

Bruce Nauman, Raw/War, 1970, MACRO Rome.

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‪‬Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, who recently created an inflatable, bouncy Stonehenge sculpture, to represent Britain at Venice Biennale 2013, joining the ranks of Lucian Freud, Anish Kapoor, Tracy Emin, and 2011’s Mike Nelson as UK representatives

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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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‪‬London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic posters unveiled featuring 12 UK artists including Tracy Emin and Martin Creed, to be displayed at Tate Britain next year [AO Newslink]

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‘Newspeak: British Art Now,’ all images are via Charles Saatchi Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at the Saatchi Gallery is ‘Newspeak: British Art Now,’ an exhibition featuring more than 30 young British artists whose work is represented in the collection of Charles Saatchi. The European premiere of the show was held at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia in October 2009.

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Tragic Anatomies (1996) by Jake and Dinos Chapman, via Artnet

Renowned advertising tycoon and art collector Charles Saatchi, 67, announced today that he would gift the Saatchi Gallery and over 200 works of art to the nation. Located in the Duke of York Square in Chelsea, the gallery will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art London in 2012 once Saatchi retires. The works which will be donated total more than $37.5 million and are situated in a 70,000 square foot gallery, one of the largest spaces in the world. Among the works to be donated  include Tracey Emin‘s “My Bed” (1998), Jake and Dinos Chapman‘s “Tragic Anatomies” (1996), Richard Wilson’s oil room (1987), and Kader Attia‘s “Ghost” (2007).

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Exhibition view, “The Female Gaze: Woman Look at Women,” at Cheim & Read. Pictured works include Victoria Civera’s Searcher (far left) and Vanessa Beecroft’s Blonde Figure Lying (floor).

Through September 19, 2009, Cheim & Read will show “The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women.”  Featured are works by women of women, with aim to reorient the typically-male framing of women in art.  Works range in medium from the paintings of Alice Neel and Lisa Yuskavage to the sculptures of Kara Walker, the text poems of Jenny Holzer and the photographs by Diane Arbus, the installations by Louise Bourgeois and even collage work by Ellen Gallagher.

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Cheim & Read – Exhibition – The Female Gaze [Cheim and Read]
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Now Hanging: Girlie Show [The Moment Blog, New York Times]
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The Female Gaze, The Cheim and Read Gallery, New York [Financial Times]
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The Female Gaze: Women look at Women [Artforum]
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“The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women” at Cheim & Reid [Contemporary Art Daily]

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Cindy Sherman, Untitled, at Cheim & Read.

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