The Venice Biennale has released its final list of artists for this summer’s art exhibition, titled The Encyclopedic Palace.  The list includes a number of both prominent and young artists, including Ed Atkins, Uri Aran, and Miroslaw Balka.  “With the Encyclopedic Palace, Massimiliano Gioni (this year’s Biennale’s curator), much more than presenting us with a list of contemporary artists, wishes to reflect on their creative urges and seems to push the question even further: what is the artists’ world?”  says president Paolo Baratta. (more…)

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.

Uri Aran loves cookies. In his current show, by foot, by car, by bus at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, the artist explores the eminent childhood snack from a variety of media, discussing them in video, capturing them in photograph, and incorporating them into his large-scale tabletop sculptures, creating a motif of seemingly childish innocence that spans Aran’s vocabulary as a sculptor, illustrator, video, and performance artist.

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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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Uri Aran, All This Is Yours, (Detail), Mixed Media, 2010.

Over 900 people were in attendance at the opening last Sunday, May 2 for “Knight’s Move,” the new show at SculptureCenter, running through July 26, 2010. The exhibition brings together artists prominent to the dialog of New York’s recent past as well as those at the very beginning of their careers.  Curated by Fionn Meade, this survey of new sculpture in New York embodies an informed yet playful and questioning view of the contemporary.  Working within this theme, the exhibition’s title refers to the chess piece whose move is tactical, stealthy, and surprising.

The exhibited artists include Uri Aran, David Brooks, Nikolas Gambaroff, Tamar Halpern, Alex Hubbard, Esther Kläs, Daniel Lefcourt, Joanna Malinowska, Ohad Meromi, Virginia Poundstone, Cassie Raihl, Erin Shirreff, Alexandre Singh, Matt Sheridan Smith, Mika Tajima, Tom Thayer, Sara VanDerBeek, and Allyson Vieira.

No Neck Blues Band performs on David Brook’s installation in SculptureCenter courtyard. All opening images by Su Beyazit, courtesy of SculptureCenter.

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Just Trying To Break The Ice… by Michael Caputo.

“The Living and the Dead” is a collaborative show of over 50 artists, including Amy Yao, Brian Belott, Anicka Yi, Uri Aran, George Condo, Justin Matherly, Haim Steinback, and dozens of others. The art is an almost bewildering mix of styles and mediums, ranging from wooden statues to fishing poles, giant ice cubes, elastic, and deep-fried q-tips.  The show opened last night at Gavin Brown`s Enterprises, and runs from July 1st – Aug. 7th.

Related Links:
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Gavin Brown’s Enterprise [Official Site]
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Summer Group Shows, Part II [Artnet]

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