Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.

AO On Site – New York: Wolfgan Tillmans at Andrea Rosen Gallery through March 13, 2010

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010


“Eierstapel” (2009), part of the new Wolfgang Tillmans show at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Through March 13, Andrea Rosen is hosting 85 new works by the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, in an exhibition that diverges from much of his typical series. A picture of a baby opens the show, which includes pictures of the Gaza security fence, a triathlon, egg cartons, cities, nature… “Previous shows,” Tillmans tells Dominic Eichler, “…often included absurd moments and odd subject matter that had nothing to do with the core narrative of the ‘real’ utopias portrayed in my pictures. But this show reverses the balance – a few pictures from ‘my world’ are met with a majority of ‘outside’ world.”


Installation view of the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans. Photo by Jeremy Lawson

More images, story, and relevant links after the jump…
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AO On Site – New York: Steve McQueen at Marian Goodman through March 6, 2010

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010


A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery through March 6.

Through March 6, New York’s Marian Goodman Gallery is showing two films by Steve McQueen.  This is the American debut of “Giardini,” the 30-minute, two-projection film which premiered at the 2009 Venice Biennale and is set on its grounds. “Static” (2009) is showing for the first time, made specifically for the exhibition and centered around the Statue of Liberty. Perspective and national monument are satirized and subverted, recreated in this new exhibition.


A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery, along with “Giardini,” through March 6.

More images and story after the jump…
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Go see – Venice: “Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens” at the Venice Biennale, through November 22, 2009

Friday, September 4th, 2009


The U.S. Pavilion at Venice Biennale bearing a neon piece by Bruce Nauman via Contemporary Art Daily

Currently representing the US at Venice Biennale are works by Bruce Nauman. Titled “Topological Gardens” the show breaks the physical boundaries of US Pavilion extending its presence to the outside of the exhibition space and occupying additional two sites in Venice.  The official US entry at the 53d Venice Biennale is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is comprised of Bruce Nauman’s works created over the course of past forty years. The three exhibition sites include: the United States Pavilion, Universita IUAV and the Universita Ca’ Foscari. The Venice Biennale will be conclude November 22, 2009.

Related Links:
Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens [Nauman in Venice]
Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens/ US Pavilion/ 53d Venice Biennale 2009 [Vernissage TV]
Bittersweet Cacophony [Artnet]
Bruce Nauman Chosen for Venice Biennale [The New York Times]
Bruce Nauman: The man who would not be king [Modern Painters via Sperone Westwater]
Official Awards of the 53d International Art Exhibition [La Biennale di Venezia]

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Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens/ US Pavilion/ 53d Venice Biennale 2009 via Vernissage TV

More text and pictures after the jump… (more…)

Go See – London: ‘BOULE TO BRAID’ at Lisson Gallery Through August 15, 2009

Sunday, July 19th, 2009


Donald Judd, Untitled, in “Boule to Braid” at Lisson Gallery. Via the Telegraph

The Lisson Gallery is hosting “Boule to Braid” through August 15.   The exhibition draws exclusively from the collection of Nicholas Logsdail, Lisson Gallery’s young founder.  Featured are Carl Andre, Paul McCarthy, Donald Judd, Tony Cragg and more.

Related links:
Lisson Gallery – Exhibition – Boule to Braid: curated by Richard Wentworth
Art Sales: dealer who opened Saatchi’s eyes [the Telegraph]
Richard Wentworth on ‘Boule to Braid’ [Interview, artreview.com]
Boule de Braid: Private View with Adrian Searle [Guardian]


Tom Sachs, Supreme Allied Commander Moon Rock Box, in “Boule to Braid” at Lisson Gallery.

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2009 Venice Biennale – Art Observed summary of press preview weekend

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009


Michaelangelo Pistoletto’s performance of ‘Seventeen Less One’ at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

The 53rd Venice Biennale is now open to the public after a press preview June 4-6.  During that time, Art Observed was on site and also has collected some of the relevant news stories covering the event from the global press.

U.S. representative Bruce Nauman won the Golden Lion for best national participation for his exhibition ‘Topological Gardens,’ curated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Also receiving Golden Lions are Yoko Ono, John Baldessari, and Tobias Rehberger, who won the best artist award for his work ‘What you love also makes you cry.’  Highlights of the Biennale include Britain’s Steve McQueen’s film ‘Giardini,’ which portrays the Biennale Gardens when not used as exhibition space, Liam Gillick at the German Pavilion, covered by AO here, Elmgreem and Dragset’s ‘The Collectors’ at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions, and ‘Making Worlds,’ the International Art Exhibition curated by Daniel Birnbaum, both covered by AO here.

On the Biennale:
Venice Biennale 2009: the opening day
[GuardianUK]
Venice Biennale 2009 [Vernissage TV]
On your vaporetto to the far pavilions [GuardianUK]
Venice Biennale is a glimpse of the future [TimesUK]
Venice Biennale 2009: A photographer’s view [GuardianUK]
Trading places [Financial Times]
Venice Biennale Opens Showing Works by Over 90 Artists from all Over the World [Artdaily]
A More Serene Biennale [NY Times]
This, That, and the Other [Artforum]
It’s Reigning Men [ArtForum]
Blasblog From Venice: And So It Begins [Style.com]
“Art Is Everywhere” [Style.com]
The Venice Biennale opens with top honors for a German artist
[Deutsche Welle via Art Review]
Over and Over: Art That Never Stops
[NY Times]

On Bruce Naumann and the US Pavillion:
Bruce Nauman wins a Golden Lion at Venice Biennale
[LA Times]
Venice is doubly enamored of Bruce Nauman [LA Times]
Venice Biennial: Hear the U.S. Roar [Wall Street Journal]
Shaking up the world of art for decades [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Golden Lion for the Best National Participation Awarded to the U.S. Representation [Artdaily]
Nauman Tops Venice Biennale, Wins Golden Lion: Martin Gayford [Bloomberg]

On Pinault’s innaugaration of his new museum:
Francois Pinault Opens The New Punta della Dogana Contemporary Art Centre in Venice [Artdaily]
How the French Charles Saatchi became the merchant of Venice [Guardian]
Pinault’s Venice Empire Grows With Cool Contemporary-Art Museum [Bloomberg]

On Steven McQueen, representing the UK at the Biennale:
Steve McQueen at the Venice Biennale: Private view with Adrian Searle [Guardian]
Art Charities Collaborate to Fund Steve McQueen’s Giardini for Venice [Artdaily]
Steve McQueen found something new in Venice [Guardian]
Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” at the Venice Biennale [IFC]
Steve McQueen lets Venice Biennale viewer do the feeling with Giardini [Times]

On Swoon’s Swimming Cities of the Serrenisma,video from the New York Landing of her boat in previously in Long Island City covered by Art Observed here:
Barging in to Venice [New York]
Swoon in Venice, Italy [dailyDuJour]
Barging in to Venice [New York Magazine]

And more:
Venice Biennale: Flashing Lights [NY Times]
Venice Biennale: Ships in the Sky
[NY Times]
Venice Biennale: Listening to Art [NY Times]
Rauschenberg at the Guggenheim in Venice [Financial Times]
United Arab Emirates confronts stereotypes in Venice Biennale debut
[GuardianUK]
Ukraine pavilion is a Venice Biennale knockout [TimesUK]

more photos and story after the jump…

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AO On Site – Venice Biennale – Liam Gillick at the German Pavilion

Friday, June 5th, 2009


Liam Gillick’s installation in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

Whereas the lines outside the Danish, American or British Pavilion were growing longer, the German Pavilion seemed rather calm on the opening day on June 4th.  For his room filling installation, British artist Liam Gillick in dialogue with the Pavilion’s curator Nicolas Schafhausen, decided to hide as little of the famous facist architecture of the Pavilion as possible. Inside, the artist built a kitchen-like structure in clear pine wood formally reminescent of Donald Judd’s wood sculptures. The facist background of the Pavilion’s architecture has been made the topic of their submissions by many artists. Gillick, in a spontaneous talk in front of the Pavilion this morning, explained that his intention was not to make a comment on why this architecture was built in the first place, but why it was maintained instead of being reconstructed as proposed in 1957 by Arnold Bode, founder of documenta.  Gillick mentioned the post-war rethinking of Germany and its identity in contemporary art and architecture in the 50s and 60s as one of the topics of his Biennial submission.  Though British, Liam Gillick is not the first non-German to exhibit at the German pavillion. Korean born Nam Jun Paik exhibited in this space in 1993, and was awarded the Golden Lion for his work.

German Pavillion 2009
Liam Gillick, the British artist representing Germany, outlines the challenges of working in a “problematic Fascist building” [The Art Newspaper]


Liam Gillick speaking in front of his installation in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

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AO On Site – Venice Biennale: ‘The Collectors’ at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions and ‘Making Worlds’ at the Venice Biennale

Friday, June 5th, 2009


Tomas Sarceno’s ‘Galaxies’ in ‘Making Worlds’ at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

Under the title of ‘The Collectors’, the artist duo Elmgreen&Dragset curated and staged the first joint venture between two Pavilions at the Venice Biennial.  As the title suggests, the show explores collecting as a practice combining privacy, public visibility, obsession and self-expression.

On the opening day, the line in front of the Danish Pavilion that served as the entrance to both Pavilions was as long as the rooster of represented artists was impressive: Terence Koh, Hernan Bas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jonathan Monk to name only some of the 24 international artists and designers participating.  The public was guided on a tour by a real estate agent through a “For Sale” Danish Pavilion and into the neighboring Nordic Pavilion counting the story of a kinky bachelor named Mr. B. and his collection of contemporary art and his ex-lovers’ swim wear. The naked young man lasciviously posing in an Arne Jacobsen arm chair was the definitely the favorite photo occasion of the day.

The Collectors
La Biennale
Venice Biennale Shows Men Embracing, Bruce Nauman’s Rituals [Bloomberg]
Rising to Biennale’s Curatorial Challenge [WSJ]
Politics dominates Venice Biennale [Globe and Mail]
It’s Reigning Men [Artforum]


Installation view of ‘The Collectors’ by Elmgreen&Dragset at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions, photo by ArtObserved

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AO On Site – Venice: Mona Hatoum ‘Interior Landscapes’ at the Pallazo Querini Stampalia through September 20th

Friday, June 5th, 2009


Mona Hatoum’s Impenetrable, from her show “Interior Landscapes.” Courtesy Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia.

Mona Hatoum’s solo show “Interior Landscapes” runs from June 4 to September 30 at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia.  Curated by Chiara Bertola, the exhibition shows 29 works, most of them new, by the artist.  The show is part of an ongoing series of projects entitled “Conservare il futuro (Preserving the Future)” that explores the relationship between historic and contemporary art.

Related links:
Fondazione Scientifica Querini Stampalia

Mona Hatoum [White Cube]
Mona Hatoum [Alexander and Bonin]

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53rd Venice Biennale Art Exhibition Previews today, Opens to public June 7th

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

This year’s Venice Biennale runs from June 7 to November 22, with press preview on June 4-6.  Since 1985, emerging and long-established artists have represented their countries at the Biennale.  The event, happening every other year, has evolved to exhibit current movements in art, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and theatre.  The Biennale presents the artistic trends at the forefront of contemporary art and the avant-garde.  Art Observed will be on site for this event, as Venice opens its doors to artists and art fans from around the world.

Related links:
La Biennale di Venezia
Venice Biennale 2009 Exhibit Map
Blood, oil and designer rugs: the world’s top artists set for the Venice Bienniale [The Guardian UK]
Braco Dimitrijevic’s Future Post History to be Shown at Ca’Pesaro and Ca’Farsetti as Part of Venice Biennale  [ArtDaily]
Can-Do Canadians Struggle Toward Venice Biennale [ArtInfo]
Does Venice Still Matter? [The Art Newspaper]
‘Flying Art’ Gallery in Venice [Ansa.it]
French Pavilion presents Claude Leveque at 53rd Venice Biennale [Artipedia]
Home Team: A Pair of Artists Play Home [TMagazine]
How the French Charles Saatchi became the merchant of Venice [The Guardian UK]
The Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennale [Wired]
Mark Lewis Represents Canada with Four New Films at the 53rd International Art Exhibition [ArtDaily]
My week: Steve McQueen [The GuardianUK]
Steve McQueen at the Venice Biennale: Private view with Adrian Searle [The Guardian UK audio]
New Funding model behind the British Pavilion [The Art Newspaper]
The Pavilion doesn’t even have a bathroom [The Globe and Mail]
Russia makes its presence felt in Venice [The Art Newspaper]
Russian Pavilion to Present Victory over the Future at 53rd International Venice Biennale [ArtDaily]
Too Haute for Commerce: The Venice Biennale [The New York Observer]
Venice Biennale in the past [The Telegraph]
Venice Biennale: Let the Invasion Begin
[The New York Times]
Venice Biennale Preview
[ArtInfo]

(more…)

Newslinks for Monday, April 13, 2009

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Kate Moss by Damien Hirst on the cover of Tar Art Magazine, Via New York Times

Kate Moss by Damien Hirst is the new cover of Tar Magazine (anagram for “art”) [NY Times]
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Art funds launched in 2008, such as the London-based Art Trading Fund, are shelved due to failure to raise required funds
[ArtNewspaper]
–>
Art:21, Art in Twenty-First Century is now available for free on Hulu [Hulu]

"G8" by Andrei Molodkin via Financial Times

Russian Artist Andrea Molodkin, previously cited by AO here, prepares for Venice Biennale [Financial Times]
–>
Jeff Koons is speaking at Strand Books tonight at 7:00-8:30 in New York
[Via FAD]
–>
New York Old Masters dealer Lawrence Salander is indicted and pleads guilty in $88 million charge [Bloomberg]

A look inside Rome’s MAXXI designed by Zaha Hadid via c-monster

A preview of the MAXXI in Rome, $108 million art museum designed by Zaha Hadid [c-monster]
–>
Adam Lindemann, financier, collector and author of Collecting Contemporary launches a new book from Taschen: Collecting Design [ArtInfo]


–>
Flash Art’s current cover featuring a portrait of Barack Obama by Marlene Dumas via Art Fag City

Marlene Dumas’s portrait of Barack Obama is the cover of Flash Art [Art Fag City]
–>
Madonna’s art collection is estimated at £80 million pounds
[TimesUK]

A selection from the site via The World’s Best Ever

A timeline of modern & contemporary art artists by movement, school, style, period, theme & art prize [The-artists.org via The World’s Best Ever]
–>
Richard Serra to receive honorary degree from Pratt Institute at its 120th Commencement on May 18th
[MediaBistro]

Interview with photographer Nan Goldin on why she is auctioning some of the curiosities she has collected [TelegraphUK]
–>
SFMOMA announces plans for a future expansion, doubling gallery space
[SF Chronicle]


–>
A preview of SANAA’s design for the 2009 Serpentine Pavillion via Architect’s Journal

SANAA, the Japanese architectual duo behind the New Museum, release first glimpse of design for the 2009 Serpentine Pavilion [Architect’s Journal]
–>
Jim Dine donates 40 drawings influenced by Greek and Roman sculpture to the Morgan Library
[Artinfo]

Julian Schnabel’s Picasso Femme au Chapeau will soon be sold by Christie’s [New York Times]
–>
The Mugrabis, a hi
gh impact, market-making collector family, may be addicted to the game of art [The Observer]

ASSEMBLYMAN LENTOL WARNS HIS COMMUNITY ABOUT ASIAN LONGHORNED BEETLE

US Fed News Service, Including US State News November 8, 2006 Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, D-Brooklyn (50th District), issued the following press release:

Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol (D-North Brooklyn) alerted his community that the Asian Longhorned Beetle, a non-indigenous insect that preys on healthy trees, has returned to Brooklyn. Once a tree is infested it must be removed and destroyed to prevent the beetle from spreading to other trees.

“The Asian Longhorned Beetle is a threat to our community,” said Lentol. “We thought we eradicated it from the district seven years ago. Now we have evidence that it has returned.” A massive infestation in Greenpoint was literally rooted out in 1999 when over 1,000 trees had to be destroyed because of the Asian Longhorned Beetle. Last spring, the New York State Asian Longhorned Beetle Cooperative Eradication Program found 18 trees in Williamsburg infested with the bug. The majority were on Lynch St. Thirteen of the 18 trees were on Lynch St, the rest on nearby Lee Avenue and Heyward St. website asian longhorned beetle

“Just because we’re talking about a little bug doesn’t mean this isn’t a big concern for our district,” warned Lentol. “We’re lucky that this appears to be a small infestation, but the key to keeping the Asian Longhorned Beetle from destroying our trees is through awareness.” The Asian Longhorned Beetle is known to nest in all varieties of maple, as well as birch, horse chestnut, elm, willow, poplar, ash, hackberry, sycamore, London Plane and mimosa. Lentol encourages homeowners to look for exit holes on their trees, they will be about the size of a dime, and to grant environmental inspectors access to their property for the purpose of finding infested trees. go to website asian longhorned beetle

Lentol also encourages residents who spot the beetle to call 311 and ask for the Asian Longhorned Beetle Hotline. The United States Forest Service offers replanting of new trees to those who lose trees to the beetle. The insecticide imidacloprid is the only effective preventative measure against the beetle, though experts warn that it cannot help a tree once it is infested. ALB Eradication Program contractors use it during the spring to treat at-risk trees. Residents will be notified by the ALB Eradication Program when tree treatments take place in this area, and Assemblyman Lentol urges residents to work with program officials and provide them access to yard trees for these critical applications and for survey.

Newslinks for Sunday, March 15, 2009

Sunday, March 15th, 2009


A work by Andrei Molodkin via artsblog.it

Andrei Molodkin, to represent Russia in the Venice Biennial, creates sculptures using human corpses rendered into crude oil [The Independent]
At the beginning of Asian week in New York, a case for the relative value of traditional Japanese art [Forbes]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art cuts more jobs
[New York Times]


Neues Museum in Berlin via London Festival of Architecture

The Neues Museum in Berlin opens dramatic space designed by London architect David Chipperfield [New York Times]
Richard Prince denies reports that he is to donate his rare book and publications collection to the Morgan Library in New York [ArtInfo]

Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee one of the works stolen in the Gardner heist, via the Boston Globe

A new plea (with video) for leads leading to the return of  the $500 million worth of art stolen in Boston’s 1990 Gardner Museum  heist, which was the largest in history [Boston Globe via ArtsJournal]
Mary Boone is suing a collector and trustee of the Columbus Museum of Art to complete the sale of a Will Cotton work
[Artnet News]


Anthony d’Offay via the GuardianUK

Anthony d’Offay interviewed, whose Artists Rooms tour begins in Edinburgh and was made possible from the selling of his vast collection for £26.5 million, an estimated 5th of its value [TheScotsman]
The balance of power between London vs Paris as art capitals altered perhaps by the recession
[TimesUK]

Newslinks for Monday, January 5th, 2009

Monday, January 5th, 2009


Alanna Heiss via ArtNet

Alanna Heiss has retired after 37 years of curating MoMA’s PS1; an article on her final show [NYTimes]
$250,000 worth of prints including those by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse stolen in Berlin
[AssociatedPress]
A chronicle of the rise of auction prices before the fall, and a rumor that 2/3 of the bidders for Hirst’s monumental September auction may not actually pay for the works,
and part 2 here [Bloomberg]
A video of  Eric Fischl at Mary Boone
[Newarttv]


Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally via the ArtNewspaper

US lawsuit filed to confiscate Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally from the Leopold Museum in Vienna is suspended [ArtNewspaper]
Art dealers as paparazzi fodder?  White Cube owner Jay Jopling garners attention with singer Lily Allen in St. Barths [TheMirror]
also on the island, dealer Larry Gagosian and the band Kings of Leon fete collectors Roman Abramovich, Dasha Zhukova and Aby Rosen, designer Marc Jacobs, hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, musician Jon Bon Jovi and actor Daniel Craig among others
[IndependentUK]
In other art world vacation news, Damien Hirst hires 4 guards formerly in the British Special Forces to protect him during his Mexico holidays
[MercoPress]


The Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion via architecturelist

The Zaha Hadid-designed Chanel Mobile Art tour is stopped; London, Moscow, and Paris canceled [ArtInfo]
Emmanuel Perrotin on three current Parisian exhibitions [The Moment – NYTimes]
MoMA to launch two-year series of live performance works
[NYMag]
Collector Ronald Lauder interviewed at his Klimt-rich Neue Galerie in New York
[Financial Times]
Damien Hirst bans a documentary film of his Statuephilia work
[TelegraphUK]
The Velvet Underground’s John Cale will represent Wales at Venice Biennale of Art next year
[BBC]
The controversial act of State museums deaccessioning works [NYTimes]
The Getty endowment has declined 25%
[LATimes]
Art Info’s Top 5 art world figures of 2008
[ArtInfo]