Still from Cory Arcangel’s ‘Drei Klavierstücke, op. 11’ via Team Gallery

Team Gallery’s current exhibition is a group show of three video artists from the gallery’s roster: Cory Arcangel, Guillaume Pinard, and Jon Routson. It follows a similar three-person show of abstract work by its artists in January. The exhibition includes a number of video pieces, in both large and small formats, as well as a sound piece by Routson and two prints by Arcangel in his Photoshop series – a similar print was in the New Museum’s triennial, Younger Than Jesus.

Arcangel, Pinard, Routson [Team Gallery]
Arcangel, Pinard, Routson @ Team [This Heart’s On Fire]

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Ezra Merkin, via Guardian UK.

After weeks of negotiation with the Attorney General’s office, J. Ezra Merkin has agreed to sell an art collection appraised by Christie’s at $310 million.  After taxes and other fees — the New York Times reports that Merkin was paying $60,000 a month on insurance, and owed $42 million to previous owners as well as $19.3 million on a loan used to purchase the artwork — profits from the sale amount to $191 million, to be frozen in escrow pending the outcome of the Attorney General’s suit against the suspected Bernie Madoff feeder.

Related links:
Statement from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on the Sale of J. Ezra Merkin’s Collection
Merkin Reaches Accord with Cuomo on Art Sale [New York Times]
Madoff, Merkin, and the Murals [Wall Street Journal: The Wealth Report]
Merkin Selling Art Frozen in Lawsuit for $310 Million [Bloomberg]
Andrew Cuomo Unveils Deal to Sell Art Collection of Ezra Merkin, Bernie Madoff’s Associate [New York Post]

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John Baldessari, ‘Raised Eyebrows/Furrowed Foreheads: Airplane (Concorde),’ 2009. Via ArtNet.

Currently showing at the Greta Meert Gallery in Brussels are seven pieces from the latest series by American artist John Baldessari. The selection represents a continuation of previous series, in which Baldessari explored fragmented body parts, abstraction of facial expressions and the relationship between separate parts and the whole.   His former series, which came under the titles of ‘Noses & Ears, Etc.’, ‘Arms & Legs (Specif. Elbows & Knees)’, Etc, and ‘Prima Facie, Etc.’, in addition to his work at large, has emphasized the symbiotic relationship between painting and photography. In effect, Baldessari, who has shown in more than 200 solo and 900 group exhibitions in the United States and Europe, has been credited for having helped to establish photography as a more established artistic medium.

Related Links:
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Interview with John Baldessari. [Artnet]
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John Baldessari. [Baldessari]
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Baldessari and Ono Win Golden Lions. [LATimes]
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John Baldessari. [ArtWorks]
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Interview with John Baldessari. [Art and Culture]

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Popeye, part of the new Jeff Koons exhibition at the Serpentine by the same name.

Jeff Koons’s first major exhibition in a public gallery in England opens tomorrow.  The show at the Serpentine features works drawn from public and private holdings, and some new works on display for the first time.  The “Popeye Series” “creates a world beyond taste,” appropriation art at its finest.  The extraordinary and the mundane are put side by side: Popeye and and Olive Oyl are embedded in multi-layered paint.  Garbage cans and chairs, chains and even the occasional inflatable, are put to use in the sculptures of the “Popeye Series.”

Related links:
Jeff Koons: Serpentine Gallery
Jeff Koons Presents Works from his Popeye Series at the Serpentine Gallery in London [Artdaily]
‘Popeye’ exhibition by Jeff Koons comes to Serpentine Gallery [Times Online]
Koons, with eye for pop, brings Popeye show to UK [Reuters]
Jeff Koons Popeye Series At The Serpentine Gallery from July 2nd [FAD]
Jeff Koons is not just the king of kitsch [interview with the Guardian UK]

The Telegraph comments on the exuberance and humor in the Koons exhibition.

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Peter Doig’s ‘Night Playground’ sold for £3 million, beating estimates of £1.5-2 million, via Artinfo

Rounding out the summer auctions, Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale took in £19.1 million, coming in around the lower end of estimates of £17.4-24 million.  35 out of 40 lots sold, with rates of 88% by lot and 86% by value.  The top selling lot was a large Peter Doig painting, ‘Night Painting,’ which sold for £3 million, quite above estimates of £1.5-2 million. According to the NY Times, collector François Pinault was overheard calling the sale “solid” and “serious.” Though the total value realized represents a 78% drop from last year, the high sell-through rate, consistent among the fine art auctions this season, shows that the market has settled enough for the auction houses to accurately gauge what buyers want.

Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction [Christie’s]
Bidding Is Thin at Christie’s in London [NY Times]
Doig, Richter Sell as Christie’s London Auction Total Drops 78% [Bloomberg]
Market Motors Along at Christie’s Contemporary Sale [Artinfo]
Lot by Lot: Christie’s London Cont. Evening Sale [Art Market Monitor]
Lots of Profit at the Top [Artinfo] (more…)