Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Lover Boys), 1991. Courtesy of MMK Frankfurt.

The traveling retrospective of artist Félix González-Torres reached its last venue, the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt, on January 29th and will be closing April 25th. The exhibition, curated by Elena Filipovic and titled “Specific Objects without Specific Form”, provides an illustration of the elements of participation, dislocation, and transience that are prominent in González-Torres’s work. For each venue, an artist was invited to curate during the second-half of the show’s run. The three artists-curators–Danh Vo at WIELS, Brussels; Carol Bove at the Fondation Beyeler, Basel; and Tino Sehgal at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt–refer to their own practice as directly influenced by the work of González-Torres. In this retrospective’s specific mode, they aspire to cast new light into the exhibited work, and construct new meanings and interpretations.

Félix González-Torres, Untitled, 1998 and Untitled (Blood), 1992. Courtesy of MMK Frankfurt.

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Richard Serra, Calvino (2009) via Artnet.com

Currently showing at Gagosian Geneva, is Richard Serra‘s “Greenpoint Rounds,” featuring large-scale drawings using a paint stick and showcasing a medium Serra is not often associated with. Primarily know for his sculptural work, Richard Serra plays on minimalism through methods that encompass both shape and texture. The gallery’s rounded, sparse walls emphasize the shape and movement in the new drawings, which will be on display through May 15th.

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Julian Opie, Hirofumi, fashion designer (2005). via Galerie Bob Van Orsouw

Currently showing at Galerie Bob Van Orsouw is Julian Opie‘s new exhibition, showing work primarily from the last decade and largely focused on portraiture. Opie is widely known for his acclaimed cover album for British Alt-rock band “Blur,” and is also recognized as a member of the New British Sculpture Group, which emerged in the 1980’s and includes artists such as Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor and Anthony Gormley.  The show will be open through May 14th.

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Installation view via Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery

Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery recently opened an untitled exhibition showcasing various sculptures by two of the prime examples  of modernism and three-dimensional abstraction: Jean Arp and Constantin Brancusi. Considered to be of differing artistic generations, these two artists followed two seemingly diverging paths. However, similar styles and a shared proclivity for “abstracted, somewhat amorphous forms relating to the natural world” (via Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery Press Release) have led to a union of the works, offering a fresh perspective. The show features various reliefs painted by Arp, and carvings in wood, bronze and marble by both artists.

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Antony Gormley,  MEME CLII (2011). Via Anna Schwartz Gallery

Antony Gormley‘s new work, a series of small iron sculptures, is being exhibited at Anna Schwartz Gallery from March 17th through April 23rd. The show’s title, “MEMES”, draws inspiration from the analogical relationship between genes and the unit of social information named memes–a cultural phenomenon that transmits information through self-replication and mutates in order to successfully adapt to its environment. These properties provide a syntactic framework for Gormley’s series, where he aims to set up a correlation between the dynamic and unpredictable meme, and the individual iron-cast sculptures.

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Installation view, “Secondary Evidence of Things Unseen,” via VeneKlasen Werner

Currently on view at VeneKlasen Werner (VW) in Berlin is “Secondary Evidence of Things Unseen,” featuring four artists of varying notoriety- Neil Campbell, Paul Sharits, Ryan Sullivan and Jeffrey Wells.  The show was curated by Clarissa Dalrymple and brings together work in various mediums including drawing, sculpture, painting and video installation.

Paul Sharits, Hand and Cube (1982), via VeneKlasen Werner

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Installation view of Elemental at Paula Cooper Gallery. All images via Paula Cooper Gallery.

On view now through April 16th at the Paula Cooper Gallery is a group exhibition titled Elemental. What binds the selected works of Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Donald Judd, Sherrie Levine, Sol LeWitt and Robert Wilson is the use of “repeated elements arranged in a sequential structure.” The gallery notes that this strategy is often associated with minimal art, and the show pairs pieces by three pioneers of Minimalism with works by what the exhibition is defining as representatives of the second (and possibly third) generation of Minimalists.

Donald Judd, Untitled (1982)

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John McCracken, who died at the age of 76 on Friday in New York, bridged an empirical study of Minimalist matter with subtle mysticism, thereby extending realities beyond the concrete and the visible. Irreducible to its object-ness, his work is imbued with almost invisible traces of the hand and proposes what contemporary transcendentalism might look like. Unafraid of taboo topics and non-anthropocentric ecology, McCracken held a fervent belief in the intelligence of other multiple forms of life that gave new dimensions to his work.

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Bourj (2010) by Mona Hatoum, via Alexander and Bonin Gallery

Currently on view at Alexander and Bonin Gallery is “Bourj,” an exhibition of recent works by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. The artist’s fifth exhibit with the gallery, the show features a wide range of the her  political and poetic oeuvre in a range of media including installations, sculpture, works on paper, and photography.”Bourj,” the title of the exhibit, means “tower” in Arabic and refers to a specific work the artist originally made for a solo exhibition at the Beirut Art Center in 2010. The piece is made of stacked steel rectangular tube sections which have been cut and burnt, giving the impression of a building fallen prey to the scars of war.

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Alexis Rockman, Manifest Destiny (2003-2004), via the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow, is currently open at the Smithsonian American Art Museum until May 8th. It is Rockman’s first major career retrospective, and showcases 47 paintings and works on paper.  The New York City artist has for more than two decades defied the parameters of traditional artistic collaboration through his work with scientists and researchers such as Peter Douglass Ward and molecular biologist Rob DeSalle, and the title of the show is a reference to environmentalist Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring.

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Alexis Rockman, Hollywood at Night (2006), via the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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New Museum Spring Gala After Party 2011

Art Observed was on site at the New Museum‘s annual Spring Gala After Party in the financial district on April 6th. More than 40 floors above Manhattan, the room was a mixture of art world insiders, socialites and fans, including Hope Atherton, Urs Fischer, John Waters, Gavin Brown and Jen Brill, with music by DJs Harley and Cassie and a performance by the band Hess is More.

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Installation view of José Parlá: Walls, Diaries, and Paintings at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed.

Entering into its final week is José Parlá’s Walls, Diaries, and Paintings, at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. It is the Brooklyn-based artist’s second solo exhibition in New York. For the show, the painter expanded his surface area from the canvas planes to include large parts of the gallery walls as mixed media installation.

José Parlá, DeKalb Avenue Station (detail) 2011.

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Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria (1993). via Fundación Proa

In late march, The Fundación Proa, a prominent cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina became host a to an impressive retrospective of world-renowned French – American Artist Louise Bourgeois. Bourgeois, who was born in Paris and later moved to New York, worked mainly in sculpture and is recognized for her contribution to the American Abstract Artists’ Group. Her work is largely autobiographical, drawing inspiration from trauma suffered in early childhood and describing the later emotional turmoil she underwent. For the first time in Argentina, a wide range of Bourgeois’ life’s work will be on display, including samples of her various mediums of production such as sculpture and installation and even a collection of her writings on psychoanalysis. The exhibition, entitled “Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed”, will additionally feature a cast of the prominent giant spider sculpture “Maman” (“mother” in French) guarding the entrance to the Fundación Proa. The replications of “Maman” maintain equally conspicuous and permanent positions in London, St Petersburg, Seoul, and Tokyo.

A view of the entrance to the Fundación Proa in Buenos Aires via Why on Earth Did I Move to Argentina?

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Vja Celmin’s show at LACMA discusses a part of her life that often goes overlooked-  her time as an young artist. For over three years, Celmins lived in a small studio in Venice Beach, California and though she is known for fairly serene subject matter, Celmins’ installation within LACMA showcases her preoccupation with more violent topics during this period in her life. These paintings emphasize  crashing war planes,  handguns and images of death and destruction.  Though the images are violent in nature,  they are tinged with Celmin’s own personal history and attention to the medium.

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Screen view from Warfilms, by Rita Ackermann at The Journal Gallery. All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed.

The Journal Gallery opened its latest exhibition of work by Rita Ackermann on Tuesday evening to a crowd of curious individuals. Entitled Warfilms, the showcase bypassed any explanatory promotional material leading up to the opening of what is essentially the artist’s first exhibition using solely video. The North 1^st St. space will be showing Ackermann’s three films for five days.

Installation view of Tuesday evening’s opening reception at The Journal Gallery.

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Zhang Xiaogang, Forever Lasting Love, 1988 (est. $3.2-3.9 million, realized $10.1 million), via Sothebys.com

The auction record for a work by a living Chinese artist was set on Sunday at Sotheby’s Hong Kong during a 105-lot sale of works from the Ullens collection of contemporary Chinese art. The white glove sale realized $54.8 million – more than triple its high presale estimate of $16.7 million.

Zhang Xiaogang in his studio with Forever Lasting Love, via Sothebys.com

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Urs Fischer, Untitled (Lamp/Bear), 2005/2006, via Wall Street Journal

Untitled (Lamp/Bear), a 23-foot, 16-ton sculpture of bright yellow teddy bear slumped beneath a Bakelite lamp, will be on display at the Seagram Building (375 Park Avenue, at 53rd St) through September 2011. The piece, by Swiss sculptor Urs Fischer, is a highlight of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art auction, and began its life as a 1-foot teddy bear, which was then scanned three-dimensionally with lasers in Switzerland and cast in bronze in Shanghai. Christie’s will be auctioning the installation on May 11th.

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Tara Donovan, Untitled (Mylar), 2011. Image by Art Observed.

Mundane objects–straws, buttons, pencils, Elmer’s glue and scotch tape–are the materials that Williamsburg-based artist Tara Donovan has used to create her expansive installations. Her latest work on view at Pace Gallery is composed entirely of folded, reflective mylar sheets, product traditionally used for insulation and most commonly encountered in food packaging, transformed into an oversized cell-like structure. Donovan has made her career re-purposing everyday objects into artistic materials, which she then manipulates by performing a singular action repeated infinitely. Donovan begins her works by choosing the material, usually cheap and mass-manufactured, and working to bring out its innate and overlooked material qualities that are usually overshadowed by the functionality of the object.

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via Associated Press

Yesterday, Chinese artist and political dissident, Ai Weiwei, was prevented from catching a flight from Beijing to Hong Kong. The assistant who was with Ai at the time, Jennifer Ng, was told by officials that “he had other business” to attend to as the artist was taken into custody. The location and condition of the artist are to date unknown. The detention of the prominent artist, well-known for his open criticism of the Chinese government, may relate to an accelerated suppression of Chinese intellectuals, possibly related to fear on part of the incumbent authorities of a Chinese version of the so-called “jasmine movement” that has been shaking, and in some cases dismantling, some of the Middle East’s dictatorship regimes. Under these still-unclear premises, at least twenty-three Chinese political dissidents have been detained, three have been formally arrested, and at least a dozen are missing. These events, embodying the most severe crackdown in China during the last decade, reflect the rigid and, considering the lack of public anti-government protests, delusive security measures of the system.

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Opening night at Marian Goodman Gallery. All photos by L. Streeter, Art Observed.

An exhibition of works and projects by renowned Spanish sculptor Cristina Iglesias is currently on view at Marian Goodman Gallery on 57th street in the New York Gallery Building. Iglesias usually works with industrial materials like concrete and glass, combining them with natural elements such as bamboo or foliage. Each room at the exhibition features a different ongoing project, ranging from indoor and outdoor works and public projects that Iglesias has been involved in over the last 5 years.

Cristina Iglesias, Pozos I-V (wells).

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Wolfgang Tillmans, Installation view at Regen Projects II (2011). Via Regen Projects.

German artist Wolfgang Tillmans continues his practice of large-scale photography at his sixth solo exhibition at Regen Projects.  These new works are large-scale, compelling photographs of places in cities intimate to the artist.  Cities like New York, Berlin and and London, as well as other less familiar locations, make lively subjects for an artist known for his discerning photographic eye.  The photographs are large inkjet prints hung without frames, allowing for a minimal exhibition style that showcases both the work and the medium.

Wolfgang Tillmans, Eierstapel (2009). Via Regen Projects.

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The artist, Richard Prince. All pictures by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

Art Observed was on site for the opening “American Prayer” featuring works by American artist Richard Prince at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. A book enthusiast and collector of American pop culture and counter culture ephemera, on view are works by the artist relating to American literature books, a consistent source of inspiration and a material he often incorporates into his oeuvre. The exhibit includes two examples of his famous “Nurse” paintings from his personal collection presented to the public for the first time.

Vitrine 16: Sex & Drug & Rock & Roll. Untitled (Jimi Hendrix), 1992-93 by Richard Prince, T-shirt and oil on canvas © Richard Prince, Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

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Art Paris (2011). All pictures by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

Art Paris is currently taking place at the Grand Palais in Paris, and will be open until April 3rd. The fair was inaugurated in 1998, moved to the Nave in the Grand Palais in 2006, and continues to grow each year, with over 40,000 people expected to attend. This year, Art Paris is partnered with special “crossover exchanges” at many Paris venues including La Maison Rouge, Palais de Tokyo, L’Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton and the Villa L, which will be showing works by Jeong-Hwa Choi, Dias & Riedweg, Mounir Fatmi, Daniel Firman, Kolkoz, and Aaron Young.

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Galerie Laurent Strouk with Phillipe Pasqua solo show

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