‪‬Cooper Union, off Astor Place in New York, free of tuition for over 100 years, to charge tuition for graduate programs and other online and continuing-education courses to reduce current $16.5 million annual budget deficit, “It’s a viable strategy,” says President Jamshed Bharucha
Elizabeth Peyton, David Bowie (2012). All images courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York. © Elizabeth Peyton.
Currently on view at Regen Projects is the sixth solo exhibition of works by New York-based painter Elizabeth Peyton. Peyton, who rose to fame in the 1990s for her portraiture of rock stars like David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, and Keith Richards, delivers in her most recent paintings the twin pillars of accessibility and devotion that have come to characterize her practice.
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All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.
With a “kind of secret” French glue, JR and assistants pasted up a 65-foot mural yesterday in the Soho area of Manhattan at the north west corner of Mulberry and Prince streets. The work is part of the Inside Out Project, JR’s TED-awarded “One Wish to Change the World.” Inside Out is an open invite to submit black and white photographic portraits which are then blown up to various poster sizes and returned to be placed wherever the owner chooses. The image in Soho—with no tear-down date as of yet—is part of the North Dakota Native American project, submitted by Brandon Many Ribs, according to a Facebook post.
‪‬In related news, Occupy Wall Street movement publishes a fake press release from the Whitney Museum announcing museum closure on May Day and various institutional changes in observance of a General Strike on May 1 planned by OWS
‪‬Museum of London adds several Occupy London protest works to its collection including placards, banners, and masks, currently on view online; “The museum tries to document all major events in London history,” says a museum curator Jim Gledhill
‪‬Jeff Koons and Lisa Perry collaborate with apparel and accessories featuring designs from Koons’ entire oeuvre, T-shirts starting at $150 with a portion going to the Koons Family Institute
‪‬The ‘Salon of Art and Design’ forthcoming Park Avenue Armory fair of jewelry, art, and antiques organized by Sanford Smith and the Syndicat National des Antiquaires changes its name to THE SALON: Art + Design to avoid a ‘SAD’ acronym
Installation View. All images courtesy of the Lisson Gallery
On view at London’s Lisson Gallery is the latest exhibition of work by Santiago Sierra, Dedicated to the Workers and Unemployed. The show features fifty-three videos thematically grouped: performance-based works, films, and video documents of sculptural projects. Dedicated to the Workers and Unemployed includes a conversation between Sierra and the curator and critic Hans-Ullrich Obrist and will be open through March 3, 2012.
All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.
Charles Atlas’ pioneering work in film has evolved since the early 1970s to today, ever re-defining his medium and the field. As Artist in Residence for the 2012 Whitney Biennial from April 18–22, Atlas showcased his recent exploration of live performance, as well as screening Ocean April 11–15, his full-length film of the legendary Merce Cunningham‘s performance at the Rainbow Granite Quarry in Minnesota in 2008. As Filmmaker-in-residence for Cunningham from 1974–83, Atlas explored the technical possibilities of capturing dance on film, conflating time, scale, and angles to create a multi-dimensional viewing experience for a genre whose single viewpoint documentation often drains the piece of its power and effect. Atlas is the self-proclaimed inventor of ‘mediadance,’ a genre of performance conceived exclusively for video broadcast, demonstrative of his active engagement with performers. Known for his collaborative work with performance artists such as Marina Abromovic, Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Yvonne Rainer, Mika Tajima and New Humans, Atlas states, “the essence of my work resides ultimately in the relationships that develop with my subjects and my collaborators.”
‪‬NY Mag publishes Jerry Saltz and others’ 18 rules on how to make it in today’s art world, featuring interviews with Alex Katz, Gavin Brown, Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni, etc., “You need a bicycle to get to interesting places,” says Gioni
‪‬Tate Modern begins construction on new £215m extension project designed by architects Herzog & De Meuron with 75% of funds raised, beginning by converting 30-meter diameter oil tanks into dedicated live performance space
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Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, Attese (1968). All images via Haunch of Venison and the estates of the artists.
The Elena Geuna curated “Afro Burri Fontana” exhibition is on now at Haunch of Venison‘s Chelsea space, 550 W. 21 St, and focuses on Italian artists Afro, Alberto Burri, and Lucio Fontana. Showing five paintings by each artist, Haunch’s international director Emilio Steinberger explained that the gallery sought to create a balanced show that would make evident the original dialogue between the three post-WWII Italian abstract artists and their American contemporaries.
‪‬Tom Sachs, Cory Arcangel, and Mike Mills among the 17 artists included in Transmission LA: AV Club at MOCA in Los Angeles, a ‘multi-sensory experience’ festival curated by Mike D of the Beastie Boys, also featuring a pop-up restaurant by Roy Choi
Iran do EspÃrito Santo, Untitled (Folded Mirror 13) (2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Perrin Lathrop.
Three new bodies of work comprising Brazilian artist Iran do EspÃrito Santo’s Switch on view now at Sean Kelly Gallery continue the artist’s investigation into connections between light, form, and space. EspÃrito Santo has expressed his interest in exploring “the duality we live in; between the concrete world and that of ideas. It’s an existential human condition; the artworks are a way of negotiating this, a need to deal with immateriality.” Gallery goers may witness three very different series, each exploring light’s interaction with the perception of space.
‪‬Jeffrey Deitch discusses art in his home, famous friends, and how an artist’s work is not a ‘practice’
‪‬Elisabeth Murdoch reportedly donates “seven-figure sum” toward educational facilities in planned £215 million wing of Tate Modern
‬Metropolitan Museum of Art security guard shoots himself in the leg while cleaning gun in basement locker room, the 63-year-old man is in stable condition, and “the public and the staff were never in danger”
Dan Graham, Two 2-Way Mirror Ellipses, One Open, One Closed (2011-2012). All images via Lisson Gallery.
Equal parts graceful and subversive, the pavilion structures of Dan Graham consistently toy with the manufacture and perception of space. Using a combination of mirrors and glass to blur the ideas of internal and external space, Graham invites viewers to participate fully in the physical framework of his pieces while still remaining partially anchored as spectators to their relations with its space. This dichotomy is readily seen in a series of new pavilion structures currently on view at the Lisson Gallery in London.
‪‬ ‘The Clock’ a real time 24-hour video collage by Christian Marclay (recently a Time Magazine top 100 most influential person) returns to New York this summer at the Lincoln Center Festival, July 5 through August 5
‪‬Agata Olek crochets two excavators in her hometown of Katowice, Poland, for the Katowice Street Art Festival opening today through April 29
‪‬Frieze New York announces artists to be included in sculpture park overlooking East River on Randall’s Island, including Louise Bourgeois, Ernesto Neto, Subodh Gupta, Jeppe Hein, and Jaume Plensa, curated by Tom Eccles
Janaina Tschäpe’s table installation, a giant squid with condom roe. All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.
The Brooklyn Artists Ball took place last night, the annual fundraising gala hosted by the Brooklyn Museum. A number of artists and celebrities were in attendance, including Judy Chicago, Aurel Schmidt and Dustin Yellin, as well as those honored with the Asher B. Durand Award: Martha Rosler, Amy Sillman, Mickalene Thomas. Between a lively cocktail hour and an after party sponsored by W Magazine sat an elegant dinner with one-night-only 40-foot-long “table environments,” created by 16 Brooklyn Women artists. The event was the fifth anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, with Ms. Elizabeth A. Sackler present to receive the Augustus Graham Medal for strong commitment to the arts and the Brooklyn Museum.
Guests posing for the interactive video installation by Nicole Cohen
‪‬A 474-year-old painting by Italian artist Girolamo de’Romani has been returned to its Jewish heirs since being plundered by Nazis in WWII, the family now deciding to sell the work at Christie’s in New York on June 6, the work insured for $2.5 million
All installation images courtesy Gladstone Gallery by David Regen, copyright the artists.
The Spirit Level is a large multimedia group show currently on display at both of the Gladstone Gallery locations in Chelsea. New York-based artist Ugo Rondinone curated the show with the intention of tapping into various levels of consciousness with both sexual and surreal imagery. With a rather dark and visceral edge, the work spans a variety of mediums: painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and installation. Between the two galleries, a total of 19 artists are represented including Martin Boyce, Ann Craven, and Sam Gilliam.
