Theaster Gates - Raising Goliath (2012), courtesy White Cube Gallery

The work of Theaster Gates addresses social engagement using shared images of American life as a way to challenge cultural norms and to subvert singular readings of American history.  White Cube Bermondsey is hosting a major installation by the Chicago-based artist, entitled “My Labor is My Protest.”  Blending the cultural, social and personal, the show is a bold statement on the roles of identity and meaning in the construction of history and art history.

Theaster Gates - My Labor Is My Protest (Installation View) (2012), courtesy White Cube Gallery (more…)

Tales of the deluge: Chelsea galleries in shock following the impact of 4-5 feet of water at street level. “I would say that perhaps 2% of my inventory escaped damage.” (more…)

Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, announced a major gift of $10 million from Helen and Sam Zell on behalf of the Zell Family Foundation to create The Zell Fund for Artistic Excellence. Helen Zell was Chair of the MCA Board from 2004-08. (more…)

Ai Weiwei plans to return $1.3 million he received from supporters to fight his legal battle against Chinese authorities. He raised the money as a bond to contest a $2.4-million fine for tax evasion. He lost his final appeal against the Bejing authorities last month. (more…)

Forbes details a murky case of non-transparency involving art-loan trading by commodities trader Eugenio Leo and his wife Jody Meyer. Leo was sentenced to 5 years in prison and fined $3,431,750 in restitution; Meyer was sentenced to 5 years’ probation and $431,750 in restitution.
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The Hugo Boss Prize dinner at the Guggenheim scheduled for Thursday has been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, but the committee will announce the winner tomorrow regardless. The 2012 nominees are Trisha Donnelly, Rashid Johnson, Monika Sosnowska, Qiu Zhijie, Danh Vo and Tris Vonna-Michell. (more…)

Jane Lombard of Lombard Freid Gallery in Chelsea via Businessweek

Several events have been cancelled or postponed due to flooding from Hurricane Sandy, as the city assesses damages. Below is a list of damage reports, cancellations and closures. (more…)

Adel Abdessemed, Coup de tête [based on Zinédine Zidane] 2012, courtesy Centre Pompidou

Adel Abdessemed’s exhibition, Je Suis Innocent,  at the Centre Pompidou in Paris showcases work from 1990-2012, which spans the majority of Abdessemed’s artistic career. Born in born 1971 in Constantine, Algeria, Abdessemed often makes reference to violent histories and the taboos of modern culture with shocking and jarring imagery that he creates through a variety of media.

Adel Abdessemed, Je Suis Innocent, courtesy Centre Pompidou

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Franz West, Untitled, 2011 courtesy Gagosian Gallery

The Gagosian Gallery is currently exhibiting what can only be described as a eulogy of works that embodies the life of the late Franz West, who sadly passed away early this summer in July 2012.

A sea of freestanding, ambiguous, figurines adorn the gallery, doused in multicolored luminescent paint. Light-hearted sculptures interact with viewers, inspiring feelings of elation and freedom. Surreal structures almost wrap around onlookers in a fairytale-like setting.

Franz West, Installation view, 2011 courtesy Gagosian Gallery

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Scott Campbell, Our Secret (2012), courtesy the artist and OHWOW

Scott Campbell, whose Saved Tattoo parlor in Brooklyn is a destination for ink aficionados such as designer Marc Jacobs, has in recent years branched out into the contemporary art world, presenting bodies of work that dynamically comprise the “alternative” aesthetic and draftsman’s expertise of his trade. Using an array of unique materials, such as US currency and ostrich eggshells, employing a highly technical creative process born from the precision of tattooing, Campbell’s work rests comfortably in the space between high and low, art and fashion, gallery and street.

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Arne Glimcher is interviewed by Charlie Rose to discuss his new book, “Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances”, the only complete monograph on the artist’s career. The chairman of Pace Gallery discusses Martin’s life and work, as well as the gallery’s expansion in China and the nature of artmaking today. (more…)

Art Observed is out of Soho and back online.  Stay safe New York, check in on friends, colleagues and family.

John Baldessari at the Edison Ballroom, all photos by Elene Damenia for Art Observed

This year, SculptureCenter honored Paula Cooper with a presentation by John Baldessari and a performance by Christian Marclay. The program included artist projects by Alisa Baremboym, Ian Cheng, and Martin Soto Climent, and the Karaoke Afterparty. New limited edition artworks by Uri Aran, Adam McEwen, and Hanna Sandin were also introduced.

Christian Marclay’s performance (more…)

Art Fag City is tracking Hurricane Sandy’s path through Chelsea’s prime gallery district, parts of which are within flood zone A. The site reports that as of 3:50 p.m. today, the Chelsea Piers have not flooded, and the streets are generally clear.  Lower Manhattan is bracing for what could be an almost unprecedented storm surge of flood waters. (more…)

David Hockney’s foundation now holds £84 million in assets. The art is expected to eventually be gifted to museums in the two regions where Hockney resides – the Tate and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (more…)

Damien Hirst’s “Verity” sculpture of a vivisected pregnant woman has been installed in a seaside town in Devon, UK. The 55,000 pound, 65-foot bronze figure is a “modern-day allegory for truth and justice”, says the artist. The controversial sculpture, with one arm holding a sword and the other holding a set of scales behind her back, continues to receive strong opposition from the community. (more…)

Thomas Houseago,Walking Figure I (City) (2012)

Hauser and Wirth just closed three coinciding shows of Thomas Houseago in order to mark the artist’s representation with the gallery. Two were held in London and one in Switzerland: Saville Row South gallery displayed Special Brew; Saville Row North gallery exhibited I’ll be your Sister;  and Löwenbrau, Switzerland showed The Mess I’m Looking For.

Thomas Houseago was born in 1972 in Great Britain and currently practices in Los Angeles. His 3D constructions have a strong affinity with Cubism, whereby the artist represents an object from a variety of perspectives resulting in a distorted display of greater physical depth. The unrefined beings that are omnipresent in Houseago’s vast portfolio echo Henry Moore’s figures in a more visceral manner. The somewhat intricate, yet unfinished appendages that are detailed in the works pay homage to the Renaissance and old masters such as Da Vinci, yet their cubist take brings them resolutely into the future.  

Thomas Houseago, Portrait Column I, (2012) at I’ll Be Your Sister exhibition

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Image: Christian Jankowski, Monument to the Bourgeois Working Class, 2012

All images courtesy Klosterfelde Gallery

Now on view at Berlin’s Klosterfelde Gallery is German contemporary multimedia artist Christian Jankowski‘s  Monument to the Bourgeois Working Class: a video projection, photo series, and large-scale sculpture, which explore tensions between social classes and the use of mass media as a political instrument. Though, while political on the surface, the works are also said to represent the struggles of the individual artist.

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Matthew Barney‘s nearly four story replica of Norman Mailer’s home  is floating down the East River for a project called “River of Fundament”.  The artist is working on a film that takes Mailer’s 1983 novel “Ancient Evenings,” as its departure on a floating monument.  The cast includes Paul Giamatti, Maggie Gyllenhaal and scenes include gold-streaked zombies, Mailer’s son slicing open a cow carcass to find a surprise fetus, and a gold 1979 Trans Am disinterred from Newton Creek. (more…)

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Exhibition view, 2012 courtesy Linnea West

Michelangelo Pistoletto invites us to complete his latest artworks in the Simon Lee Gallery with images of ourselves. This is his second exhibition in the gallery (entitled Lavoro), of his ‘mirror works’, which are constructed of reflected stainless steel so the final product is forced to change every time someone enters into close proximity of the work.

Lavoro is Italian for ‘work’ ; the mirror medium is superimposed with silk screened prints of construction materials and elements of a building site. The entire gallery floor is interspersed with thematic elements such as erratically placed ladders and stacks of crates which, in turn, interact with the mirrored images exhibited around the room, changing what can be viewed while the spectator is in motion.

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American critic Dave Hickey announces that he “quits” the art world, citing too much emphasis on money and lack of seriousness.  Hickey says the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he was required to sign a 10 page contract before sitting on a panel discussion at the Guggenheim. “What can I tell you? It’s nasty and it’s stupid. I’m an intellectual and I don’t care if I’m not invited to the party. I quit.” (more…)

The New York Times reports on how artists are increasingly making large scale work, galvanizing a trend in commercial galleries in London, Los Angeles and New York to provide massive spaces in which to show it, formerly the role of the museum.  With the increase in not only monumental sculpture and installation, video pieces also require large amounts of space, often incorporating multi-channel projections. (more…)

Marc Spiegler will now head the four-person Art Basel team under a restructuring of management. The fair has grown immensely since 2007, when one person, Sam Keller, (now head of The Beyeler Foundation), was responsible for the management of the fair.  Annette Schönholzer, Magnus Renfrew and a new director of resources and finance (to be appointed next year), will serve under Spiegler as chairman. (more…)

The WSJ Magazine profiles Theaster Gates, a sculptor, performance artist and urban planner from Grand Crossing, a mostly-black neighborhood south of downtown Chicago, and his work, which goes further than social commentary.  Gates focuses on rebuilding and re-contextualizing spaces, not only as part of his artistic practice- but also in a real and effective way that transforms lower income communities. (more…)