Damien Hirst, Forbidden Fruit (2012-3), via White Cube Hong Kong

White Cube Hong Kong is currently presenting Entomology Cabinets and Paintings, Scalpel Blade Paintings and Colour Charts, a broad exhibition of new work by British artist Damien Hirst. Through the three series on view, Hirst explores life’s dualities through the beauty and horror of both the Natural world and modernity.

Damien Hirst, The Judged (2012), via White Cube Hong Kong

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Roni Horn, Untitled (“Consider Incompleteness as a Verb”), (2010-2012), via Hauser and Wirth Zurich

Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth Zürich is a solo show by American visual artist and writer Roni Horn, encompassing the artist’s signature glass sculptures alongside a photographic series created between 2010 and 2012.

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The Smithsonian Institution has announced a series of summer closures in order to make up for the current national budget sequester.  Beginning yesterday, the Institute closed several rooms at the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Museum of African Art as it cut back on security and maintenance during the summer.  The measures are scheduled to conclude on September 30th. (more…)

Local Planning Committee the Thorney Island Society has raised objections over the proposed installation of artist Katharina Fritsch’s bright blue cockerel sculpture on London’s Fourth Plinth.  Taking umbrage with the work’s apparent “innappropriate” placement in Trafalgar Square, the group is taking action to prevent its installation. “We cannot see any logical reason for the proposed sculpture to be placed on the fourth plinth. It is unrelated to the context of Trafalgar Square and adds nothing to it but a feeble distraction.”  The group said in a statement. (more…)

Next month, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will announce an ambitious, $650 Million plan for a new museum space.  As the plans stand, the new construction would call for the destruction of core parts of LACMA’s campus, including the original 1956 building by William Pereira.  The proposal is the latest in a series of proposed major construction on the museum over the years, but the first under director Michael Govan, who has already led the museum through a number of smaller expansion projects. (more…)

The British Museum’s current expansion efforts, projected to cost £135 Million, are currently running on schedule, and on budget, museum curators said in a progress report this past Monday.  The project will add much needed operations space to the institution, as well as a 1,100 square foot exhibition space designed for major exhibitions.  “Almost in every decade, there’s had to be some kind of amendment, adjustment or extension to the building to make it fit for purpose.” says the museum director, Neil MacGregor. (more…)

Artnet’s Katherine Markley is reporting on the continued growth of the art market for contemporary female artists, focusing in particular on the work of Yayoi Kusama.  Analyzing sales figures for the last several years, Markley points out that Kusama has vastly exceeded the current sales figures for both Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons since 2007, and reframes the question of female artists’ presence in terms of comparison to direct market competitors, in favor of the 100 highest selling works list often cited in news articles and auction reports. (more…)

Boléro, a collaboration between artist Marina Abramovic and Belgian choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, is set to open tonight in Paris.  Interpreting Ravel’s immediately recognizable work for dance, the work debuts at the Palais Garnier alongside Maurice Béjart’s “Firebird” and versions of “Afternoon of a Faun” by Nijinsky and Jerome Robbins.  “In my own work I am completely in control, but the interesting thing with collaboration is to give up part of yourself, the ‘I,’ ” said Abramovic. “It’s very liberating to be in a new field, dance, to let things come to you and not to make decisions.” (more…)

The Dia Art Foundation has released the details on artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument, a library, performance theatre and monument to the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci, established in the Forrest Houses Projects in the Bronx.  The piece will be the fourth and final work in a series of installations to Hirschhorn’s favorite thinkers, installed temporarily at locations around the world.  Says Philippe Vergne, Director, Dia Art Foundation. “Gramsci Monument reinforces Dia’s commitment to off-site commissions, which is at the center of our mission. I am confident that through this project Dia will become a different, stronger institution — one that is even more engaged with the reality of art today.”  Gramsci Monument will open July 1st. (more…)

Inside the Brooklyn Artists Ball at the Brooklyn Museum

The annual Brooklyn Artists Ball took place last week on April 24th, featuring award presentations to Barbara Knowles Debs, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu and Roxy Paine for their collective contributions to the vibrant and growing arts scene of New York’s second borough.  The event also featured a series custom designed table settings from a number of New York artists, including Jules de Balincourt, Njideka Akunyili, Daniel Arsham, FAILE, Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw, a performance by Brooklyn’s The Push Pop Collective, and more.  Art Observed was on site for the event, and took these photos showcasing the highlights of the night.

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