Sculptor Anish Kapoor has been inducted as a knight of the British Empire this week, part of Queen Elizabeth II’s 2013 Birthday Honors.  The 59-year old Turner Prize winner joins a list of 24 other Indian-born honorees, and also became the first living British artist of Indian origin to take over the Royal Academy in 2009. (more…)

With growing confidence among Chinese contemporary art buyers, Sotheby’s will heavily feature work from the Asian state in its June 26th and 27th contemporary sales in London.  Works by Zhang Xiaogang, Shi Xinning, Yue Minjun, and Zhang Huan will feature prominently in the sales, with a series of works expected to sell anywhere between £120,000 and £450,000. (more…)

Jean Dupuy, Performances/Bouffe Théâtre d’en face (1979) (detail), via Galerie Louevenbruck

Galerie Louevenbruck Paris is currently exhibiting Jean Dupuy: the collective years (1973-1983),  a first time retrospective of the artist’s “collective” period during the late 20th century. This period of work was developed after Dupuy left Paris for New York in 1967. Having begun his art career as a painter, he infamously threw his old works into the Seine before heading off to America, where a year later his Cone Pyramid (Heart Beats Dust) sculpture became his introduction to the notions of the collective.  Shortly after its creation the piece had already been exhibited at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Brookyln Museum, and its success launched the artist into his 40 year study of “techno-sensual” techniques and collective art practice.

Jean Dupuy, The Collective Years (Installation View), via Galerie Louevenbruck

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Takashi Murakami is featured this week in a video interview with Nowness Magazine, discussing his recently opened shows in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, his film Jellyfish Eyes, and his attempts to make work in the aftermath of the earthquake and fallout from the Fukushima power plant disaster. “Those natural disasters birthed in me a desire to understand spirituality,” he says. “When I consider what art means to humanity, capitalism and the money game can longer be the main themes of my work.  As an artist, I can heal people.  Now, I feel art is just about healing.” (more…)

Starting its campaign to create a “neighborhood of art” around its Houston campus, the Menil Collection has hired landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to redesign and expand the environment around its 6 buildings.    “It’s always a challenge to take a landscape that has evolved incrementally and a landscape that has a subtle and modest character and to somehow succeed in improving it,” Mr. Van Valkenburgh says. “It’s not something that needs to be reinvented.” (more…)

Artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel has announced the opening of an exhibition space on the ground floor of his West Village home in New York.  Titled Casa del Popolo, the space’s first show will feature six new works by British painter Nick Mead.  “This is the first installment of a program to show the work of other artists and an opportunity to collaborate with people who present unique perspectives on art that I believe in. I wanted to open part of my house to the public so they could have an art experience ‘far from the maddening crowd’.”  Says Schnabel. (more…)

Monkeytown, the unique film and performance event presented by Brooklyn artist Montgomery Knott, will stage its first iteration in Manhattan this summer, at Chelsea’s Eyebeam Art and Technology Center.  The event will run for 60 days, beginning tonight, and features a selection of works by Theo Angell, Shana Moulton, Eve Sussman, and more, alongside a dinner and beer or wine pairing.  “It’s strange to be a restaurateur, as I think of this as an art installation. But I’m very aware of service.”  Knott says. (more…)

A 41-year old man has been arrested in London under suspicion of defacing a portrait of the Queen at Westminster Abbey.  The work, done by artist Ralph Heimans, went on view in May, and was commissioned to celebrate her diamond jubilee last year.  “In an incident at lunchtime today, a visitor to the abbey sprayed paint on the Ralph Heimans portrait of the Queen presently on display in the Chapter House. Until work can be done to remedy the damage it will, very regrettably, not be possible to have the painting on public view.”  The abbey said in a statement. (more…)

Nadja Frank, Red Headed Stranger (2013), via Denny Gallery

Creating links between the exterior world and the white cube of the gallery space, artist Nadja Frank’s work explores the intersections of natural forms and fabrication through her sculptural and painted works.  Often creating works around samples and materials culled from natural landscapes, Frank’s pieces express an attempt to bridge the distance between her experience and practice, while sitting firmly between the two.  For her first solo show at Denny Gallery in New York, Frank has turned her focus to the landscapes of the High Desert, exploring the rich hues and striking forms of the American West.  (more…)

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (2013), via Peres Projects

Los Angeles-based Alex Israel makes work that seems constantly engaged with his home city, the Californian metropolis that plays home to so many of image-driven outlets of the culture industry.  Borrowing from the high-gloss, high production-value world of the Hollywood studio systems and culture corporations, Israel’s works explore the trappings and conventions of celebrity, perception and fame in the context of a city so actively engaged in the manipulation of each.

Alex Israel, Self-Portraits (Installation View), via Peres Projects (more…)

Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève, Paris, (1838‐1850) View of the reading room, Photograph Michel Nguyen © Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève Michel Nguyen, courtesy of MoMA

Moving beyond mere architectural details, The Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition, Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light,is not simply a survey of the French architect’s (1801-1875) work and influence, but also something of a meditation and retrospective on the library’s role in society.  As information continues its march from papers to servers, and books are routinely traded in digital form, Labrouste’s vision of the library as a central mechanism for the dissemination of knowledge offers an intriguing meditation on the significance, symbolism and vitality of the library today.  The show is also apropos here in New York as the city’s Central Public Library, in response to these changes, prepares for a potentially devastating renovation.

Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, (1838-1850) Southwest corner elevation and section (Late 1850), Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris

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Damien Hirst’s spot paintings are once again the subject of analysis and discussion, this time in the New York Times, which looks forward to the publication of his catalogue raisonné for the series this fall.  Released by Other Criteria, the book will catalog the full series of spot paintings, 1,365 in all, and is speculated by some as a way to lend authenticity to the work of an artist whose auction prices have fallen in recent years.  “He needs to regain the trust of the marketplace,” said Jeff B. Rabin, an advisor and co-founder at Artvest Partners. “It seems the catalog is one measure he could perhaps take to start to rectify some of the ill feeling out in the marketplace.” (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans, young man, Jeddah, b, (2012), via Andrea Rosen

Continuing their ongoing relationship, Andrea Rosen Gallery is currently exhibiting its 11th solo exhibition of work by German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, on view through June 22nd.  From Neue Welt is the result of a four-year project that Tillmans began in 2008, and completed in 2012, a vigorous photographic cataloguing of the dawn of the 21st century. 25 works have been selected from the hundreds of photographs that were a part of the original work, which culminated at the Kunsthalle Zurich in the fall of 2012.

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Outside View, Art Basel 2013, Photograph Courtesy of Art Basel

The city of Basel, situated at the border between Switzerland, France and Germany, will be transformed into a contemporary arts hub this week for the 44th annual Art Basel. Anticipating record attendence, the fair will look to top its record of over 65,000 visitors at the marathon art event this year.  With over 300 top galleries from all over the world flocking to the city to display over 4,000 artists’ work, the fair is commonly referred to as the “Olympics of the art world.”  and features a similarly brimming schedule of events and claustrophobic crowds of eager spectators. Each day boasts its own full agenda, including film screenings, artist talks, and performances, and joined by the vast number of peripheral art exhibitions and events hosted by cultural institutions of Basel throughout the entire region, held in obscure and romantic venues amidst the Swiss lakes and mountains.

Olafur Eliasson, Untitled (2003), Courtesy of Art Basel

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Mike Kelley, Eternity is a Long Time (Installation View), Photo by Agostino Osio Courtesy Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan All Mike Kelley works © Estate of Mike Kelley  

Running in tandem with this summer’s Venice Biennale, Milan’s HangarBicocca is currently presenting a selection of works by the late American conceptual master Mike Kelley, culling together a series of sculptures, installations and video from the last few years of his life, alongside several of his earlier notable conceptual pieces.

Mike Kelley, Eternity is a Long Time (Installation View), Photo by Agostino Osio Courtesy Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan All Mike Kelley works © Estate of Mike Kelley   (more…)

West Coast art dealer Blum and Poe has begun its search for a gallery space in New York City, which is intended to “focus on our artists who currently do not have representation in New York, in addition to very specific projects, both historical and otherwise,” says co-owner Tim Blum.  The gallery is currently based in Los Angeles, and will look to open by August. (more…)

In the past two years, U.S. authorities have seized over $100 Million in art and antiques from Subhash Kapoor, a 64-year-old American citizen accused as one of the biggest smuggles of ancient antiquities and art in the world.  Kapoor has sold or donated ancient art works to a number of prominent museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and LACMA, and is currently being held in India as a suspect in an international smuggling ring.  The United States is also seeking its own charges for the dealer.  “It’s one of our most significant antiquities and artifacts investigations that we’ve conducted,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge James T. Hayes says. (more…)

When the Whitney Museum set out to restore artist Douglas Davis’s early collaborative, online art piece the World’s First Collaborative Sentence, few could foresee the challenges that digital and internet-based art posed for repair and maintenance.  Based on constantly shifting programming languages and operating systems, digital art often offers complex restoration problems, forcing curators and experts to evaluate the degradation of web sites, coding and software updates against the original authenticity of the piece to properly exhibit it.  “We’re working on constantly shifting grounds,” said Rudolf Frieling, of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “Whatever hardware, platform or device we’re using is not going to be there tomorrow.” (more…)

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait (1983), courtesy Skarstedt Gallery

Playing with constructed images of self and cultural phenomena, Robert Mapplethorpe’s challenging self-portraits were an influential and essential part of the 1970’s New York arts scene.  Now, the artist’s work in the medium is documented through eleven photographs at Skarstedt Gallery currently on view through June 15th. The photographs are extremely personal explorations that the artist took of himself periodically throughout his life, meant to explore different aspects of his own identity, as he captures himself in a variety of states and moods.

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Billed as the world’s largest art exhibition, the newly announced Art Everywhere project will turn billboards and poster sites around the United Kingdom into exhibition spaces for works from the national collection.  The project is curated in part by the British public, who will vote on their favorite works from a curated shortlist.  Damien Hirst has offered a work for exhibition, and is a vocal supporter of the project.  “Art is for everyone, and everyone who has access to it will benefit from it. This project is amazing and gives the public a voice and an opportunity to choose what they want to see on their streets.“  He says. (more…)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892), courtesy The Frick Collection

The Frick Collection is currently displaying a series of nineteenth-century French drawings and prints by a variety of Realist, Impressionist, and Post-impressionist masters, made possible by the Florence Gould Foundation.  Exploring the varying approaches of figuration, depiction and ornamentation throughout 19th century drawing and prints, the exhibition is on view through June 16th.

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A video, released online yesterday and since removed, purportedly depicts artist Richard Prince burning one of the five still disputed Canal Zone pictures that were challenged in court by photographer Patrick Cariou.  While Prince had won the case for the majority of the works in the series, Graduation, the work depicted in the film, was still under consideration for not being fully “transformative.”  Cariou had originally sued to have the works destroyed.  In the video, Prince is quoted as saying “to them this stands for money,” before having an assistant douse the work in gasoline and light it on fire. (more…)

Gert&Uwe Tobias, Untitled (2012), © photo Alistair Overbruck, Cologne/Gert & Uwe Tobias/VG. Bildkunst, Bonn via Whitechapel Gallery

Whitechapel Gallery is currently hosting a major exhibition of work by Romanian-born twins Gert and Uwe Tobias, showcasing the brothers’ work and its abilities to challenge the distinctions between fine art and craft with their collaboratively created woodcuts, sculptures, collages and typewriter drawings.  Their multi-genre works from 2008 to the present are organized into a site-specific installation for the gallery, and showcase their broad, nuanced skill set in a global context.

Gert & Uwe Tobias (Installation View), via Whitechapel Gallery

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Sou Fujimoto’s Serpentine Pavilion, via The Serpentine

The Serpentine Gallery’s annual summer pavilion opened late last week in London’s Hyde Park, with a presentation by designer Sou Fujimoto and Serpentine Directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Fujimoto, Peyton-Jones, and Obrist, via Bloomberg (more…)