Sterling Ruby, SP Paintings (Installation View), courtesy Nahmad Contemporary
This past month, Nahmad Contemporary was home to its inaugural show, a body of new work by American artist Sterling Ruby, entitled “SP Paintings;” a series he has been developing for a number of years, but has never collectively displayed in an exhibition until now.
British Pavilion (Installation view) 2013
With the impressively well-stocked selection of pavilions at this year’s Biennale, the United Kingdom has turned to Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller to represent the country, presenting a complexly layered thematic exhibition titled English Magic.  Best known for his restaging of the miners’ strike battle of Orgreave in 2001, his 2009 road trip though America with a car wrecked by a bomb in Iraq, and his 2012 touring bounce house version of Stonehenge, Deller has brought his controversial, political resumé to bear on the largest stage for his country’s creative reputation, creating a visually aggressive criticism of modern wealth.
Jeremy Deller, St. Helier on Fire 2017, British Pavilion 2013
The ferry from lower Manhattan to Governors Island was filled with excited children and adults wearing feathers, sequins and other outlandish pieces of clothing this weekend, setting the tone for the playground of colors, sounds, and movement that marked Figment NYC. Running June 8th-June 9th, the festival grounds on Governors Island was transformed into a fantastical wonderland worthy of Seuss and Dali, a colorful and immaginative exhibition of arts, costumes, performances, and other sights, including a petting zoo and free clothing tent, which provided a helpful hand to those who arrived in less motley apparel.
George Condo, Downtown New York (2012), Copyright George Condo / ARS (Artists Rights Society), New York, 2013 via Sprueth Magers
For the past thirty years, George Condo has created visceral, challenging works that blend art history and theory with an irreverent worldview that make his sculptures and canvases explode with life.  Currently, the artist is exhibiting a selection of his Drawing Paintings and bronze sculptures, created in 2012, for his third solo show with Sprüth Magers, Berlin. Condo has a long standing relationship with the gallery that started almost 30 years ago, when Monika Sprüth hosted one of Condo’s first solo exhibitions in Cologne in 1984. (more…)
Artist Elizabeth Peyton and designer Dries Van Noten recently sat down with the Financial Times’s Style section to talk about their ongoing friendship, their mutual respect for each other’s work, and Peyton’s portraiture of Van Noten.  “The faces people make when they are photographed, and the face they have when you draw them are very different. It’s a very special thing to share with someone, because it’s time spent together that is not about eating or the usual social things.” Peyton says. (more…)
The Financial Times has published a series of articles on collecting, gallery operations and the contemporary art world, running in its June 7th issue, as well as online.  Taking a look at the global market for contemporary art, the special section of the paper includes interviews with Bill Viola and Maurizio Cattelan, a history of the upcoming Art Basel fair, a recap of the newly reopened Berggruen Museum in Berlin, a spotlight on the rising popularity of sculpture in the British market, and a feature on the high-profile Russian art dealer Stella Kesaeva. (more…)
A work depicting Saint Helen in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum has been revealed as a Tintoretto.  Previously credited to Schiavone, The Embarkation of St Helena to the Holy Land was discovered as a misattribution during a digitization of the museum’s records.  National Inventory Research Project director Andrew Greg said: “Non-British paintings are sometimes a comparatively neglected aspect of a museum’s collections and we also recognised that few museums have complete up-to-date catalogues of their picture collections. (more…)
Two of Russia’s most prominent museums, the Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum, are currently embroiled in a dispute over the collections of Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin, which had been distributed between two institutions when Stalin shut down the State Museum in 1948.  The debate was brought to light this year, when the Pushkin’s director, Irina Antonova, appealed to President Vladimir Putin on live television, asking him to recreate the institution in Moscow, raising ire over the rightful home of the works, which include pieces by Picasso and Matisse.  “The expert advice seems to be all on the Hermitage side—but you never know,†says Geraldine Norman, an advisor at The Hermitage. (more…)
Prior to his death in February, American artist Richard Artschwager designed four elevators for the Whitney Museum’s new museum space in Chelsea, currently under construction.  The four designs, titled Six in Four, are designed around the reoccurring motifs of doors, windows, tables, baskets, mirrors and rugs that appear in Artschwager’s work.  “The idea was to have something that immediately gives you a sense of place, an identity, so that this isn’t just another generic museum,†Whitney Director Adam D. Weinberg said. (more…)
Rodney Graham, (Installation View), via 303 Gallery
303 Gallery is currently presenting its seventh show with artist Rodney Graham, the inaugural exhibition for the gallery’s new home on West 24th Street, New York. In the works on display, Graham continues his allegorical self portraits, creating surreal scenes in hyperreal lightbox photographs. The humorous yet sympathetic works, often ironic re-constructions of esoteric references, give the sense of a private joke, playfully lampooning the absurdity of life.
Rodney Graham, Cactus Fan (2013), via 303 Gallery (more…)
Philip Taaffe, Recent Work (Installation view), courtesy Luhring Augustine Gallery
Recent work by Philip Taaffe is currently on view at Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea, New York, marking Taaffe’s first solo show of paintings in New York since 2007. Culling together a diverse set of influences and materials, the works on view unveil Taaffe’s explorations of imagery in art, architecture, and archeology, both in contemporary and historical contexts.
Troy Brauntuch, State Trooper (2013), via Petzel Gallery
Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery is currently presenting a pair of new exhibitions examining the process of art creation and photography, as explored in the works of artist’s Troy Brauntuch and John Stezaker. Â Taking notably distinct, attentive approaches to the photographed image, these two artists present new entries into well-established bodies of work, while adding new wrinkles and conceits to their practice. (more…)
In the wake of the multiple lawsuits brought against the Knoedler Gallery for sales of counterfeit art since the space closed in 2011, Forbes Magazine has published an article detailing the lack of oversight and due diligence that often plagues collectors when art and antiques are being bought or sold. “Sophisticated businesspeople would never do a business deal without asking questions, but somehow when they are buying art or collectibles, their common sense flies out of their head,†says Patty Gerstenblith, a professor of Art and Cultural Law at DePaul University. (more…)
This week, art dealer Larry Gagosian asked New York State Supreme Court to throw out the lawsuit collector Ronald Perelman filed against him last fall.  Gagosian and Perelman have been embroiled in a debate over the sale of a Jeff Koons sculpture, with Perelman claiming that Gagosian used his position to take advantage of Perelman in the sale.  “I really think that these two gentlemen ought to get together at a cocktail party in the Hamptons this summer,†Justice Barbara Kapnick said. “This is a crazy case to have going on in this court and you ought to see if this can’t get resolved before I write a decision.†(more…)
The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns, (Installation View) © Felix Clay 2013. Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Taking a diverse look at Marcel Duchamp’s influence on artists around the globe, the Barbican in London is currently presenting The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns, following the artist’s influence on several modern masters in the fields of composition, choreography and the visual arts. Featuring around 90 works by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, as well as choreographic work by Merce Cunningham and works by John Cage, the show takes great pleasure in crossing the disciplines of art, dance and music to reflect the multi-faceted work of these artists.
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1950 replica of 1917 original) Photo Felix Clay 2013, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery. (more…)
Alexander Calder, Calder After the War (Installation View), courtesy of Pace London
Currently on view at Pace Gallery London, from April 19th through June 7th, is an exhibition of over fifty works by Alexander Calder, created between 1945 and 1949, one of his most well-known periods during which he pioneered many of his sculptural abstractions through movement in three dimensions, particularly via his mobiles and stabiles.
Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (Franz West) 2011, (Installation View) (2013)
Rudolf Stingel, the Italian-born, New York-based artist, is currently presenting an installation covering the entire of the Palazzo Grassi, the regal Venetian estate of billionaire  collector François Pinault. The exhibition is curated by the artist himself in partnership with Elena Geuna, the former director of Sotheby’s Europe. The project was designed specifically for the 3-story, 5,000 square meter building located on the Grand Canal in Venice. What’s more, the exhibition marks the first time the entire museum has been devoted to a single artist.
The Hirshhorn Museum’s proposed “Seasonal Inflatable Sculpture Project,” informally referred to as “the Bubble,” has been officially decided against, after years of debate and wrangling over its installation on the museum’s property on the National Mall.  The news comes shortly after Hirshhorn director Richard Koshalek announced his decision to resign after a split vote on the Bubble several weeks ago.  “If the board were more together and if we were seeing more results of that, then we might have made a different decision,†Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin said. “Because it’s divided, it makes it hard to move forward.†(more…)
The William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London has been awarded the UK’s prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year, entitling it to a £100,000 prize.  The award comes after an ambitious renovation and restoration project, which put £3 million into upgrades and new curatorial standards to make the museum a jewel of the city’s already burgeoning cultural offering.  Says Art Fund Director Stephen Deuchar: “The collections are not only important but they are very beautifully presented, in terms of the physical fabric of the showcases and also the interpretation – the labels are erudite and accessible. There is a great curatorial coherence to the collections and that comes across in every square foot of the museum.” (more…)
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Tube, Art on the Underground has invited 15 innovative contemporary artists from across the globe to produce limited-edition posters. Each image will present a different perspective on the London Tube, and hence create a vibrant narrative of the world’s first underground network. Artists involved include Gillian Wearing, Sarah Lucas and Wolfgang Tillmans. (more…)
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art hosted its last weekend event series this weekend, featuring a free 24-hour screening of Christian Marclay’s The Clock.The event marked the last days of the museum’s current space, as it closed its doors yesterday for a planned 225,000-square-foot expansion, which will make it the largest new American art museum of the decade.
Vollis Simpson, a self-taught North Carolina artist renowned for his whirligigs, died on Friday at his home after complications from a heart valve replacement.  He was 94.  Simpson was known to scour junkyards for bits to assemble his quirky, wind-powered whirligigs. His pieces have been featured in numerous art museums and exhibitions across the country, including his 55-foot-tall, 45-foot-wide work Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, on permanent display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.  A park in his honor, the Wilson Whirligig Park, will be opening in the fall in the city of Wilson, N.C.
Following on news of the dissolution of L&M Arts in New York earlier this year, the gallery partnership between Dominique Lévy and Robert Mnuchin will dissolve its Los Angeles outpost.  “We’re sad, of course. It’s an amazing place and has been an amazing three years. But following the split in New York, this is only logical. Robert and Dominique were going their separate ways in New York and wanted to focus on their separate endeavors.† Said director Sarah Watson. (more…)
David Pappaceno, Psychic Birth (Installation view,2013), at English Kills Gallery.
This past weekend, locals, gallerists, collectors and other art enthusiasts flocked to Bushwick, Brooklyn for the seventh-annual Bushwick Open Studios, organized by nonprofit community group Arts in Bushwick. With over 550 spaces participating, many with more artists than one, it was impossible to see everything, even for the most dogged observer. Art turned out at every corner—in galleries, art studios, apartments, bars/restaurants, shops and event spaces— in this rapidly-developing district with a concentration of studios and gallery spaces that rivals Chelsea.
