Frieze Magazine is currently running an interview with Massimiliano Gioni, the New Museum Curator who is currently preparing for the opening of The Encyclopedic Palace at this year’s 55th Venice Biennale.  In the interview, the curator discusses his practice, and his plans for the upcoming opening of the Biennale this summer. (more…)

The Two Zodiac Heads to be Returned to China, via China Radio International

French president François Hollande has embarked on his first visit to China, accompanied by a number of high-profile French business heads.  Among them is François-Henri Pinault, the Kering CEO and Christie’s head who has brought a gift of two bronze statues looted from the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860.   (more…)

Sabine Moritz, Mother (2010), via Marian Goodman

Limbo, the state of being suspended in time, between past and future, repose and action, is the title of Sabine Moritz’s first solo show with Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris.  Spread over two floors, the exhibition includes eighteen oil on canvas paintings, and over sixty drawings, a dense body of work started in late 2001.  Moritz, who lives and works in Cologne, Germany, was on her way to New York City on September 11th, when her plane was diverted up to Nova Scotia. For three days she was stuck in this remote landscape, with thousands of other displaced travelers, watching the events and its aftermath unfold. This period of waiting and disconnect, gave her time to reflect about the changing nature of borders, conflict, and the technology of war.

Sabine Moritz, Limbo (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

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Artist Paul McCarthy’s Complex Pile has been damaged in southern China following an unexpected rainfall.  The work, which was on view as part of a show on inflatable art in West Kowloon, was deflated to avoid further damage. “A small hole was discovered on the surface of the piece. We are doing our best to fix it and hopefully we can inflate the artwork as soon as possible,” a spokeswoman said. (more…)

Creative Time’s Anne Pasternak spoke with the New York Times Style Section this weekend, previewing organization’s annual spring gala held at The Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg.  Taking over the organization in 1994, Pasternak has brought Creative Time to the forefront of New York’s busy arts scene, producing projects like Vik Muniz’s crop duster messages over the city, and Nick Cave’s recent soundsuit installation at Grand Central.  “It’s not always easy to explain, but we’re doing it all,” Ms. Pasternak said. (more…)

A set of classical Greek statues have been returned to the Greek state from Qatar, after a recent disagreement between Greek and Qatari officials.  While visiting the Middle Eastern nation, Greek Cultural Minister Costas Tzavaras noticed that the nude statues had been covered to avoid offending visiting females.  Refusing to uncover the statues, the Qatari government opted to return them to Greece. “In a society where there are certain laws and traditions authorities felt women would be scandalised by seeing such things, even on statues,” added an official present at the event. “The minister, of course, said while he totally respected local customs he couldn’t accept the antiquities not being exhibited in their natural state. They were great works of art and aesthetically it was wrong.” (more…)

Artist and architect Maya Lin is profiled in the New York Times, and discusses her new show at Pace Gallery, her recent work, and her thoughts on the environmental catastrophe’s caused by Hurricane Sandy last year, when much of Downtown New York was flooded. “A flood doesn’t exist except in our memory banks,” she said. “It’s a temporal event. It’s not the river and it’s not the land. It’s neither here nor there.” (more…)

Over the past 50 years, the descendants of renowned Paris art dealer Paul Rosenberg have fought to reclaim their father’s vast art collection, looted from the family’s home during World War II.  Tracing paper trails and historical records, the family is remarkable for their ability to reclaim over 340 of Paul Rosenberg’s 400 works still missing, including works by Picasso, Cézanne and Braque. “They are part of the 5 percent of those who have been successful,” said Marc Masurovsky, Holocaust Art Restitution Project founder. “They set an example of how restitution should take place.” (more…)

Zhang Xiaogang (Installation View), via Pace Gallery

Currently featured at Pace Gallery’s space at 510 West 25th Street, is the first series of Zhang Xiaogang‘s painted bronze sculptures. At first glance it appears simply as a 3 dimensional representation of Xiaogang’s famous Bloodline characters, however there are in fact numerous dialogues in the works as well as the artist’s practise, that deepen and darken the situation.

Zhang Xiaogang (Installation View), via Pace Gallery

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Adrian Ghenie, Pie Fight Interior 8 (2012), Courtesy Pace Gallery

Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie’s first U.S. gallery exhibition, Adrian Ghenie: New Paintings, explores a dark, distorted side of modern European history, pulling images from publications, films, and artistic sources and blending them with his own personal memories and visceral artistic style. The exhibition is presented by Pacc Gallery, which has represented the artist since 2011.

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EXPO 1, an exhibition of works addressing the ecological and political challenges of contemporary society co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Klaus Biesenbach, is set to open at MoMA PS1 this May, presented in conjunction with Triple Canopy.  The large-scale, multiple-module collaborative project will open May 12th with Dark Optimism, a curated show featuring works by 35 artists, including Joseph Beuys, Adrián Villar Rojas, Meg Webster, Agnes Denes, and Anna Betbeze that seeks to explore the dissonance between modernist politics and 21st century society. (more…)

Thomas Ruff, phg.03, (2012), via David Zwirner

David Zwirner’s 19th Street Gallery spaces in Chelsea are currently exhibiting a selection of recent works by German photographer Thomas Ruff, showcasing the artist’s ongoing inquiries into digital interjections into the photo making process, and his studies on natural phenomena filtered through the lens of digital photography.

Thomas Ruff, photograms (Installation View), via David Zwirner (more…)

New research into the composition and techniques in the work of Vincent Van Gogh are challenging the perceptions of the artist as a spontaneous, romantic libertine in favor of a portrait of the Dutchman as a skilled and relentlessly committed technician.  Presenting findings at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, a team of researchers have used new technologies and visualization equipment to analyze and uncover Van Gogh’s skillful approach to composing and arranging his paintings.  “There has never been such extensive research into Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings,” says Nienke Bakker, Van Gogh Museum curator. (more…)

New York Gallery Mitchell-Innes and Nash has announced that it will represent late artist Jay DeFeo through the Jay DeFeo trust, seeking to bring a new perspective on the artist to the East Coast following her landmark exhibition at The Whitney Museum.  The gallery is planning its own retrospective of DeFeo’s work for next year.  “Her work intersects three areas of interest to us,” said gallery founder Lucy Mitchell-Innes. “Abstract Expressionism; European art from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s; and women artists.” (more…)

Artist Ryan Trecartin’s installation and video work B: Settings has been purchased by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, marking the artist’s first entry into a museum collection in the Southern California city.  “At the risk of oversimplification, his art could be said to combine the retinal extravagance of much 1980s art with the political awareness of the ’90s and the inclusiveness and technological savvy of the post millennium.”  Says Holland Cotter of the NY Times. (more…)

The New York Times has published an in-depth look at painter Domingo Zapata and in doing so explores the ideas of celebrity culture and its influence, positively and negatively, on an artist’s career.  Self-described as a “celebrity artist du jour,” Zapata counts celebrities and professional athletes like Lindsey Lohan and Jeremy Shockey as clients and friends, yet has remained conspicuously absent from the galleries and collections of New York’s elite dealers and art buyers.  The artist, who is a mainstay of the New York nightclub scene, has origins in Spain, moving to New York in 1999.  Zapata was able to commit himself full-time to painting after a windfall investment allowed him to leave his day job on Wall Street.  “[Painting’s] the only thing I ever wanted to do,” Mr. Zapata said. “You only have one life, so you better be what you want to be.” (more…)

Comparison between the two artist’s works, via Art Newspaper

A U.S. Court of Appeals judge has ruled that the majority of works in Richard Prince’s Canal Zone series, which appropriated photographs of Rastafarians by Patrick Cariou, are “transformative,” and therefore not an infringement on the copyrights for the original photographs.  The decision overturns a 2011 Disctrict Court ruling, which had ordered that 21 of the 30 works which had not yet been sold be turned over to Cariou to destroy. (more…)

Tony Smith with Daughters, (1969), via Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

In its current exhibition, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein remembers the work of sculptor Tony Smith (1912-1980), placing it alongside work from his daughters Kiki Smith (1954) and Seton Smith. The exhibition traces multiple generations of work by the smith family, beginning with Tony’s pioneering work in the 1960’s and 70’s, and will includes sculptural work, paintings, architecture, photography, and tapestries.

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The Shortlist for the 2013 Turner Prize was announced today, including artists Laure Prouvost, Tino Sehgal, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and David Shrigley.  The winner of the award will be announced on December 2nd, and the presentation of the award this year will occur in Derry-Londonderry in Northern Ireland as part of its year as UK City of Culture.  “The Turner prize is on everyone’s lips. There is a level of real excitement. Having the Turner prize in Derry will create the biggest impact the Turner prize will have had on anywhere in its history.”  says executive producer for the City of Culture Graeme Farrow. (more…)

Last night’s Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in Doha, Qatar closed with the regional record sales total of $15.2 Million, with 9 records set for artists at auction, including the highest price for a living Arabic artist. The top sale of the auction went to Donald Judd’s Untitled (Bernstein 90-01), which sold for $3,525,000 after a long bidding competition.  Lina Lazaar Jameel, Head of Sale and Sotheby’s International Contemporary Art Specialist, said of the auction: “We are thrilled with the results of this evening’s sale, which achieved records for nine artists and set the highest total for a sale of Contemporary Art in the Middle East region. It is extraordinarily gratifying to see the market’s response to the exceptional range of art we sourced for this evening’s carefully curated auction. Interest grew throughout the pre-sale tour of highlights to both Jeddah and Dubai, culminating in tonight’s exciting auction.”  (more…)

Art F City is reporting on the fallout from the announcement of Cooper Union’s announced decision to begin charging tuition for its students. Following a tense Q and A yesterday afternoon between students and trustees, a walk-out and large-scale protest ensued, which culminated in staff sealing off school windows to prevent the hanging of banners and and protest signs.  During the meeting, trustees avoided questions about potential future tuition hikes, calling Cooper Union’s public accessibility into further question.  “You could all donate to the school.”  Chairman Mark Epstein said in response to a question about curbing inflation. (more…)

Daugavpils, the Latvian birthplace of artist Mark Rothko, opened a new museum dedicated to the artist yesterday.  The Mark Rothko Arts Center is the first permanent collection of the artist’s work in Eastern Europe, and includes six works from the collection of the artist’s son and daughter.  “This centre, I think, is going to become an important archive, an important resource for Rothko scholars to draw on, and also for Rothko’s public.” said Rothko’s son Christopher. (more…)

Jon Kessler, The Web (Installation View), via Swiss Institute

Overwhelming in its degree of sensory immersion, Jon Kessler’s hypnotic new installation, The Web is currently on view at Swiss Institute in New York.  Welcoming new perspectives into the participatory nature of the Internet, and the endless variations of image and sight that result from an information-centered society, the artist creates a powerfully immersive work that commands the viewer’s full attention. (more…)

The Jumex Collection, the contemporary arts-heavy museum currently being built in Mexico City’s wealthy suburb of Polanco, is scheduled to complete its construction in July, with a target opening date in November.  Established by food and juice magnate Eugenio López, the Jumex Collection is considered the largest private contemporary arts collection in Latin America, and features works by  Tacita Dean, Olafur Eliasson, Martin Kippenberger and Bruce Nauman. (more…)