The international art fair calendar will see a new addition to the lineup of Art Basel events this year, with the announcement today of Art Basel Hong Kong, running from May 23th-26th.  The festival mirrors the expanding prominence of the Asian art market, and will include a variety of exhibitions, public works, panel discussions and large-scale installations.  “There’s no question today’s serious international collector is looking at Asia,” Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler says. “The notion of collecting by continent is outmoded, and Asian collectors are looking beyond borders, too.” (more…)

An 18th century Chinese vase made for the Qianlong emperor has been sold for less than half of its last auction price.  The vase had sold for a record $83 million at auction two years ago, but was put back on the market after its buyer, collector Wang Yaohui, failed to pay.  The vase was recently resold for an undisclosed price said to be between  $32 million and $40 million.  “It’s the right price,’’ Dealer Roger Keverne says. “That was the figure at which most people were interested when the vase was originally offered. It’s settled to its true value.’’ (more…)

UK-based arts commissioning body Artangel has announced an open call for proposals, offering £1 million in backing for the five chosen projects.  Artangel has a history of backing Turner prize winners and shortlist candidates, including Jeremy Deller’s 2004 Turner Prize-winning “The Battle of Orgreave” re-enactment, and  is seeking proposals that attempt the fantastic and seemingly impossible.  “We hope to find younger artists who will put forward amazing proposals. We feel that we want to get ideas that are forming in the darkness into our field of vision.” Says Artangel Director James Lingwood.

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Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, French Horns, Unwound and Entwined (2005), via PKM Gallery

Since they began working together in 1971, Claes Oldenburg and his late wife Coosje van Bruggen have created a dense body of work melding together their creative approaches in a variety of large-scale public installations and gallery works.  Appropriating the form of conventional, commonplace objects and recasting them at enormous proportions, the couple’s art simultaneously plays at the viewer’s perceptions of reality and the irony of the subject matter on view. (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is held a ground breaking ceremony today to launch the renovations on its Fifth Avenue entrance.  The new design will feature new fountains alongside the building and additional trees for shade.  “We wanted to bring in more trees, more shade, and plantings, so that it’s a more friendly place for our visitors.” Says Museum Director and CEO Thomas Campbell. (more…)

A 1932 painting of Pablo Picasso’s mistress is expected to sell for as much as $56 million at auction next month.  Femme assise pres d’une fenetre has been placed on sale by Sotheby’s auction house, and is guaranteed to sell courtesy of a third-party, “irrevocable” bid.  The 61-lot auction on February 5th will also include works by Claude Monet and Joan Miró, among other notable surrealist and impressionist painters, and is valued at $240 million.

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The first concrete murals done by Pablo Picasso are in danger of destruction following severe damages to the buildings that house them.  The two buildings were severely damaged in the terrorist attacks of July 2011 in the Norwegian city of Oslo, and government employees have voiced concerns that they may require demolition.  “If the buildings were demolished and the murals integrated into new ones or brought to another site, they would no longer be the works Picasso intended,” says Jørn Holme, the head of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. (more…)

In a bid to become a global destination for art lovers, the British city of Yorkshire has created the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, a coalition of galleries and institutes dedicated primarily to the art of sculpture.  The Triangle includes the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and The Hepworth Wakefield, and showcases a variety of both classic works and new pieces from around the world.   “I’m delighted that we can support a project that will attract further investment and visitors to Yorkshire. It is a great example of how partnership-working can help more people to become more familiar with Yorkshire’s pre-eminence in modern sculpture.”  Says Cluny Macpherson, director of the Yorkshire Region of the Arts Council. (more…)

Francis Alÿs, REEL-UNREEL (2011), via David Zwirner

In REEL-UNREEL, the recently completed film by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, two Afghan boys race through the streets of Kabul, dodging traffic, pedestrians, and other children while military helicopters fly overhead.  Mimicking a game hoop-rolling, they push two large film canisters, a trail of film spilling out behind them as they go.  Winding through the streets and up into the hills of the Afghani capital, the reels of film take their fair share of abuse as they are dragged through dirt, puddles, and even a small fire before being mistakenly rolled straight off a cliff. (more…)

As part of a Juxtapoz Magazine-benefit auction for the Ride It skatepark in Detroit, artist Matthew Barney has designed a special edition skateboard, tipped with a chunk of graphite. Part of Barney’s ongoing “Drawing Restraint” series, the design allows riders to literally inscribe their movements across a terrain. (more…)

Peter Campus, Three Transitions (1973) via Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery

Peter Campus has been working with video art and photography since the 1960s as a major contributor to the burgeoning New York-based video art scene. Throughout the span of his career, Campus has put forth a dynamic and diverse oeuvre, which was showcased last month at now and then, a major retrospective of his work at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York.  We had a chance to sit down with the artist in December and ask him a few questions, included here.

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In commemoration of the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Arts Show and its impact on the world of contemporary art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has produced a series of videos emphasizing their collection of works from that year.   The videos are available for viewing at the museum’s website, and feature museum curators discussing their favorite works in the museum collection, including works by Umberto Boccioni, Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Léger. (more…)

Mexican tequila brand Casa Dragones has partnered with artist Gabriel Orozco to release a series of special edition tequila bottles.  Each bottle bares Orozco’s signature and Black Kites motif, and is available at select retailers in the United States, Mexico and London.  “Our collaboration with Gabriel Orozco marks an extremely exciting moment for Casa Dragones as we celebrate Mexican contemporary art and Mexican craftsmanship with the world.” Says Bertha González Nieves, Co-Founder and CEO of Casa Dragones Tequila. (more…)

In a bid for the attention of the international arts community, the city of Munich has partnered with artists Elmgreen & Dragset for a year-long series of public art installations across the Bavarian capital.  “We hope the art will become a reason for people to come to Munich,” says Michael Elmgreen, one half of the duo. “And that by placing different artworks throughout the city, it will encourage them to explore the whole place. It’s an optimistic, maybe naive hope to get people into the streets again.” (more…)

Continuing its recent policy to hold the Turner Prize presentation ceremony outside of London on alternate years, the Tate Britain has announced that the 2015 awards ceremony will be held for the first time in Glasgow, Scotland at the Tramway Arts Centre.  This will be the fourth time that the Turner Prize will be awarded outside of London, and could in fact be the first Turner Prize awarded outside of the UK, pending the results of the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum.

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David Shrigley, Signs (Installation View), via Anton Kern

Blending the mundane and the morbid with a healthy sense of humor and cultural subversion, David Shrigley has been producing his particular blend of cartoonish satire for over 20 years.  Trained as a sculptor, the artist has also produced a trove of ink drawings, animations and other projects that showcase his brand of wit and empathy, exploring neurosis, mortality, absurdity and even the art world itself. (more…)

An Amedeo Modigliani portrait of the artist’s common-law wife may command up to $35.5 million at auction next month in London.  The 1919 painting of the artist’s common-law wife, titled Jeanne Hebuterne (au Chapeau), is part of a 78-lot auction of Impressionist and Surrealist works by Christie’s International, and also includes works by Henri Matisse and Joan Miró.  The total sale is valued at $237 million, and will take place on February 6th.

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Carroll Dunham (Installation View), via Gladstone Gallery

Walking the line between representational abstraction and pure expressionism, the work of American painter Carroll Dunham works in a language that incorporates his unique viewpoint and artistic background into the classical formats of portraiture and landscape. (more…)

In connection with his two-gallery opening last night in Chelsea, French artist Daniel Buren has returned to the streets of New York, papering various buildings and walls with his trademark vertical stripes.  “Time makes all the difference,” Buren explains. “New York streets have changed in the past 40 years. We are not at all in the same city.”  Twitter users can follow the location of these installations by following the #burenstripes hashtag. The artist’s show opened last night at both Petzel Gallery and Bortolami Gallery. (more…)

Jake and Dinos Chapman, The End of Fun (2010), via White Cube Gallery

Since their graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1990, brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman have continually pushed the envelope with their iconoclastic, ambitious sculptures.  Frequently incorporating what they call “bankrupt” imagery, so frequently used by contemporary that it has lost much of its original meaning, the artists create large-scale sculptural works that have frequently drawn fierce reactions from critics and gallery visitors.

Jake and Dinos Chapman, The End of Fun (2010), via State Hermitage Museum (more…)

Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto has unveiled his new design for the Tokyo office of Christie’s Japan.  Situated in a pre-war stone building in Tokyo’s prestigious Marunouchi District, the new office design emphasizes its gallery space and entranceways, all based on Sugimoto’s adherence to Japanese heritage and literature.  “Mr. Sugimoto, a globally renowned artist, successfully created a space where the East and the West harmonize, and the past and the present blend together seamlessly.”  Says Managing Director Ryutaro Katayama.

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Sotheby’s has reported $1.25 billion in global auction results for Contemporary Art last year, making 2012 its third most successful year in history, and the highest in history for Contemporary Art.  “The marketplace and demand for contemporary art has never been stronger or more international – of the top 20 prices achieved by Sotheby’s last year, more than half were post-war and contemporary masterworks.”  Says Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe Cheyenne Westphal. (more…)

Founded in 1997 to house the collection of collector Ernst Beyeler, Fondation Beyeler is currently the most attended art museum in Switzerland.  Vernissage TV has just posted an interview with director Sam Keller, recounting the museum’s first 15 years of operation and looking forward to its upcoming projects and goals.  Keller says: “In the beginning I think no-one could have envisioned that in such short term it would get on the map as being one of the most important museums not only in Switzerland, but also having an international reputation as being a house which shows art at the highest quality. So the development has been a quite steady one. ”
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Painter José Parlá unveiled his 70 ft. mural inside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center last night.  The painting, titled Diary of Brooklyn, was inspired by writer James Agee’s novel Brooklyn, and the artist’s impressions of the continued transformation of the borough.  The Barclays center, which opened last fall, has commissioned a number of works by Brooklyn artists, including another mural by Mickalene Thomas. (more…)