Ai Weiwei’s name and works have been removed from a show of Chinese contemporary art in Shanghai, following government pressure over his inclusion.  “We were not really a party to this,” says Uli Sigg, the Swiss collector and organizer of the show. “In the end it was the Power Station and the cultural bureau. In the end we said we must accept. We don’t understand but we must accept that his works will not be in there.” (more…)

Online art sales surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time in history last year, The Art Newspaper reports.  The market is also expected to double in less than ten years, according to special insurance group Hiscox.  The news was accompanied by a survey that noted some drawbacks to buying online, including an inability to see the work in person, but also noted a high number of customers to be aged under 30. (more…)

Marianne Boesky Gallery has announced that it will open a new exhibition space in downtown New York, titled Boesky East.  Located at 20 Clinton Street, the space will open its doors May 4th with an installation by Pier Paolo Calzolari.  “I’m looking forward to expanding our reach into such an exciting neighborhood for art,” Boesky told Art Observed.  “Clinton street will be a wonderful complement to our Chelsea and Uptown locations.”

Proxy Adviser Glass, Lewis and Co. has backed Sotheby’s Board Nominations in the wake of Daniel Loeb’s continued pressure on the company.  “In this case, we believe the Dissident has identified certain areas of concern,” the company says in a statement, “but ultimately has fallen short of making a compelling case that additional changes in the boardroom are warranted at this time beyond those already implemented by the Company.” (more…)

Urs Fischer at Lever House, via Art Observed

Running concurrently with his show of new works at two Gagosian exhibition spaces, Urs Fischer is exhibiting a selection of past works in the glass-encased lobby of the Lever House on Park Avenue.  Taking an intriguing approach towards the artist’s own glass-encased objects, the show makes for an intriguing perspective into Fischer’s interests in display, perspective and construction. (more…)

Serpentine Galleries has announced a collaboration with Comme des Garçons to create a special unisex fragrance, inspired by the gallery’s location in Hyde Park, with a bottle designed by Tracey Emin.  “The result is a fresh, light, yet deceivingly complex, unisex scent composed of grass, leaves, pollen (galbanum, iris leaf), oxygene (aldehyde, ozone), asphalt (black musks, nutmeg), labdanum and smoked cedar with a little bit of pollution (benzoin, juniper wood, gaïac wood),” the gallery notes on its site. (more…)

A recent interview with Christie’s head Steven Murphy for the Wall Street Journal notes the auction house’s commitment to entering the online market.  “I felt the art auction world had not experienced the tidal wave that music, video and books experienced with the advent of online,” said Mr. Murphy, who has worked with Rodarte and Disney in the past. (more…)

The shortlist for the 2014 Turner Prize will be announced on May 7th at the Tate Britain.  The award, given annually to an artist born or working in Britain with an exceptionally outstanding exhibition in the past year, includes a £25,000 prize.  All of the shortlist nominees will be invited to show their work at the Turner Prize exhibition later this year. (more…)

Alice Workman, the newly appointed director of Hauser and Wirth’s Somerset Gallery location, is profiled in The Guardian this week, discussing her views on the unique countryside space it occupies, and how the space will operate once fully operational.  It’s really a combination of all the things the Wirths are passionate about,”  she says. “We want different audiences to engage in different ways – some might come for the garden, the restaurant or the exhibitions, but will hopefully discover other things while they’re here.” (more…)

Urs Fischer at 104 Delancey (Installation View), via Art Observed

Following his retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles last summer, Urs Fischer returns to New York City this spring with a pair of shows that address that artist’s recent works, while turning his practice towards questions of authorship, originality and context.

Urs Fischer, the last supper (2014), via Art Observed (more…)

Laure Prouvost, From the Sky at Danspace Project, via Ian Douglas

Just last Friday, Danspace Project opened its doors at the historic St. Marks Church in the Bowery for a special performance by French-born artist Laure Prouvost.  Titled From the Sky, the performance saw Prouvost exploring an invented history and interaction of her fictitious, conceptual artist grandfather, all through her signature blend of hyper-charged performance, video and imagery.

Laure Prouvost, From the Sky at Danspace Project, via Ian Douglas (more…)

The sentencing for art dealer Helly Nahmad is scheduled for this Wednesday in Manhattan, with prosecutors pushing for a one year to 18 month prison sentence, while Nahmad’s defense attorney’s have proposed a program for bringing homeless youth in the Bronx to the Metropolitan Museum.  “I do not have a great education in other subjects,”  Nahmad said in a letter to Judge Jesse M. Furman. “But I really do know a lot about art, and I think I could really teach young people in a good way and hopefully introduce them to a world they might otherwise never visit.” (more…)

Korakrit Arunanondchai, 2555-2012 (2012), via Art Observed

At just 28 years old, Korakrit Arunanondchai (“Krit” for short) has already compiled an impressive aesthetic vocabulary for himself.  Mixing his own blend of aesthetic signifiers (denim, flowers, musical tropes, performative hip-hop) with a variety of media including painting, video, sculpture and performance, to create a fluid, intertextual universe.  It’s just this universe that dominates the artist’s first exhibition at MoMA PS1 this spring, a single room affair that culls from the artist’s already dense body of work to extract a series of focused themes and subjects in the artist’s young career.

Korakrit Arunanondchai, Untitled (Muen Kuey No. 17) (2013), via Art Observed (more…)

Nowness has posted a video piece by Martin Rietti focusing on Yayoi Kusama’s studio work, and her fascination with patterns and motifs such as the polka-dot.  “When I was painting I found the same pattern on the ceiling, stairs and windows like they were all over,” Kusama says. (more…)

The dispute over the movement of Picasso’s Le Tricorne tapestry from the Four Seasons restaurant in New York has resulted in a lawsuit, filed by the Landmarks Conservancy (which owns the piece), in an attempt to prevent any movement that could damage or destroy the work.  “We’re just trying to do our duty and trying to keep a lovely interior landmark intact,” says Peg Breen, president of the conservancy. (more…)

Kara Walker’s upcoming Creative Time commission in Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar Factory is the focus of a profile in the New York Times this week, taking a look at the nearly finished project and its series of monumental sculptures dedicated to the slave labor that established the American sugar manufacturing market. “In some ways, doing a project like this is a bit of a nose-thumbing at detractors, naysayers, haters,” Walker says. (more…)

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Le orecchie di Jasper Johns (The Ears of Jasper Johns), (1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

At the current Michelangelo Pistoletto exhibition The Minus Objects 1965-1966, on view at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick location, what greets visitors is their own reflection, as a single piece from the artist’s signature Mirror Paintings series, sits at the entrance. But the exhibition looks deeper into Pistoletto’s work throughout his career, focusing on the artist’s sculptural objects created between 1965 and 1966.

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Sfera sotto il letto (Sphere Under the Bed), (1965-1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Bringing together a wide range of industrial materials such as wood, metal, newspaper and plexiglass along with glass mirror, the work carries an individualistic structure and an independent content: Pistoletto, by placing them in an uncommon harmony, orchestrates a coherent body of work composed of, in many ways, unrelated works.  Structures underlining a hybrid combination of contrasting materials create a bridge between different techniques. For example Scultura Lignea (Wood Sculpture) includes a classically styled wooden sculpture, erected inside an orange-colored plexiglass case. Letto (Bed) on the other hand, is an assembly of wide ranging materials including glass mirror, velvet, wood and iron that Pistoletto culls together to render the domestic symbol.

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Scultura lignea (Wood Sculpture), (1965-1966) via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Imi Knoebel, Bild 13.11.2013 (2013) all images courtesy Kewenig

On display at Kewenig in Berlin, Germany from March 8th through April 26th is a new series of paintings by German artist Imi Knoebel, comprised of solid-colored aluminum plates in various forms made with acrylic paint. The works have been interpreted both as paintings and flat wall sculptures, hovering weightlessly in their large-scale formats. Non-representational and highly reductive, the series challenges even the artist’s own minimalistic practice in their adherence principally to form and color. (more…)

The London Underground has released a new brochure and map for the Tube, featuring design by artist Rachel Whiteread.  The new map design features a series of holes on the front cover, offering snapshots of the routes listed inside.  “As a sculptor I cast empty spaces,”  Whiteread explained. “It therefore seemed appropriate to make some holes in London which theoretically could be filled up.” (more…)

Gao-Yuan, Ai-Weiwei (2012), all images courtesy Martin-Gropius Bau

Opening on April 3rd at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, and organized by the Berliner Festspiele, is the largest solo show of works by Ai Weiwei ever to be exhibited. Taking up 3,000 square meters in 18 rooms, the installations and sculptures.  Entitled Evidence, the politically driven works from the artist, architect, and amateur politician alludes to the term meaning “proof that will stand up in court.” The works were designed in his studio on the outskirts of Beijing, and many of which were specifically designed for display in the museum’s spacious exhibition halls.

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The Wall Street Journal reports on one man’s repeated attempts to authenticate a work he believes is a Mark Rothko. Douglas Himmelfarb purchased the painting in 1987 for $319.50, but has had many problems with authenticating the work, as a number of experts refused to confirm the work’s authenticity.  “I think I had a little too much braggadocio after I found the painting,” Himmelfarb says. “Maybe that’s part of the problem. I thought, ‘This is great, and I did it.'” (more…)

Takashi Murakami’s debut film Jellyfish Eyes is set to premiere in the United States next week, bringing some of the artist’s signature characters to the silver screen.  The film, which centers around a series of magical creatures that only children can see, will show in select cities May 1st through the 5th. (more…)

Artist Stan Douglas has unveiled an interactive multimedia application this week at the Tribeca Interactive Festival, titled Circa 1948, which allows users to move through and physically interact with the architectural spaces of post-war Vancouver.  “It’s not a game,” Douglas says. “It’s a narrative. There’s no task: you’re not told to find this, kill that. There’s no beginning, middle or end – you’re sort of always in the middle. But that’s always the best part of a novel, say: not the beginning or the end. In the middle you know what’s going on.” (more…)

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (from the series Raft of the Medusa) (1996), Art Observed

One of the last series of work from Martin Kippenberger, The Raft of the Medusa is nothing if not impressive.  Taking the dramatic tableau of Theodore Géricault’s 19th century work as his inspiration, the artist threw himself body and soul into this series of paintings, drawings, photographs, and even a single tapestry, turning his own body into the fuel for a powerful engagement with the destruction and pathos of the original work.  It’s this inspiration that sits at the center of Skarstedt Gallery’s current show of the series of works, compiling Kippenberger’s sketches and photographs alongside his series of visceral, energetic canvases, which served as the apex of his work in the series.  

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (from the series Raft of the Medusa) (1996), via Art Observed (more…)