Cooper Union has settled its court case with the Committee to Save Cooper Union and the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, the school announced late yesterday, signaling a resolution to increase transparency and involvement in the school’s governance.  “Under the agreement, which must be approved by the court, The Cooper Union will increase transparency and participation by broadening the involvement of its students, alumni, faculty and staff in the school’s governance,” the school said in a statement. (more…)

The Broad Museum’s online ticketing system has crashed on its first day of operation, following overwhelming traffic to the site for museum reservations.  “It isn’t that much fun to be in an overcrowded gallery,” Director Joanne Heyler had previously noted. “We’re going to watch very carefully to strike the right balance, with access for as many as we can, but not an uncomfortable experience. We want to keep artworks safe from accidental bumping that can happen when there’s overcrowding.” (more…)

Chason Matthams, Heidi (2010), via Art Observed

In our daily lives, we are constantly bombarded with imagery, navigating through the chaos of web pages, textbooks, etc. These images are being infinitely reproduced and distributed, passing through our perceptual filters to either be kept indefinitely or to be ignored entirely. This summer, Miami-born artist Chason Matthams works with Thierry Goldberg to put on his first New York solo show, Advances, None Miraculous, delving further into the chaos to create non-linear narratives from this image detritus, making comparisons that might otherwise be ignored. (more…)

A nearly 100-foot deep tunnel discovered by Israeli police in East Jerusalem may have been intended for a museum heist at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Reuters reports.  The hole had been dug in an elderly woman’s yard, possibly by a group of men reportedly checking a water leak there.  “This is the work of a criminal gang that wanted to gain access somewhere – whether to the museum or the bank, is still being checked,” says police spokeswoman Luba Samri. (more…)

Crain’s has a summary of the ongoing migration out of Chelsea by small and mid-level galleries, as rents continue to spike, and those who don’t own their buildings are slowly forced out.  “Just like in SoHo, galleries are the victims of their own success,” says Stuart Siegel, senior VP at CBRE Group Inc., who has specialized in Chelsea for years. “The galleries put Chelsea on the map. Then the world followed them.” (more…)

Petra Cortright ‘Niki Lucy Lola Viola’ (Installation View), all images courtesy of Jeff McLane

Currently at The Depart Foundation is NIKI, LUCY, LOLA, VIOLA, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles based artist Petra Cortright, curated by Paul Young. Brightly illuminating the pitch black walls of The Depart Foundation, Cortright presents a series of works that delve into the imaginative depths of the internet-literate modern mind.  Video and animation are approached with careful attention to composition, transforming them into fully immersive presentations that function in both time and space.  As Cortright pushes the limitations of her compositions, she also familiarizes viewers with videos, digital paintings, and flash animations that utilize the aesthetic and landscape of the digital. (more…)

Following the unfreezing of his assets last week, Yves Bouvier has given an aggressive interview with a Swiss newspaper, vowing revenge against former client Dimitri Rybolovlev for his accusations of fraud.  “They deceived justice and destroyed my reputation,” he says. “I will destroy the only thing that affects the Russian billionaire in Monaco: his fortune.” (more…)

Artist Olafur Eliasson is designing a special waterfall installation for “an art pool,” where viewers can dive underwater to see works by a group of artists.  “I have wanted to construct a waterfall in Copenhagen for a while,” he says.  “I’m keen to participate in this project as it’s a work of art.” (more…)

James Lee Byars, The Figure of Death (1987), via Art Observed

This summer, Michael Werner Gallery’s New York location exhibits a pair of sculptures from James Lee Byars; The Figure of Death (1987) and The Moon Column (1990) are shown concurrently with two other exhibitions of Byars’ work, The Diamond Floor and The Poetic Conceit and Other Works, on view at the gallery’s London and Berlin locales, respectively. (more…)

With the conclusion of a conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, a coalition of art world professionals, government workers and copyright experts have placed a call for an international review of artist copyright law, particularly in consideration of resale royalty inequity in nations like the U.S. and China.  “So many sales take place in countries that don’t recognize the right, such as the US or China,” says artist Gordon Cheung, who supports the measure.  “This unfairly disadvantages artists based in these countries, as well as artists whose work sells in these countries.” (more…)

Four artists working at Los Angeles’s MAK Center have recreated the famous Vienna hotspot, Loos Bar (named for its designer, Adolf Loos), recreated in miniature with cardboard, glue and sawdust.  “We wanted all the clichés of a European bar. You can smoke inside. It’s loud. It’s nasty,” says collaborating artist Christoph Meier.  (more…)

Takashi Murakami has announced a surprise exhibition of his personal collection of art, toys, antiques and other objects this fall at the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Art Newspaper reports, interviewing the artist on his collection and his love of Anselm Kiefer’s work.  “When I first came to New York, I finally saw a real Kiefer in a show at the Museum of Modern Art,” he says. “When I stood in front of it, I cried. The work was Osiris and Isis (1985-87), a painting of a step pyramid, and I was awestruck.”    (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its renovation plans for the repurposed Breuer Building, former home of the Whitney Museum, set to open in March 2016.  The plans for the space will include a “book bar” and restaurant.  “Our approach to inhabiting and interpreting the building honors Breuer’s intent for the space, highlighting its unique character as an environment for the presentation of modern and contemporary art,” says Thomas P. Campbell, the director and CEO of the Met. “The wonderfully scaled galleries and interior spaces of The Met Breuer provide a range of opportunities to present our modern and contemporary program, in addition to our galleries in the Fifth Avenue building.” (more…)

Palestinian artist Shadi Alzaqzouq has been thrown out of Banksy’s Dismaland installation following a protest against Israeli artists included alongside his work in the exhibition.  “I found out when I arrived at the show that three Israeli artists were taking part, one of whom served in the IDF,” the artist says.  “I decided I had to protest in some way so I went and got a bed sheet from my hotel room and wrote ‘R.I.P Gaza: Boycott Israel’ on it in coal and hung it over my artwork and laid down like a corpse in front of my two paintings on display.” (more…)

Following the massive market rout earlier this week, Bloomberg notes a number of collectors already trying to squeeze liquidity from their art collections.  “Ten years ago no one in the art market paid close attention to these corrections in the stock market,” said Elizabeth von Habsburg, managing director of advisory firm Winston Art Group. “Now clients respond immediately.” (more…)

A 12-year old boy in Taiwan accidentally punched a hole in Paolo Porpora’s Flowers, after tripping and falling towards the painting this week.  “The painting’s bottom right is damaged,” says exhibition organizer, Sun Chi-hsuan. “The boy’s hand made contact with the artwork and left a hole the size of a fist.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei’s iconic bicycle installation Forever will be installed in front of the Gherkin in London next week, as part of the city’s “Sculpture in the City” event, running from Sept. 4th-13th.  “The Forever bicycles were a brand from when I was growing up. In our village there were no real roads and we always had to ride bikes to carry things,” Ai says.  “I thought they would be a good public sculpture because people relate to bikes. They’re designated for the body and operated with your body. There are a few things today that are like that.”  (more…)

Singapore’s highest court has unfrozen the assets of Yves Bouvier, locked down earlier this year following the Swiss dealer’s lawsuit with Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev over mark-ups on the work Rybolovlev purchased that tallied over $1 billion.  “I am happy that my position has been vindicated,” Bouvier said. (more…)

Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, whose stretched jute sack are a highlight of this summer’s Venice Biennale, is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Stefan Simchowitz and Dublin dealer Jonathan Ellis King, after the artist emailed them disowning 294 pieces by the artist.  “I was really left with no choice,” Simchowitz said, noting that the act has cost the dealers over $4.45 million. (more…)

William Kentridge has planned a massive installation, Triumphs and Lamentations on the banks of the Tiber in Rome, power-washing its embankments to create a series of monumental images of war and its aftermath.  “Everyone’s triumph is someone else’s disaster,’ Kentridge said at a presentation of the frieze he would use as his plan for the work. “If you’re returning in triumph from a war, it means that other people are returning as slaves.”  (more…)

Marc Quinn, The Toxic Sublime – The Toxic Sublime – 7&3Y6″>;X[:0#’y (2015), via White Cube

Artist Marc Quinn returns to his beloved shoreline for a new exhibition of works at White Cube this month, a continuation of the artist’s ongoing interest with the motion and resulting detritus that defines patterns of water, flow, and humanity’s relationships with these fluid forces. (more…)

Mark Manders, Room with Reduced Chair and Camouflaged Factory (2003) , via Art Observed

Compiled from over 100 works in the Guggenheim Museum’s personal collection, the current exhibition at the uptown institution, Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim, feels like something of a victory lap for the museum, following up on its excellent On Kawara exhibition with an extended show of contemporary works that spans the last thirty years, and which uncovers a broad curatorial focus at the core of its collection.  Emphasizing a nuanced interest in the narrative as a core unifying element for disparately realized works, objects and assemblages, Storylines pulls from diverse practices to portray the often challenging representative missions that contemporary artists set for themselves. (more…)

Tamuna Sirbiladze, Pomegranate (2015), via Art Observed

Artist Tamuna Sirbiladze’s first solo exhibition in the United States, at New York’s Half Gallery combines oil-stick on unstretched canvas, accented by an intuitive emphasis on interior design and decorative elements inside the gallery, emphasizing its position as a formerly domestic space.  Taking the artist’s signature style as a starting point, the works seem to move towards a more expansive, space-oriented technique.

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The New York Times notes a new wave of young, dynamic, and often privately-affiliated art advisors working in the burgeoning market for art.  “There is a new breed,” says Wendy Cromwell, former president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, “an independent contractor — kind of like black ops, like a hired gun — who can get you what you need in a tough, changing environment.” (more…)