Mother Jones takes a closer look at Basin and Range, the home of Michael Heizer’s City, and the center of a recently ignited political debate over the allocation of lands under government protection.  President Obama signed an executive order protecting Basin and Range earlier this month, earning angry outcries from Republicans.  “I don’t think expanding the narrowing use of public lands is appropriate,” Jeb Bush retorted following the bill.  (more…)

Ai Weiwei with his Passport, via The Guardian

Artist Ai Weiwei is free once again to travel outside of China, following the return of his passport, The Guardian reports. The return caps a four year ordeal for the artist following his arrest for alleged tax evasion in 2011.  (more…)

London based auction house Christie’s International PLC said that in the first half of the year, it sold £2.9 billion ($4.5 billion) of art, an increase of 8% from the same period last year. However, Christie’s old master paintings, 19^th century European paintings, Russian art, and luxury goods are struggling with diminishing sales growth. “Sellers of blue-chip artworks are getting choosier about where and when they put their pieces up for sale and for how much,” explained Christie’s global chief operating chief, Stephen Brooks. Additionally, a large number of Christie’s clients from the first half of the year were bidding for the first time, a coping strategy is “to find artworks that appeal to novice and seasoned bidders alike,” said Mr. Brooks.

(more…)

In a commentary on the ongoing threat of nuclear radiation in Japan, Kenji Kubota, associate professor at the University of Tsukubacurat in Japan, has curated an exhibition inside the exclusionary zone at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, a space only accessible to visitors wearing hazmat suits.  The exhibition, featuring work by Ai Weiwei, Taryn Simon and others, will remain open until the public is able to see it. (more…)

Bloomberg profiles new tech startup Verisart, a digital venture founded by Robert Norton, the former CEO of both Saatchi Online and Sedition. that utilizes the bitcoin block chain to authenticate and catalog works currently on the market.  “We think long-term monetization will come through building a verified database of inventory,” he says. “We think that that will enable transactions through Verisart.” (more…)

The Financial Times profiles Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, a contemporary artist-turned-politician whose belief in the ability of art to work in conjunction with policy informs his leadership.  “Languages are different,” he says slowly. “And to pretend that politics should speak the language of art might be misleading. But, at the same time, I think that art can exercise an influence, without really making it seem like a straightforward influence.” (more…)

The Whitechapel Gallery has announced the London Open 2015, a Triennial open to all artists living and working in the British capital over the age of 26.  “The London Open 2015 received the greatest number of applications in the history of the Whitechapel Gallery’s open submission exhibition,” says Daniel F. Herrmann, Eisler Curator and Head of Curatorial Studies.  “The entries were of exceptionally high quality – their level of execution, creativity and critical sense are testament to London’s status as the art capital of the world and we are delighted to present some of the most interesting artists working in the city today” (more…)

LACMA is currently showing the video collaboration between Steve McQueen and Kanye West, depicting the musician rapping and running through the Chatham Dockyards in London.  The video is currently running at the museum. (more…)

Leigh Morse has been ordered again by a New York judge to continue paying off the $1.6 million in restitution she owes to victims.  Morse had drawn criticism for barely paying any of the legally mandated repayment, while refusing to sell her uptown apartment or her Pennsylvania weekend home.  “She doesn’t want to change her lifestyle. She won’t even do what people do all over New York — rent!” says prosecutor Kenn Kern.
(more…)

As exemplified by the triennial survey of rising Belgian artists and artists working in Belgium, “Un-Scene III”, Brussels is gaining attention as an emerging major art city in Europe. “A city of both commerce and creation”, Brussels provides a mix of local and international artists with a “fertile cultural laboratory” with affordable rents.  Russian-born American artist Marin Pinsky jokes, “I don’t want to be too big a booster of Brussels… I don’t’ want the whole world moving here.”

(more…)

The Hermitage Museum has announced plans to open a contemporary art outpost in Moscow, hinting at an attempt by the Russian city to become a contemporary art powerhouse.  “Rather than being perceived as a museum dealing only with the past, the Hermitage is pushing itself forward into the future from its powerful historical position,” says commissioned architect Hani Rashid of Asymptote Architecture said. “Our whole generation of architects looked to the Russian avant-garde of the early 20th century, which made such a powerful break to the past. We’re working within a tradition that we’re extending.” (more…)

A collection of Robert Ryman works from the recently shuttered Swiss exhibition space Hallen für Neue Kunst will travel to Dia Beacon late this year, The New York Times reports.  “There’s a very healthy conversation that’s going on right now in New York about painting,” says Dia Director Jessica Morgan said, “but Ryman often doesn’t seem to be a part of those conversations about experimental approaches to painting, where he’s played a big role. And it was very important for me to try to reinsert him into that discussion.” (more…)

Françoise Grossen, Five Rivers, 1974

Currently on view at Blum & Poe is the first survey of Swiss-born, New York-based artist Françoise Grossen, focusing on works the artist created between 1967 and 1991 using fiber, a material that has recently had something of a renaissance in contemporary practice.  The material, which served as a popular material during the experimental ventures of the late 1960’s art scene, saw Grossen, as well as her peers Eva Hesse, Sheila Hicks and Lenore Tawney utilizing the material in allegorical and often grandiose arrangements, culminating in 1969’s historically resonant MoMA exhibition Wall Hangings. (more…)

Michael Borremans, Black Mould / Pogo (2015), via Art Observed

Belgian painter Michael Borremans has long mined the aesthetic moorings of antiquity for his work, creating meticulously labored paintings that owe much to 17th and 18th century painterly technique.  Originally trained as a photographer, Borremans’s craft is tempered by a notable scholarly, contextual awareness, frequently using his mooring in the present day to offer the occasional critique or inversion of his historical inspirations.  Such is the case with the artist’s most recent body of work at David Zwirner’s 24 Grafton Street gallery in London, a series of dark, occasionally disturbing pieces that use the painter’s signature style to amplify their surrealist aspects.

Michael Borremans, Black Mould / The Badger’s Song (2015), via Art Observed

(more…)

Franz West, Lamp (2003), all photos by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Marlborough Broome Street, the downtown, contemporary-focused outpost of Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery, opened its doors for a summer group show titled Marlborough Lights this month. Curated by Leo Fitzpatrick, a newly appointed director at the gallery, the exhibition traces a loose interpretation of the lightbulb as a source of energy and an allegory for critical thinking, while exploring the potentialities for the lamp as a creative container for motives beyond mere furniture or utilitarian lighting.

(more…)

The artists exhibiting at the German Pavilion in Venice have erected a Greek flag in protest against their government’s harsh austerity measures taken against the Mediterranean nation, emblazoned with the word “Germoney.”  “We show our solidarity with the people in Greece and all other places suffering from austerity,” says artist Hito Steyerl.  “As cultural workers and artists we demand an end to austerity for health, culture, and education while public funding for banks and oligarchs seems unlimited.” (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly has released the first volume of his catalog raisonné, tracing his evolution towards the cut canvas abstraction that he built his career on.  “I was on the way, but it was too soon. I wasn’t able to just throw out everything,” he says of his early experiments. (more…)

The Guardian profiles painter Rachel Howard this week, Damien Hirst’s first assistant and spot painter, who is stepping into the spotlight on her own this year with her first UK public gallery solo exhibition.  “We were mates and he needed someone to paint spots, and I was waitressing and I didn’t want a proper job – so I ended up working for him to earn enough money to make my own work,” Howard says. “It was a very good symbiotic relationship.” (more…)

Albert Oehlen, Untitled (2005), via Art Observed

In terms of painterly invention, few can keep up with Albert Oehlen, the German artist whose relentless reinterpretation of the medium has made him one of the more intriguing, and often unpredictable, guardians of the form.  Moving effortlessly from visceral abstraction to coy installation work and back, few elements of visual culture have avoided his scope over the past 30 years.  This drive towards the investigation of the image, and its potentials in an increasingly mediated world, sits at the center of Oehlen’s New Museum retrospective this summer in New York, combining a carefully selected series of works that move from his early recognition during the 1980’s through to the present day. (more…)

In response to a court order compelling Danh Vo to create an “impressive” installation for collector Bert Kreuk, the artist has issued a letter to the collector telling him in no uncertain terms to “shove it.”  “This whole case is so bizarre it is unbelievable,” Kreuk has responded. (more…)

An article in the New York Times this week looks at the benefits of the thriving, community-focused art scene in Detroit, as well as the challenges artists in the city face.  “The thing I love about Detroit — if you want it done here, you have to do it,” says choreographer Marcus White. “You have to work.” (more…)

Protesting the contentious new proposal by the German government to limit international sales of valuable and historical works from German collections, Georg Baselitz has announced he is withdrawing his works from German museums in protest.  The move comes on the heels harsh criticism from a number of high-profile German artists, including Gerhard Richter. (more…)

David Hockney is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing his recent practice using digital technology and his lifestyle in Los Angeles.  “It’s a reasonably sophisticated city down the hill,” he says. “It’s very nice. It’s home, really. But I’m not that interested in what’s happening outside. I like my way of life. I just work.” (more…)

London’s Royal Academy has launched a Kickstarter page to fund the £100,000 installation of Ai Weiwei’s Trees at the museum’s London courtyard.  “It is an experiment and a gamble, but a sensible one,” says Tim Marlow, the RA’s artistic director. “If it comes off, brilliant; if not then it was worth trying.” (more…)