Karin Schneider, Situational Diagram (Installation view), via Dominique Lévy

Brazilian-born, New York-based artist Karin Schneider is currently the subject of a solo exhibition, titled Situational Diagram, at Dominique Lévy this month, delving into artistic and philosophical potentials for  “grasping” an artwork, both materialistically and ideologically.  Schneider, who co-managed the experimental Lower East Side artist-run initiative Orchard Gallery between 2005 and 2008, embarks on a series of black canvases, which offer the artist a degree of freedom to leave narratives open-ended, and to allow relationships and commerce to leave their mark on the painting’s surface.  Each work is subject to a specific agreement with its potential collector, where Schneider’s monochrome-heavy works utilize art history—particularly Minimalism—as a vessel to scrutinize social and consumerist dynamics in art through color and form. (more…)

Christie’s will auction a selection of works from the collection of millionaire Edward James this winter, among them a wide selection of iconic surrealist objects, including Salvador Dali’s lobster telephone.  “We’ve asked ourselves of every object in the sale, ‘What do we need to keep to tell the story and for teaching purposes, and what is really just sitting in storage and seen by nobody?’ says Alex Barron, chief executive of West Dean college, which was endowed with the works by James. (more…)

Marina Abramovic is interviewed on some of her favorite books and recent reads for the New York Times this month.  “I know that I am reading a powerful book when everything around me disappears and I am unable to put it down until I finish it,” she says.  “A good book can bring you to another state of consciousness and transport you into different times and spaces. I am always searching for that experience of having the reality of the book overpower the reality of my own life.” (more…)

Maya Lin has unveiled her redesign of the Smith College Library in Northampton, MA, returning some of the original concepts and ideas for the campus that were developed by planner Frederick Law Olmsted.  “We basically get to give the heart of the campus back to Smith,” she says. “It was a reductivist scheme. Less is more.” (more…)

Artist Tania Bruguera has announced her candidacy for president of Cuba, launching a call for open representation of the people in the country’s politics after Raul Castro steps down in 2018.  “Let’s use the 2018 election to change the culture of fear,” Bruguera said in an online video.  “Today I put myself forward as a candidate for the 2018 election, put yourself forward.” (more…)

Giuseppe Penone, Trattenere 6, 8, 12 anni di crescita (Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto) (2004-2016), via Art Observed

Few artists in the contemporary discourse have continued to produce work with such unrelenting consistency and vitality as Giuseppe Penone, a member of the younger generation of Arte Povera artists who seems to almost ceaselessly produce new variations and explorations on the relationships between humanity and nature, body and space, presence and absence.  Often posing unique material interactions with the human body, the bodies of plants or trees, and the material formats that he places between them, Penone’s work mines a rich multitude of lyrical interactions and relations of form and process.

Giuseppe Penone, Indistinti confini (2012), via Art Observed

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Walter Robinson, The Eager Ones (1979), via Art Observed

Filling the open spaces of Jeffrey Deitch’s reopened space at 18 Wooster, Walter Robinson’s Paintings and Other Indulgences demonstrates the wide scope of the artist’s interest in consumerist desire.  A traveling retrospective first launched at the University Galleries of Illinois State University, Paintings and Other Indulgences features a range of Robinson’s work spanning from 1979 to 2014, each of which address a wide span of pop culture imagery, imagined in the artist’s distinctive hand, ranging from greeting card kittens to Vicks VapoRub.

Walter Robinson, Lotion (1984) via Art Observed

Robinson’s work elevates the kitsch by giving it a frame, yet also highlights the hedonism of contemporary culture.  His process, immortalizing the vulgar and unspoken fragments of American society, evident in particular with his passionate re-creations of pulp novels, renders alluring works as occupied with their power of attraction as they are with their subject matter.  Vibrant and aggressively romantic, the images of these works are saturated with color and posturing desire, a layered approach that speaks in part to his work as both an artist and critic.  After co-founding the magazine Art-Rite in the 70s, Robinson went on to be an editor of Art in America, and a founder of ArtNet.  A well-established writer as regards the New York art scene, Robinson’s editorial eye is evident in the self-awareness of his works.

Robinson’s use of images from popular culture explores the central themes of postmodern art. His reproductions of symbols such as the hamburger reflect only the emptiness of consumerist America, revealing a signifier that is, in many ways, constructed.  The subconscious desires that his work involves lack true substance, and instead reflect the base human wants that sit at the core of advertising iconography.  Robinson’s take on pop art allows the viewer to locate himself within the art, but through a detached, somewhat dehumanized subject, never spilling over into overt brand-centrism or easily read consumer imagery.

While drawing on some of the darker themes of postmodern art, Robinson’s work displays a playful attitude toward lowbrow aesthetics.  The retrospective features several of his spin paintings, which predate those of Damien Hirst by roughly 10 years.  Similar to the rest of the pieces in their bright color and kitschy quality, Robinson’s spin art offers another angle into the purpose of his work.  These examples of abstract painting reveal the artist’s lighthearted approach, which he describes, overall, as “an accident.” Paintings and Other Indulgences displays this same line of humor and context that Robinson rides throughout, invoking pulp, while equally satirizing and elevating the oddities of our consumer society.

Walter Robinson, Ugly Trap (1986) via Art Observed

— M. Donovan

Read More:
Walter Robinson: A Retrospective [Exhibition Site]
An Interview with Walter Robinson in Advance of his Retrospective at Deitch [OhioEdit]
A Man-About Downtown Gets His Due [New Yorker]

UK Arts Education took a serious hit this week, as the Exam board AQA announced it would phase out its art history testing, eliminating programs nationwide for advanced study for young students.  “Our decision has nothing to do with the importance of the history of art,” an AQA spokeswoman said. (more…)

Dealer Mike Weiss is the latest in a line of galleries leaving their Chelsea exhibition spaces after repeated confrontations with construction workers, and reported damage to the gallery by nearby construction.  “We survived three hurricanes, a drop in the economy, but we can’t seem to survive this,” Weiss said.  (more…)

A recent lawsuit between art collector Asher Edelman and dealer Geoffrey Diner illustrates the challenges for both collectors and dealers regarding authentication and repair in the current market, after a work by Pier Paolo Calzolari was damaged in transit.  The work, consigned to Diner by Edelman, consisted of a series of leather belts and neons, and could only be repaired through the artist’s foundation, sparking a lawsuit from Edelman demanding compensation if it was not able to be repaired. (more…)

Pierre Audi, The Park Ave Armory’s new artistic director, is profiled in the NYT this week, as he looks to leave his mark on the institution.  “There is this fluidity about him,” says Armory president Rebecca Robertson. “Everything interests him.” (more…)

Alex Prager, Orchestra Center (Stage) (2016), via Lehman Maupin

Photographer Alex Prager has returned to Lehmann Maupin’s New York exhibition space at 201 Chrystie Street this month for an exhibition of new photographic works, executed in conjunction with the production for Prager’s new film piece, La Grande Sortie.  Continuing the artist’s investigations between the lines of performer and viewer, production and reception, her new works dwell on the act of public performance, and the intersecting emotions of anxiety, desire and frustration as they play out in her tightly choreographed and constructed scenes.

Alex Prager, La Grande Sortie (Installation View), via Lehman Maupin

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Marianne Vitale, Equipment (Installation View), via Art Observed

Marianne Vitale has joined Invisible-Exports this fall for her first exhibition with the downtown gallery, bringing a single installation of handmade torpedoes that plays on concepts of military machismo, violence, weaponization, and the underlying threads of handicraft and technology that unite these elements in the utilization and application of deadly force.  Looming over the viewer in the center of the gallery space, Equipment’s inverse pyramid translates the artist’s long fascination with technology and materiality into a strikingly immediate, and highly animated format.   (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the movements of a Caravaggio masterwork from the collection of Guy Wildenstein, and notes the work’s complex ownership structure that makes its provenance somewhat difficult to trace.  The work’s current location and ownership are somewhat cloudy, as it is technically held by a trust, making legal ownership by Wildenstein’s father somewhat less concrete. (more…)

A Los Angeles lawyer is suing his partner to push for the authentication of a work he believes is a Jackson Pollock piece valued at over $100 million.  Pierce O’Donnell, who helped to fund the purchase of the work for a former client, Maitreya Kadre, claims that there is strong evidence the work is a Pollock, but that Kadre’s lack of cooperation has prevented its sale.  “I felt sincere about selling this masterpiece,” O’Donnell says. “Unfortunately, she has frustrated every effort to sell it.” (more…)

Curator Jeffrey Uslip has left his position at St. Louis’ Contemporary Art Museum, following controversy over a Kelley Walker exhibition many found demeaning and insensitive to the concerns of the city’s African-American community.  “I just think he was operating inside of a bubble without the context of the greater majority of people that are living lives in St. Louis,” local artist Damon Davis said, after he challenged both Uslip and Walker during a public talk on his work. “I don’t think he took them into consideration.”  (more…)

Former Matthew Marks director Adrian Rosenfeld is planning to open his own exhibition space in San Francisco’s growing gallery site, the Minnesota Street Project.  “I want to take the time for things to develop, to work with the new generation that has just begun to emerge in San Francisco. There’s a shift and things are expanding, if not in this super-accelerated way.” he says, “I have many existing clients here with whom I have been doing business a long time and there is definitely plenty of demand for great art.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the upcoming challenges for Tate director Nicholas Serota’s successor, and the ongoing projects that the museum’s new head will have to guide to completion.  The Museum trustees are “are absolutely committed to the idea of eventually appointing someone with a curatorial background who will drive the public service ethos of the institution rather than just run it,” Serota says. (more…)

Christie’s will open its new flagship in Beijing this weekend, an 8,600 square foot space on Jinbao Street, in the Dongchen District.  “We are proud to have found Christie’s a new home in Beijing, a city that is characterized by its tremendous cultural heritage and a profound collecting tradition,” Christie’s CEO Patricia Barbizet said in a statement. “Christie’s continues to grow and invest in China and our new Beijing space marks an important milestone during our 250 year mission to connect art and collectors. We look forward to further exchanges with the art community and contributing to the diversified Chinese cultural landscape.” (more…)

JTT Gallery is expanding on the Lower East Side, moving to a 1,500-square-foot second-floor space located at 191 Chrystie.  “Moving was inevitable as we only have 300 square feet of exhibition space at our current location,” founder Jasmin Tsou said. “I’m extremely proud of the ambitious projects we exhibited over the past years in such a small space.” (more…)

Lorna Simpson, Detroit (Ode to G.) (2016), via Art Observed

Lorna Simpson’s Salon 94 exhibition speaks volumes with only a few shades and a handful of images on view.  Echoing throughout the gallery space’s small confines, her skeletal, eerie patterns contribute to a cohesive vision throughout the exhibition.  Despite consisting of paintings of a variety of sizes and of a combination of media even across the surface of one piece, the artist displays a unity in terms of her finely tuned, yet free-roving style.  The pieces themselves display an amalgamation of printed photographs, playing against spatters and blots of ink against a gradually altered background, providing a formal and thematic unity despite its disparate visual cues. (more…)

A piece in Salon this week charts the recently concluded lawsuit between Marina Abramovic and her former partner Ulay, exploring the politics and economics behind the marketing and sale of performance pieces in the contemporary market.   (more…)

Alice Neel is profiled in the New York Review of Books this week, as a new volume of her work seeks to explore her engaging approach to portraiture, “a tension between the realistic and the expressive, or to put it another way, between the naturalistic and the distorted,” according to Jeremy Lewison, an independent curator and advisor to the Neel estate. (more…)

The Portland Art Museum has announced a major expansion in conjunction and new partnership with the Rothko family, which will see a large number of works from the family’s private holdings loaned to the museum on rotation for the next two decades.  “The partnership with the Rothko family is a homecoming of sorts, enabling us to share with the public major works from the family’s private collection, offer new insight into Rothko’s practice, and honor his legacy in the Pacific Northwest and the international arts community,” says Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director and Chief Curator. “Our plans for the Rothko Pavilion bring together the elements of the Portland Art Museum’s mission: to present exceptional works of art, develop exhibitions that take new perspectives on human creativity, and increase public accessibility and inclusion.” (more…)