The Canadian government has earmarked a major cash injection for national arts organizations, including the CBC, and a near doubling of the Canada Council’s $182 million budget.  “It’s a game changer,” says Simon Brault, director and CEO of the Canada Council. “We can begin writing a new chapter on the artistic and cultural history of this country.” (more…)

Performance artist Ulay has announced his first performance in New York City in 30 years, breaking his long absence with a performance in Brooklyn this coming May during Frieze Week.  The work, titled Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth, will combine an “intimate happening, an experiential installation, a language of communication, a provoking exploration of dualities, a setting of madness and tranquility, mockery and admiration,” according to curator Mitra Khorasheh. (more…)

Anton Kern and Andrew Kreps are teaming up for a temporary, joint gallery in downtown San Francisco, joining Larry Gagosian across the street from the newly renovated SFMoMA.  The galleries will take up residence at the Minnesota Street Project, a recent real estate project featuring artist studios and exhibition space. (more…)

The Art Newspaper interviews Tracey Emin this week, as the artist discusses her recent marriage to a stone outside her studio in the south of France.  “It just means that at the moment I am not alone; somewhere on a hill facing the sea, there is a very beautiful ancient stone, and it’s not going anywhere,” she says.  “It will be there, waiting for me.” (more…)

With the slowing of the Asian economy, Reuters notes a distinct cooling-off of the secondary auction market. “Things were in a heated upward spiral for some time and there’s no question it has come off the boil,” says gallerist John Berwald. (more…)

The LA Times notes the sizable percentage of young visitors to The Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, and examines why millennial museum-goers might be drawn to the space in particular, with particular emphasis on the museum’s prominence on social media.  “I have a lot of artist friends and they’re all talking about it,” says on interviewee. “It’s pretty much what everyone’s been posting.”  (more…)

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is now representing artist Mary Kelly, whose work during the 1970’s was conceptual bedrock for the decade’s feminist art practice.  Kelly is concluding a Guggenheim fellowship for work researching shared threads of the London blitz, Paris’s 1968 student protests, and the dawn of the Arab Spring. (more…)

The Guardian interviews Ann Hirsch this week, as the artist opens an exhibition of her work at the Zabludowicz Collection in London, and discusses projects like her performance as a contestant on a VH1 reality dating program, and her views on the culture of digital video as a mode of positive female representation.  “I had these utopian notions that now women can broadcast ourselves instead of relying on TV and film, we can portray ourselves and this is going to be great for women and minorities – we get stereotyped all the time,” she says.  “But the reality of what happened isn’t what I thought.” (more…)

Two artists that installed a guerrilla art exhibition in the stairwell of the Whitney this weekend have been slapped with a lifetime ban by the museum.  “It’s just exploring different sites, contexts, and receptions, and exploring the viewers since the viewers are what activated the sites,” says Ki Smith, one of those caught deinstalling the work. (more…)

Tom Sachs is profiled in the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing his recent work on a Tea House for the Noguchi Museum.  “I’m not a tea master in a traditional sense, though I’m a master in this environment because it’s a clear expression of my history of making stuff,” he says. (more…)

Phyllida Barlow is on the shortlist for the Hepworth prize, joining Helen Marten and David Medalla for the prestigious UK sculpture award.  “Without doubt, it will be a thrilling experience to exhibit at the Hepworth Wakefield and to take into consideration its dynamic architecture which has sculpture very much in mind,” she says. (more…)

Phillips has announced a trio of Mark Bradford compositions will lead its May Contemporary Auctions in New York.  “Phillips is honored to have been entrusted with the sale of this collection, led by these three fantastic Mark Bradford paintings,” says Jean-Paul Engelen, Phillips Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art.  “In recent years, Bradford has emerged as one of the foremost contemporary artists of his generation. This powerful group of works not only demonstrates the artist’s tremendous technical skill, but also the depth of his subject matter. He’s truly a contemporary master.” (more…)

A joint collaboration between The J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles and the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Arts and Science (NICAS) will see the two museums engage in the development of new archival and conservation technology.  “We want to continue moving the field forward. By identifying where we want to be in the future, we can design a course of research and development to get there,” Getty President James Cuno says. “This joint effort helps us chart that course.” (more…)

Yutaka Sone, Hong Kong (2015), via David Zwirner

Art Basel is preparing to launch the first of its 2016 fair editions this week, as its international clientele touches down in the Chinese port of Hong Kong for the 4th year of the fair under the global fair franchise’s supervision.  Following last year’s impressive success and broad attendance, the fair will look to repeat its strong showing.  The challenges will be notable this year, however, in the face of slowing economic growth, and a diminished buyer pool following last year’s economic ups and downs.  Yet wealthy buyers seem to proliferate in China despite decreased confidence, seeking efficient ways to move investment out of the country’s currency during this unstable market period. (more…)

John Baldessari at Sprüth Magers, via Thisbe Gensler for Art Observed

Sprüth Magers, the German gallery with outposts in Cologne, Berlin and London, has opened its inaugural Los Angeles exhibition with a show of new works by John Baldessari.  Located across the street from LACMA on Wilshire’s Miracle Mile, the new gallery boasts two floors of paintings, its street-facing windows covered in Baldessari’s iconic scrawl, “I will not make any more boring art.”  The sixteen works in the show do not disappoint, showcasing the artist’s trademark conceptual wit in a series of works emblematizing his interest in visual and textual modes of communication, artistic authorship and the notion of absence.  Having worked across a vast range of media and styles he states descends from Duchamp, Baldessari continues to explore the agency of the viewer in finding and defining meaning in his pieces.

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Eduardo Navarro, Five minutes ago (2015), All photos via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Since unveiling its new expansion and renovated architecture in 2014, SculptureCenter has been embarking on a series of compelling, and conceptually unorthodox exhibitions, repurposing the building’s structural challenges and unique layout into an equally unique curatorial advantage.  The Eccentrics, organized by the staff curator Ruba Katrib, is the most recent example of such efforts at matching the space’s rugged industrial façade with distinctive aesthetic trends and aesthetic sensibilities in contemporary art.  Introducing eight international artists working in a variety of media, the exhibition stems from German Marxist theorist Walter Benjamin’s observations on the circus as a platform for societal norms and a performance of fabricated others. (more…)

Damián Ortega, Paisaje 2 (2016), and Gabriel Orozco, Blind Signs (2013) via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

The collective exhibition “xylañynu. taller de los viernes” curated by Guillermo Santamarina, brings together recent works by five artist friends and close collaborators: Gabriel Orozco, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Damián Ortega, Gabriel Kuri and Dr. Lakra. Thirty years ago they started meeting at Gabriel Orozco’s house in Ttlalplan to create a kind of alternative art school which became their “Friday Workshop”. Hosted between 1987 and 1992 by a then 25-year-old Orozco slightly older than his peers, the workshop embodied an experimental meeting place, which allowed each of them to investigate and progressively give form to their own artistic language. The latent synergy and embedded connections between their creative processes is for the first time displayed at their Mexican Gallery Kurimanzutto.

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The First Division Appellate Court has ruled that Christie’s must pay out over $700,000 in damages to Madison Avenue Gallery Chowaiki & Co over damages to its artworks stored at the auction house’s Red Hook facility during Hurricane Sandy, the NY Post reports. “I am pleased with the decision,” says attorney Eliot Greenberg, who represents the gallery. (more…)

The Art Market Monitor points to a recent Swiss news article that seems to refute Picasso heir Catherine Hutin-Blay’s claims that Yves Bouvier stole works from her storage facility and resold them.  The article points to paperwork that pokes holes in the claim that Hutin-Blay never knew or did business with the dealer. (more…)

Karma is moving to the Lower East Side this week, and opened its new location on last night Orchard Street  with a show of works by Paul Lee.  “It could be temporary or it could be permanent. I really like the idea of it, and the location is really great,” says owner Brendon Dugan.  “There’s lots of new foot traffic here.” (more…)

One of Francis Bacon’s strongest self-portraits will go on sale at Sotheby’s this coming May, carrying an estimate of $22-$30 million.  “Two Studies for a Self-Portrait goes straight in at number one of all the paintings I’ve handled in my career” says Oliver Barker, Senior International Specialist in Contemporary Art.  “It’s certainly among the greatest self-portraits ever offered at auction.” (more…)

The New Art Dealers Alliance has announced the dates and exhibitor list for the 2016 edition of its New York Fair, taking place during Frieze Week at Basketball City downtown.   (more…)

Karla Black, Ways Appear (2016), via David Zwirner

In her second exhibition at David Zwirner, Scottish artist Karla Black takes over the gallery’s 525 West 19th street location to orchestrate a body of work that smoothly maneuvers through rigid conceptions of medium or genres.  In her previous exhibition in 2014, Black executed a carpet-like installation of bath bombs, nail polish, Sellotape and powder paint, infusing an otherworldly, ephemeral aura into the gallery’s white cube architecture through its lyrical presence.  Here, she presents another floor install, employing familiar everyday objects alongside artistically pertinent materials. The work, Includes Use, utilizes toilet paper collected from different parts of the globe, each manufactured in different shades and hues. Akin to budding flowers, the folds of toilet paper in their assorted hues pierce through earthy, plaster powder and paint, channeling a sort of surreal, utopian topography. (more…)

Hieronymus Bosch, The Last Judgement (c. 1495-1505), via Quincy Childs for Art Observed

Half a millennium ago, Hieronymus Bosch walked across the market square of the small Dutch town of ‘s Hertogenbosch, taking the 100 yard walk to his studio, where he would paint the timeless, demonic, and captivating works that continue to fascinate people today. To commemorate the 500^th anniversary of his birth, the town’s Het Noordbrabants Museum has secured the majority of his works for what is arguably one of the most important exhibitions of our century, Hieronymus Bosch – Visions of Genius. Exploring the timeline of his oeuvre, viewers are able to revive his living genius, and therein the fantasies and chimeras he created with a timeless sense of wonder.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Wayfarer (c. 1500-1510), via Quincy Childs for Art Observed (more…)