Robert Lazzarini and his work Brass Knuckles (2010) at OHWOW.

Art Observed was in the Miami Design District for the opening of IT AIN’T FAIR 2010, a group exhibition organized by the art gallery O.H.W.O.W during Art Basel Miami Beach 2010.  The show introduces recent work from emerging and established such as Agathe Snow, Kaws, José Parlá, Aurel Schmidt, Scott Campbell and others. The Miami based OHWOW is clearly a pervasive element of the week’s events.  The gallery was founded by Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff and has been coordinating multiple events during the week.

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AO vistited the Delano’s Florida Room where graffiti artist/nightlife curator André Sarraiva has set up his Art Basel Miami Beach residency of Le Baron, featuring a five-day series of parties coinciding with the Art Fair events. Le Baron hosts similar events in Art Basel in Switzerland and at the Venice Biennale.  Since 2005, the concept has been in Miami for the fair beginning at the karaoke club, Studio. The entrance policy is likely the toughest of any nightclub in Miami during the fair.  While the line built up outside the party picked up roughly after the MOCA sponsored LCD Soundsystem set finished at the Raleigh steps away and continued on until at least 4am.

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Art dealer Jay Jopling at the White Cube booth

Art Observed was on-site December 1st for the VIP Preview of Art Basel Miami Beach 2010, which opened to the public this morning at 10 a.m. Like most international fairs of its scale and scope, the work presented broadly underscores the trends witnessed across commercial markets and throughout museum and gallery exhibitions over the past several months. It also affords individual institutions an important opportunity to distinguish themselves from their peers, and provide fresh and immediate insight into the nuances and complexities of contemporary taste.

Richard Jackson, Upside Down Duck at the Kordansky Gallery Booth

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Pharrell Williams and Emmanuel Perrotin, Galerie Perrotin, Miami.

Art Observed was present yesterday for the opening of exhibition featuring recent work by Daniel Arsham, Kaz Oshiro, Paola Pivi as well as the french artist Xavier Veilhan.  The exhibition will run until December 11, 2010 at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami.  The following is a photo set from the opening.

The french and Italian artist Xavier Veilhan with Paola Pivi.

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Art Observed was on site for the launch of the Aquariva Speedboat designed by Marc Newson at the Standard Hotel and Spa in Miami Beach.  This is the same speedboat exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery in New York in September.  Below is a photoset of of the event.

Andre Balazs

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Tiermetabolismus V (Katzchen) by Jonathan Meese at Bortolami Gallery, Art Basel Main Fair, Hall B, Booth I-09.

Art Observed will be on site as of today for the ninth edition of the America’s biggest contemporary art fair: Art Basel Miami Beach which will open to the public on Thursday December 2 and will run through Sunday, December 5.

The main section of the fair will house over 180 galleries and over 40,000 are expected following the December 2nd opening.  Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler are the main fair organizers alongside its main sponsor UBS with Cartier, NetJets and AXA Art as the associate sponsors.  While Art Basel is still the main draw, the NADA Fair (the New Art Dealers Alliance) up the road at the Dauville Beach Resort will open to the public Thursday December 2. It will run through Sunday December 5 and also should not be missed.

Untitled (Art Fair Floor) by Ryan Reggiani.  Kate Werble Gallery at Nada Art Fair, booth 312.

The fair week is notable for its bridging of the Latin American buyers with American and British art centers as well as its uniquely intense amalgamation of social, media, fashion and other spheres of influence into the business of selling art.

The global art market seems to have stabilized this year and the main fair, along with its very significant satellites, should be met with lively buying this round.  Beyond this, all around Miami, the social calendar will be infused with events to the point where there is little chance to avoid regretfully missing something.

A view of an installation by Terrence Koh at The Island, an event during the week (see bel0w).

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Last night was the opening for Shadow Fux, a new collaboration between artists Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine at the The Swiss Institute at Broadway and Broome Street, Soho, New York. The event was very well attended, with crowds to the corner on Broadway waiting to get into the fourth floor space. The opening had a number of large scale works in three rooms as well as a film screening in the furthest back room.

All on site photos from Art Observed

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Saturday Night brought out supporters for Art in General’s annual young patron benefit at the newly opened Bunker Club in New York.   The night consisted of artist performances, drinks, and dancing, all in support of Art in General’s exhibitions and programs.

The New Sound Karaoke, with performances by husband & wife duo, Black Waterfall & Bobby Service, played by artists Lynne Chan and Bobby Abate (see video)  performed amalgams of 80’s glam rock and other genres alongside videos they produced.  Also shown was an animation by Kinho Karsyn, along with performances from guest vocalists Ben Coonley, June Fagley, Khaela Maricich, Michael O’Neill, and Jeanine Oleson.

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Simone de Pury gets down to close a bid from Jen Brill, Kaws and others fill the crowd.  All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

Last night was the annual benefit for RxArt, held on 29th Street, just off 6th avenue in Chelsea, New York.  RxArt is a charity organization which fosters ” artistic expression and awareness through the challenging yet rewarding task of engaging patients through contemporary art in healthcare facilities.”  The non-profit organization curates and installs art work, from some of the most recognizable contemporary artists working today, in hospitals and other healthcare locations.   Last night was, again, a success with artist’s work for silent auction along the walls of the event space and with a live auction that took place at 9 o’clock which featured the master of ceremonies Simone de Pury in rare auctioneer form.  The event never fails in gathering many notable artists and art world professionals as attendees, this year bringing Kaws, Dan Colen, Will Cotton, Nate Lowman, Aaron Young, Terry Richardson, Ryan McGinley and others.

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Roy Lichtenstein, Ohhh…Alright…, 1964 (est. not published, realized $42.6 million), via Christies.com

This week’s Contemporary Art sales in New York ended with a bang at Christie’s Contemporary Evening Sale on Wednesday night. Seventy-five lots offered brought in $272 million with a sell through rate of 93% by lot and 92% by value. As was the case earlier this week at the Phillips and Sotheby’s sales, Pop Art sold exceptionally well. Roy Lichtenstein‘s Ohhh…Alright… was the evening’s top lot and set the record for the artist when it sold to an anonymous bidder for $42.6 million – smashing the previous record of $16.3 million set at Christie’s in 2005.

AO Onsite photo by J. Mizrachi

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Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola [4] [Large Coca-Cola], 1962 (est. $20-25 million, realized $34.5 million), via Sothebys.com

Auction goers at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale on Tuesday night were offered glass bottles of Coca-Cola before entering the saleroom in honor of the auction’s featured lot – Andy Warhol‘s Coca-Cola [4] [Large Coca-Cola]. The painting sold for $35.4 million against a high presale estimate of $25 million and was, like the Warhol for sale at Phillips Monday night, the evening’s top lot. The Sotheby’s auction was comprised of 54 lots (not including a work by Felix Gonzales-Torres, which was withdrawn) that brought in $222.5 million against presale estimates of $151.8-214.5 million. The sale had a sell through rate of 90.7% by lot and 97.1% by value with 5 of 54 lots unsold.

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WK Interact, Reform School, 2010, photo via Samuel Lee

Friday, October 8th marked the opening of RE:FORM SCHOOL, a comprehensive pop up art group exhibition held to raise public awareness for the need to reform American public education. The show, which ran through the Columbus Day Holiday, utilized virtually all of the available space at 322 Mott Street, in Little Italy. Formerly St. Patrick Old Cathedral School, which closed at the end of the 2009-2010 academic year, the site included three floors of indoor and outdoor space. Desks, chalkboards, pencil sharpeners, and other educational artifacts remained alongside the work of the over 150 artists who participated, reinforcing the five main themes of the installations: Knowledge is Power, Community, Teachers Inspire, Creativity, and Innovation.

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Hans Peter Feldman, Untitled, Installation outside Regent’s Park for 303 Gallery, Frieze Art Fair, 2010. Photo by Art Observed.

Art Observed is on site in London for Frieze 2010, which opened yesterday to a crowded VIP preview and featured 173 galleries (up from 164 last year) with reportedly over 2,000 works of art from 1,500 artists and likely between 50-75,000 people expected (there were 60,000 visitors at last year’s fair).  Since its inception in 2003, the Frieze Art Fair, founded by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, has become the center point for the most important week for contemporary art in London.  The fair is distinctive in that it is devoted entirely to living artists.

Spotted inside the fair were many collectors, art world figures and the occasional bold-faced name including collector Marty Margulies, hedge fund manager Steve Cohen with his art adviser Sandy Heller, Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota, Klaus Biesenbach of MoMA, Charles Saatchi, young dealer Vito Schnabel, mega-collector Dakis Joannou, jeweler Laurence Graff, Dasha Zhukova art curator and companion of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, and Claudia Schiffer.  Artists Ai Weiwei, Yinka Shonibare, Gabriel Orozco, Antony Gormley, Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin were also in attendance.

Sales at the fair:

A detail of Damien Hirst’s cabinet piece The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths, photo via Tate Etc. Magazine

The sales were robust for the VIP opening, but not at the frenzy of years before the recession.  Perhaps the most talked about sale was at White Cube’s booth, where a large Damien Hirst installation The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (2006) sold for £3.5 million or $5.6 million.  The work, which takes its title from a quote by artist Bruce Nauman, is a shelf work filled with fish and may have been the the most expensive work ever sold at the fair.  Very nearby at Gagosian, another Damien Hirst sculpture, a Viagra-tablet-filled pill cabinet was reportedly on sale for $6 million.

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Gabriel Orozco, Black Kites Perspective (right), 1997, digital C-print, 41 x 51 cm. Courtesy of Marian Goodman.

Last weekend marked the opening of “Thrice Upon A Time” at Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. The exhibition, which runs through December 12, 2010, is the institution’s most comprehensive to date. Curated by Richard Julin, Elisabeth Millqvist, and Tessa Praun, the exhibition draws on Magasin 3’s rich collection of works by established international and emerging contemporary artists. The ambitious show features over 200 pieces of photography, drawing, painting, film and sculpture. Just a week away from the Swedish elections, the opening was filled with political hopefuls and those in the know in Stockholm’s growing art scene.

On the role call are recognizable international names such as Uta Barth, Walter De Maria, Gabriel Orozco, Chris Ofili, Tal R, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Fred Sandback, and Richard Tuttle. Many of the fresher faces are included in Moderna Museet’s fall show “The Moderna Exhibition 2010” opening October 2, 2010.

Sculptures by Danish artist Tal R, Hyacint, 2008, glazed ceramic, 107 x 28 x 34 and 105 x 36 x 49 cm. Photo by Christian Saltas.

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Art Observed was on site at Os Gêmeos and Futura2000’s eighty-foot mural, titled “The Giant Project,” at P.S. 11, William T. Harris elementary school in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. Os Gêmeos are twin brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, a graffiti-art collaborative from São Paulo, Brazil.  Last summer the duo completed a large mural on Houston and Bowery on the wall that currently displays Barry McGee’s work, and Shepard Fairey’s before that.

Os Gêmeos, The Giant Project, 2010. All images by Art Observed

According to their website, “The project was organized by Allen Benedikt (from AKANYC and 12ozProphet.com) with support from the artists, AKANYC, Montana Colors, and the Nike World Basketball Festival.”

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Art Observed was on site for Barry McGee’s (aka “TWIST”) new work on the “Deitch Wall” on East Houston and Bowery. With longtime collaborator Josh Lazcano (aka “AMAZE”), Mcgee spray painted simple red tags of the names and crews of graffiti writers from both past and present generations. Watch the video above for AO’s short clip.

All Photos By Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors

In its past, the wall has exhibited work by Os Gemeos, Keith Haring, and, most recently, Shepard Fairey.

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Ed Ruscha, Baby Jet, 1998. Photo by Paul Ruscha, courtesy of Moderna Museet.

Currently on view at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, through September 5, is Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting. This exhibition, which is a collaboration with Hayward Gallery in London, shows more than 70 paintings. It spans the period from 1958, five years prior to his debut in 1963 at the legendary Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, to the present day. Curated by Lars Nittve and Ann-Sofi Noring, the installation groups Ruscha’s works in chronological order so as to allow the viewer to see the development of the artist’s various motifs and styles over time.

The exhibition’s overarching theme, of course, is words and their constantly shifting relationships with context and message. As the curators explain, “In all his paintings there are tensions and frictions at play: between foreground and background, between text and image, and between how words look and what they mean.”

Installation shot, Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years Of Painting. Photo by Åsa Lundén, courtesy of Moderna Museet.

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Art Observed was on site for MELT: an experimental, site-specific dance installation performed at the Salt Pile in lower Manhattan through September 12, 2010. Choreographed by Noémie LaFrance, best known for staging similar conceptual pieces in unconventional urban spaces, MELT incorporates both the aesthetic and acoustic particulars of its location into a multi-media sensory experience. Watch the video above for AO’s exclusive MELT short clip.

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Dancers in MELT at The Salt Pile. All images by Art Observed.

The 30 minute performance features eight seated women, each harnessed to the wall beneath the Manhattan Bridge. The dancers are wrapped in a mixture of beeswax and lanolin, which gradually softens, drips, and liquefies, in order to create the illusion that they are melting.

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Art Observed was on site Tuesday, August 24th for the opening of Miles Mendenhall’s solo show at Half Gallery. The exhibition is the product of Mendenhall’s first off-screen collaboration with ‘Work of Art’ judge and Half Gallery co-owner Bill Powers.

On view are eight new works that echo the artist’s black-and-white screenprints from the Bravo show’s finale. His large-scale manipulations of digital imagery feature luminous geometric patterns, which reflect the artist’s enduring fascination with technology and, in particular, “the computer’s inability to compute certain visual information.” For more on Miles work in this exhibition and his artistic practice, watch the exclusive AO interview with the artist and Half Gallery owner Bill Powers.

Miles Mendenhall, Half Gallery

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Sophie Calle, Photograph from the “North Pole” series, courtesy of Arndt.

Currently on view at Arndt in Berlin is a solo exhibition by Sophie Calle entitled “North Pole,” in which the artist combines objects created in a variety of media to illustrate a narrative of personal significance. Born in France in 1953, Calle is known for her work as a writer, photographer, and conceptual artist. In “North Pole,” she examines the perception and creation of human identity through an abstracted portrait of the life of her mother.

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Rachel Garrard performing Geometric Void, in which she mapped the sacred geometry of a human form on a perspex window over the course of the six hour exhibition

Art Observed was on site July 24th for “Field of Dreams”, a D.I.Y. world’s fair of music and art, presented by Celebrate Brooklyn!, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, and Andres Levin.  The much-anticipated event took place at the Prospect Park band shell in Brooklyn, running from 4PM to 10PM. Music was a constant throughout the day, featuring a wide range of established and emerging acts alike, including standouts Pablo Picasso (who performed a second set, to great effect, at the Littlefield after-party), Les Nubians, and Luis Guzman.

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Performing band

Approximately forty installations were constructed in a semi-circle on the grassy knoll across from the band shell, representing both individual artists and creative collaborations.  In a nod to the synthesis of visual arts and musical performance which was the order of the day, Ray Smith created two massive canvases to adorn each side of the band shell stage.  Art Observed was able to speak with a few of the participating artists, who offered comments on their own work and its place in the show.

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Performers with a friend at  “Power Animal Pavillion,” which featured Power Animal wrestling.

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Dara Friedman, Bim Bam, 1999, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art is the first part of a two-part exhibition titled “Off The Wall.” The exhibition at large brings together thirty works from 1946 to the present involving performative actions and seven iconic works by Trisha Brown. Part one, “Thirty Performative Actions,” was curated by Chrissie Iles, the Whitney’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkrnaz curator and is scheduled to be on display until September 19th. Part two, “Seven Works by Trisha Brown,” will run from September 30^th to October 30^th. This section features the return of the Trisha Brown Dance Company to the Whitney. Many of Brown’s dances were performed at the museum in 1971, so in addition to the performances taking place in the fall there will be video footage of Trisha Brown’s past work.

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“Off The Wall” Opening at The Whitney Museum of American Art on June 30^th, 2010, photograph courtesy of Taylor Derwin.

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Half Gallery Opening Night: July 14th for ‘Normal Dimensions’. All images by Olivia Loving for AO unless otherwise noted.

AO was on site July 14^th for the opening of “Normal Dimensions,” the new exhibit at Half Gallery. The six-piece exhibit is curated by Neville Wakefield, and shows work by Carol Bove, Olympia Scarry, Xaviera Simmons and Susan Collis.  All are women in roughly the same age group. The works in the exhibit largely reflect the artists’ past works, and the issues that continue to inspire them. The opening was packed, and visitors spilled out onto the street, relaxing and chatting with fellow attendees. The show will be on display until August 13^th, 2010.

Saliva (2010) by Olympia Scarry.

Olympia Scarry standing outside Half Gallery

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