The opening of Juergen Teller’s ‘Paradis’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery all photos by ArtObserved or courtesy of the gallery

Last week marked the start of the new gallery season with a number of Chelsea galleries opening their doors on Thursday night. Coinciding with Fashion Week was the opening at Lehmann Maupin of Juergen Teller’s fifth exhibition with the gallery, ‘Paradis.’ Originally commissioned for the French magazine Paradis, the exhibition features Charlotte Rampling and Raquel Zimmermann, whom Teller has photographed previously, alone and nude in the Musée du Louvre.

Juergen Teller: Paradis [Lehmann Maupin]
Photographer Juergen Teller: “It’s Time for You to Take Your Clothes Off” [Wall Street Journal]
Lehmann Maupin – Juergen Teller: Paradis Photography Exhibition [Freshness]
Bringing Humanity To The Fashion World [Style.com]
Cathy Horyn & Juergen Teller Talk Paradis [Elle]

Juergen Teller’s ‘Paradis’ via Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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Kate Levant compromised an exhibit at Zach Feuer Gallery in New York.  Having opened July 16 2009, the exhibition closed September 4.  Last two days of the duration of the show turned Zach Feuer Gallery into a space where Blood Drive was conducted. A Yale MFA student, Kate Levant assembled works by six artists: Noel Anderson, BOBO, Brian Faucette, Michael E. Smith, Elaine Stocki and Jacques Vidal. The show received amount of press coverage unusual for an artist still in school.

Related Links:
Blood Work [New York Magazine]
There Will Be Blood [ArtInfo]
Studio Visit/Group Shows [The New York Times]
Blood Art Sex Magik Too Hot For Yale [Gawker]
Kate Levant: Blood Drive (bio, press release) [Zach Feuer Gallery]
Kate Levant’s “Blood Drive” at Zach Feuer [James Wagner]

More text and pictures after the jump… (more…)

On September 3, 2009 Deitch Projects hosted openings for two shows that will run concurrently till mid October and end of September. In the gallery’s space at 18 Wooster Street an exhibition  of Tauba Auerbach’s works will run through October 17, 2009. Titled “HERE AND NOW/AND NOWHERE” the show is comprised of paintings, sculptures and photographs by the artist. At the center of the gallery is a musical instrument,”Auerglass”, an organ for two. It is conceived by the artist and her friend Cameron Mesirow- a musician from the Glasser band. The organ requires two people to play. Each of the two players gets every other note. An opening Glasser performance will be held on September 11th at Deitch Projects and will be consequently held at 5p.m. for the duration of the show.

Related Links:
Tauba Auerbach HERE AND NOW/AND NOWHERE [Deitch]
Tauba Auerbach and Glasser at Deitch [xlr8r]
Tauba Auerbach [Tauba Auerbach]

More text and pictures after the jump… (more…)

via The World’s Best Ever

Two openings at Deitch took place September 3, 2009. In the smaller space on Grand Street in New York were presented works by Kehinde Wiley, an African-American artist known for paintings of contemporary hip-hop trend setters. His painting style is sophisticated and reminiscent of traditional portraitists works. However, in Kehinde Wiley’s current exhibit titled “Black Light”, one encounters a new path that the artist has taken in exploration of photographic medium.  Still using historically rooted references, he creates portraits of often religious connotations apparent in the positioning of the subject depicted and in the very scale of the work. Kehinde Wiley, thus, transforms the subcultural stereotypes of urban African-American icons to a fantastical realm. “Art is illusion” he comments. The exhibit runs through September 27, 2009.

Related Links:
Kehinde Wiley [Kehinde Wiley]
Heroic Hip-Hoppers [Village Voice]
Kehinde Wiley is the LeBron James of the Art World [Dime Magazine]
Kehinde Wiley’s “Black Light” opens at Deitch [Papermag]
Kehinde Wiley at Deitch [The World’s Best Ever]

The artist, Kehinde Wiley at Deitch opening of his show “Black Light”

More text and pictures after the jump… (more…)

A visitor looks through two holes in a wooden door to Étant donnés, the Marcel Duchamp masterpiece behind it and the subject of a new show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image via the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Through November 29, 2009, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is showing works by the late master Marcel Duchamp. Almost 100 works of art related to the artist’s Étant donnés are featured in this celebration of the 40th anniversary of the piece’s unveiling at the Museum, which has hosted it since 1969. Drawn mostly from the museum’s holdings, the show also includes works on loan from public and private holdings in Germany, Israel, France, Sweden, and the United States.

Related links:
Given, Finally [artnet]
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Landscape of Eros, Through the Peephole [New York Times]
A peek into Duchamp [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Duchamp’s Secret Masterpiece [Wall Street Journal]

Interior view of Marcel Duchamp’s Étant donnés, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image via the Wall Street Journal.

More images and story after the jump…
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Terence Koh and Simon De Pury at the 16th Watermill Summer Benefit. Photo by Patrick McMullan

Robert Wilson greeted his guests as they arrived at the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit- an event he choreographs every summer in order to raise funds for the artistic community to which he is the director. The evening included a silent auction, a live auction hosted by Simon de Pury – Chairman of Philips de Pury auction house, over 10 art installations interpreting this years theme “Inferno,” dinner,  theater performances of various genres and attendance by many from the worlds of art, fashion and music.

Related Links:
Hot as Hell At Watermill [ArtInfo]
Fire Starters at Watermill Benefit [WWD Lifestyle]
Isabella Rossellini shows for Water Mill Benefit [Newsday]
Flaming Creatures [ArtForum]
The 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit Hot As An “Inferno” [Hamptons]
About Watermill Center [Watermill Center]
The 16th Annual Watermill Summer Auction and Benefit [Art Observed]

Attendees walk the trails behind the 16th Annual Watermill Summer Benefit and Auction at the Hamptons, all photos by Art Observed unless noted

More text and pictures after the jump…

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Mark Wallinger, “Ferry.”

Currently taking place on New York’s Governors Island is “PLOT 09: This World & Nearer Ones,” a public art quadrennial produced and created by Creative Time.  Nineteen international artists were asked by curator Mark Beasley to create site-specific works responding to the particular situation of Governors Island, a 172-acre island in upper New York Bay, one half-mile from the southern tip of Manhattan.  Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer, a seven-minute ferry ride takes visitors to the island, where they can discover installation, performance, auditory and video projects that respond to the developing nature of Governors Island.

Related links:
–>
PLOT 09: This World & Nearer Ones [Creative Time]
–>
Island as Inspiration and Canvas [NY Times]
–>
Ferry Tale [Art Forum]
–>
PLOT09: Exploring the World of Governors Island [ArtInfo]
–>
Creative Time Presents New York City’s First Quadrennial on Governor’s Island [ArtDaily]
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PLOT/09 Presents a Public Art Extravaganza on NYC’s Governors Island [Flavor Wire]

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Tue Greenfort, “Project for the New American Century”

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Just Trying To Break The Ice… by Michael Caputo.

“The Living and the Dead” is a collaborative show of over 50 artists, including Amy Yao, Brian Belott, Anicka Yi, Uri Aran, George Condo, Justin Matherly, Haim Steinback, and dozens of others. The art is an almost bewildering mix of styles and mediums, ranging from wooden statues to fishing poles, giant ice cubes, elastic, and deep-fried q-tips.  The show opened last night at Gavin Brown`s Enterprises, and runs from July 1st – Aug. 7th.

Related Links:
–>
Gavin Brown’s Enterprise [Official Site]
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Summer Group Shows, Part II [Artnet]

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Tony Cragg’s Big Head (2009), courtesy of the Marian Goodman Gallery, photo by Art Observed.

The 40th installment of Art Basel runs this year from June 10 to the 14th.  The annual event, dubbed the “Olympics of the Art World” by the New York Times, includes this year over 2,500 artists, and works exhibited in almost 300 galleries around the world.  Works range in medium, from painting and drawing to sculpture, installation art, photography, and video.  Featured are both old masters of modern art and contemporary artists: among this year’s roster are the works of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp and more, alongside that of today’s artists, including John Baldessari, Vanessa Beecroft, and Rebecca Horn.

Related links:
Art_Base [Official Website]
Art Basel Catalog
Art Basel 40 Celebrates the First Art Basel Weekend with Special Presentations [ArtDaily]
Art Basel Shows Works of Art by 2,500 Artists at World’s Premier International Art Fair [ArtDaily]
Editor’s Picks: Art Basel Preview [ArtInfo]
Il Tempo del Postino – “The World’s First Visual Arts Opera” [ArtKey]
The art market: The biggest fairs around the world [the Financial Times]
Trading Places [the Financial Times]
Meanwhile, in Basel, Contemporary Works You Can Buy [Wall Street Journal]
Brad Pitt Buys Big at Basel, with a Little Push from Eli Broad [Wall Street Journal]
Preview sales defy all expectations [The Art Newspaper]
For Art Lovers, Basel Doesn’t End at the Fair [New York Times]
Warhol Price Slashed as Art Basel Fights Slump With Bargains [Bloomberg]
Pitt Buys in Basel as Broad Browses, $2 Million Sculpture Sells [Bloomberg]
Liste: Quality Uneven but Spirits High [ArtInfo]
To Bling or Not to Bling? [ArtInfo]
Locals Rule: Alternative Art Spaces Gear Up for Art Basel [ArtInfo]
BASELMANIA 2009 [ArtNet]
Preview sales defy all expectations [ArtNewspaper]
Forty Years of Art Basel [The Art Newspaper]

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Michaelangelo Pistoletto’s performance of ‘Seventeen Less One’ at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

The 53rd Venice Biennale is now open to the public after a press preview June 4-6.  During that time, Art Observed was on site and also has collected some of the relevant news stories covering the event from the global press.

U.S. representative Bruce Nauman won the Golden Lion for best national participation for his exhibition ‘Topological Gardens,’ curated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Also receiving Golden Lions are Yoko Ono, John Baldessari, and Tobias Rehberger, who won the best artist award for his work ‘What you love also makes you cry.’  Highlights of the Biennale include Britain’s Steve McQueen’s film ‘Giardini,’ which portrays the Biennale Gardens when not used as exhibition space, Liam Gillick at the German Pavilion, covered by AO here, Elmgreem and Dragset’s ‘The Collectors’ at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions, and ‘Making Worlds,’ the International Art Exhibition curated by Daniel Birnbaum, both covered by AO here.

On the Biennale:
Venice Biennale 2009: the opening day [GuardianUK]
Venice Biennale 2009 [Vernissage TV]
On your vaporetto to the far pavilions [GuardianUK]
Venice Biennale is a glimpse of the future [TimesUK]
Venice Biennale 2009: A photographer’s view [GuardianUK]
Trading places [Financial Times]
Venice Biennale Opens Showing Works by Over 90 Artists from all Over the World [Artdaily]
A More Serene Biennale [NY Times]
This, That, and the Other [Artforum]
It’s Reigning Men [ArtForum]
Blasblog From Venice: And So It Begins [Style.com]
“Art Is Everywhere” [Style.com]
The Venice Biennale opens with top honors for a German artist [Deutsche Welle via Art Review]
Over and Over: Art That Never Stops [NY Times]

On Bruce Naumann and the US Pavillion:
Bruce Nauman wins a Golden Lion at Venice Biennale [LA Times]
Venice is doubly enamored of Bruce Nauman [LA Times]
Venice Biennial: Hear the U.S. Roar [Wall Street Journal]
Shaking up the world of art for decades [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Golden Lion for the Best National Participation Awarded to the U.S. Representation [Artdaily]
Nauman Tops Venice Biennale, Wins Golden Lion: Martin Gayford [Bloomberg]

On Pinault’s innaugaration of his new museum:
Francois Pinault Opens The New Punta della Dogana Contemporary Art Centre in Venice [Artdaily]
How the French Charles Saatchi became the merchant of Venice [Guardian]
Pinault’s Venice Empire Grows With Cool Contemporary-Art Museum [Bloomberg]

On Steven McQueen, representing the UK at the Biennale:
Steve McQueen at the Venice Biennale: Private view with Adrian Searle [Guardian]
Art Charities Collaborate to Fund Steve McQueen’s Giardini for Venice [Artdaily]
Steve McQueen found something new in Venice [Guardian]
Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” at the Venice Biennale [IFC]
Steve McQueen lets Venice Biennale viewer do the feeling with Giardini [Times]

On Swoon’s Swimming Cities of the Serrenisma,video from the New York Landing of her boat in previously in Long Island City covered by Art Observed here:
Barging in to Venice [New York]
Swoon in Venice, Italy [dailyDuJour]
Barging in to Venice [New York Magazine]

And more:
Venice Biennale: Flashing Lights [NY Times]
Venice Biennale: Ships in the Sky [NY Times]
Venice Biennale: Listening to Art [NY Times]
Rauschenberg at the Guggenheim in Venice [Financial Times]
United Arab Emirates confronts stereotypes in Venice Biennale debut [GuardianUK]
Ukraine pavilion is a Venice Biennale knockout [TimesUK]

more photos and story after the jump…

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Liam Gillick’s installation in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

Whereas the lines outside the Danish, American or British Pavilion were growing longer, the German Pavilion seemed rather calm on the opening day on June 4th.  For his room filling installation, British artist Liam Gillick in dialogue with the Pavilion’s curator Nicolas Schafhausen, decided to hide as little of the famous facist architecture of the Pavilion as possible. Inside, the artist built a kitchen-like structure in clear pine wood formally reminescent of Donald Judd’s wood sculptures. The facist background of the Pavilion’s architecture has been made the topic of their submissions by many artists. Gillick, in a spontaneous talk in front of the Pavilion this morning, explained that his intention was not to make a comment on why this architecture was built in the first place, but why it was maintained instead of being reconstructed as proposed in 1957 by Arnold Bode, founder of documenta.  Gillick mentioned the post-war rethinking of Germany and its identity in contemporary art and architecture in the 50s and 60s as one of the topics of his Biennial submission.  Though British, Liam Gillick is not the first non-German to exhibit at the German pavillion. Korean born Nam Jun Paik exhibited in this space in 1993, and was awarded the Golden Lion for his work.

German Pavillion 2009
Liam Gillick, the British artist representing Germany, outlines the challenges of working in a “problematic Fascist building” [The Art Newspaper]

Liam Gillick speaking in front of his installation in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

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Tomas Sarceno’s ‘Galaxies’ in ‘Making Worlds’ at the Venice Biennale, photo by ArtObserved

Under the title of ‘The Collectors’, the artist duo Elmgreen&Dragset curated and staged the first joint venture between two Pavilions at the Venice Biennial.  As the title suggests, the show explores collecting as a practice combining privacy, public visibility, obsession and self-expression.

On the opening day, the line in front of the Danish Pavilion that served as the entrance to both Pavilions was as long as the rooster of represented artists was impressive: Terence Koh, Hernan Bas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jonathan Monk to name only some of the 24 international artists and designers participating.  The public was guided on a tour by a real estate agent through a “For Sale” Danish Pavilion and into the neighboring Nordic Pavilion counting the story of a kinky bachelor named Mr. B. and his collection of contemporary art and his ex-lovers’ swim wear. The naked young man lasciviously posing in an Arne Jacobsen arm chair was the definitely the favorite photo occasion of the day.

The Collectors
La Biennale
Venice Biennale Shows Men Embracing, Bruce Nauman’s Rituals [Bloomberg]
Rising to Biennale’s Curatorial Challenge [WSJ]
Politics dominates Venice Biennale [Globe and Mail]
It’s Reigning Men [Artforum]

Installation view of ‘The Collectors’ by Elmgreen&Dragset at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions, photo by ArtObserved

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Mona Hatoum’s Impenetrable, from her show “Interior Landscapes.” Courtesy Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia.

Mona Hatoum’s solo show “Interior Landscapes” runs from June 4 to September 30 at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia.  Curated by Chiara Bertola, the exhibition shows 29 works, most of them new, by the artist.  The show is part of an ongoing series of projects entitled “Conservare il futuro (Preserving the Future)” that explores the relationship between historic and contemporary art.

Related links:
Fondazione Scientifica Querini Stampalia
Mona Hatoum [White Cube]
Mona Hatoum [Alexander and Bonin]

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“Out Span” Tony Cragg at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Photo Taken by Art Observed

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is currently exhibiting a substantial collection of both sculptures and drawings by one of the most exciting sculptors of the moment, Tony Cragg.  The exhibition covers three floors of the gallery and includes new works in stone, bronze, stainless wood and polished stained steel.  In the drawing space, Cragg is presenting a series of recent drawings that highlight his quintessential ideas on how new forms can emerge from both figures and landscapes.  To coincide with the opening of this exhibition, Cragg’s Column will be installed in the Tuileries Gardens behind the Jeu de Paum Museum.

Exhibition Detail: Tony Cragg [ArtSlant]
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac [Thaddaeus Ropac]
Tony Cragg [The Parisian]
Tony Cragg at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac-Paris [artalog]

“Still Life One”, Tony Cragg. Photo via ArtSlant

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Beatriz Milhanes at Fondation Cartier via WSJ

For her exhibition at the Fondation Cartier, Brazilian born artist Beatriz Milhanes presents a focused selection of large format acrylic paintings, chosen from her work of the past decade, as well as a monumental collage created especially for the show.  She was also commissioned to produce a monumental installation of the building’s glass facades.  Beatriz Milhanes emerged on the Brazilian art scene in the mid-1980s.  Her vibrant and colorful paintings intertwine colonial baroque, high modernism, and popular Brazilian art.  Her bold and bright installations play with natural light to compliment the architecture of Jean Nouvel and the surrounding garden.

Beatriz Milhanes, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain April 4th-June 21st [ArtSlant]
Beatriz Milhanes, Fondation Cartier [Artnews]
Events, Paris, Beatriz Milhanes [Abitare]
Pop Goes Paris [WSJ]

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Simon de Pury at the helm at the auction in front of the Philip Guston

Last night’s contemporary auction at Phillips de Pury fell short of its low estimate of $12.2 million, bringing in $7.7 million, with 12 of the 43 lots going unsold.  The sale’s highlight, an untitled Robert Gober sculpture of a Farina cereal box valued at $2.5-3.5 million, went unsold with only one bid at $1.6 million.  An untitled Anish Kapoor sculpture, estimated at $800, 000-1.2 million, also was met with no bids.  However, one of the auction highlights, Philip Guston’s painting, ‘Anxiety,’ was the highest selling lot, going for $1 million, just making its low estimate. John Baldessari’s painting, ‘Person with Pillow: Desire/Lust/Fate,’ sold for $290,500, missing its estimate of $300,000-400,000.  It had sold at Sotheby’s a year and a half ago for nearly double that amount.  Many artists however, such as Zeng Fanzhi, whose show just concluded at Acquavella Gallery in New York and was covered by Art Observed here did break auction records (work shown below), the details of which are after the jump.

Phillips Contemporary Auction Falls Short of Estimate [NY Times]
Phillips Limps to the Finish Line [Artinfo]

Zeng Fanzhi’s ‘Little Boy’ via Phillips de Pury sold for $446,500 against estimates of $250,000-300,000

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Opening Banks Violette’s “Not Yet Titled” at Team Gallery. Photo by Art Observed.

From May 7th until June 20th, Team Gallery presents new work by artist Banks Violette. Last night, a crowd -among which fellow artists Dash Snow and Matthew Barney– gathered at Team Gallery and Grand Street to take a first look at the work. The exhibition consists of drawings of graphite on paper and one sculpture.   The iconography in the works is wide-ranging, but all revolve around transformation, death, faith and redemption.  In one piece, Violette has taken the portrait of Bela Lugosi  – the renowned Count Dracula in the 1931 film Dracula who later fell into obscurity – and depicted him as a Christ figure, thus blending evil and the benign.  Violette’s drawing is hard edged, yet he succeeds in rendering his works with an air of ghostly vagueness. The works derive their power from a sense of the unclear and unreal.

Opening Banks Violette’s “Not Yet Titled” at Team Gallery. Photo by Art Observed.

Violette Banks: Not Yet Titled
Team Gallery
83 Grand Street, New York
May 7th, 2009 – June 20th, 2009

RELATED LINKS
Exhibition Page [Team Gallery]
The ghost of goth art [GQ]
Master of the Dark Arts (2005 article) [New York Times]
Death Becomes Him [Art Review]
Banks Violette: Kryptologo Cryptologist [Spike Art Quarterly]
Kill to get the money [i-D]
Banks Violette by Neville Wakefield, Banks Violette and Stephen O’Malley [Amazon]
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Artist Francesco Clemente at the opening of A History of the Heart in
Three Rainbows at Deitch Projects. Photo by Art Observed.

Last night, Francesco Clemente’s latest show at Deitch Projects opened with a star-studded evening in SoHo.  The exhibition consists of large-scale watercolor paintings that are positioned in a continuous line along the gallery walls. This particular hanging corresponds to Clemente’s aim to embed art with a spiritual experience.  The idea of a rainbow closely reflects the works in the show.  For Clemente, a rainbow is a symbolic structure that sets up connections between people and worlds, and using watercolor allows the light of the paper to come through. Moreover, the watercolors are bright and come after a long period in which the artist worked with a darker palette.  In order to arrive at the final form of the works, Clemente started out with three large scale canvases that were each 60 foot (about 18 meters) long.  He then divided each of them by cutting them into five separate sections. When hung next to each other, the rainbows reconnect in the mind of the viewer. The iconography in the work is derived from candomblé from the Americas, alchemy from Europe and tantra from India. The exhibition will run through May 30, 2009.  Among the crowd were Goldie Hawn and daughter Kate Hudson who were enjoying the show with artist Dustin Yellin who was is now showing at Robert Miller Gallery and who was interviewed by AO recently here.

Opening Francesco Clemente’s A History of the Heart in
Three Rainbows at Deitch Projects. Photo by Art Observed.

A History of the Heart in Three Rainbows
Deitch Projects
18 Wooster Street, New York
May 2, 2009 – May 30, 2009

RELATED LINKS
Exhibition Page and Press Release [Deitch Projects]
Francesco Clemente at Deitch [Purple Diary]
Francesco Clemente: The History of the Heart in Three Rainbows [Dante Ross]
Francesco Clemente [Daily Serving]

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Crowds poured into a sweltering Freeman Alley yesterday evening to attend the opening of Marilyn Minter’s Green Pink Caviar at Salon 94 Freemans. On show were seven new works by the artist that formulate a juxtaposition between photorealistic paintings and painterly photographs. In “her examination of glamour and its underbelly,” Minter’s work operates on the verge between clearness and abstraction, and situates itself ambiguously between the appalling and the beautiful. Minter appropriates the body as a site to play out these dualities. For example, in Snake Charmer (2009), a nipple with a tattooed snake protrudes from an enamel surface. Throughout the exhibition, the tongue and other erotic zones, such as the lips and fingers, boldly enter the viewer’s space. Green Pink Caviar will run through June 13th, 2009.

Marilyn Minter: Green Pink Caviar
Salon 94 Freemans
1 Freeman Alley
April 28, 2009 – June 13, 2009

RELATED LINKS

Exhibition Page [Salon 94]
Marilyn Minter: It’s About Mainting the Integrity of Ideas [Two Coats of Paint]
CHEWING COLOR, curated by Marilyn Minter [Creative Time]
A Mouthful of Marilyn Minter [WMagazine]
Marilyn Minter – Green Pink Caviar [Green Pink Caviar]
Marilyn Minter by Johanna Burton [Amazon]
What Does Goo Mean To You? [New York Magazine]

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The artist Dustin Yellin talks to Rebecca Schiffman for ArtObserved in his Red Hook studio about his upcoming show ‘Dust in The Brain Attic’ which opens tomorrow, April 23, at Robert Miller Gallery, New York.  The show has been the subject of a good amount of press, including a preview in this month’s Vanity Vair.   Art Observed will be on site to cover the exhibition tomorrow night.

Robert Miller Gallery Dustin Yellin Exhibition Page
Press Release – Dustin Yellin at Robert Miller Gallery Thursday, April 23

David Zwirner presents Adel Abdessemed’s first solo gallery exhibition in New York.  The particular installation of the exhibition throughout the three main gallery spaces (519 W 19th st., 525 W 19th st., 533 W 19th st.) allows the visitors to set out their own path in a maze-like environment that nevertheless respects the autonomy of the individual artworks. RIO includes Abdessemed’s latest 2008 and 2009 drawings, photographs, videos and sculpture, which are of a strong political nature. Prostitute (2008) addresses religion through a number of copies of the Koran, the Tora and the Bible that were handwritten by prostitutes and Practice zero tolerance (retournée) (2008) consists of a mold of an impounded car from the 2005 violent uprisings in the Paris banlieues.  Abdessemed has titled the show after his daughter with whom he shares the fascination with which “she contemplates the big animals in the zoo that are thirsty and hungry.”  The exhibition runs through 9 May, 2009.

Adel Abdessemed: RIO
David Zwirner
519,525 and 533 West 19th Street

RELATED LINKS
Exhibition Page, Press Release and Biography [David Zwirner]
Exhibition Review highlighting Telle mère tel fils (2008) [Design Boom]
Biography and Discussion of Nature of Abdessemed’s Work [Re-Title]
Exhibition Review [Supertouch]
Exhibition Review II [NY Art Beat]
Article on Controversial Work by Abdessemed [National Coalition Against Censorship]
Video on Controversial Work by Abdessemed (graphic nature, in Italian) [Ribeiro Art]

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Terence Koh’s ‘Untitled (Urinal)’ on the opening night of ‘KKK,’ photo by ArtObserved

On Saturday, April 4, ‘Koons-Kelley-Koh,’ or ‘KKK,’ curated by LA-Berlin dealer Javier Peres opened at Mary Boone Gallery. The theme of the exhibition is rather loose. In the press release Peres wrote, ‘My purpose in assembling this exhibition was not to emphasize a curatorial message as such, but rather – quite simply – to put three of my favorite American artists side by side. No tricks, no gimmicks, no bullshit, just sculptures representative of each artist’s practice. I hope you enjoy looking.’ The show includes two sculptures by each artist. It does not feature any of Jeff Koons’s recent signature large-scale sculptures, with all but one of the works on the relatively small side. There is, however, a 24-foot-long piece by Terence Koh, a smashed-up urinal glued back together.

Koons-Kelley-Koh [Mary Boone Gallery]
About Last Night… [PaperMag]
Talking With Terence Koh [ArtCat]
Crate of the week (if not the year…) [Fine Art Shipping]
Terrence Koh, Jeff Koons, And Mike Kelley Host An Exibition At The Mary Boone Gallery [Guest of a Guest]
Terence Koh’s Mary Boone Opening [Style.com]

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Vanessa Beecroft VB64 at Deitch Studios – photo by ArtObserved

Long Island City isn’t the typical location for high-profile New York art openings, nor is Queens on a Friday night during Armory Week the usual hotspot for glossy fashion and art hordes. Then again, it’s been eight years since Vanessa Beecroft last staged one of her infamous performances in the city.   Judging from the crowd gathered outside on the East River waterfront and inside the brightly-lit warehouse, Deitch Projects managed to time her re-entry perfectly.

Deitch Projects
Vanessa Beecroft VB64
4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City
Opening March 6; through April 12, 2009

RELATED LINKS

Exhibition Page [Deitch Projects]
Manufacturing Value: Vanessa Beecroft’s VB64 at Deitch Projects, LIC [Art in America]
Vanessa Beecroft at Deitch! [Supreme Management Blog]
Vanessa and Kanye Get Metaphysical [Style File Blog]
Vanessa Beecroft Reveals All [The Art Newspaper]
For the Love of Art: Makeup on the Vanessa Beecroft Shoot [Life is Beautiful]
Vanessa Beecroft’s Nude Models at Deitch Projects [Village Voice]

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David Zwirner booth at the Armory, showing Yan Pei-Ming, John McCracken, and Rachel Khedoori.

New York Armory Week 2009 is in full swing, with attendance higher than expected moving into the weekend.  Despite the absence of several blue chip galleries – including Matthew Marks and Lehmann Maupin – the gallerists’ collective mood seems hesitant but optimistic.  177 contemporary galleries are exhibiting in the Armory’s 11th year, along with the addition of a Modern wing at Pier 92 selling more established, less edgy work.

The Armory Show 2009 and the Armory Modern
Piers 92 and 94
12th Avenue at 54th Street
March 4-8, 2009

Armory Opening Party at MoMA.

RELATED LINKS
Sales still down, but spirits are buoyant [Art Newspaper]
On the Piers, Testing the Waters in a Down Art Market [New York Times]
Has the Recession Sparked a New Renaissance? [Guardian UK]
On the Scene at the Armory Preview Party [Style File Blog]
MoMA’s Armory Show Opening Benefit Party [Patrick McMullan]
Armory MoMA After Party [Guest of a Guest]
Now Dealing | The Armory Show [TheMoment]
Window-shoppers Descend on Armory Art Show [NYMag]
What’s Selling (or Not) at the New York Armory Show [NYMag]
‘Creepy’ Bernie Madoff Watercolor Fails to Sell at Armory Show [NYMag]
Dealers Sold on Armory Modern, Collectors Less So [ArtInfo]
The Herd Is Out, but Holding Back [ArtInfo]

more stories and photos after the jump…

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