Sean Scully, Landline Bloom (2016), via Art Observed

Timothy Taylor Gallery’s Mayfair exhibition space has compiled a series of Sean Scully’s monumental abstract paintings, recent works that tower above the viewer while engaging them with deep, meditative arrangements of color.  Shown in conjunction with a collection of sketches, notes, letters and diary entries, the show’s expansive focus offers a rare look into the Irish painter’s psychological and conceptual investment in his works.  The series, Landline, has been ongoing since 2013, and continues to offer the artist an opportunity to refine and reshape his approach to the canvas through a narrow, yet endlessly inventive engagement with the power of mark-making, and the purity of delineation between linear planes, both explored through the expressive capacity of color. (more…)

Ernesto Neto, The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth To Humanity (Installation View), via Art Observed

Filling the main exhibition space at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery with another of his signature, finger-crocheted structures, artist Ernesto Neto has opened a new show in New York, reprising past works with this material and technique applied towards varied explorations of the spiritual, sexual, and communal in a single architectural space.  The show, which uses the Old Testament myth of temptation and expulsion from the Garden of Eden, to extend and explore the space of the human body as metaphor for both the tale’s moral implications, and contemporary explorations of social space. (more…)

Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016), via Art Observed

Arthur Jafa’s current video installation, on view at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in west Harlem, is at once joyous and tragic, celebratory and rebellious.  Bearing the title Love is the Message, the Message is Death, it makes reference not only to Philadelphia act MFSB’s classic disco tune “Love Is The Message,” but also to “Love is the Plan and the Plan is Death,” a short story by Alice Sheldon, better known by her pen name of James Tiptree Jr., or Raccoona Sheldon.  The work, played alongside Kanye West’s caustic and meditative “Ultralight Beam,” from his latest album, presents a fusion of images, music, and theory, ultimately presenting a striking vision of the black experience in the 21st Century. (more…)

Julia Wachtel, Acceleration of Similarity (1983), via Art Observed

Revisiting Anne Livet’s original 1980’s exhibition Infotainment, Every Future has a Price: 30 Years after Infotainment at Elizabeth Dee opens a dialogue into the ongoing relevance of the themes and subjects first explored over thirty years ago.  The exhibition, which re-exhibits 11 of the works originally on view from the first show of predominantly East Village artists, dwells on social and philosophical interests that echo much of 1960’s Conceptualism, placing emphasis on the conveyance of ideas over aesthetic interests.

Every Future Has a Price (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Carol Bove, Daphne and Apollo (2016), via Art Observed

Marking her first exhibition with David Zwirner in New York since joining the gallery, Carol Bove has brought a body of new works to the gallery’s 19th Street location, marking a continuation and expansion of her unique sculptural language refined through a series of references and touchstones pulled from the language of modern sculpture.   (more…)

Helen Marten, Brood and Bitter Pass (2016), via Art Observed

Helen Marten, the Macclesfield-born, London-based sculptor known for her disjointed, endlessly inventive configurations of materials, has taken home the 2016 Turner Prize, the second major award that the artist has won in the past month.  Marten, who takes home a£25,000 purse for the award, was selected from a pool of artists including Anthea Hamilton, Michael Dean, and Josephine Pryde.

Helen Marten, via W Magazine

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Denise Kupferschmidt at Halsey McKay, via Art Observed

Walking through the doors of the Deauville Hotel and Resort, a sense of familiarity is in the air, with NADA Miami Beach returning to its old stomping grounds in North Beach.  Maintaining the same familial atmosphere and adventurous spirit that keeps the fair among the more popular of the week, this year’s edition (its 14th total) is particularly strong, with a renewed focus on painting alongside a series of more striking projects and pieces. (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach, via Art Observed

After a first evening of parties in both Miami proper and Miami Beach, the main event of Miami Art Week, Art Basel Miami Beach, has opened its doors at the Miami Beach Convention Center, bringing with it another round of special projects, talks, and other installations alongside the more traditional booths.  The 15th edition of the fair, which draws 269 galleries from a total of 29 countries from around the globe, was clearly feeling some tightness from a slower market, with shorter lines for the VIP Preview today, and less of a rush towards premiere works, but strong sales seemed to continue throughout the day, revealing a buyer pool that seems more invested than feverish.

Toiletpaper for Fondation Beyeler, via Art Observed

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Untitled Art Fair, via Art Observed

Spread across the sandy vistas just off Miami Beach’s iconic Ocean Drive, Untitled Art Fair opened its doors this week for the 5th annual edition of its fair during Miami Art Week. Recognized for a curator-first mentality and a focused, yet exploratory tone, the fair’s early hours offered a striking first look at the caliber and diversity of works on view in Miami this week. The fair, has hit its stride with this year’s offering, bringing a group of exhibitors that push distinctly cohesive threads and perspectives over the course of the fair, even as each offers a singular perspective on their chosen media or discourse. (more…)

Thomas Bayrle at ICA Miami (Installation View), via Art Observed

As dealers, artists and insiders continue to arrive en masse to South Florida, the first days of Miami Art Week have kicked into full gear, with a first round of openings and events setting the pace for the week before Art Basel Miami Beach opens to the public tomorrow. With both first looks at several fairs and a number of premiere openings, Tuesday night’s proceedings were a first look at the hectic week ahead.

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Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Zwischen Zwei Blau (Between Two Blues) (1955), via David Zwirner

As 2016 winds into its final weeks, the art world will once again head south for the annual fairs and festivities of Miami Art Week, headed by Art Basel Miami Beach, its satellite fairs, and other openings, events, parties and performances spread across the Biscayne Bay.  Taking up almost a full week this December, the increasingly diverse offerings should offer a packed last week of major sales and shows before the art world closes out the fall season.

Gao Ludi, Untitled (2015-2016), via White Space

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Pipilotti Rist, Pixel Forest (2016), via Art Observed

Pixel Forest, the first New York City museum survey dedicated to the work of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, has opened this month at the New Museum, turning three floors of the museum into a swirling progression of images and senses, colors and lights.  Twisting and moving through a series of works from the full breadth of Rist’s career, the show melds classic pieces with new commissions, well-regarded installations with new information and conversations across the expanse of her practice. (more…)

William Eggleston, Untitled from The Democratic Forest, (c. 1983-1986), via Art Observed

There are few photographers who have left a mark on their medium in the way that William Eggleston has over the course of his career.  Pioneering an approach to the photograph as meticulous as it is seemingly effortless, Eggleston’s work has charted a path and progression through both his own chosen craft and the American landscape.  Capturing subdued, yet sublime moments of life across the country, from momentary pauses in urban bustle to the somber stillness of the American rural South.  Now, the Tennessee-born artist is revisiting his landmark project The Democratic Forest at David Zwirner in New York, a look back at the artist’s career that simultaneously marks his first exhibition since joining the gallery for global representation.

William Eggleston, Untitled from The Democratic Forest, (c. 1983-1986), via Art Observed

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Maurizio Cattelan, Novecento (1979), via Art Observed

“This exhibition is the very first, after the Guggenheim show, that has more than three of my works altogether: it is a special editing of things I’ve done before retiring. Let’s say it is a post-requiem show, where, like in a Poe’s novel, I’m pretending to be dead, but I can still see and hear what happens around.” So states Maurizio Cattelan in the opening of his press release for Not Afraid of Love, a “comeback at work” that brings together a sizable collection of the artist’s irreverent sculptures and installations at the Monnaie de Paris, a show that stands as both a look back at the artist’s work and a renewed perspective on just what the art world has been missing since Cattelan took a step back from producing art several years ago.

Maurizio Cattelan, Untitled (2007), via Art Observed

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Louise Bourgeois, My Blue Sky (1989-2003), via Hauser & Wirth

During the last decade of her life, Louise Bourgeois began immersing herself in the techniques of soft-ground etching, rendering delicate lines and twisting, nuanced forms on a series of copper plates before transferring the images to paper.  Combining a number of the artist’s long-running pictorial interests in conjunction with her often inventive approach to both her tools and her own personal history, the works stand as a striking, yet subdued, re-interpretation of her own practice, branching out into new modes of practice in her final years.

Louise Bourgeois, Turning Inwards (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth

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Steven Parrino, Untitled (1991), all images courtesy Patrick Seguin

On-view through November 26^th, 2016, Galerie Patrick Seguin presents Olympia, in collaboration with New York-based gallery and bookstore Karma, one in a series of annual shows hosted by the gallery, entitled Carte Blanche, in which international galleries are invited to organize and curate exhibitions at the Paris space.  Drawing on a wide range of artists’ works on paper, the show features pieces by Wade Guyton, Sigmar Polke, Willem de Kooning, Louise Bourgeois, Pablo Picasso, and more. (more…)

Carmen Herrera, Green and Orange (1958), via Art Observed

Taking over the top floor of the Whitney this fall is Lines of Sight, an exhibition delving into the first thirty years of Cuban-born artist Carmen Herrera’s unique investigations into the color field, minimalist abstraction, and the practice of painting.  On view through 2017, it provides a fitting context for the artist’s ongoing body of work, which now reaches into its seventh decade. (more…)

GCC, Positive Pathways (+) Version II (2016), All images © GCC; Courtesy of the artists and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NY Photo: Adam Reich

GCC, an art collective tapping on cultural and social implications of change in the Arab Gulf Region, last exhibited in New York in 2014, when MoMA PS1 opened the group’s first American solo exhibition, Achievements in Retrospective, followed by their inclusion in the New Museum exhibition Here and Elsewhere.  The collective, comprised of eight artist-“delegates,” all born or raised in the region, returns to the city for Positive Pathways (+) at Mitchell-Innes & Nash this month, presenting the show’s eponymous sculpture, originally exhibited at the DIS-curated Berlin Biennale this summer, alongside a group of sculptural reliefs created using Thermoforming techniques. (more…)

Gerhard Richter, A.B. Still (1986), final price: $33,987,500, via Sotheby’s

Concluding the last major week of auction sales before the end of a rollercoaster calendar year, Sotheby’s capped an impressively consistent sale of Post-War and Contemporary artworks last night in New York City, a 64-lot outing that saw the auction house continue to upend expectations in a week that has been defined by unexpected records and several marquee auction records.  The sale reached a final tally of $276,560,750, with 4 of 64 works unsold. (more…)

Claude Monet, Meule (1891), final price: $81,447,500, via Christie’s

Doubling down on Wednesday night, Phillips and Christie’s went back to back on a marathon pair of auctions, Phillips with its 20th Century Sale and Christie’s with its Impressionist and Modern sale, that pushed the fall auction week to near completion with surprisingly potent results, including a new auction record for both Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky.   (more…)

Tetsumi Kudo (Installation View), All images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed.

Following three group exhibitions, contextualizing artist Tetsumi Kudo’s oeuvre in conversation with peers such as Paul Thek, Hannah Wilke, and Alina Szapocznikow, Andrea Rosen Gallery is currently presenting the third solo exhibition dedicated to the late Japanese artist.  Bridging his hometown and Europe through the course of his career, Kudo demonstrated a rare artistic vision and intellectual perspective that led his work to be regarded alongside that of Joseph Beuys, Yayoi Kusama, and Mike Kelley, one of the artist’s foremost admirers and an avid supporter of his work in the West.

Tetsumi Kudo, Portrait D’Artiste dans la Crise (1977)

Kudo, heavily influenced by the political turmoil and commercialist phenomena during the post-war era in both the East and the West, began his bird cage sculptures during the mid 1960’s, shortly after moving to Paris, and continued the series until the beginning of the ‘80’s.  Store-bought bird cages, in various sizes and colors, house an ample span of mundane and extraordinary objects and artifacts, each twisted through Kudoo’s uniquely enigmatic perspective and consumed by the intersection of narratives that take place within its barred confines.

Tetsumi Kudo (Installation View)

While Japan’s “anti-art” movement in the 1950’s ushered the artist to rebuff dominant art practicism and to experiment with banal and everyday materials, his tenure in Paris immersed his work in a conversation with the avant-garde experimentalism of the neo-Dada circles, in which he organized and performed happenings that blurred the separation between art and reality.

Tetsumi Kudo, Portrait of Artist in the Crisis (1978)

This same sense of attenuated reality persists here, as his sculptures, meticulously installed on pedestals throughout the exhibition space, pushes an engagement with consumer-grade objects en route to portrayal of socio-political and ideological milestones that shaped our understanding of the 20th century.  Western consumerism collides with perceptions of the body, while the historical introduction of such commercial goods to Japanese society remains a dominant narrative point on the surface in these multi-faceted sculptures.

Nevertheless, the scrutiny of European humanism and its impact on colonialism, war, and social alienation also present themselves, woven through the installation by inclusions of phalluses, bodily decay, and images of degradation, references to the cultural impact of the Vietnam War and a future governed by technological mastery.  These sculptures interpret the past and narrate the future through Kudo’s nuanced scope, encapsulating the dichotomies embedded in the human condition.

Tetsumi Kudo (Installation View)

Tetsumi Kudo is on view at Andrea Rosen Gallery through November 16, 2016.

— O.C. Yerebakan

Related Link:
Andrea Rosen Gallery [Exhibition Page]

Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXV (1977), which sets a new world record at $66,327,500  via Art Observed

New York City’s week of marquee auctions, and its seemingly unpredictable results, continued tonight, as Christie’s concluded its offering in the Post-War and Contemporary markets, an impressively strong and consistent sale that saw 7 of 61 lots going unsold to reach a final tally of $276,972,500. (more…)

Edvard Munch, Girls on the Bridge (1902), via Art Observed

The packed week of New York auctions began uptown tonight, as Sotheby’s capped its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale this evening to unexpectedly energetic results, reaching a final tally of $157,714,75o, with 9 of the night’s 42 lots offered going unsold.  Auctioneer Helena Newman led a brisk sale over the course of the evening, coordinating quick back and forth bids that kept prices rising and works moving quickly, a performance that earned a number of strong sales in the early lots, and kept momentum high until the last lots of the sale, when enthusiasm seemed to peter out. (more…)

Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXV (1977), via Christie’s

As the fall season moves towards December, the last major auction week of the year is set to kick off in New York, with a series of sales set to take place that will offer the last major barometer for the auction market’s health in a turbulent, and often unpredictable, year.  Beginning Monday, a series of both Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary Evening auctions will bring the last set of major works to the auction block in the U.S. before the market prepares for the holiday months.

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait (Fright-Wig) (1986), via Sotheby’s

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