Subodh Gupta, Et tu, Duchamp? (2009/10). All images via Hauser & Wirth

Taking root this spring in Piccadilly’s Southwood Gardens is Subodh Gupta’s tributary appropriation Et tu, Duchamp?, a larger than life black-bronze sculpture of the artist’s reinterpretation of the Mona Lisa. Gupta is well known for reworking common aesthetic tropes, in the past having made sculptures of steel utensils and visually referenced the stars of the Western contemporary art market (particularly Damien Hirst). In this instance, Gupta plays with early Modernist art history by injecting Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. with a monumental three-dimensionality.

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Laurie Simmons, Day 8 (Lying on Bed), (2010). via Salon 94

New York-based photographer Laurie Simmon’s show opened on February 15th and will continue through Saturday, March 26th. Simmons, who began photographing doll houses in 1976, has since mainly worked with puppets, ventriloquist’s dummies and various other sorts of dolls. Laurie Simmons  starred in the indie film “Tiny Furniture” directed by her daughter Lena Dunham, which was recently chosen as winner for best feature film at the South by Southwest Media and Music Conference. For her latest exhibition at Salon 94, entitled “The Love Doll: Days 1 – 30” her subject of choice is none other than one “Love Doll”, a surrogate sex partner created out of silicon and other “life-like” materials.

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Photo by Art Observed.

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Gus Van Sant, Untitled (2010) ©Gus Van Sant. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Crossreferencing film and painting,  Gus Van Sant has never shied from an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking.  The show “Unfinished” is no exception.  Though the show bills both Van Sant and James Franco as the artists in charge,  it is heavy with Van Sant’s signature, especially in terms of the bold two dimensional art.  Van Sant uses watercolor and graphite to create striking images of the characters within his film, My Own Private Idaho.  These paintings are intimate while at the same time graphic and mindful of the medium.  Seven large-scale paintings adorn the front of the gallery, while a curious installation behind a curtain serves as its stablemate.

© Photo Billy Farrell/BFAnyc.com.

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Mark Flood, MURK FLUID installation view, (2011). All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed

Currently on view at Zach Feuer Gallery, MURK FLUID is artist Mark Flood’s latest showing of work that deals with various items, including notions of corporate structure, celebrity obsession, and human commodification. Born in Houston, Texas, the artist is known widely for his acrylic and spray-paint poster boards that are influenced by the 1980’s punk movement.

Mark Flood, MAINTAIN (2011)

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Anthony McCall, Vertical Works (2004-2010). All images via Sprüeth Magers.

Now on view at Ambika P3 in London is an exhibition of four light projections by Anthony McCall, titled Vertical Works. The installation is presented by Sprüeth Magers, which is displaying a concurrent exhibition of related drawings at their London location. Though the four light works, created between 2004 and 2010, are abstract projections of lines and curves, their titles are purely figurative. Exhibited in London for the first time, Breath, Breath III, Meeting You Halfway, and You can be seen through March 26th at Ambika P3. The works on paper exhibition at Sprüeth Magers is up until March 27th.

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Evan Penny, Michael, Variation #3 (2010), via Sperone Westwater

Walk one block north from the New Museum and you will find Evan Penny’s exhibition at Sperone Westwater, open until March 26th and presenting a collection of five oversized, hyperrealistic sculptures of human figures that bridge the gap between art and spectacle.  The gallery is also currently showing  work by Emil Lukas.

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Berlinde De Bruyckere, Into One-Another I To P.P.P. (2010). All images via Hauser & Wirth

Berlinde De Bruyckere does not hold back when it comes to her art. The human form in her exhibition “Into One-Another To P.P.P.” at Hauser & Wirth is exposed in a series of sculptures expertly rendered in wax. Through experimentation with individuality and mortality, De Bruyckere draws the viewer into her sculptures’ struggle. Also on display are a number of recent works on paper done in watercolor and ink. The exhibition is dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian filmmaker, painter, and poet.

Berlinde De Bruyckere, Into One-Another I To P.P.P. (2010)

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Alexander Calder, Blue and Yellow Sickles (1960). All images courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

Larry Gagosian brings yet another big-ticket artist to his London location with a survey of Alexander Calder’s sculptures made between 1939 and 1960.  The exhibition occupies one long gallery and consists of three of Calder’s iconic mobiles: Triangles, Blue and Yellow Sickles, and an untitled composition.  Each work reflects the artist’s facility with wire and metal used to create tenuous “drawings” which float in mid-air.

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Marc Chagall, “To My Betrothed” (1913), at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. All pictures by Art Observed.

Art Observed was at PMA’s newest show, a celebration of Marc Chagall and his Paris contemporaries. The show encompasses 70 works in various media, including paint, sculpture, and paper, by the emigré artists of Paris.  Here are masterpieces by Modigliani, Kisling, Lipchitz, and Soutine, all set against and borne of La Ruche, a jumble of art studios in this early 20th-century community. As he did with the museum’s gorgeous Picasso show last year, PMA curator Michael Taylor recreates an artists’ colony, a whiff of nostalgia threaded throughout its galleries.

Detail, Marc Chagall’s “Paris through the Window” (1913) at Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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Bruce Nauman, Parallax Shell (1971-2000).

Currently on view at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery is The Parallax View, an exhibition curated by Manuel E. Gonzalez exploring the nature of conflict in the works by acclaimed artists Teresita Fernández, Dan Flavin, Gego, Mary Heilmann, Eva Hesse, Robert Irwin, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, and Robert Smithson. Centered around the notion of “parallax,” which is defined as “the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer,” the exhibition examines how each artist confronts notions of space, light, and observation in their work. Works by such stylistically disparate artists spanning the course of post-war 20th century confront each other through various shapes and forms resulting in an expression of conflict and disharmony.

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Jeff Koons, Ushering in Banality, 1988. Polychromed wood. All photos by Christian Saltas, unless otherwise noted.

The Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe (FACE) is a collaboration between five non-profit art foundations: the Deste Foundation in Athens, Greece; the Ellipse Foundation in Cascais, Portugal; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy; La Maison Rouge in Paris, France; and Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 2008, the FACE alliance is dedicated to the promotion of emerging international artists by supporting the production and exhibition of new works. Their first initiative takes the form of a traveling exhibition entitled “Investigations of a Dog.”

Bruce Nauman, Untitled (Suspended Chair, Vertical III), 1987.

The exhibition draws its title from a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka, and the selection of works take up the existentialist themes present in Kafka’s work: disillusionment, humanity, and marginalization. Among participating artists are: Maurizio Cattelan, Roberto Cuoghi, Mark Dion, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Urs Fischer, Fischli & Weiss, Claire Fontaine, David Hammons, Thomas Hirschhorn, William Kentridge, Kimsooja, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mark Manders, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Martin Parr, Aurel Schmidt, Santiago Sierra, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker.

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Martin Kippenberger, Eifrau die man nicht schubladieren kann
(Egg woman who defies categorization) (1996). Via Skarstedt Gallery.

You may remember MoMA’s “Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective,” of 2009 (brought to New York after success at LACMA), which was a comprehensive and exciting look at the work of a relatively underappreciated 20th century icon.  Now, two years later, Martin Kippenberger “Eggman II” at the Skarstedt Gallery on the Upper East side reminds us again that, despite the extreme lessening of scale and comparatively sparse presentation, the German artist’s work is the result of an obsessively productive energy and wit whose motto seems to have successfully been “more is more;” more color, more humor and more personality are evident in this work than most.

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Kazimir Malevich, Rectangle and Circle (1915). Via ibiblio

Through a collaboration with the heirs of Kazimir Malevich, the Gagosian Gallery is displaying six of Malevich’s paintings as the centerpiece in their current show, ‘Malevich and the American Legacy.’ Surviving paintings by this trailblazer in geometric abstract art are a rarity, and it is uncommon to see them on display outside of a museum. ‘Malevich and the American Legacy’ affords viewers some intimacy with these influential paintings while displaying works by a sampling of the artists Malevich inspired, including Carl Andre, John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, James Turrell, and Cy Twombly.

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Nan Goldin, Amanda in the Mirror (1992). Via Matthew Marks Gallery

The Berlinische Galerie is showing a relatively unseen set of photographs by Nan Goldin. The show consists of around 100 color photographs that reveal an intimate portrayal of Goldin’s time spent in Berlin between 1984 and 2009. This acclaimed American photographer rose to popularity in the 1980’s as a leading figure in the movement of subjective photography. Goldin professed that photography was a stand in for memory, she unabashedly photographing drag queens, drug addicts, and night time lurkers that made up her circle of friends. Goldin created a voyeuristic world that held her firmly in the place as a cult icon to generations of photographers.

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Ed Ruscha, Psycho Spaghetti Western #5 (2010). All images via Gagosian Gallery

Currently on view at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills is a series of ten paintings by Ed Ruscha in an exhibition titled Psycho Spaghetti Westerns. The show opened with a star-studded evening gala on February 24th and is up through April 9, 2011. The ten large paintings each have a ground, most often natural and diagonally sloping across the canvas, on which realistically painted detritus is resting. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ruscha explains that the title has little to do with “Spaghetti Western” films and more to do with the meaning of the three words themselves: “‘Spaghetti Westerns’ says it all: tangled up messes like spaghetti, and we’re living out here in the West, and we’re all psycho.”

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Ed Ruscha, Psycho Spaghetti Western #7 (2010)

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But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter (2009); Caligula (2010). All images courtesy Bonniers Konsthall unless otherwise noted.

Gardar Eide Einarsson is one of the fastest rising Scandinavian contemporary artists, and his exhibition Power Has a Fragrance currently on view at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm is a testament to his momentum. Addressing themes of violence, authority, power, paranoia, and alienation, Einarsson draws heavily on graffiti and street culture, transforming appropriated imagery into sophisticated installations that land like spaceships in a minimalist’s paradise.

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Donald Judd, Untitled (1989), Cor-ten steel

Thirteen wall and floor pieces by Donald Judd are on display at the Pace Gallery. A sampling of the work from the last two decades of his life, the exhibition covers a wide range of materials Judd had not previously explored. The thirteen pieces demonstrate the artist’s use of space, materials, and color in his work, which revolve around his iconic box structure. Even before he began working with sculpture, his work has focused on stacks and repeated shapes, mostly with straight edges and right angles.

Donald Judd, Untitled (1978), granite

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Ed Ruscha, Give Him Anything and He’ll Sign It (1965)

Collector Emily Fisher Landau made a gift of about 400 works of art to the Whitney Museum. Estimated to be worth between $50 and $75 million, the works of almost 100 artists range in date from 1950 to 2006—the earliest being a Robert Rauschenberg photograph of Jasper Johns in his studio, and the latest a 2006 Lisa Yuskavage etching. To commemorate this remarkable donation, the Whitney is showing eighty of the works in an exhibition titled Legacy on the fourth floor of the museum, which was named for Landau in 1995.

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Cosmos (2008) by John McCracken, via Castello di Rivoli

My works are minimalists and reduced, but also maximal. I try to make them concise, clear statements in three-dimensional form, and also take them to a breathtaking level of beauty.

– John McCracken

Currently on view at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, Italy is a retrospective featuring the works of American artist John McCracken. McCracken believes that the contemplation upon pure absolute forms of beauty as found in his minimalist sculptures, can aid in the obtainment of spiritual liberation. Art can thus be used to enrich the lives of the spectator. The largest retrospective to date of the artist’s work, on display are around sixty historical works including early paintings from the 1960s exhibited for the first time; the artist’s early bichrome sculptural works such as Theta-Two and Mykonos; his rarely exhibited Mandala paintings; and recent works Wonder and Fair both created in 2010 by the artist for the exhibition.

Untitled (Mandala) (1971) by John McCracken, via Castello di Rivoli

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Marcel Dzama, Polytropos of Many Turns (2009), installation view. All photos by D. Terna, Art Observed.

Canadian-born artist Marcel Dzama debuts his latest film, “A Game of Chess” in his sixth solo exhibition at David Zwirner. The exhibition Behind Every Curtain is on view through March 19, and the three-tiered exhibition of drawings, dioramas, and motorized sculptures provide both a prelude to Dzama’s film as well as a record of the artistic process behind it. And while Dzama’s work has always been characterized by a fairy-tale like violence, both “A Game of Chess” and the pieces leading up to it seem to take a much darker and sinister turn than do Dzama’s previous exhibitions.

Installation view of the film, A Game of Chess.

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Philip-Lorca diCorcia, W, September 1997, #2 (1997). Via David Zwirner

Currently on view through March 5th at David Zwirner is a résumé of the eleven editorial photo shoots that Philip-Lorca diCorcia produced over the course of his eleven years at W Magazine. The exhibition—appropriately titled “Eleven”—illuminates Mr. diCorcia’s unique combination of his technical and narrative expertise applied to the genre of fashion photography.  The exhibit was opened to appropriately coincide with New York Fashion Week.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia. W, March 2000, #10 (2000). Via David Zwirner

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Installation view of Cory Arcangel, ‘Beat the Champ’ via Artdaily

Currently on view at London’s Barbican Gallery is “Beat the Champ” by Brooklyn-based Cory Arcangel, known for diverse and innovative work using DIY low-fi tech materials. Cory’s recent project for The Curve, a co-commission with the Whitney Museum of Art is an installation featuring 14 bowling video games from the 1970s to the 2000s. The artist has used custom-made electronics in order to hack each unit to play a loop game whereby the bowler fails to score.

Beat the Champ (2011) by Cory Arcangel, via Barbican Gallery

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Installation view of Los Carpinteros: Rumba Muerta at Sean Kelly Gallery.  All images via Sean Kelly Gallery

Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is the project Rumba Muerta by artist duo Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodriguez a.k.a. Los Carpinteros.  The duo was formed in 1991 (along with then-collaborator Alexandre Arrechea) and the artists choose to work under the name Los Carpinteros in order to renounce the socially problematic ideology of individual authorship.  Instead, the collective name evokes the cultural tradition of skilled artisans—in this case, carpentry.  Indeed, the notion of craft is crucial to their practice, as is that of design.  With Rumba Muerta Los Carpinteros incorporate aspects of architecture, design, and sculpture to create installations and drawings which seek to negotiate the divide between inhabited spaces, social consciousness, and non-functional art objects.

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