Louise Bourgeois, Fragile Goddess, 2002, cloth, 31.7 x 12.7 x 15.2 cm, courtesy of The Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg Museum.

The Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Berlin’s museum of Surrealist art, is currently holding its first temporary exhibition co-curated by Udo Kittelmann and Kyllikki Zacharias. Kittelmann had the idea to create a curatorial dialogue between the work of Louise Bourgeois and Hans Bellmer before the museum’s opening in June 2008. ‘Hans Bellmer-Louise Bourgeois Double Sexus’ consists of over seventy works by Bellmer and Bourgeois, including sculpture, graphic art, and photographs.

Hans Bellmer, Die Puppe, 1935-1965, cast aluminum on gold plated bronze, 50 x 27 x 25 cm, courtesy of The Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg Museum.

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Robert Rauschenberg, Reach Beach (Runts) (2007) All images via Galleri Faurschou.

Currently on view at the Galleri Faurschou in Copenhagen is ‘Robert Rauschenberg: Runts’. The exhibition features the last series of collages created by the artist before his death in 2008.  Unlike much his earlier collage works, which were comprised of prints from newspapers and magazines, many of the images in ‘Runts’ draw from Rauschenberg’s own photographs. Many of these photographs were taken in Florida, where Rauschenberg lived for several years. As a result, the series has a highly personal feel that both transcends and enhances the pictures of sunny blue skies and beach paraphernalia featured among the works.

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Untitled, Christopher Wool (2009). All images via Gagosian Gallery.

On view through July 30th at Gagosian Gallery in Rome is an exhibition of eight new paintings by New York artist Christopher Wool. In these new works, Wool continues to experiment with the fundamentals of abstract painting, while furthering his use of new tactics for application and negation. Adhering to a mostly black-and-white palette and an array of techniques including over-painting, silkscreen, spray paint, stenciling, rolling, dripping, dragging, reproduction and deletion, the past decade has seen Wool increasingly focus on the gestural and painterly qualities of his work.

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Anna Gaskell, Untitled (turns Gravity) #1, 2010, archival pigment print on aluminum, 35 x 57 inches © Anna Gaskell, all images via Yvon Lambert.

Yvon Lambert, New York, is currently showing their second solo exhibition of the work of Anna Gaskell.  Known for her uneasy, often menacing photographs of young and pubescent girls in ambiguous narratives, this exhibition marks a slight imagistic departure.  Her earlier works referenced Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and allusions to the realms of fairy tale and cinema, but are replaced by scenes that are more grounded, casting them in an ominousness potentially intensified by their comparative realism.

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Man in the Mirror (2010) by Marc Quinn, via The Guardian.

Currently on view at White Cube Hoxton Square is “Allanah, Buck, Catman, Chelsea, Michael, Pamela, and Thomas,” a new body of work by British artist Marc Quinn. The exhibit brings together new sculptures by the artist which depict individuals after having gone through extreme amounts of plastic surgery including hormone therapy, piercings, implants and transplants. The works emphasize Quinn’s continual interest in society’s obsession with the body and how it can be transformed.

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Anselm Kiefer, Unfruchtbare Landschaften, 1969, 60 x 45 x 7 cm, 12 pages, black and white photographs, surgical instrument, ink and paper on bound cardboard. All images courtesy the artist and Yvon Lambert Gallery.

Currently on view at Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris, through June 26 2010, is “Unfruchtbaren Landschaften” by Anselm Kiefer. The phrase, which translates to “Barren Landscape,” encapsulates the heavy and frangible works on view. Among the works, which take the form of cardboard books filled with photographs, watercolor, text, and ephemera, are many that were conceived in the late 1960s and early 70s. Enigmatic clues are scattered among cliches, both provocative and disturbing. The works serve as visions, heavily freighted with memories and symbols, inserted into and born of the sociopolitical context of World War II Germany. The exhibition’s eponymous phrase is scribbled in shaky script, conveying a feeling of school-boy-like nostalgia.

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer, Unfruchtbare Landschaften at Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris.

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Rodney Graham’s “Dance!!!!!” (2008) © 303 Gallery

Last week “Music and Dance,” a new series by Rodney Graham, opened at 303 Gallery. Art Observed was on site at the show, which presents a series of lightboxes depicting scenes of archetypes and activity.  Each work encapsulates a disconnection from the very object it is depicting, thereby questioning the status of the object.

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Untitled (Skull) (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, via Fondation Beyeler.

Currently on view at the Fondation Beyeler is a large retrospective devoted to the work of Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)  in celebration of the museum’s fiftieth anniversary. The exhibition bring together over 100 paintings, works on paper, and pieces from renowned museums and collections throughout the world. Basquiat’s works are colorful, playful, incorporating a range of everyday objects, and poetic slogans commenting on contemporary society and social injustice.

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Breathing Room III (2010) by Antony Gormley, via White Cube

Currently on view at the White Cube, Mason’s Yard in London is an exhibition of new works by Antony Gormley. The artist has created a new-site specific installation and a new series of cast-iron block work sculptures. The works aim to depict how time engages with objects and how in turn objects influence human beings.

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No Title (We embrace them), Raymond Pettibon (2010). All images via Gladstone Gallery

On view at Gladstone Gallery Brussels is a collection of new works on paper by renowned Southern California artist Raymond Pettibon. This exhibition further delves into Pettibon’s fascination with American culture and iconography, with an assortment of drawings executed in his signature style. Combining imagery and text from a wide array of sources, Pettibon has increasingly explored new applications of color and collage, creating densely fragmented scenes that inspect the disjointed and sometimes sinister impulses at work in past and present constructions of Americana.

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Brown Skin, Stanislava Kovalcikova, 2010; Green Face Bar, Peter Doig and Chris Ofili, 2000; Past Tense, Embah, 2010; Port of Spain, Peter Doig and Chris Ofili, 2000. Installation view, ‘Self-Consciousness,’ via VeneKlasen Werner.

‘Self-Consciousness’ at VeneKlasen Werner, Berlin, features the portraits of 41 international artists.  Curators Hiltons Als and Peter Doig selected pieces that represent the diversity and evolution of modern portraiture: artists come from several generations, use varying media, and range from established to outsider.  ‘Self-Consciousness’ juxtaposes distinct artists and their work in such a way that questions the definable qualities of portraiture.  Despite myriad styles and genres, many of the artists share a common exploration of themes of sexuality, race, and gender.  Among the featured artists are Boscoe Holder, Giorgio de Chirico, Alice Neel, Glenn Ligon, and Chris Ofili.

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Lisa Yuskavage, Walking the Dog, 2009, oil on linen, 77 x 65 inches, 195.6 x 165.1cm, courtesy of Greengrassi Gallery.

Currently on view at Greengrassi Gallery in London is a solo exhibition of oil paintings by Lisa Yuskavage. This show is Yuskavage’s fourth, solo exhibition at Greengrassi. A new series of paintings are featured depicting realistic, yet often exaggerated, sexualized female figures set in whimsical interiors and landscapes. The fictional world created by the juxtaposition of highly erotic figures in such fantastical environments establishes an unsettling mood.

Lisa Yuskavage, Piggyback Ride, 2009, oil on linen, 60 x 50 inches, 152.4 x 127 x 5.1cm, courtesy of Greengrassi Gallery.

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Title to be Determined, Nate Lowman, 2010, bulletproof glass and bullets (detail view). Images by J. Swan for Art Observed.

On view at Andrea Rosen Gallery is the unusual pairing of artists Karla Black and Nate Lowman, two artists whose works address a general groundlessness, or rather, whose works evinces an almost petulant objection to groundlessness.  In partnership with Mary Mary and Maccarone, this exhibition, closing June 19th, displays recent works of painting and sculpture, executed in materials ranging from traditional alkyd paint on canvas to its self-conscious coupling with retired gas pumps, to guileful manipulations of paper that serve to threaten the material’s core integrity.

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Installation view, Yoshitomo Nara, 2010. All images via Tomio Koyama Gallery.

Yoshitomo Nara has unveiled his first series of ceramic sculptures at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo.  Nara has been studying sculpture for the past year at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, where he created almost 20 pieces.  Nara’s new work maintains his characteristic stylization of children, a trademark painter A.R. Penk has described as “angelic.” Like Nara’s drawings, his sculptures seem both innocent and disconcerting: lines are thick and simple, colors are bold and basic, eyes are either closed or blank.  Nara’s subjects, however, often cry, bleed, possess fangs, and brandish knives.  Of this conflation of puerility and severity, Nara explains, “I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all around them, who are holding bigger knives…”

Installation view, Yoshitomo Nara, 2010

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Installation view, Jorge Pardo, 2010. All images via Friedrich Petzel Gallery.

Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York City, presents a new installation by Jorge Pardo, a porous maze furnished with images from the internet.  Pardo’s structures form narrow passageways through which observers must walk, an action reminiscent of negotiating library stacks.  Observers navigate an amalgamation of memories and images, taking in landscapes, monuments, and faces out of context.  The curving nature of the piece and the carefully cataloged bank of information lend the gallery a cerebral nature.

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Portrait with a Golden Mask, Marina Abramovic (2010) All images via Sean Kelly Gallery.

Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is “Marina Abramovic: Personal Archaeology.”  While the Abramovic retrospective at MoMA recently ended, this show continues until mid-June. Compared with MoMA, the relatively smaller space and the less crowded galleries at Sean Kelly Gallery gives the viewer a chance to engage with Abramovic’s work in a more intimate setting. Personal Archaelogy presents many of the iconic works of this seminal performance artist from the 1970s up until the present day.

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Blackboard Tableau #1, Vija Celmins, 2007-2010. 3 found tablets, 7 made tablets, wood, paper, string, acrylic, alkyd oil, and pastel. Image via McKee Gallery.

Vija Celmins’ first gallery show in nine years features paintings, prints, and sculptures.  At the core of the exhibition are Celmins’ assemblages of neatly arranged objects that recall an outmoded and cerebral academic youth: globes, maps, tablets, and books, are bronze-cast or painted. Celmins presents 16 such objects, in addition to 4 paintings and 9 new prints.  Her exhibition at the McKee Gallery characteristically combines the personal and terrestrial with the cosmic.

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Shooting into the Corner, Anish Kapoor, 2009. Image via Scai the Bathhouse.

Anish Kapoor has installed five new sculptures at Scai the Bathhouse, Tokyo.  This is the third time Kapoor has exhibited his sculptures at the Japanese contemporary art gallery.  Although from Mumbai, India, Scai’s location prompted Kapoor to draw inspiration from Japanese craft, and to collaborate with an urushi lacquerware artist.

Untitled, Anish Kapoor, 2009. Image via Scai the Bathhouse.

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George Condo, Cocktail Drinker (1995) All images via Luhring Augustine

In commemoration of their 25th anniversary, Luhring Augustine is hosting an exhibition titled, “Twenty Five.” The show pulls together works from the gallery’s past and present by artists including Janine Antoni, Nobuyoshi Araki, Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller, Larry Clark, George Condo, Gregory Crewdson, William Daniels, Günter Förg, Zarina Hashmi, Johannes Kahrs, Jon Kessler, Martin Kippenberger, Ragnar Kjartansson, Luisa Lambri, Glenn Ligon, Paul McCarthy, Yasumasa Morimura, Daido Moriyama, Reinhard Mucha, David Musgrave, Cady Nolan, Alberta Oehlen, Ed Paschke, Jack Pierson, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Stephen Prina, Pipilotti Rist, Josh Smith, Joel Sternfeld, Tunga, Guido van der Werve, Rachel Whiteread, Christopher Williams, Steve Wolfe, and Christopher Wool.

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Installation view, Luhring Augustine

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Artist Paul Ramírez Jonas at the Key to the City kiosk in Times Square – all images by Lucy Kissel for ArtObserved

Together with the public arts organization Creative Time, New York-based artist Paul Ramírez Jonas has reinvented the civic honor of bestowing a “Key to the City” for one of the summer’s most exciting public art programs. Through June 27, 25,000 custom-made keys will be exchanged between everyday citizens in a bestowal ceremony at the Key to the City kiosk located at the heart of Times Square – catapulting a citywide exploration of secret doors, community gardens, graveyards and hidden deposit boxes at over 20 sites throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Mayor Bloomberg – who normally awards the ceremonial key to distinguished heroes and esteemed visitors – received the first one yesterday. “Every day, millions of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world interact with one another in every neighborhood” Bloomberg said, noting how the project “celebrates those interactions by helping bring a tradition typically reserved for special occasions to our everyday lives. The keys….will provide New Yorkers with a new way to experience some of our cultural organizations, city landmarks and small businesses.” Participants are encouraged to share their photos of the project on the Key to the City Flickr Page – a special prize from DKNY and a Creative Time book will be awarded to every person who takes a photo of themselves at all of the sites. Information on public hours, a map of the various sites and how to get to the kiosk can be found on the Key to the City website.

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Installation views, Martin Creed & Jonathan Horowitz at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.
All images via Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

On view at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise are concurrent solo shows by artists Martin Creed and Jonathan Horowitz. Creed has fashioned a site-specific installation by remaking the gallery floor into a collage of more than 100 different slabs of marble. The exhibit also includes paintings, performance works, and the premier of a new film. The multi-room installation “Go Vegan” by Horowitz offers a unique perspective on vegetarianism and sustainability, and addresses the ever growing consumption of commoditized pop culture in contemporary society. This marks the inaugural exhibition of the newly expanded space at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, which now extends into the 10,000 square foot space formerly occupied by the butchery and meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda Meats.

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Rirkrit Tiravanija Untitled (Asile Flottant), 2010. Installation view. Via Galerie Chantal Crousel.

Rirkrit Tiravanija‘s fourth solo show at Galerie Chantal Crousel combines the artist’s interest in social architecture and the intersection between politics and everyday life into an installation entitled Asile Flottant (Floating Asylum). Tiravanija has re-created Le Corbusier‘s barge of the same name (1930), designed for the Salvation Army as a floating refuge for Parisian vagrants and prostitutes in the winter, and as a playground for children in the summertime. Le Corbusier conceived of the work as a model for a new social community for the underclass. Tiravanija’s re-creation of the barge was made by workers in Thailand and is on a half-scale proportion to the original, exploring the barge as a structure for living and socializing in a new context.

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Omer Fast Talk Show, 2010. With actress Lili Taylor. All images: A Performa Commission co-produced by Artis Contemporary Israeli Art Fund, Edith Russ House for Media Arts, Oldenburg and Goethe Institute. Photo by Olimpia Dior. Courtesy of the Artist and Arratia, Beer, Berlin.

Currently on view at Arratia Beer is a new video piece entitled Talk Show by Omer Fast. The work was originally recorded in front of a live audience as part of Performa in 2009, and continues Fast’s interest in the liminal space between fact and fiction as mediated by film. Set in a theatrical, talk show like setting, the film records Lisa Ramaci relating her personal story about the Iraq war to actress Rosie Perez, who was hearing the account for the first time. When Ramaci finishes her story, Perez re-tells the story to another performer. This process of re-telling is repeated for a total of six renditions, and, much like the childhood game of Telephone that the work is inspired by, results in many factual errors and even becomes comedic.

Omer Fast Talk Show, 2010. Courtesy of the Artist and Arratia, Beer, Berlin.

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Leon Golub, ALARMED DOG ENCOUNTERING PINK!, 2004. Oil stick and ink on Bristol. 8 x 10 inches. All images: Art © Estate of Leon Golub/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photograph by Cathy Carver.

The current show at the Drawing Center in New York exhibits 43 drawings and works on paper by Leon Golub made between the years 1999 and his death in 2004. Golub is primarily known for his visceral large-scale paintings of war, torture, and the darker side of humanity. The drawings however, display a different side to Golub’s art making process, and reflect the range of his interests–satyrs, sex, animals, classical art, death, and graffiti all appear in these late drawings.

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