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Robert Ryman at PaceWildenstein Gallery at 32 E 57 Street in New York.  Installation View.  All images via PaceWildenstein Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at PaceWildenstein Gallery is “Robert Ryman: Large-small, thick-thin, light reflecting, light absorbing” – the exhibition of thirty new paintings of the renowned minimalist American artists. Executed in Ryman’s signature monochromatic palette the paintings on display measure ten to thirty square inches and represent a wide gamut of experimentation in materials, including wood, MDF board, aluminum, and stretched cotton. The works appear strong and indestructible, although painted on the paper-thin material Tyvek. In addition to traditional graphite and ink, Ryman employs such painterly materials as acrylic varnish, enamel and epoxy. To hang the paintings to the walls, the artist will use regular staples, which are a traditional integral part of his aesthetics.

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Robert Ryman at Pace Wildenstein. Installation View

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Mark Rothko, Black on Maroon, Mural, Section 3 (1959), from “The Seagram Murals” via ArtInfo

Mark Rothko’s beautiful work The Seagram Murals returns to Tate Liverpool after more than twenty years since it opened the museum in 1988. The entire ground floor gallery has been altered for the show – the walls being painted grey according to Rothko’s specification and mood lighting installed in order amplify the dramatic qualities of the piece, creating a complete emotive viewing experience.

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Reclining Figure (1951), by Henry Moore, via The Guardian

Currently on view at Tate Britain is an exhibition celebrating the work of renowned sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986).  With a display of over 150 stone sculptures, wood carvings, sculptures, bronzes, and drawings, the show revisits the legendary works of one of the masters of twentieth century art.  The show attempts to emphasize the revolutionary in Moore. It highlights his fight to preserve the figurative tradition for three decades by challenging and yet incorporating  elements of abstraction.

Seated Nude with Mirror (1924) by Henry Moore, via Tate Britain

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Spiegel in Kabine mit Passtücken (Spiegel von Michelangelo Pistoletto), Franz West (1996) Image Via Museum Ludwig

Currently on view at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne is Auto-Theatre – the first major European retrospective of Franz West. For this exhibition, West himself grouped over 40 works in themed constellations allowing the visitor to experience the sheer complexity and singularity of his oeuvre. The title Autotheater (Auto-Theatre) points to the performative, interactive dimension of his work and included are the West’s earliest Adaptives (Passstücke) and collages from the 1970s, papier-mâché sculptures, furniture and site-specific installations, his picture walls from the Eighties and his latest sculptures for public spaces.

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Olafur Eliasson, Multiple shadow house, 2010. Installation view. Images via Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

Olafur Eliasson is currently on show for the sixth time at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, through March 20, in a spectacular exhibition that extends the artist’s study of modes of perception, specifically concerning one’s experience of space and time. In this instance Eliasson’s particular fascination is the phenomena of light, movement and color and the relationship between them.

Multiple shadow house, 2010. Installation view

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Os Gemeos, Rinha, 2010

On show at the Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, is the much anticipated “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel), the second exhibition of works by Brazlian twins Os Gemeos (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo). This exhibition presents a series of entirely new, and previously unseen, works that include large canvases, musical sculpture-objects, mechanical and interactive site-specific installations actually created inside the gallery walls.

O Devoto, 2010
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Sarah Morris, “Beijing Intersecting” (2009), one of the proposals for filling the Guggenheim’s void as part of its 50th anniversary show. Photo by Art Observed.

AO was at the press preview for “Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim” as the museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on the East Side. For this new exhibition, organizer Nancy Spector commissioned two hundred proposals from artists, designers, and architects to fill the void.  Through April 28, proposals are on the walls of the Guggenheim, a set of dreams and interventions.

Detail from “Remember Beuys” (2009), by Bolles+Wilson, at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

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Sterling Ruby, “Pig Pen” (2009-2010), on view at PaceWildenstein.

Through March 10, Sterling Ruby has two new pieces at PaceWildenstein’s downtown gallery.  On view are “Pig Pen” and “Bus,” two industrialized traps that confine, says a gallerist, humanity’s basic primitivism. This is an artist’s apocalyptic endgame.

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Sterling Ruby, “Bus” (2010) at PaceWildenstein.

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A photo taken with a mobile phone, although picture-taking was prohibited during the exhibition via NY Times

When Tino Sehgal‘s work took over the Guggenheim Museum in New York on January 29th it was a quiet experience. There were no opening parties, no fuss and none of that Art World glitter to make one jump from exuberant excitement.  The walls of Frank Lloyd Wright’s majestic rotunda were stripped bare and seem to have newly acquired a long lost naïveté.  The lobby still brimmed with crowds of people clustered around the impenetrable center. The Kiss unfolded, rolled and scattered itself in a graceful poise of a feline. The subtly choreographed sequence of animated poses referenced erotic works from Rodin, to Courbet, to Jeff Koons. Occasionally, a couple or a small group of visitors would creep closer for a brief encounter or settle in contemplative thought on the floor of the proposed stage.

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“Eierstapel” (2009), part of the new Wolfgang Tillmans show at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Through March 13, Andrea Rosen is hosting 85 new works by the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, in an exhibition that diverges from much of his typical series. A picture of a baby opens the show, which includes pictures of the Gaza security fence, a triathlon, egg cartons, cities, nature… “Previous shows,” Tillmans tells Dominic Eichler, “…often included absurd moments and odd subject matter that had nothing to do with the core narrative of the ‘real’ utopias portrayed in my pictures. But this show reverses the balance – a few pictures from ‘my world’ are met with a majority of ‘outside’ world.”

Installation view of the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans. Photo by Jeremy Lawson

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SEKU: Here at the Center of Pain is Radiance (2010), by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

Currently on view at Sadie Coles in London are new drawings by Matthew Barney in correlation with his project “Ancient Evenings,” a performance work in partnership with composer Jonathan Bepler. Intimate and delicate, Barney’s drawings allude to each of the seven acts emphasizing in particular the themes of mythology, death, rebirth, and reincarnation. The works are based on Norman Mailer’s erotic and allegorical novel Ancient Evenings (1983) which re-envisages ancient Egyptian mythology and the seven passages of the soul after death: Ren, Khu, Sekhem, Ba, Ka, Khaibit, and Sekhu.

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Djed: The Case for Saving Detroit (2010), by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

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Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View All images via Hauser and Wirth unless otherwise noted

Currently showing at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, 32 East 69 St., New York, NY is “MONALISA”, an exhibition of works by an American artist  Ida Applebroog. The present exhibition is a debut of the entirely new body of work, with a centerpiece of a rudimentary wooden structure that the artist’s calls “MONALISA’s House”. The structure’s walls are covered by one hundred drawings of the artist’s genitals that she produced in the seclusion of her bathroom, while living in California in 1969. The artist speaks about her work: “It was a certain period of my life and before I got into the tub I’d sit with a full-length mirror on the floor. It was before my own radicalization.”

Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View

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“zycles 3075” (2009), part of the new show of Thomas Ruff’s works at David Zwirner Gallery.

The David Zwirner Gallery is currently showing Thomas Ruff’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. On view are two new series by the artist, whose photography has explored landscape, the nude, portraiture and even architecture through appropriated, computer-generated, and traditional images. “zycles” and “cassini,” at David Zwirner through March 13, draw in patrons as they notice the details that yield a snowballing structural complexity.

Thomas Ruff, “cassini 26” (2009), at David Zwirner.

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Self-Portait as an Artist (1888), by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Arts

Currently on view at the Royal Academy of Art is a major exhibition of the work of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1893) and his incredible written correspondence. The show exhibits 35 original letters which have rarely been exhibited to the public due alongside 65 paintings and 30 drawings. The grouping of such works in different artistic disciplines reveals how closely the artist’s writing was interlocked with his painting.

Still-Life with a Plate of Onions (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Art

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Sighicelli, Untitled (White) 2006

Currently showing at Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue  is an exhibition of work by Elisa Sighicelli entitled ‘The Party is Over.’  The show encompasses nine photographic works and two video installations that explore themes of stillness and motion – specifically, of places ‘suspended in time.’ Sighicelli’s images capture a variety of structures, from billboards and a planetarium to tangles of bamboo scaffolding against a building. Different qualities of light are used in each piece to convey the information of an infrastructure in all it’s mood and glare – materials of metal and concrete begin to take on emotional qualities. “I always think of my photos as shot by an alien somehow– you have a feeling of displacement, but at the same time you think you recognize something…”

Sighicelli, Untitled (Empty Square) 2009 Via Gagosian

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Before the star lamp, Olafur Eliasson 2010. All Images Via Galeria Elvira Gonzalez Homepage

“Kepler was Wrong”, the exhibition of the new works by the renowned Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is on view at Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid from January 19 through March 6, 2010. “Kepler was Wrong” features works created especially for this particular exhibition, the first solo show for Eliasson in this gallery.  The artist takes on a humorous argument with Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, whose theories provided the foundation for Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation.  Eight works on display at Galeria Elvira Gonzales treat different aspects and elements related to the universe, outer space and extraterrestrial traveling, such as the dark side of the moon, gravitation, meteorites etc.  For this particular exhibition, Eliasson creates his own variant the universe that includes seven installations and a large panel of black – and –white photography Jokla Series(2004).
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Bread or Alive (2004) by Johannes Deinmling, via Kunstalle Dusseldorf

Currently showing at the Kunstalle Dusseldorf is “Eating the Universe. Food in Art.” The exhibit reflects on the term “Eat Art” coined by Swiss Artist Daniel Spoerri after he opened his restaurant in Burgplatz in Dusseldorf proceeded to found the Eat Art Gallery in 1970. The gallery inspired artists to produce works out of edible materials and food wastes. The exhibition’s title “Eating the Universe” was first used by Peter Kulbelka, former professor for film and cooking at the Studeschule in Frankfurt, for his 1970’s TV show on cooking as an art form. “Eating the Universe. Food in Art” reveals the continual link between food and art and their joint impact on life.

A Visitor looks at Thomas Rentmeister’s Untitled (2007) made of sugar and a shopping cart, via Artdaily

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A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery through March 6.

Through March 6, New York’s Marian Goodman Gallery is showing two films by Steve McQueen.  This is the American debut of “Giardini,” the 30-minute, two-projection film which premiered at the 2009 Venice Biennale and is set on its grounds. “Static” (2009) is showing for the first time, made specifically for the exhibition and centered around the Statue of Liberty. Perspective and national monument are satirized and subverted, recreated in this new exhibition.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery, along with “Giardini,” through March 6.

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Untitled, Ellsworth Kelly (1959) via Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Currently showing at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, England are a selection of early, unseen drawings by one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century – Ellsworth Kelly. Executed by Kelly between 1954 and 1962, the drawings have traveled to Middlesbrough directly from the artist’s New York studio where they have been hidden for more than 50 years. The 23 works are all studies for larger pieces and have been presented now, for the first time ever, to illustrate an important period in the artist’s career during which he pioneered his much-admired abstract style that has been integral to the evolution post-war American art.

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The Bus Driver, 2009 ,oil on linen ,71,1 x 60,9 cm via Sprüth Magers Gallery

Sprüth Magers Gallery in Berlin is hosting “Family Portraits” – an exhibition of new works by American contemporary artist George Condo.  Condo’s most recent exhibition at Sprüth Magers took place in 2008, at the inauguration of Sprüth Magers’ new Berlin premises. In 2010, Condo brings to Sprüth Magers a series of figurative oil paintings. His collaboration with this renowned German gallery began as early as 1984 in Cologne, where Condo was briefly a member of the group “The Young Wild” (Die Jungen Wilden), whose colorful palette and highly expressive pictorial style starkly differed from then-popular Conceptual art and Minimalism. Drawing the inspiration from classic art ranging from Diego Velasquez to Pablo Picasso, the members of the group incorporated the elements of graffiti and comic books into their work. Condo’s genre of choice is grotesque portraiture, where Cubist-like distorted facial features successfully co-exist with imposing compositions reminiscent of the 17^th Century Old masters.

Family Portraits, George Condo via Sprüth Magers Gallery

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Aaron Young, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, 2009. [Gagosian Gallery]

Aaron Young, the so-called “Hellraiser” (Christopher Mooney, ArtReview), shakes-up the Beverley Hills neighborhood with his uniquely American brand of biker-nihilism. With a proliferation of riotous and destructive objects, including life-size wrecking balls and battered iron barricades, casually littering the gallery floor one would initially interpret this exhibit as a punks advert for hard living. Yet the sadist exterior gives way to a masochistic interior: the wrecking ball is made of glass, bound for self-destruction if it ever fulfilled its function; similarly the razor-wire sculptures have a soft core, made from delicate Murano glass, and turned on its side to become sculptural; the barricades are made of plated gold not iron, they are precious rather ruined

Goner, 2009. [Gagosian Gallery]

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End of an Era (2009) by Damien Hirst, via the Gagosian Gallery

Currently on view at Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue are new sculptures and paintings by Damien Hirst.  The exhibition takes its title, “End of an Era,” from the central sculpture of the exhibition: a severed bull’s head with golden horns and a solid gold circular disc cast in formaldehyde and encased in a gold vitrine on a marble pedestal.  Hirst’s September 2008 monumental Sotheby’s London auction, where he famously circumvented his dealers, is widely recognized as marking the top of the recent art market rise. In this this auction the centerpiece was the “The Golden Calf” which sold for £10,345,250 with buyer’s premium and was cited as a reference to Hirst’s representation of cultural excess, worshipping false idols and likely Hirst’s own myth making.  The current exhibition title, and the decapitated head of basically the same artistic work, certainly has Hirst again presenting self-referential messages in light of his work’s current cultural and economic context.

Painful Memories/ Forgotten Tears (2008) by Damien Hirst, via Gagosian Gallery

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Installation of Sol Lewitt’s ”Wall Drawing #422” (November 1984) via Magasin 3

Currently on view at Magasin 3 Konsthall is “Seven Wall Drawings” by Sol Lewitt.  The exhibition, spanning the artists’ prolific career, takes the line as its theme. It is a motif to which Lewitt constantly returned, working, according to the exhibition’s curator Elisabeth Melqvist, “with exceptional consequence.”

Installation View: Sol Lewitt, ”Wall Drawing #51” (June 1970)

Ten thousand lines, measuring a total of 22 meters, cover the gallery’s walls from floor to ceiling. These lines truly reflect the creativity that can exist within a simple restriction. ”The descriptions and instructions sound bone dry but the result is startling,” shares Mellqvist. “It is beautiful, chaotic and overwhelming.” In addition to his investigation of possible line combinations, Lewitt also expanded his formal language in later years to encompass geometric shapes and color.

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Untitled (Newspaper on Ground, Grass, California) (2000) by William Eggleston, via Cheim & Read Gallery

Currently on view at Cheim & Read Gallery in New York are two concurrent photography exhibitions featuring rarely shown photographs by Diane Arbus and William Eggleston.  The works by Diane Arbus are grouped under the “In the Absence of Others” and feature empty rooms  and artificial rooms taken during the 1960s. The exhibition of Eggleston’s works is entitled “21st Century” and highlights his most recent works.

An Empty Movie Theater (1971), by Diane Arbus, via T Magazine

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