Joyce Pensato, Liza at Berlin (2009), via Petzel
American painter Joyce Pensato, whose recurring cast of American pop icons and slurred, often disturbing renditions of familiar cartoon characters made her a standout of the late 20th Century New York downtown scene, has passed away at the age of 78. (more…)
Bridget Donahue at Liste, via gallery
Liste Art Fair has returned to Warteck, a former brewery on the banks of the Rhine now serving as an exhibition and performance space, for another year of exhibitions showcasing adventurous and exploratory projects from a range of galleries around the globe. Liste continues to build on its position as one of the central hubs for the week of Art Basel, priding itself on a careful curation of young galleries, dynamic, forward-thinking works, and a roster of performances that remains one of the week’s main draws.
Adan Vallecillo, Saturacion Doble (2019), via Livia Benavides
Adan Vallecillo, Saturacion Doble (detail) (2019), via Livia Benavides
The Golden State Warriors have launched an initiative that will place works from the SFMoMA on view at Chase Center. “It goes back to the genesis of what we are trying to create here,” says team President and CEO Rick Welts. “This is the new public gathering place in the Bay Area, and we want it to reflect sports, entertainment and art.”
East Harlem activists staged an action at New York’s El Museo del Barrio on Tuesday evening, calling for the museum to change policies to better serve the demands of the surrounding community. “This action today is about planting the seeds for community awareness and education,” Debbie Quinones, one of the activists, says. (more…)
Olaf Nicolai, Big Sneaker (2001), all photos via Art Observed
The first day is in the books as Art Basel has closed its doors tonight on its VIP opening, kicking off a marathon week of sales and shows in style in the Swiss city, and marking another year for the landmark giant of contemporary and modern art selling. Marking the terminus for the first half of the year’s primary market activity, the fair was a strong illustration of just how its impressive scale and appointments has turned the city into a hub for Europe’s network of dealers, galleries, artists and curators. Sightings of arts professionals from Europe and further afield were in ample showing, with Carroll Dunham, Leon Black, and many more wandering across the aisles of the fair, often pausing to greet a familiar face or to consider the pieces hung across the walls of the spaces.
Yoshitomo Nara at Pace
The Tate will send its collection to China with plans to show premiere works at the new Pudong Museum of Art in Shanghai, Art Newspaper reports. “We are delighted to have Tate as a consultant to the Pudong Museum of Art and to be signing the MoU,” says Zhu Di, the general director of the art department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China. (more…)
Annie Leibovitz has joined Hauser & Wirth, Art News reports. “Leibovitz has developed an approach to photography that dovetails with—and advances— her medium’s evolution as a force for art-making,” says gallery partner Marc Payot. (more…)
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro has announced that changes to a federal funding for cultural projects will have negligible impact on institutions, leaving museums and organizations breathing a sigh of relief. (more…)
Gagosian Gallery has announced plans to open its 17th Gallery in Basel, Switzerland, expanding its already massive international footprint. (more…)
A St. Petersburg court has ruled against the State Russian Museum in a lawsuit against staff, halting a $17 million renovation of its main building, which staff claimed would irreparably harm the site’s heritage. “We were surprised not by the decision of the court, but by the courage and principled professional honesty of judge Irina Vorobyova,” Irina Shalina, an art historian specializing in icons and one of the three plaintiffs, says. (more…)
United Talent Agency has hired Arthur Lewis as creative director of its fine arts group and the UTA Artist Space in Beverly Hills. “As a Los Angeleno and a collector, I’ve witnessed firsthand how important it is for artists to have space to experiment as they embark on ambitious career paths,” Lewis said in a statement. “My vision for UTA is to act as a partner to help realize artists’ dreams, and build toward their futures.” (more…)
A group of staffers are working together to start a union at the Guggenheim Museum, Art News reports, and filed a petition with the institution this past week. “We want a voice at the museum because working conditions have deteriorated,” an anonymous worker at the museum says. “We want to be able to have our concerns taken seriously by management, and after raising them for several years and having them go unanswered, it feels like this is our only route. It’s not one being taken out of malice.” (more…)
A group of artists have written to the director of the National Portrait Gallery, calling for an end to its links with BP. “Either we distance ourselves from one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel producers and embrace the challenge of decarbonizing, or we continue to give legitimacy to BP and its business activities that are seriously exacerbating the problem,” says Gary Hume. (more…)
Rachel Whiteread has been named a dame of the British Empire, Art News reports, after her many years of groundbreaking work and her 1993 Turner Prize win. (more…)
South Africa’s Goodman Gallery will open a space in London this fall, part of a Cork Street gallery redevelopment. “For a gallery that has championed social justice for over 50 years, I feel it is important to play more of a front line role in shaping the discourse in the UK.” says owner and director Liza Essers. “At this time of heightened nationalist sentiment and populist politics, it’s important to reach beyond one’s own borders and arriving in the UK approaching Brexit is an interesting time.” (more…)
Cindy Sherman gets the profile treatment in The Guardian this week, as she opens a show at London’s National Portrait Gallery. “She’s the director, the producer, the set designer, the costume mistress, and the star as well,” says writer and editor Ingrid Sischy. “In her hands, images aren’t straitjackets but vehicles to show the infinite possibilities of who she could be.” (more…)
Tom Wesselmann, Smoker #23 (1976), via Almine Rech
As the days of summer swing into focus, and the weather grows ever warmer in Europe, the art world once again returns to the home of the Art Basel fair, which opens next week in the Swiss city, held in conjunction with a number of various exhibitions and shows across the city. Closing out the first half of the year’s major market activities (save a major auction coming the following week in London), the fair offers a last look at the European art market’s health, especially as turmoil and political crisis continues to roil the continent.
Zoe Barcza, Love, Positivity, and DON’T Forget to Take Care of your Health! (2018), via Bianca D’Alessandro
Sotheby’s is leading its June London Impressionist and Modern sales with Amadeo Modigliani’s Jeune homme assis, les mains croisées sur les genoux, 1918, with an estimate range of £16-24m. (more…)
Bonn’s Bundeskunsthalle head Rein Wolfs has been chosen to fill the Stedelijk Museum’s directorship, Art News reports. “I grew up with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam,” Wolfs said, “and I hope to provide the guidance and support needed to lead this museum, with its revolutionary history and fantastic collection, into the future.” (more…)
Joel Silver and Gagosian have settled their court cases over an $8 million Jeff Koons, with the Die Hard ultimately acquiring a 2013–15 Balloon Venus Hohlen Fels sculpture. The pair issued a statement that they were “pleased to have settled their lawsuit in New York state court. The claims and counter claims have been voluntarily dismissed.” (more…)
Miami’s Rubell Family Collection is moving to a 100,000 square foot space in Wynwood, and changing its name to the Rubell Museum. “We were just looking for storage, and we wound up with this extraordinary space,” Mera Rubell says. “It was just too good to be storage.” (more…)
Matthew Ronay, Engorged Follicle (Corazonin) (2018), via Casey Kaplan
Sculptor Matthew Ronay kicks off his first show with Casey Kaplan this month in New York, Betrayals of and by the Body, a fitting intro to the artist’s expressive sculptural language and his vivid sense of space and form. An adventurous and inventive voice in modern American sculpture, Ronay’s work conjures a range of links and ties between biological processes and transcendent spiritual elements, cells, mandalas, limbs and devotionals are transformed into a fluid structural language. (more…)
Kehinde Wiley is profiled in the NYT this week, as he opens his new residency program, Black Rock, in Dakar, Senegal. “An artist can come here and have an experience that is at once about getting work done and about rigor,” he says. “But I think it’s also about being able to just spoil the artist and make them feel like they’re respected as thinkers and as part of the culture.” (more…)
Socialite and philanthropist Dede Wilsey is stepping down from her position as president of the board of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, a position she has held for over 20 years. “Dede is so much more than a checkbook,” Director Thomas P. Campbell said. “She has a steel-trap memory for things that happened decades ago — she’s an institutional memory vault.” (more…)