Sue Williams, Black and White and Red All Over (1998), via Skarstedt Gallery

For artist Sue Williams, the body always takes primacy. The painter, who began her career during the 1990’s, has long tweaked and twisted the female form, pushing it and painting it into any number of surreal arrangements. Multiplying that practice over any number of permutations, her canvases eventually arrive at a breathless final product containing massive flurries of activities and bodies, simultaneously personal and sexual, and often underscoring distinct facets of the hyper-mediated experience of modern life. Taking a retrospective angle on Williams’s work this month, Skarstedt Gallery in New York is currently presenting a body of paintings from 1997 and 1998, formative years in Williams’s body of work, and striking introductions to a practice that has only continued to evolve and develop over the following 20 years. (more…)

Tracey Emin gets an interview in The Times of London this week, following her move back to the city of Margate, and her recent purchase of a studio space in the south of France.  “There are no neighbors. I don’t speak any French,” she says. “I don’t have any social life at all. None. I just paint all day in my pyjamas.” (more…)

The Guardian looks back on the past week of fairs in New York, and the wealth of politically-charged work on view across the city, particularly at the Armory Show.  “We’re committed to showing critical artwork in a changing cultural climate,” says Armory Show director Nicole Berry. (more…)

Dr. Clare McAndrew’s annual report for Art Basel is now out, bringing enlightening figures and statistics about the current health of the art market.  Key figures from the report note global sales of $63.7 billion in 2017, up 12% on 2016, with the US as the largest market worldwide, accounting for 42% of sales by value, China in second place (21%) and the UK the third largest market with 20%.  (more…)

Nan Goldin was at the forefront of a protest at The Met this week, calling attention to the money donated to The Met by the Sackler family, who profited heavily from the sale of the highly addictive OxyContin painkiller.  Goldin kicked a deep addiction to the drug over the last three years. “We are artists, activists, addicts,” she shouted during the protest. “We are fed up.” (more…)

Galerie Perrotin is preparing to open a space in Shanghai later this year, Art News reports. The 12,900 square feet will serve as another outpost for furthering the gallery’s already strong footprint in Asia.  (more…)

Jeff Koons is featured in a lengthy Guardian profile this week, as the artist prepares to open a show of his Easyfun-Ethereal works in New York.   “I know that I make the work that I make, that my own intellectual needs are met and that I can expand my parameters and hopefully I’m able to touch the interior life of the viewers who see my work,” he says. “There are certain individuals that respond to it, and I’m sure there’s some people that don’t. For whatever reason, they close themselves down, or they just won’t open themselves up.” (more…)

Hauser & Wirth has added Zeng Fanzhi to its roster, with the artist continuing his ongoing relationships with Gagosian Gallery and ShanghART Gallery. “I have admired Zeng Fanzhi’s painting for very many years, and I really could not be more thrilled to announce our collaboration. I am excited to have the opportunity to exhibit and promote Zeng to our global network, and to craft a strong legacy for his astounding work. On the eve of Hauser & Wirth’s opening in China, I am pleased that Zeng will be taking this next important step along with us.” (more…)

The Guggenheim is planning to acquire a controversial Xu Bing artwork that was previously pulled from recent survey of Chinese contemporary art over its depiction of tattooed pigs mating. The piece is coming to the museum courtesy of a donor.  (more…)

Hannah Levy, Untitled (2018), via Art Observed

Hannah Levy has exhibited broadly since receiving her Bachelor’s degree from Cornell in 2013, showing at such distinguished venues as MoMA PS1, the Palais de Tokyo, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, James Fuentes, and Marlborough Contemporary. She also appeared on Cultured Mag’s 2018 list of Young Artists. Her work typically contrasts metal, modernist, work-a-day design with fleshy silicone forms, departing most prominently from late Surrealism’s similar juxtaposition of materialities.  For the artist’s most recent show, one view now at C-L-E-A-R-I-N-G in Brooklyn, her practice gets a concise review.   (more…)

Kelly Akashi at Sculpture Center, via Art Observed

For those looking for new insights and fresh perspectives on contemporary art practice, its hard to ignore the call of the NADA New York art fair during Armory Week.  Set up in the sprawling Skylight Clarkson Square complex on downtown Manhattan’s western edge, the show is a dense pathway through the landscape of new art, mixing playful performance pieces, studied painting and anything in between, making the fair one of the more expansive and freewheeling events of the week. (more…)

Terence Koh at Andrew Edlin, via Art Observed

Situated in a beautiful lofted space in the heart of TriBeCa, Independent NY is easily one of the most picturesque of the fairs returning to Armory Week this year.  Looking out at the towering skyline of downtown Manhattan, the viewer’s gaze alternates between works hung close to the floor to ceiling glass paneling and on the erected walls nearby.  The open plan and imaginative projects chosen only adds to the atmosphere, making Independent simultaneously a relaxed, mellow browsing experience and a deep dive into impeccably selected works. (more…)

Young collector and patron Tiffany Zabludowicz of the family of British collectors gets a profile in the NYT this week, as she gives a tour of her collection. “I do it very instinctively,” she says of her collecting style. “It’s not always pretty; it can be aesthetically a bit strange. I also like things that are playful, but in a really smart way.” (more…)

Pablo Picasso, La Dormeuse (1932), via Phillips

With Thursday drawing to a close in London, the final night of Contemporary auctions was in the bag, as Philips capped an impressive outing, bringing a final tally of £97 million that made it the most successful and high-grossing sale in auction house history.  The sale saw some particularly strong results over the course of 50 lots, ultimately hitting several impressive auction tallies on the way to the week’s conclusion.  Marking another major statement for an auction that has increasingly staked out a space for itself in the higher ends of the secondary market, Phillips planted a flag this evening, selling several works at prices that could compete with either Sotheby’s or Christie’s premier pieces.

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The Dia Art Foundation has acquired Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, an earthwork in Utah’s Great Basin Desert, the New York Times reports.  The work is the first land art piece by a woman in the organization’s collection.  “‘Sun Tunnels’ is a work that reaches back to a Renaissance fascination with astronomy but has a very contemporary physicality,” says director Jessica Morgan. (more…)

Yinka Shonibare is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist unveils a new sculpture near Central Park that speaks to the global plight of immigrants. “It’s a simple equation,” Shonibare says. “You want to be safe, warm and clothed and looked after. Therefore it’s natural you should want that for other people.” (more…)

The case brought by the heirs of Peggy Guggenheim over management of her Venetian estate has been dismissed by France’s highest court, the Art Newspaper reports, with the court finding that there had been no prior stipulations over the exhibition of works or the timing of exhibitions left by the well-known arts patron. “We are pleased that these meritless lawsuits and appeals have now come to an end,” the Guggenheim Foundation said in a statement. “The Foundation is proud to have faithfully carried out the wishes of Peggy Guggenheim for close to 40 years by preserving her collection and exhibiting it in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, restoring and maintaining the Palazzo as a public museum and contributing to the knowledge of modern and contemporary art in Italy.”  (more…)

Yinka Shonibare at James Cohan, via Art Observed

As Wednesday winds down, this year’s edition of the annual Armory Show has gotten underway, with the doors of Piers 92 and 94 opening on to an expansive array of booths and art objects.  Marking its most recent iteration since first opening in 1994, this year’s edition of the Armory Show also marked its first for new director Nicole Berry, who took over following Benjamin Genocchio’s ouster over reports of sexual harassment.  Berry brings years of experience with EXPO Chicago, and it shows, with a relaxed pacing and well-curated body of main booths and special exhibitions keeping the fair at the top of its game. (more…)

Gerhard Richter, Gelbgrün (1982), via Sotheby’s

The second night of London’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sales has wrapped, as Sotheby’s capped a 61-lot auction outing that reached a final tally of £109,292,700.  Achieving a solid price for the sale despite some underperforming lots and a handful of unsold works.  The sale seemed to underscore a market whose highest selling works are still stuck in a state of relative uncertainty, with certain bets and guaranteed prices far less reliable than in recent years.

Peter Doig, The Architect’s Home in the Ravine (1991), via Sotheby’s

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Brooke Nicholas, via Art Observed

As the Armory Week begins to heat up, and turns towards the centerpiece of the week’s proceedings at Piers 92 and 94 tomorrow, the first night of SPRING/BREAK was underway at 4 Times Square.  Holding its seventh edition this year, the fair has grown into one of the more enigmatic and exciting events of the week, with this year being no exception.   (more…)

The Swiss Institute has set its opening date as June 21st, 2018, the organization announced today.  “I am immensely grateful for the continuing support we have been receiving as we create the very first long-term home for SI after more than three decades of existence. We are opening much more than a building it is a new public space in the heart of Downtown, for an ever-growing community to enjoy art, always free of charge. We are committed to continuing a legacy of generative experimentation and to fostering an environment in the East Village in which art can thrive, and be open to all,” says Board Chair Maja Hoffmann.

Read more at Swiss Institute

The Louvre has opened a show in Tehran, showcasing the continued power of cultural diplomacy as the EU and Iran debate new nuclear deals. “In the turbulent ocean of international diplomacy, cultural diplomacy is a beacon we must keep alight,” says French foreign minister Yves Le Drian. (more…)

Painter Celia Paul gets a profile in the New York Times this week, as she prepares to open a show of work at the Tate Britain, and reflects on her long relationship with Lucian Freud, who frequently painted her. “He sensed that I was romantic, and somehow it was the beauty that got me, I think: the beauty of his art and his courtship,” she says of her relationship to the painter. “He was tender, and very, very gentle.” (more…)

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday has brought criminal charges against 10 defendants, for a laundering scheme involving a late Pablo Picasso, Reuters reports.  “The defendants engaged in an elaborate multi-year scheme to defraud the investing public of millions of dollars through deceit and manipulative stock trading, and then worked to launder the fraudulent proceeds through off-shore bank accounts and the art world,” U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue in Brooklyn said in a statement. (more…)