Andreas Gursky is profiled in the New York Times this week, as the artist prepares a new body of work, and reflects on his continually evolving practice.  “I’m just interested in making images,” he says. “And, of course, you have to reinvent yourself.”  (more…)

Genieve Figgis, Happy Accidents of the Swing (2018), via Almine Rech

Part of the challenge of the current exhibition of work on view by painter Genieve Figgis on view at Almine Rech’s Paris location lies in the deciphering of her press release.  With only a single paragraph on the genesis and economic boon caused by the “Monster Jesus” phenomenon (in which a woman’s disastrous restoration of a fresco depicting the Christ in the North of Spain became the city’ main tourist draw), the show makes Figgis’s paintings a bit more confounding.  For an artist whose body of work consists of deconstructed, loosely rendered interpretations of Rococo and Classical masterpieces, the comparison is a strange one.  Are we being led to understand Figgis’s work as a degradation of these works?  Is she presenting them as an economically-motivated path away from such classic images?

Genieve Figgis, Wish You Were Here (Installation View), via Almine Rech

(more…)

Mark Verabioff, Concerned Women For America Rim Glue Pour Cultural Confinement Rundowns Pool Side (2017) (detail), all images by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Entering Mark Verabioff’s first exhibition with Team Gallery, the audience encounters expansive, full-wall images of entertainment industry figures symbolizing generations of American pop culture, such as the controversial photos of child actress and model Brooke Shields, iconic fashion editor Diana Vreeland (photographed by Francesco Scavullo), and teen heartthrob Nick Jonas. Known for his image and text based practice in which he cross-references words and pictures in relation to their abundant presence and status in visual culture, Verabioff mines the archives of art history, feminism, gender politics, and pop. The L.A.-based artist’s riff on language and pictures stems from his exhibition title, TEARS, brewing two distinct meanings and pronunciations of the word “tear” in contextual and performative levels. Other words with versatile meanings and utterances, such as “rim” and “pour” extend his play on language.

Mark Verabioff, TEARS at Team Gallery (Installation View)

The act of ripping off a page, and the drops shed by the eye encapsulate two avenues Verabioff takes with the word “tear” throughout the exhibition. Conveyed through tear drops adorning various eyes are notions of guilt, shame, and redemption; they appear around the eyes of many celebrity photos amassed by the artist, both in wall-spanning vinyl decals and small prints off of magazine pages. The vast collection of photographs shows woman celebrities at the prime of their careers include Grace Jones, Cher, Madonna, Candy Darling, and Diane Ross, with the word “ANTIFA” reading on the top left corner of each image.

Mark Verabioff, TEARS at Team Gallery (Installation View)

Although “antifa” calls to mind political activism and vocal opposition, the artist’s appropriation of the word in the company of glamorous celebrity photography furthers his approach to language as a social phenomenon and political tool. Either posing for Scavullo’s lens or featured in an anonymous magazine, these women, among which are also unknown models, overall constitute a transcendental aura within the gallery as they stare into our eyes with glamour and confidence. Yet they challenge the limitations and expectations imposed by the society and media due to age, sexuality, and their career.

Mark Verabioff, Concerned Women Rundowns Poolside (2017)

The artist utilizes a torn piece of tape to create the typical paisley pattern or a rectangular shape at the edges of these famous eyes. Strength and vulnerability, two opposites embedded in the act of crying, complicate these figures’ recognition in society as icons and victims, recalling Warhol’s use of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor photographs. The performative gesture of ripping “things,” pages or tapes in this case, imbue an archivist but also anarchist nature to Varabioff’s process, which expands to his mixed-media acrylic paintings blending various pictorial and textual traits onto canvas.

Mark Verabioff: TEARS is on view at Team Gallery through March 3, 2018.

Mark Verabioff, TEARS at Team Gallery (Installation View)

—O.C. Yerebakan

Related Link:
Team Gallery [Exhibition Page]

Rachel Feinstein, The Lake House (2018), via Gagosian Gallery

Shattering the illusion of the effortless beauty, elegance, and frivolity surrounding the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show, New York-based painter and sculptor Rachel Feinstein’s current exhibition at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills centers around The Secrets, eight lingerie-wearing figurative sculptures made of wood, epoxy resin, foam, and clay referencing this much-anticipated fashion extravaganza’s angel-like supermodels. (more…)

Stephen Shore, New York, New York, May 20, 2017 (2017), via Art Observed

Few photographers have left such an enduring impact on the practice of contemporary photography, and arguably on the state of contemporary art making as Stephen Shore.  Exploring a mix of taut, close cropped examinations of modern civilization alongside the varied textures and scenes that marks its intermingling with natural environments and varied foreign agents, Shore’s interest in the present condition is frequently bound up in a series of variations and interpretations along shared themes.  Working in series with varied materials and cameras, his work is ever-shifting and precise in its statements, making him an endlessly compelling artist to view. (more…)

Paddle8 is merging with The Native, a Swiss technology and e-commerce company, and will use blockchain technology in its pitch to wealthy millennial buyers. “Last year was a horrible start to the year,” founder Alexander Gilkes. “There were very many salient reasons for doing it, but we didn’t see how the events would unfold.” (more…)

Nan Goldin is confronting the makers of painkiller OxyContin, after battling a painkiller addiction that nearly killed her, condemning the Sackler family’s continued support of arts institutions around the globe. “Your own skin revolts against you,” she said. “Every part of yourself is in terrible pain.” (more…)

Cho Yoon-sun, South Korea’s former culture minister, has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in creating a blacklist of ten thousand artists whose political beliefs went against now impeached president Park Geun-hye. “It is unprecedented that the president and her aides, who are at the top of the highest powers, organized, planned and carried out such discriminatory treatment,” the court said. “There is no right or wrong in culture. . .once the government discriminates against those who think differently, it leads to totalitarianism.” (more…)

Thomas Dane is the latest in a string of major galleries opening locations in Italy, as the institution opens a space in the city of Naples. “The scene in Italy has always been discreet, established and savvy—not dissimilar to Germany, Holland and Belgium in the 1960s and 70s,” says François Chantala, a partner at Thomas Dane. (more…)

An Emil Nolde painting stolen four years ago from a Danish church in Ølstrup has been returned after a failed ransom attempt. Police managed to track encrypted messages through a law firm to the thief, who is currently in prison. (more…)

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has replaced a map in the museum that failed to include the Qatari peninsula after public outcry. The move was interpreted as a direct attack on the country amid difficult relations in the Gulf region. “Louvre Abu Dhabi is a universal museum which celebrates cross-cultural exchange and tolerance,” the museum said in a statement. “In line with international best practice, our curatorial narratives are shaped by the historic and cultural context of the fascinating objects.” (more…)

LACMA is exploring plans to create a satellite campus in South Los Angeles, which will target underserved areas. “If you look at a map of L.A.’s public schools, the dots representing the neediest students are all through South Los Angeles,” Director Michael Govan says. “You start thinking, where can the value of your collection and program be the greatest, when you’re behind a big fancy fence on Wilshire Boulevard or out in the community?” (more…)

The Getty has announced plans for a traveling version of the PST: LA/LA Exhibitions, Art News reports. “Although Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA will officially close at the end of January, in many ways this is just the beginning,” Getty Trust president James Cuno said in a statement. “Over the last four months, our many partners reexamined and realigned narratives of art history through their exhibitions and events, bringing together the many connections between Latin American and Latino art without regard to borders or categories. Their discoveries will live on in the many exhibitions that will travel far beyond Los Angeles.” (more…)

Danh Vo gets a profile this week in the New Yorker, and explores his own perspectives on his field, as well as his unique practice and the years of travel that shaped his practice. “My work is really through installation,” he says. “It’s always about how things speak together.” (more…)

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #59 (1972), via Art Observed

Dwelling on a unique body of work in artist Tom Wesselmann’s expansive oeuvre, Gagosian Gallery in New York is currently presenting a series of the artist’s monumentally-scaled “Standing Still-Lifes,” a series of works that saw the artist explore past practices and themes in his work, while embracing a scattered, varied approach towards his own imagery.  On view through the end of February, Wesselmann’s work in series presents a unique opportunity to dive deeper into the artist’s relentlessly innovative vision and interests in the language of American consumerism.   (more…)

Jack Whitten, The First Portal (2015), via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Artist Jack Whitten, a pioneering painter whose exploration with formalism and abstraction made him an instrumental voice in the landscape of post-war abstraction and the history of American modern art, has passed away at the age of 78. The news was confirmed by his gallery, Hauser & Wirth. (more…)

Alex Needham has been named the new arts editor of The Guardian in London. Needham has worked at the Guardian for eleven years, and will take over guiding the newspaper’s expansive arts coverage.  (more…)

NADA has added a new acquisition fund for the Bronx Museum to its programming for its New York fair, Art News reports. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Bronx Museum,” Heather Hubbs, NADA’s executive director, said in a statement. “NADA was founded in New York, and we could not be more proud to have artwork from our exhibitors in such a venerable collection. This initiative reflects our continued commitment to providing our exhibitors with unique opportunities to connect directly with influential curators.” (more…)

Artist Jill Magid has won the $50,000 Calder Prize, a grant issued biannually to a living artist by the Calder Foundation. “In his mobiles and stabiles, Calder unites symmetry and asymmetry, or parity and disparity, in ways that assimilate the larger, unseen forces at work in the natural world,” a statement from the organization reads. “Likewise, Magid pulls on loose ends both tangible and intangible—probing seemingly impenetrable systems—and finds unification in disparate elements. Her tenacity echoes Calder’s own in his radical transformation of sculpture.” (more…)

The Smithsonian Institute is bracing for the effects of the government shutdown, but will remain open Monday using funds saved up for contingencies such as a shutdown. “I hope they can avoid the shutdown, obviously, because I would like for government employees to continue to draw a paycheck and the government to continue to function,” says one visitor to Washington D.C. “I’m praying that we can stabilize it.” (more…)

Petrit Halilaj, Abetare (Fluturat) (Installation View), via Kamel Mennour

Currently on view at Kamel Mennour in Paris, artist Petrit Halilaj has brought a nuanced body of works that explore the constitution of both history and society through its youngest members.  Exploring the phenomena of early childhood, the various cultural touchstones and worlds created from young minds, and their analogs in the world around them, Halilaj’s work is a striking and empathetic exploration of both violence and youth, memory and time. (more…)

The Art Newspaper reports on Parisians’ response to Jeff Koons massive tulips installation offered to the city of Paris. “Placing this artwork in front of the Palais de Tokyo would taint the museum and take up too much of its landscape. Jeff Koons had enough attention with his installations at the Château de Versailles [in 2008-09] without resorting to benefit from the memory of the Paris attacks,” one citizen says. (more…)

Kurt Schwitters’s Merz Barn in Elterwater is up for sale.  “Our fear is that we’ll be forced into selling it to a property developer,” owner Ian Hunter says. “We feel that we’ve been pushed into this situation by the Arts Council.” (more…)

Ida Ekblad, Proper Stuff (Installation View), via Herald St

It would be understandable to overlook the works currently on view at Herald St. in London as paintings by Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad.  The young painter and sculptor, whose work so often mines the scrawling hands of graffiti writing or mixes in cast-off detritus from her daily daily wanderings, here has taken a decidedly more contemplative route.  Over a small series of paintings, she embraces a distinct sense of foreground and backdrop, mining new ground to create a particularly compelling body of works. (more…)