Bruce Nauman is profiled in the New York Times this week, as the artist prepares to open a new show of work at Sperone Westwater, and looks back on the development of his uniquely raw approach to making work.  “I realized it wasn’t abstract,” he says of an early video work. “There’s a lot of emotional content when you use your body, because it’s your body.” (more…)

The Perez Museum in Miami has received a gift of 400 works from the collection of Ruth and Marvin Sackner, a body of pieces focusing on links between textual and visual aesthetics.  “If you are interested in text as it relates to artwork, you kind of have to come see us to really get a sense of this important collection,” says director Franklin Sirmans. “You have to come through here.” (more…)

Christie’s New York Post-War and Contemporary Art sale this fall will include Les Grandes Artères, a major work by Jean Dubuffet that carries an estimate of $15 million to $20 million, hinting that it will make a play to top the artist’s current $25 million record.  “He’s incredibly undervalued for his overall position in art history, ” says international head of Post-War and Contemporary Art Brett Gorvy. (more…)

A controversial sculpture by Eric Fischl, which references the bodies falling from the World Trade Center on September 11th, will go on view this week at the September 11th Memorial Museum.  “I think we’re ready for it,” Paula Berry, of the venue’s board of directors. “we were just not ready. Emotions were extremely raw back then.”  (more…)

Sir Nicholas Serota, who has served as the director of the Tate for almost 30 years, has been appointed the head of Arts Council England, and will leave his position at the institution sometime next year.  “Tate has always been fortunate to have enjoyed the support of artists and to have benefited from the international acclaim for the work of British artists in recent years,” he told The Guardian.  “I leave an institution that has the potential to reach broad audiences across the UK and abroad through its own programs, partnerships and online.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal has a timeline tracing the movements of money in and out of the 1MDB fund in Malaysia, which was frequently used in high-profile purchases of art in recent years, and which is at the center of what could be one of the largest financial scandals in recent history.  The article includes a number of transcripts from conversations between bank employees and financier Jho Low, who helped to administer the fund.   (more…)

The WSJ looks at the work of Simon Denny this week, as the artist preps his show of work at Petzel Gallery this week, and discusses his ongoing interest in blockchain technology.  “I became interested in how different people with different types of agendas are invested in the future of what this could be,” he says. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Standing Figure (2016), via Art Observed

Turning his sense for political inequality and global human rights issues towards the Mediterranean’s current refugee crisis, Ai Weiwei has brought a body of both new works and recent pieces from the past ten years to Athens’s Museum of Cycladic Art, exploring a fruitful intersection of historical and current political contexts in conversation with the artist’s own personal history.  The exhibition, which marks both Ai’s first exhibition with an archeological museum context as well as his first in the nation of Greece, is a well-selected show, which takes direct aim at the Syrian refugee crisis while addressing the history of Greece in subtly powerful ways. (more…)

Steve McQueen is the recipient of the Johannes Vermeer Award. awarded by Dutch culture minister Jet Bussemaker.  The $112,000 prize is awarded to an artist working in the Netherlands, and is intended to help fund a special project by the artist.  (more…)

The New York Times looks at Doug Aitken’s soon to be installed underwater sculpture off the coast of Catalina Island, which the artist created as part of his exhibition for MoCA Los Angeles.  “So much land art is monumental, static,” he says. “I’m interested more in artworks that are continuously changing or evolving — artworks as living systems.” (more…)

Artist Sally Mann is interviewed in the New York Times this week, as she prepares for a new show at Gagosian in New York. The piece traces the death of Mann’s son, and frequently dwells on her friendship with Cy Twombly, who lived close to Mann’s Virginia home. “He taught me a lot,” she says. “He was so loose and free and energetic.” (more…)

An article in the Art Newspaper notes the increased number of curators leaving more traditional posts to join auction houses, focusing on the economic and cultural appeal of working in the commercial sector. “What was interesting… for me was the opportunity to transcend place and suddenly to become a global art professional,” says Jonathan Binstock, who left a position at the Corcoran to work for Citi Bank’s art advisory. “It’s a totally different kind of life.” (more…)

Christie’s has changed its fee structure for the first time since 2013, with works up to $150,000 adding a 5% premium, works up to $3 million claiming a charge of 20%, and works above that price receiving a 12% premium. (more…)

Former dealer and current Phillips director Martin Klosterfelde is joining Sotheby’s London office as senior director for Contemporary art, as well as serve as an auctioneer for the company. Klosterfelde’s eponymous gallery long served as a linchpin of the Berlin art scene, and was a founding member of both Art Berlin Contemporary and Berlin Gallery Weekend. (more…)

Mark Grotjahn, Pink Cosco (Installation View), All artworks © Mark Grotjahn. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian Gallery. Installation photography: Mike Bruce

Continuing his inquiries into the modes of perspective, constraint and repetition at play in the modes of contemporary art practice, Los Angeles-based painter Mark Grotjahn brings a new series of works to Gagosian Gallery in London, under the title Pink Cosco.  Reprising several of his previous forms, particularly his painted “mask” sculptures, executed in bronze and covered in varied layers and styles of paint, Grotjahn again insists upon the beauty and precision to be discovered in variations on a theme. (more…)

The New York Times has an in-depth piece on the protracted endeavor to complete construction for the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall in Washington, D.C., detailing the decades-long efforts to secure land and funding for the institution, which opens this fall.  “There is no doubt that we knew you couldn’t build this with African-American money alone,” says  director Lonnie G. Bunch III, “but we also know that there was much more money in this community than most cultural institutions had ever tapped.” (more…)

The exhibitor roster for the 2016 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach has been announced, with an over 200-strong list of galleries included this year.  This year’s special sections include a survey of works by Anicka Yi at 47 Canal’s Nova booth, and Maggie Lee’s show of pieces at Real Fine Arts. (more…)

Turkey’s Ã‡anakkale Biennial, which was previously slated to open later this month, has been canceled in the wake of political instability and an increasingly hostile government stance towards journalists and artists.  “Exactly one year after Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body was washed up on our shores, we would like to dedicate the unrealized 5th Çanakkale Biennial and the efforts of everyone involved to all the people who have been expelled from their homelands,” the organizers said in a statement. (more…)

Bill Viola will open a major retrospective of his work in Florence next year, the Art Newspaper reports, taking over the Palazzo Strozzi and filling it with both his own works and a “wish list” of Renaissance masterworks.  The show marks a significant return to the city, where Viola worked for over a year after finishing college.  “Every day, he walked past Michelangelo’s David—the replica, of course—in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria to go to work,” says his wife and collaborator, Kira Perov. (more…)

In more Brexit-related news, Victoria and Albert head Martin Roth is expected to announce his resignation this week and return to his home country of Germany, a decision many attribute to Roth’s disillusionment over the UK’s vote to leave the EU.  “For me, Europe is simply synonymous with peace,” Roth said. “I didn’t want to be a German. I did not want to grow up in a country that had killed a huge part of its population. So for me, Europe always gave hope for a peaceful future, based on sharing, solidarity and tolerance. Dropping out always means creating cultural barriers and that worries me.” (more…)

An article in the New York Times sees a number of galleries still planning exhibition spaces in London, despite the pending Brexit.  “Brexit is a technicality,” Thaddaeus Ropac says.  “It will be expensive and complicated, but London is London.  The museums are here. The auction houses are here. The best galleries in the world are here. I do not see another city taking London’s place. Madrid? Los Angeles? I just don’t see it.” (more…)

New York Central Art Supply has closed its doors after 111 years of operation.  The business was long a cornerstone of New York’s downtown arts community, and left a lasting imprint on many artists practicing today.  “I learned an enormous amount about being an artist from going there,” says Kiki Smith. (more…)

An article in the Financial Times this weekend notes the increased prominence of artist-curated exhibitions in recent years, and the motivations behind them.  “I’m not sure it’s the artists’ choice,” says Ryan Gander, who is currently presenting a show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. “There is such an over-saturation of biennials and exhibitions now, organizers and institutions are looking for new and exciting twists.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal looks at the burgeoning gallery scene in Harlem, and the vision gallerists have for the neighborhood.  “There’s a long cultural history here, you won’t have the same situation where the galleries come and take over and gentrify everything into an art zone,” says Harry Schlieff of Rear Window Gallery. (more…)