The Female Gaze, Part Two: Women Look at Men (Installation View) feat. Louise Bourgeois, Filette (Sweeter Version) (1968-99) and Diane Arbus, Young couple on a bench in Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. (1965) via Art Observed

Cheim & Read is currently presenting the second installment of the gallery’s The Female Gaze series which had its inception with 2009’s Women Look at Women.  In the succeeding episode, on view through September 2nd, the female eye remains the object, but its subject switches to men, forming a full circle subversion on the male-centric narrative of art history. Placed as the subject, men—dressed or stripped, confident or meek, benevolent or distant—fill in the role of the objectified model, triggering the question of how influential the gender of its author is for interpreting an artwork.  The exhibition aims to investigate whether knowing these works, and their origins, impacts the viewer’s reading of each respective work. (more…)

Construction on the Luma Arles cultural campus in the south of France, a project headed by pharmaceutical heiress and collector Maja Hoffmann, is underway, as its central Frank Gehry-designed building rises above the grounds.  “We are creating a place where artists, thinkers, scientists—as well as doers and actors of the economic world—can gather and work together on new scripts for the world,” Hoffman says. (more…)

Nick Cave is profiled in the New York Times this week, as he prepares to open a new show at MassMOCA, and reflects on the culture of violence against African Americans.  “I’m a black male. The moment I step outside of the privacy of my space, I am viewed differently,” he says. (more…)

The New York Times published a peculiar article this week on the dispute between dealer Mary Boone and actor/collector Alec Baldwin, who claims the dealer sold him a copied version of a Ross Bleckner work rather than the original piece he had his eyes on.  “By the time Alec Baldwin paid for the painting and it was delivered to him, he should not have misunderstood what he purchased,” Boone’s lawyer, Ted Poretz said. (more…)

The NYT writes on the new large-scale projects by JR installed across Rio, and profiles the artist’s recent work there in conjunction with his ongoing engagement with the city.  “In Brazil, everything’s possible — it’s really hard, but it’s possible,” he says. (more…)

Daniel Richter, yet to come (2016), via Art Observed

Regen Projects in Los Angeles has lowered the walls in its spacious Hollywood gallery for an impressively selected show of new works by German painter Daniel Richter, who brings his unique formal approach and interest in the twisting shapes of the human form  to bear on a series of colorful abstractions.

Daniel Richter, a competition in sensitivity (2016), via Art Observed

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Plans to demolish a small warehouse complex in London’s Hackney Wick that remains home to over 100 artists studios and businesses, among them the studios of the Chapman Brothers, Gavin Turk and Conrad Shawcross, have raised considerable protest and resistance.  Known as Vittoria Wharf, the space was long considered to have one of the highest percentages of artists per square foot in Europe, and was seen as a “safe haven where people can enjoy the relatively small privilege of being able to get on with their work and collaborate with their neighbors without the fear of having to be moved on,” the Art Newspaper quotes an anonymous resident. “That is until now.”  (more…)

Meg Webster, Concave Room for Bees (2016)

Coinciding with Socrates Sculpture Park’s thirtieth anniversary this summer, LANDMARK brings together an exhibition featuring projects by Meg Webster, Hank Willis Thomas, Brendan Fernandes and Abigail DeVille, among others, for a show that both reflects on the park’s history, and projects each artist’s own vision onto its open expanse.  The park’s evolution from a landfill and illegal wasteland to an exhibition site with strong emphasis on three-dimensional works was spearheaded by Mark di Suvero, whose studio still resides alongside the park at the point where Astoria meets the East River.  The outdoor museum benefits from its unique ambiance and the history of its neighborhood, presenting works that interact with nature, sunlight and the local community. (more…)

Shio Kusaka, (Installation View), via Art Observed

Blum and Poe in Los Angeles is currently hosting an exhibition of new works by artist Shio Kusaka, her second solo exhibition with the gallery.  Culling together a broad selection of ceramics ranging from pottery to small figurative totems, the exhibition examines shifting concepts of rhythm and tone as the viewer moves through the exhibition.   (more…)

Hypebeast has an a piece on Tom Sachs this week, summarizing the finer points of the artist’s practice and output in the past years.  Featured works include the artist’s infamous 10 Bullets studio orientation video and his recent Tea Ceremony exhibition at the Noguchi Museum.   (more…)

CNBC takes its turn at an analysis of the struggling market this week, noting the failure in confidence of many top investors and collectors to offer their top works at sale, although Fine Art Group Founder Philip Hoffman sees a change in the future.  “There is a huge amount of cash sitting in deposit accounts and there is a lot of interest in finding the right work of art.” (more…)

Spencer Finch will install a miniature redwood forest at MetroTech Commons in Brooklyn, courtesy of the Public Art Fund.  “Through both a scientific approach to gathering data—including precise measurements and record keeping—and a poetic sensibility, Finch’s works often inhabit the area between objective investigations of science and the subjectivity of lived experience,” says associate curator Emma Enderby. (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on Sotheby’s recent $89 million profit for the second quarter of 2016, analyzing its approach to the Taubman estate sale and other recent market trends.  “Guarantees on masterworks have generally proven to be attritional to earnings, but in the past they did buy market share,” says adviser Neal Meltzer. “Winning the sale of the Taubman collection was vital to maintaining respect for the Sotheby’s brand.” (more…)

Pia Camil, Bust Mask Sulphur (2016), via Art Observed

Taking over the townhouse exhibition space of Blum & Poe on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Pia Camil is currently showing a series of new sculptural works, with show titled Slats, skins and shop fittings.  Mining the vocabulary and iconography of commodity production and the performance of capitalism within social interactions or group participation, the exhibition pays express homage to the Copper paintings of Frank Stella, while suspending the post-war master’s work in a broader hierarchy of industrial manufacturing and material sources.

Pia Camil, Slats, skins and shop fittings (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Paris’s Fiac fair will feature performance art for the first time this fall, launching a festival of works at the Louvre beginning shortly before the fair and running through its conclusion.  “This is an exciting new development as people are not always aware that the Grand Palais and the Palais de la Découverte are part of one and the same architectural ensemble, opening on to each other although access has been closed for decades,” says Jennifer Flay, the director of Fiac. (more…)

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (He is looking…). All images via Sadie Coles.

Now through August 20^th a collection of new work by Raymond Pettibon is on view at Sadie Coles HQ in London. Pettibon’s iconographic illustrations of quintessentially American landscapes, objects and attitudes fill the gallery space with motion and color. Snippets of poetic and abstract text overlay the images, lending the exhibition a suggestion of narrative logic. The title of this show, Bakersfield to Barstow to Cucamonga to Hollywood maps a trajectory across California, the site of Pettibon’s emergence as a visual artist in the Los Angeles punk scene of the 1980s.

Installation View.

The themes woven into this exhibition are consistent with many of those addressed by the artist in the past including the macabre and twisted images of the growth of American industry. Pettibon is considered one of the contemporary artists most intimately engaged with depicting and deconstructing the dark side of modern America. From the mechanization of movement to representations of the sublime to the problem of portraiture, this exhibition represents terrain that is at once new and familiar for Pettibon. These works are composed in the familiar stark monochrome and comic book-style cross hatchings of earlier work from the 1980s and also through the layering of gouache, acrylic and collage. The drawings on view here acquaint the viewer with a vision of American that is entirely the artist’s own.

Installation View.

The presence of text in this exhibition offers the seductive promise of legibility. The complexity of Pettibon’s approach to the image of America is obscured further by the words that interact with it. A challenging use of language and textual explanation appears both in the work itself and in their titles. In a series of self-portraits that are reportedly “about self-portraiture rather than being self-portraits,” Pettibon emphasizes the artifice involved in this tradition in exploring the act of posturing and posing. In No Title (Self-portrait with smile), Pettibon is pictured in sunglasses, tugging his face into a smile. The possible meanings of an image are multiplied and complicated by dense paragraphs and floating phrases.

Installation View.

Picturing sweeping landscapes, a melodrama of movement, and the intimacy of a range of encounters, Pettibon’s interrogation of the American landscape zooms in and out, filling the exhibition space with a myriad of lenses. The irony and dark wit long-associated with Pettibon’s work comes through even more clearly in the stark combination of image and text in these new drawings. This exhibition testifies to this artist’s enduringly unique and fascinating angle on the image of America and points to his expansive understanding of the critical and humorous position art can take in the face of social reality.

-A. Corrigan

Related Links

Exhibition Page [Sadie Coles HQ]

“California Calling: Raymond Pettibon Embraces Sex, Sports and Surfing” [Wallpaper]

The UK’s economy has seen a £27 billion boost from the arts sector, up a third from more than five years ago. The growth is the biggest surge since 2013.   (more…)

Kimberly Drew, social media head at the Met and founder of the Black Contemporary Art blog, has launched a new project, the Black Art Incubator, which provides resources and critical structures for black artists.  “Most art institutions are rooted in whiteness, but it’s implied, it’s this normalized thing,” Drew says. “We’re normalizing being rooted in blackness without beating people over the head with it.” (more…)

An 18th-century portrait of the 5th Earl of Carlisle by Sir Joshua Reynolds has been accepted by the British Government in lieu of a £4.7 million inheritance tax bill, the Guardian reports.  “A glamorous portrait in oil of the earl and his beloved dog Rover, it is an outstanding example of the type of painting for which Reynolds is most highly acclaimed,” Tate Britain’s director, Alex Farquharson said.  “I am delighted that this work will now enter the national collection, the greatest collection of British art in the world.” (more…)

Theaster Gates will curate a new series of performances at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., the institution announced today.  The performances will combine various disciplines and creative backgrounds onstage to present a complex vision of African and African American cultural history.  “We are proud to debut this unique performance series by Theaster Gates, which simultaneously challenges and explores public notions of cultural heritage, personal identity and social justice to create an inclusive and participatory genre of public art,” Director Melissa Chiu said. “As a recent board trustee, Theaster’s voice is integral to shaping the future of the museum, as we look to engage and present more artists whose bodies of work address the key issues of today.” (more…)

The Jewish Museum has launched its first Kickstarter project to fund a show of participatory artworks and projects visitors can use and take home, with a number of artworks and projects available for donors, including a private lunch with Jens Hoffmann and Kelly Taxter, or a Google Hangout with Hans Ulrich Obrist. (more…)

Hyperallergic has published a statement in full from the British activist group Art Not Oil, following the announcement of new BP sponsorship deals with the British Museum, the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery.  “We’ve seen public opinion turning against oil sponsorship, with Londoners now opposing BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum by a wide margin,” the group writes.  “Two-thirds of the museum’s own staff want the BP relationship to end. By signing up to another five years of BP branding, the managers of these institutions are acting against the interests – and, we believe in most cases, the wishes – of their visitors and staff.” (more…)

Jens Hoffman speaks to the Art Newspaper this week, clarifying his changing role with the Jewish Museum.  Hoffman will remain with the museum, but will give up his administrative duties in favor of exhibition planning and writing. “This arrangement allows me to continue working on selected exhibitions and programs at the Jewish Museum over the next couple of years while giving me freedom to pursue projects with other institutions such as Front International,” Hoffmann says. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal writes on the history of The Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT, the first museum in the country founded around a focus on American artists.  The institution was founded between 1903 and 1905, with a goal to acquire “original modern oil paintings either by native or foreign artists.” (more…)