PAVILLON DE L’ESPRIT NOUVEAU: A 21st Century Show Home (2015), all photos via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

The interior of Swiss Institute is coated in Chroma key green this month, as the gallery opens the 2^nd Edition of its Annual Architecture and Design Series entitled PAVILLON DE L’ESPRIT NOUVEAU: A 21st Century Show Home, curated by Felix Burrichter, the editor and creative director of architecture and design magazine PIN–UP.  Taking a hearty investment both in design and its correlative practices in contemporary art, the exhibition plays on the ever-increasing slippage between delineations of interior design, environmental assemblage and pure installation. (more…)

Ugo Rondinone, clouds + mountains + waterfalls at Sadie Coles HQ (Installation View), via Art Observed

Sadie Coles HQ is currently presenting a vibrantly colorful exhibition, clouds + mountains + waterfalls, by Swiss born artist Ugo Rondinone, an artist already recognized by his idiosyncratic and often whimsical works in a wide range of media. Rondinone, whose oeuvre has been subject to numerous exhibitions and national museum shows globally since the mid ‘80s, here presents three independent yet narrative-driven and interconnected series of pieces, following the artist’s signature bright color palette and fascination with natural landscapes and materials.

Ugo Rondinone, clouds + mountains + waterfalls at Sadie Coles HQ (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Idris Khan, Displacement (2015)

Artist Idris Khan is presenting his exhibition, titled Overture, in New York this month, marking his first show in the city since 2010, and his first show with Sean Kelly, adorning the gallery’s two floors with intricate and spectral works stemming from his interdisciplinary approach.  Known for a meticulous aesthetic that draws inspiration from both Eastern and Western cultures, Khan executes a mosaic of various histories, narratives and disciplines in his expansive practice, while primarily leaning towards his work in digital photography. (more…)

FIAC 2015, all photos by Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

Having established itself as the second leg of Europe’s fall tour of art fairs, following hot on the feels of Frieze London, Paris’s FIAC fair has built itself into one of the art calendar’s more impressive exhibitions, and is now expanding even further, pushing for a place as one of the market’s premier selling events.  Boasting an attendance list of 175 galleries from 23 countries, the 42nd edition of the fair continues Paris’s push for a place in the international fair circuit that matches its century long prominence in the modern and contemporary avant-garde.

FIAC 2015 (more…)

Ryan Gander, Night and Day (2015), via Lisson Gallery

Artist Ryan Gander has returned to Lisson Gallery in London for his third show with the gallery this month, furthering his uniquely witty work with conventional art materials, and their intersections with the objects of the everyday, compounded by the artist’s often ingenious mechanical and technological interjections.

Ryan Gander, Fieldwork (Installation View), via Lisson Gallery (more…)

Dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth have topped ArtReview’s annual power rankings as the most powerful figures in the art world, primarily for “what they have done to change the model of selling and promoting art.”  “The Wirths’ increased influence stems in part from what they have done to change the model of selling and promoting art,” the website reads.  “As big art dealers are becoming ever better at selling art for high prices, and as collectors want to see themselves as more than just anonymous purchasers, the husband-and-wife-team understand that selling art objects isn’t the whole story – the well-off want to be sold a lifestyle.” (more…)

The New York Times follows the story of dealer Andrew Butterfield’s purchase of a small wooden believed to be by Donatello, and the dealer’s push to have the work authenticated.  “It felt so much like the embodiment of the early Renaissance,” he says. (more…)

Artist Christo has unveiled his newest project, and the first piece conceived after the death of his longtime partner, Jeanne-Claude, a series of floating walkways at Lake Iseo in Northern Italy, which will allow viewers to walk out over the water on tightly woven nylon panels.  “They will feel the movement of the water under foot,” Christo said. “It will be very sexy, a bit like walking on a water bed.” (more…)

Billionaire Steve Wynn has taken out a loan against his massive art collection, which helped the casino mogul to secure an interest rate of less than 1%.  “This is a great time to be poised with ample cash,” Wynn said. (more…)

Arts Council England is warning against a “severe and imminent” threat of attack on UK museums, the Art Newspaper reports.  Additional information has been provided by the Scottish Council on Archives: “The National Crime Agency are aware of an imminent threat of theft of collections across the UK. They are aware of a group who has made reconnaissance visits to a number of museums and other venues across the UK. It is thought that smaller, more portable items will be targeted rather than items such as large paintings.” (more…)

Former fashion marketing executive Giorgio Pace has been appointed as commercial adviser for Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, and publisher at large for Garage magazine, which will see him planning new ventures and projects to finance both institutions.  “I am looking forward to creating some fantastic new partnerships and raising funds to enhance the unique programs each venture has already established,” Pace says. (more…)

Gardar Eide Einarsson, Utah to Resume Use of Firing Squads for Executions (2015), all photos by Elene Damenia for Art Observed

Returning to the United States for his first solo exhibition since leaving the country for Tokyo, Gardar Eide Einarsson has once again brought his particular brand of appropriation-based practice to Team Gallery for a solo exhibition of new work, taking aim this time at the United States’ often twisted ideological rhetoric, and the iconography that often carries it. (more…)

Jamie Kenyon, formerly of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, is joining 47 Canal as that gallery director.  “My move to 47 Canal feels very natural, having grown friends with both Margaret and Oliver, and many of the artists since moving to New York three years ago,” Kenyon says. (more…)

The New York Times profiles ColorSearch, a new application developed by former Gavin Brown’s staffer and founder of ArtBinder Alexandra Chemla, which is developed to archive and catalog works based on color.  “It prioritizes based on proximity to the actual shade of that color you’ve chosen and the percentage of the piece that’s made up of that color,” Chemla says. “You can highlight as many colors as you want, and then ColorSearch prioritizes those that have, say, four of the four, three of the four and so on.” (more…)

The Picasso Museum in Paris has opened the doors on a major rehang, with announced plans to begin working with contemporary artists alongside its historical mission, and a new space that seeks to recreate the artist’s working methods.  “We want to have the audience enter his studio and glimpse his intimacy, his daily life,” President Laurent Le Bon says. (more…)

Artist and architect Maya Lin is profiled in the Wall Street Journal this week, as she prepares to complete a series of projects, and reflects on her work over the past several decades.  “There’s a very strong environmental aspect to all my structures,” she says, and notes her work in both architecture and fine art, comparing architecture to writing a novel, while comparing a piece of art to a poem.  “They’re both incredibly difficult and challenging, but sometimes that poem is harder…because I’m stripping it bare.” (more…)

Adam Lindemann is reportedly in contract to buy a Montauk estate formerly owned by Andy Warhol.  “I knew Andy in the early 1980s as a very young man, and I’m a collector of his work . . . I’m very lucky to have this opportunity to live out this dream. It’s a work of art.” (more…)

Katherine Bernhardt, Sharks, Plantains, and Cigarettes (2015) all photos courtesy Venus Over Manhattan

Painter Katherine Bernhardt has created an exhibition of work inspired by her recent residency in Puerto Rico, taking inspiration and encouragement from the landscape and artists of the city as her muse, and translating them into the artist’s signature hand.   (more…)

Tracy Emin, You Made Me Feel Beautiful again! (2015), at White Cube, all photos by Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

As the weekend arrived, Frieze London shut its doors on another week of strong sales, live projects and installations taking up the yards of Regent’s Park, with the fair reporting an impressive 260% increase in attendees during the VIP hours.  Even after the rush of buyers in the fair’s early hours, sales continued steadily through the rest of the week, concluding yesterday as the last vistors left the space. (more…)

Gordon Matta-Clark, Energy & Abstraction (Installation View)

Mystery, stemming from associations with the notion of void, always played a crucial role in opulent practice of Gordon Matta-Clark.  Differing from the often massively-sized voids he created in or between buildings before their demolition throughout his career, however, the pen and ink works currently on view at David Zwirner’s 20th street location appears as an almost direct response, although on a much more manageable scale.  Blank paper surfaces submit to restless marks of ink in splashes of color or stark black hues, signaling complex narratives behind the artist’s demanding projects, while deep carvings on gesso expose concealed layers that otherwise would go unnoticed when compared to his immense carvings through the architectural skeletons of buildings. (more…)

Robert Irwin, 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 (Installation View), via White Cube

White Cube Bermondsey is currently playing home to a slight, albeit impressive exhibition by Robert Irwin, taking the artist’s interest in environmental sculpture, space and light to arguably its most minimal conclusions.  Taking up two rooms at the London Gallery, the exhibition continues Irwin’s exploration of objects in space, and their relationships to the site in which they reside. (more…)

Peter Doig, Cabin Essence (1993-1994), via Christie’s

The sales have concluded in London tonight, after Christie’s capped a tightly run 54-lot auction that saw a final tally of £35,562,500, with 9 lots going unsold. (more…)

The New Yorker profiles Fox Television’s Empire, and the collection of contemporary African-American art that the show has consistently used on-screen, including works by Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Kerry James Marshall.  “I’ve been doing this twenty-six years, and I was really excited because rarely do I get a director who includes the art within the shot,” says set decorator Caroline Perzan. “The art has become one of the main focal points of the set design.” (more…)

The Guardian profiles artist Sam Gilliam, whose work during the 1960’s and 70’s was considered among the best working in abstraction, and who, at 81, is experiencing another moment in the limelight after L.A. gallerist David Kordansky rallied to bring the artist’s work to wider attention.  “Sam stayed constant – it was the world that turned,” says Laura Hoptman, MoMA’s curator for painting and sculpture. “Finally, he popped back into focus.” (more…)