Frieze will launch a new fair in Seoul, the institution announced today, confirming a long-rumored move to the South Korean capital. “Seoul is a natural home for Frieze with its extraordinary artists, galleries, museums and collections,” says Board Director Victoria Siddall. “I am thrilled that it will be the location for our new fair, Frieze Seoul.” (more…)
Sotheby’s has moved two of its top specialists, Alex Branczik and Max Moore, to new positions at the house’s Hong Kong location. “Asia is our highest growth region at Sotheby’s, and there is immense potential for further expansion in Modern and Contemporary Art,” says Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart. (more…)
Damien Hirst, Fact Paintings and Fact Sculptures (Installation View), via Gagosian
Kicking off the run of Damien Hirst projects at Gagosian’s London space on Britannia Street, the latest iteration, Fact Paintings and Fact Sculptures presents Hirst as artist and curator, presenting this deeply personal series of work through his own eyes, and exploring a diverse range of subjects and concepts that have run through the series and subjects of the artist’s career. Balanced in the middle of a perpetual confrontation between the contrasting systems of belief that define human existence, from common trust in medicine to the seduction of consumerism, Hirst’s work feels particularly timely in the midst of the ongoing challenges and trauma of Covid-19. (more…)
With Metro Pictures closing, Pace Gallery will now represent Robert Longo in the United States and Europe, showing his work in conjunction with Thaddaeus Ropac. “Robert speaks in the language of memory, marked down in velvet in sheets of charcoal and iconographically reconstituted in brilliant Black and White,” says Marc Glimcher. (more…)
Pedro Reyes, Tlali (Installation View), via Lisson
Pedro Reyes returns to Lisson Gallery in New York this month with Tlali, an impressively dense and exploratory exhibition that a new series of sculptures and works on paper drawn from the language and symbols of Pre-Columbian civilizations. Drawing on the history and social economies of the Aztec language Nahuatl, the show turns a local historical and linguistic thread into a broader reflection on the state of the world and the broader political and social landscape of modernity. (more…)
The Guardian interviews Tracey Emin this week, as the artist showcases a series of new works she made while undergoing cancer treatment. “I say something and it’s considered to be ‘a confession,’” she says. “I’m not confessing that I had cancer, I’m not confessing that I’ve got a urostomy bag. I have had cancer and I have a urostomy bag. It’s a statement.” (more…)
James Turrell will unveil a new skyspace in the Colorado town of Green Mountain Falls. The work will go on view this July. (more…)
Agnes Martin, The Distillation of Color (Installation View), via Art Observed
Marking the most recent in its exhibitions from the estate of Agnes Martin, Pace Gallery’s The Distillation of Color delves back into the artist’s tightly-honed minimalism to explore her nuanced investigations of color, allowing subtle bands and hints at varied shades to pervade her works. For Martin, painting was defined by an ongoing exploration of its capacity to express a vision of beauty born of intuitive inspiration. In this most recent show, the gallery takes this concept and pushes it into the very notion of color as sensation. (more…)
Rachel Libeskind at Signs and symbols, via Art Observed
After a year off, the New Art Dealers Alliance has relaunched its ongoing New York exhibition project, the third edition of NADA House, returning to Governors Island with 66 galleries, non-profits, artist-run spaces, and curators, presenting over 100 artists. The collaborative, public exhibition, now open and running through to August, continues in an expanded format, with gallery presentations in over 50 rooms in three neighboring turn-of-the-century colonial revival buildings.
Ken Grimes at Ricco/Maresca Gallery via Art Observed
Wangechi Mutu (Installation View), via Gladstone
Entering Gladstone Gallery in New York, artist Wangechi Mutu’s surreal, serpentine sculptures greet the viewer with a mixture of minimalist, elegant beauty and unnerving, otherworldly poise, somewhere between lyrical, classical sculpture and the surreal forms of H.R. Giger. Drawing upon her sculptural practice, a core aspect of her work, this installation brings to life otherworldly alternatives to the systemic modes of representation portrayed throughout global traditions in art. Through an incisive re-examination of relations between the body, the natural world, and social forces, the works in this exhibition represent a new kind of hybridized humanity and iconography through the artist’s intuitive and forward-thinking eye.
Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth, via Art Observed
Over a year since the last iteration of the Frieze art fair took place in Los Angeles, and coming down on the other side of the turbulence of the last year under the Covid-19 pandemic, Frieze New York has touched down at The Shed on Manhattan’s West Side, a re-entry into the annual run of blue-chip events that have been few and far between, or confined to an online edition for the last year. Here, with an abundance of caution and a range of measures put in place to limit the number of attendees in the space at a given time, the fair still made something of a return to its old form. (more…)
A 1917 Egon Schiele restituted by Museum Ludwig in Cologne will go on sale at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale May 12th in New York, with an estimate of $2.5 million–$3.5 million. (more…)
The estate of Isamu Noguchi has left Pace Gallery to join White Cube. “Isamu Noguchi’s extraordinary oeuvre places him among the masters of Modern sculpture,” says Jay Jopling, the founder and chief executive of White Cube. (more…)
Former MoMA PS1 curator Peter Eleey has joined the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Art News reports. “I am thrilled to join UCCA and its terrific team during this exciting period of the museum’s growth,” he says. “I look forward to working together with the staff to engage new audiences and build on UCCA’s pioneering legacy of vibrant programming.” (more…)
Eli Broad, the billionaire art collector, entrepreneur and philanthropist, has passed away at the age of 87. Broad was a force in Los Angeles, redefining and reshaping the city’s art scene.“As a businessman Eli saw around corners, as a philanthropist he saw the problems in the world and tried to fix them, as a citizen he saw the possibility in our shared community, and as a husband, father and friend he saw the potential in each of us,” says Gerun Riley, president of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. (more…)
Mathieu Malouf at House of Gaga, via Art Observed
It’s been a challenge to imagine the same art world in the wake of Covid-19. Even as spaces start to reopen and events prepare for their first outings in over a year, the needed precautions and considerations have made for both questions and reinventions of just what a massive show or fair might look like. Enter the 2021 edition of Zona Maco, a notably reduced affair by comparison with previous years, the exhibition has spread out across a series of galleries and temporary in Mexico City, allowing for a more engaged approach towards the city while cutting back on the large-crowds of the usual Banamex crush. (more…)
Jeff Koons has joined Pace Gallery, ending his long relationship with both David Zwirner and Gagosian Gallery. “I always liked the idea of having more of a home gallery, that if people were interested in work they would know directly where to go,” Koons says. (more…)
The Armory Show is planning a September edition in New York, running from September 9th – 12th. “For over 25 years, the Armory Show has been a cornerstone of New York City’s cultural scene and an economic driver for the global art market,” says director Nicole Berry. “We believe NYC will emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever, and we’re excited to anchor the fall arts season at this pivotal moment when the city’s cultural organizations are reopening and experiencing art in-person is becoming possible again for everyone.” (more…)
The Maine Attorney General has alleged that the lawyers handling Robert Indiana’s estate were significantly overpaid after charging $8.4 million to handle the artist’s legal matters. “The attorney general remains concerned that the very existence of the foundation is threatened by the liquidation of estate assets,” the office says. (more…)
The Andy Warhol Foundation has filed an en banc petition with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reconsider a court ruling against it over a Warhol depiction of Prince. “We respectfully disagree with the panel’s decision in this case,” says Roman Martinez, of Latham & Watkins, which represents the foundation. “The fair use doctrine plays an essential role in protecting free expression and advancing core First Amendment values. We are hopeful the Second Circuit will reconsider its ruling and confirm that Andy Warhol’s transformative works of art are fully protected by law.” (more…)
Simon Denny, Mine (2021), via Petzel
Currently on at Petzel Gallery in New York, artist Simon Denny has launched a new body of work under the title Mine. The product of a multi-year project exploring themes of technology, labor, and humanity’s relationship with the earth, Mine touches down in New York in a fitting time for consideration, as Amazon workers contend with failed unionization efforts, cryptocurrency once again dominates the news cycle and we move further into the post-digital landscape. (more…)
Art handling firms UOVO and Crozier have both announced expansion plans, with UOVO opening a facility in Miami, and Crozier making an acquisition of British logistics company Martinspeed. (more…)