Sarah Sze, Still Life with Desk (2013-2015), via Victoria Miro
Through the month of March, the Victoria Miro Gallery will host a solo exhibition by the artist Sarah Sze that spans all of the gallery’s London exhibition spaces. This is Sze’s third solo exhibition with the gallery and the artist’s first time she has shown in Europe since the Venice Biennale in 2013. (more…)
Rashid Johnson, Smile (Installation View) all images courtesy Hauser & Wirth London
Hauser & Wirth‘s London space is currently presenting Smile, a new body of work by the New York-based artist Rashid Johnson. Known for his hybrid creations blending photography, sculpture and painting, Johnson had his breakthrough with the Thelma Golden-curated Freestyle show at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001. Johnson’s star has been on the rise since, the subject of solo shows in prestigious institutions such as Sculpture Center in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Rashid Johnson, Smile (Installation View)
His current show at Hauser Wirth London, where Johnson is showing for the first time, continues the 2011 Hugo Boss Prize finalist’s central themes, while finding its inspiration in the titular photograph by Elliot Erwitt. Portraying an African-American boy with a big smile on his face and a gun that he is holding at his temple, this intense black and white photograph covers the walls of the exhibition space, while a large steel structure, serving as a base for various objects from house plants to brass objects, is positioned in the middle. Of these objects located on the grid-shaped structure, entitled Fatherhood, is also a series of books, including Bill Cosby’s memoir of the same name. Drawing a notable potency due to the controversy around Cosby’s recent sexual assault allegations, this memoir represents Johnson’s long time interest in the comedian as a patriarchal figure and a symbol of American middle-class values.
Rashid Johnson, Smile (Installation View)
Additionally, shea butter, a material that Johnson has previously employed for his works, serves here as the main ingredient to various busts that are also positioned on this steel structure. Elements that encompass the nature of African diaspora and the African-American experience abound in Johnson’s intricately constituted composition, narrating an expansive history through entities that seem purposely mundane and silent.
Rashid Johnson, Smile (Installation View)
Johnson’s ability to attribute further content to otherwise mute materials has helped him become one of the key figures of the ‘post-black art movement’, and this exhibition at Hauser & Wirth emphasizes the artist’s interest in his core materials, among which bronze is the most common. Aside from assemblies of mixed objects, bronze panels hung onto the walls contrast the image of the boy holding a gun with their abstract gestures. Black soap, another material Johnson constantly returns to, appears on these panels, constituting what Johnson calls a “memorialization” of the creative process.
Rashid Johnson: Smile Is On View at Hauser & Wirth Through March 7, 2015.
Rashid Johnson, If It’s Magic (2014)
All images are Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo by Alex Delfanne
— O.C. Yerebakan
Related Link:
Hauser & Wirth [Exhibition Page]
Francesco Vezzoli, Teatro Romano, all images courtesy MoMA PS1
On view at MoMA PS1 in New York is an exhibition of 5 new works by Francesco Vezzoli – ancient Roman busts painted in the manner in which they were probably originally decorated. Entitled Teatro Romano,” the exhibition, which saw delays after a church Vezzoli had intended to export to the country was blocked by customs, will continue through March 9th, 2015.
Nancy Graves, Camouflage Series #4 (1971), all images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
Currently on view at Mitchell-Innes & Nash is a select body of work by artist Nancy Graves, focused around the late artist’s New York-based Foundation, and which promise an expansive look at the pioneer Conceptualist’s bright career before and after her passing in 1995, including a Whitney retrospective that marked her as the first female artist to have a solo retrospective under museum’s roof. (more…)
Anish Kapoor, Monochrome (Garnet) (2014), via Art Observed
On view at Regen Projects is an exhibition of recent sculptures by the Bombay-born, London-based artist Anish Kapoor. The series focuses on terrestrial forms made from resin and earth contrasted, with two of the artist’s signature, mirror-surfaced works.
Marina Abramovic has announced that she is preparing to publish her memoirs, due for the fall of 2016. The book will be released in conjunction with the artist’s 70th birthday. “My experiences have always been a big part of my work — they’re the source of everything I do, they’re my inspiration,” Abramovic said in a statement. “I hope that by sharing my story, I can give people the courage to do the things they’re afraid to do in their own lives.” (more…)
Donald Fisher, the founder of Gap clothing, is preparing to unveil a sizable portion of his collection publicly for the first time next month at Paris’s Grand Palais. The collection of 20th century works will be shown next year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is currently undergoing major renovations to prepare for it. “I think we will have more works by artists including Richter and Calder on view at one time than anywhere else in the world,” says curator Gary Garrels. (more…)
The Armory Show, via The Armory Show
The first week of March signals another year for Armory Week in New York City, as locations around the city prepare for the annual influx of galleries, artists and collectors that mark the first major art fair events in New York City for 2015. Building on the Armory Show’s increasingly popular public stature, week offers a wide range of events for both collectors and visitors alike. (more…)
Artists Elmgreen and Dragset will install a commissioned sculpture on the High Line next month, a “dysfunctional” telescope that plays on lines of site for New York landmarks. “The telescope will be located at a point where it is possible to see with the naked eye landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty,” Elmgreen says. “It is an oversized black structure with very thin legs; it looks a little like an insect.” (more…)
The Guardian traces the career of Richard Diebenkorn, and his frequent oscillations between abstract figuration and more concrete landscapes during his lifetime in California and New Mexico. The article comes in conjunction with Diebenkorn’s recently opened exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts. “I want painting to be difficult to do,” he once stated, revealing his commitment to pushing his work into new territory. (more…)
Artist Hans Haacke’s commission for London’s Fourth Plinth is the subject of an article in The Guardian this week, examining the work’s ties to money, power and speculation in the arts. “The reason I thought it would not be accepted was that I knew what would have happened in New York,” Haacke says. “There is no way that something that plays with Wall Street in this fashion would ever be approved under the auspices of the mayor.” (more…)
Jeff Koons has reportedly been given an $8 million commission from the government of Sacramento to build one of his Coloring Book works at the city’s new basketball arena. This is the most the Californian capital has spent on a public work of art to date. (more…)
Marina Abramovic is in Bloomberg this week, reviewing her current market value, and the difficulties in selling her works despite her immense recognition as an artist. “There is this contradiction,” says Abramovic. “I’m very high on every art list or whatever, but as for market value, I’m less than any mediocre, how do you call it, young art.” (more…)
Frank Benson, Juliana, via Art Observed
If the New Museum Triennial is to be believed, 2015 might in fact be the year that artists put the pervasive notions of “cyber-dread” to death in the contemporary discourse. Curated by Ryan Trecartin and New Museum Curator (and former Rhizome head) Lauren Cornell, the exhibition combines aspirational commodities, linguistic play and digital microcosms into a fascinatingly deep exhibition, one that feels particularly appropriate as the 21st century turns 15. (more…)
Bjarne Melgaard, The Casual Pleasure of Disappointment (Installation View), all images courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
On view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac’s location in the Parisian neighborhood of Marais is the first solo exhibition from the controversial, yet highly respected Norwegian painter Bjarne Melgaard. Entitled The Casual Pleasure of Disappointment, The exhibition is a collaborative effort confronting themes inspired by French film director Catherine Breillat. Known for confronting taboos and shocking audiences into self-reflection, Melgaard takes his cues for his new exhibition exhibition from Breillat, whom he has elevated to the role of a mythical figure. The works in this exhibition center around the 2014 film Abuse of Weakness, and take a shared interest in the beauty industry’s manipulation and domination of perceptions and judgments of others as a generator of profit and cultural currency.
La Coiffeuse, a 1911 Pablo Picasso painting stolen from a Centre Pompidou storage room in 2001, has been recovered, after customs officials at the Port of Newark found it in a package marked with the words Merry Christmas. “A lost treasure has been found,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch. “Because of the blatant smuggling in this case the painting is subject to forfeiture to the United States. Forfeiture of the painting will extract it from the grasp of the black market in stolen art so it can be returned to its rightful owner.” (more…)
A Swiss Businessman was arrested in Monaco this week, on charges of reportedly manipulating art prices and money laundering. Yves Bouvier, the owner of several “freeports,” where art is often sold without duties, was detained this week, after authorities uncovered an alleged plot to defraud several clients, including Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. (more…)
A banner placed in an Oscar Murillo installation was forcibly removed by a museum security guard at the Centro Cultural Daoiz y Velarde in Madrid this week. The sign, which Murillo had taken from protestors against the museum’s high price tag and public funding, was installed in a work playing on the intersection of aesthetics and protest, and was eventually placed back on view after the artist complained. “This is a work in motion,” the artist said. “What I do depends on the things happening around me.” (more…)
The New York City Ballet has noted a marked uptick in young attendees in recent years, an indication that their efforts and commissions, like Dustin Yellin’s current project with the institution, are seeing successful returns. “We had a hypothesis that there might be a crossover interest between the visual arts and dance, particularly the kind of repertoire that we have — which have an abstract and contemporary feeling,” Katherine E. Brown, the company’s executive director said. (more…)
The annual figures by Artprice have placed 2014 as another record year in the art market, with $15.2 billion in works sold at auction in the past year, including a record 1,679 sales worth $1 million or more. “More museums were created between 2000 and 2005 than during the entire 19th and 20th centuries,” says Wang Jie, president of Artprice.com and Artron group. “A museum needs a minimum of 3,000 to 4,000 quality works to be credible… (and) is not meant to get rid of its acquisitions.” (more…)
Luc Tuymans, The Shore (2014), All images courtesy David Zwirner Gallery London.
The Shore, a solo exhibition by Belgian artist Luc Tuymans is on view at the David Zwirner Gallery in London through April 2, a new body of work from the artist credited with helping the revival of painting in the early 1990s. Since his early work, Tuymans has continued to produce compositions that interrogate and intervenes in the definition of this medium. He was one of the first artists to be represented by David Zwirner, joining the gallery in 1994, and The Shore marks his second solo exhibition in the space since Allo! marked the opening of the gallery’s first European location. (more…)
Virginia Overton, Untitled (2015 ), all images courtesy White Cube
On view in London at White Cube in Mason’s Yard is an exhibition of new large-scale minimalist sculptures by American artist Virginia Overton. The exhibition is Overton’s first in the UK.
The Museo Jumex in Mexico City is facing criticism after canceling an exhibition on the work of Hermann Nitsch, the Vienna Actionist painter whose frequent use of blood and animal viscera led to the institution calling off the show. “This is a different kind of shocking,” Nitsch said. “They wasted a lot of money. They wasted my time. I was very, very sad.” (more…)
A pair of brothers have been arrested in Spain following the sale of a fake Goya painting. The brothers’ attempts at selling the fraudulent painting was rewarded with more trickery by their customer, reportedly a sheikh who paid them 1.7 million in fake, photocopied Swiss Francs (€1.5 million). The brothers were arrested after the smuggled counterfeits were discovered in Avignon. (more…)