Wolfgang Tillmans’s Berlin gallery Between Bridges has embarked on a new project, creating an accommodating space for the appreciation of classic pop and dance albums.  “The Playback Room” as it is called, is currently featuring Colourbox, the 1980’s dance act behind “Pump Up the Volume.”  “Some records are just perfect artworks, but you just cannot go anywhere to listen to the way the musicians heard it at the mastering stage,” said Tillmans. “While you can play them on your stereo or iPhone there is never a space dedicated to them and you can never listen in studio quality.” (more…)

The Texas Department of Transportation has reached a decision to classify the Prada Marfa installation by Elmgreen and Dragset as a museum, thus saving it from a possible removal.  “TxDOT appreciates and values the cultural significance of Prada Marfa, and we are happy to have found a win-win solution that keeps it in its current location,” said department deputy executive John Barton. (more…)

Richard Deacon, Alphabet S (2014), via Thaddaeus Ropac

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is currently presenting Alphabet, Sculptures and Dessins, an exhibition of artist Richard Deacon’s new body of work, combining sculpture with a series of works on paper.  As an artist who defines himself as a fabricator rather than a sculptor, Deacon has always had an appetite for pushing the limits of production, constantly moving to new territories in material use throughout his career.  Here, Deacon seems interested in extending beyond the physical, sculptural object itself, experimenting with exterior forms and approaches. (more…)

The Guardian notes the ongoing backlash in Helsinki against the Guggenheim’s proposed expansion, as many doubt the actual benefits a Guggenheim branch may offer the Finnish capital.   “I’m not paying my taxes to be handed over to an American corporation to do with what they want,” says one interviewee. “If we’re spending that kind of money, it should be on our own national museum, not another outpost of a global company.” (more…)

A recent article in Forbes analyzes current taxing strategies in the UK and Mexico, which allow fine artists to pay part or all of their taxes with their work.  Called “Acceptance-in-Lieu,” the program offers a tax alternative that allows governments to grow their national collection while collecting a higher percentage of owed tax.  “You have to admire the simplicity of it,” says contributor Robert Wood.  “Say an artist sells one to five pieces of art in one year. He then donates a work of equal value to the state. The more you sell, the more you hand over for taxes.” (more…)

The Rauschenberg Foundation has announced a series of grants for artists-activists, interested in making work that engages social practice and change.  Grants range from smaller travel grants (anticipated to be from $2,500 to $10,000) up to $100,000.  The foundation is planning on announcing its next grant proposal series in November, focusing on climate change. (more…)

Art Basel has announced a new crowdfunding initiative, created in collaboration with Kickstarter, which will provide a platform for fundraising on art projects around the globe.  The first round of grant proposals include collections to build new studio space at London’s Gasworks, a major restoration project by SculptureCenter, and more. (more…)

Phillips  has announced plans to open its first location in Hong Kong, an expansion that sees the company living up to claims that it wants to be more aggressive in the current market.  “We are going to do our best to align Phillips with these new contemporary art movements worldwide,” says recently appointed CEO Edward Dolman.  (more…)

Olafur Eliasson, Riverbed (2014), via Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Long interested in the possibilities and intersections of natural space with the contexts of the gallery environment, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has brought the landscape of the Icelandic wilderness to the interiors of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, in the Northern Danish town of Humlbæk.

Olafur Eliasson, Riverbed (2014), via Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (more…)

Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold Lehman has announced that he will step down from his position at the museum next year, closing out 17 years at the helm of the borough’s chief art museum.  “This has been something I have been thinking about for a while,” Mr. Lehman told the New York Times. “I turned three score and 10 this summer. It’s time.” (more…)

Just as Sotheby’s is preparing its first pop-up sale in Silicon Valley, rival Christie’s has also entered the fray, announcing a similar event in California focused on works by Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and more, alongside works by young artists including Korakrit Arunanondchai. “While it is well known that the Bay Area is home to some of the most impressive collections in private hands, it has recently become evident that it is also one of the most robust emerging markets for art collecting with a growing group of young and new collectors,” says Christie’s Post-War specialist Charlie Adamski. (more…)

The New York Times interviews Marcel Dzama this week, in the wake of the artist’s opening at David Zwirner, alongside his collaborators Kim Gordon and Tim Kingsbury (of Arcade Fire).  The trio worked together on Dzama’s newest film Une danse des bouffons (A jester’s dance), a fantastic film incorporating numerous Dadaist and Surrealist references into a work inspired by the affair between Marcel Duchamp and sculptor Maria Martins.  “It’s amazing how many things you can do when you’re just pretending,” says Gordon. (more…)

Dia Art Foundation has announced Jessica Morgan (curator of international art at London’s Tate Modern) will take over for Philippe Vergne as director of the New York arts organization.  Morgan has a challenging road ahead of her, including stalled plans for Dia to build a new museum for its collection between Chelsea and the Meatpacking District, and will seek to negotiate the demands of such a space with the foundation’s longstanding commitment to living artists.  “It has to be a relationship that’s relevant to the current moment,” she says. “It can’t rest on a notion of its past.” (more…)

Sprüth Magers Gallery has purchased a 14,000 square foot building in West Hollywood this week, signaling the gallery’s intent to open a new exhibition space in Los Angeles, directly across the street from LACMA.  “It’s an artist’s city,” says Philomene Magers.  “It’s the cultural and intellectual climate of the city that really excites us. And while we already have collectors in the region, we are hoping to meet many more.” (more…)

Pawel Althamer, The Secret of the Phaistos Disc (Installation View), all images courtesy Deste Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse of Hydra

On view at the Deste Foundation’s exhibition space, the Slaughterhouse of Hydra, is an experimental blend of contemporary sculpture and performance, as designed by Polish artist Pawel Althamer. The interactive project explores the nature of family relationships, and their role in making up the broader structural arrangements and familial relations that often drive global social interactions.

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The Telegraph profiles Christie’s upcoming London sale of works from the Essl Collection, Austria’s largest private collection of contemporary works.  The sale, featuring pieces by Gerhard Richter, Paul McCarthy, Louise Bourgeois, and Alighiero Boetti, is estimated to bring in up to £60 million next month, making it the most valuable sale of a single collection in auction history.   (more…)

Kader Attia, Repair, Culture’s Agency (2014), via Art Observed

In light of its subject matter, the New Museum wastes no time in describing the challenges ahead of Here and Elsewhere, its current exhibition focusing on contemporary Arabic and Middle Eastern art.  Taking its title from the 1976 Jean-Luc Godard documentary of the same name, the museum effectively poses the same questions that plagued Godard’s quasi-documentary on the Palestinian army.  Faced with an inability to complete his statement on the complex social issues and the subsequent defeat of Palestine in the Six Days War, Godard instead sought a middle ground between the embattled nation and his French homeland.  The film is spiked with cinema verité segments, abstract performance and experimental camerawork that ultimately places a considerable distance between the film and any sense of cohesive, authoritative statement. (more…)

Larry Gagosian is expanding beyond his art empire, collaborating with world-renowned sushi chef Masa Takayama to open Kappo Masa, a new sushi restaurant below the gallerist’s 980 Madison location.   “It’s a different kind of partnership than what I’m used to,” Gagosian says. “I don’t have partners in business. But this is Masa’s vision and Masa’s talent. My job is to listen and learn.” (more…)

Bloomberg looks into the ambitious effort behind the sale of the Bunny Mellon art collection, which will include a private sale of works through Sotheby’s, among them a pair of Mark Rothko works valued at over $250 million together.  Of particular note is No. 20 (Yellow Expanse), a striking 1953 work.  “Unquestionably, it is the jewel in the crown,” said David Anfam, author of “Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas,” the artist’s catalogue raisonne,. “Unlike its companion at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, it’s not labored. In terms of its size there is nothing to compare it with since this is the only ‘classic’ Rothko, as opposed to the Seagram and Harvard murals, of such epic dimensions.” (more…)

BBC 4 has launched a series of new station identifiers, created by British artists.  The short clips include work by 2013 Turner Prize winner Laure Prouvost, 2014 Turner Prize nominee James Richards, film-maker John Smith, and Sebastian Buerkner, and follow a perceived attempt at the BBC to embrace more arts-minded programming and content. (more…)

Art Basel has unveiled its exhibitor list for the 2014 edition of its Miami Beach fair, which will run December 4th through the 7th.  The fair is also launching a new exhibition section titled SURVEY, which will feature art historical projects and special exhibitions. (more…)

Russ & Daughters, one of New York’s premier Kosher delis and cafes, has announced plans to open a new location inside The Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side.  “The minute I came here, I said we had to do this,” says museum director Claudia Gould, who took over at the museum in 2011. “They’re really hip, and we want to try to make Jewish hip. We feel like the brands align. It took about a year to get it going.” She said the lower level space is being gutted and rebuilt for the cafe.” (more…)

Tate Liverpool has announced plans to open an exhibition focusing on the work of Andy Warhol this November, the first major solo exhibition of the artist’s work in Northern England.  The expansive exhibition will include over 100 works from the artist’s career, and will also include a recreation of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. (more…)

A masterwork piece by Joseph Turner, depicting a view of the city of Rome from Mount Aventine, will go on sale at Sotheby’s in London this December.  The piece, estimated to sell for £20 million, has remained in the same family for nearly two hundred years, and was only sold once before, setting a then-record auction price of £6,000.  “This painting, which is nearly 200 years old, looks today as if it has come straight from the easel of the artist; never relined and never subject to restoration, the picture retains the freshness of the moment it was painted: the hairs from Turner’s brush, the drips of liquid paint which have run down the edge of the canvas, and every scrape of his palette knife have been preserved in incredible detail,” says Sotheby’s Old Masters head Alex Bell. (more…)