ArtNews has published a profile on Michelle Grabner, the sculptor and curator tapped to curate this year’s Whitney Biennial.  “One of the interesting things about including an artist is that they really understand process from within, and I think that affects how Michelle approaches the works of art she selects and the exhibition itself,” says Whitney chief curator Donna De Salvo. “She has been a curator at a pioneering gallery, but also she is incredibly well published and has engagement with artists across the country. A mix of all those aspects were needed for participation in the Biennial.” (more…)

Damien Hirst’s Other Criteria is looking to expand.  The West End London shop is looking to sell its £435,000 lease and seek a larger space in the neighborhood.  Other Criteria is also reportedly planning to open a location in New York’s Soho neighborhood later this year.   (more…)

Matthew Barney, River of Fundament (still) (2014), Courtesy BAM credit: Hugo Glendinning

Matthew Barney’s newest film, River of Fundament, is a spectacle, to say the least.  Clocking in at just under 6-hours, the film is in turns a surreal voyage through the Egyptian afterlife, the American automotive industry, and the respective encounters of Barney and composer Jonathan Bepler’s with their various subjects, all turned inwards on the film’s own internal logic and unleashed in jarring blasts of viscera, atonal operatics and monumental, ritualistic performance happenings taking part in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York.

Matthew Barney, River of Fundament (still) (2014), Courtesy BAM credit: Hugo Glendinning (more…)

The New York Times has a published a preview piece on next week’s opening for the Whitney Biennial, which will open concurrently with Armory Week next Friday.  The 77th edition of the event will be the last in the Whitney’s current home before it moves to its new location in the Meatpacking District, and features the collaborative vision of three separate curators, each of which are occupying a single floor of the museum.  “It’s as if you’re on your laptop and have three windows open,” said Stuart Comer, one of the curators and the head of media and performance at MoMA. “It’s not a collaboration but a conversation, a dialogue.” (more…)

Daniel Loeb is pushing for three seats on the board at Sotheby’s, preparing for a proxy fight to wrest additional control of the company for his Third Point Hedge Fund.  “All shareholders will benefit from further depth of experience in Sotheby’s key business building block: luxury customer relationship development,” Third Point said in its regulatory filing this week. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the demanding logistics of moving Mike Kelley’s recently-closed show at MoMAPS1.  The show, which will open again next month in Los Angeles, required a multi-day deconstruction process, moving more than 200 individual works, and disassembling some of the show’s enormous sculptures.   “It’s one of the most complex exhibitions we’ve ever undertaken,” said PS1’s Peter Eleey, “It’s a very fine-toothed coordination.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles the work and career of Xu Zhen, this year’s artist-in-residence at The Armory Show in New York.  A conceptualist noted for his departure from previous generations of Chinese art and his playful skewering of retail economics (including one work where he constructed a fully functioning supermarket), Xu will show a number of works at the show, and is working on a public project with New York’s Citibike Public Bicycle Program. (more…)

Creative Time has announced the opening dates for Kara Walker’s installation at Williamsburg’s former Domino Sugar Factory.  A Subtlety will open on May 10th, and will be free and open to the public.  “Walker’s physically and conceptually expansive work will respond to both the building and its history, exploring a radical range of subject matter and marking a major departure from her practice to date,” the organization said in a release.  Creative Time will also focus it spring gala around the opening of the event, honoring Walker. (more…)

Eva Hesse, June 1959, all images courtesy Hamburger Kunsthalle

On view at Hamburger Kunsthalle is a solo exhibition of works by Jewish German-born Eva Hesse, one of the most prominent female artists of the 20th century. Entitled One More than One. the display is composed of art objects and sculptures made from polyester, fiberglass and latex, illustrating textural juxtapositions between hard and soft, fragility and sturdiness. The exhibition will continue through March 2, 2014.

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Vanessa Branson, the founder of the Marrakech Biennale and sister to Richard Branson, is interviewed in Financial Times this week, previewing the fifth edition of the event, and its continued mission of “building bridges between cultures.”  “I want to stress how the arts send a really positive message to the rest of the world and are an economic driver – innovation creates great business,” Branson says. (more…)

Eric Fischl, Corrida in Ronda #4, (2008), via Elene Damenia for Art Observed

The New York Academy of Art is currently presenting The Big Picture, a brief series of large-scale paintings by five artists who embrace the challenge of large-scale canvases and epic scenery.  Curated by Peter Drake, the show has selected works from Neo Rauch, Mark Tansey, Vincent Desiderio, Jenny Saville and Eric Fischl for the show, inviting a comparative look at the varying techniques and approaches to painting on a grand scale.

Vincent Desiderio, Quixote (2008), via Elene Damenia for Art Observed (more…)

MOCA’s newly appointed director Philippe Vergne will assume the Director position at MOCA starting on March 10th, the LA Times reports.  MOCA announced the director’s start date via a press email this week. Vergne’s start date was accompanied by news of two new board members at the Museum: Maurice Marciano and Lilly Tartikoff Karatz, as well as a new endowment fundraising goal of $150 million. (more…)

China Poly Group Corporation, the state-run mega-conglomerate has announced that its cultural division will seek an Initial Public Offering this year, anticipated to raise up to $330 million for the company.  China Poly is a major player in the Chinese auction market, pitted against Sotheby’s and Christie’s, but seems to have set its sights internationally.   “We are very big in the art auction market in mainland China but still have a long way to go to become the biggest auction house worldwide,” said China Poly chief executive, Jiang Yingchun. (more…)

The Broad Museum’s Un-Private Collection series played host to a massively attended conversation between Jeff Koons and John Waters last night in Los Angeles.  The two covered a broad list of topics during the talk, including both Waters and Koons’s first memories of their experience with art.  “I remember when I first went to the Baltimore museum and bought a little Miró print and brought it home.”  Waters said.  “All the other kids said ‘Ugh, that’s ugly, why would you put that ugly thing on your wall?!’ I thought: ‘Ah, the power of art!’ It really made me feel glad everyone hated it.”

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G.T. Pellizzi, Diagram, Figure 3 (2013), All images courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery.

Giandomenico Tonatiuh Pellizzi, better known as G.T. Pelizzi, is currently showing a selection of new works at Mary Boone Gallery in New York.  Pellizi was born in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1978, and attended St. Johns College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, studying literature and philosophy before going on to the Channin School of Architecture at Cooper Union, NYC, where he received some training in visual arts by attending courses at the School of Art with Walid Raad and Joan Waltemath, among others.  He currently lives and works between New York City and Mexico.   (more…)

The Eyebeam Center has selected the designer for its new center in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, choosing a multi-tiered structure by WORK Architecture Company (WORKac).  “It’s a great moment in Eyebeam’s trajectory to think about the relationship between art and technology,” said WORKac Principal Dan Wood. (more…)

Ann S. Moore, former CEO and Chairwoman for Time Magazine, has announced plans to open a gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.  The Curator Gallery, located on 23rd, close to the High Line, will open on March 7th.  “At my age,” Moore says “you can either put your money away, or you can spend it and have fun and that’s what I’m doing. Maybe I’m crazy, but I’ve decided to see what I can do.” (more…)

Mayor of London Boris Johnson is actively courting the Guggenheim Foundation to open a location on the grounds of the 2012 London Olympics, the Art Newspaper reports.  The area, which has already been earmarked as a new cultural quarter called E20, will be home to a new location for the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Johnson wants the Guggenheim to set up shop as well.  “We are in talks with other global cultural brands, as we will need at least one more cultural institution to achieve the critical mass and very high visitor numbers the site deserves,” Johnson says. (more…)

The Armory Show’s commissioned artist Xu Zhen has unveiled a plan for New York’s Citibike program during the art fair next week, covering a 10 bikes with a special graphic.  20 fair attendees who ride to the Armory Show on the bikes and post an image to social media of the bike at the fair will earn free admission to the event. (more…)

Pawel Althamer, Mezalia (detail) (2010), via Art Observed

There’s something decidedly ephemeral about the work of Pawel Althamer.  The Polish artist who, over the past two decades, has created a body of sculpture, video and installation work that consistently toys with formulations of identity and society, collaborative practice and mythology.  Works can hinge on a simple conceit, or careful placement of a minimum of elements, often leaving major aspects of the piece unseen or unexpressed.  His Black Ebony (??) piece, for example, stands as a testament to an incomplete work, activated by a group of African sculptors he invited to utilize the workstation-like installation to create sculpture during a show.

Massimo Gioni takes Part in Draftsmen’s Congress (2012), via Art Observed (more…)

U.S. Lawmakers have put forth a proposal that would pay 5% of any auction proceeds to the creator of the work on sale.  The royalty proposal looks to bring U.S. art auction procedures in line with those of the European Union, and would cap royalties at $35,000 for a work.  “Just as our copyright laws extend to musicians and authors to encourage their artistic creativity, they should also apply to our visual artists,” sponsoring Senator Tammy Baldwin says. “The ART Act is a common-sense measure that helps protect the intellectual property of our artists.” (more…)

Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Camille Henrot’s Grosse Fatigue seeks an experience akin to the slow trawls of internet message boards, Wikipedia pages, and Google searches that mark the contemporary search for information, a compartmentalized seeking after discrete bits of data.  Running from image to image, many culled from the archives of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Henrot’s project offers a condensed experience of information overload, cramming the story of the earth’s creation into 13 minutes.

Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)

The Guardian takes a look at the faked and forged paintings often accepted as real works by master artists, and the conditions that produce these falsely attributed works.  “There’s lots going on, from academic incompetence to really dirty stuff,” says Oxford professor Martin Kemp. “Documentation, scientific analysis and judgment by eye are used – and ignored – opportunistically in ways that suit each advocate, who too frequently has undeclared interests.” (more…)

Andy Warhol, Illeana Sonnabend (1973), via Museum of Modern Art

The career of pivotal art figure of the twentieth century Illeana Sonnabend (1914-2007) is celebrated in Illeana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New, an exhibition currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While Sonnabend’s work might be controversial in its scope and vision, her legendary eye was instrumental in pinpointing some of the twentieth century’s most sought after artists, including Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. The exhibition traces Sonnabend’s career over half a century through selected works that she presented in her eponymous galleries in Paris and New York.

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