Art mogul Larry Gagosian has announced plans to open his 3rd London gallery in the city’s Mayfair neighborhood, and his 13th gallery worldwide. The new space is set to open this fall. “We’ve been looking for a bigger place in Mayfair, one that would resemble a Chelsea gallery,” Gagosian says. “And this has great space with over 15-foot-high ceilings.” (more…)
Lisa Spellman’s 303 Gallery is set to open its new location tonight on 24th Street in Chelsea. The move is the latest in a series of migrations from the space’s original location on Park Ave, and will also serve as the opening for a show of new work by Rodney Graham. Spellman’s gallery has a long reputation for cultivating major talents; “I try to work with artists I feel a connection to,” she says, “since that helps determine the quality and longevity of the relationship.” (more…)
Damien Hirst, Forbidden Fruit (2012-3), via White Cube Hong Kong
White Cube Hong Kong is currently presenting Entomology Cabinets and Paintings, Scalpel Blade Paintings and Colour Charts, a broad exhibition of new work by British artist Damien Hirst. Through the three series on view, Hirst explores life’s dualities through the beauty and horror of both the Natural world and modernity.
Damien Hirst, The Judged (2012), via White Cube Hong Kong
Roni Horn, Untitled (“Consider Incompleteness as a Verb”), (2010-2012), via Hauser and Wirth Zurich
Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth Zürich is a solo show by American visual artist and writer Roni Horn, encompassing the artist’s signature glass sculptures alongside a photographic series created between 2010 and 2012.
The Smithsonian Institution has announced a series of summer closures in order to make up for the current national budget sequester. Beginning yesterday, the Institute closed several rooms at the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Museum of African Art as it cut back on security and maintenance during the summer. The measures are scheduled to conclude on September 30th. (more…)
Local Planning Committee the Thorney Island Society has raised objections over the proposed installation of artist Katharina Fritsch’s bright blue cockerel sculpture on London’s Fourth Plinth. Taking umbrage with the work’s apparent “innappropriate” placement in Trafalgar Square, the group is taking action to prevent its installation. “We cannot see any logical reason for the proposed sculpture to be placed on the fourth plinth. It is unrelated to the context of Trafalgar Square and adds nothing to it but a feeble distraction.” The group said in a statement. (more…)
Next month, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will announce an ambitious, $650 Million plan for a new museum space. As the plans stand, the new construction would call for the destruction of core parts of LACMA’s campus, including the original 1956 building by William Pereira. The proposal is the latest in a series of proposed major construction on the museum over the years, but the first under director Michael Govan, who has already led the museum through a number of smaller expansion projects. (more…)
The British Museum’s current expansion efforts, projected to cost £135 Million, are currently running on schedule, and on budget, museum curators said in a progress report this past Monday. The project will add much needed operations space to the institution, as well as a 1,100 square foot exhibition space designed for major exhibitions. “Almost in every decade, there’s had to be some kind of amendment, adjustment or extension to the building to make it fit for purpose.” says the museum director, Neil MacGregor. (more…)
Artnet’s Katherine Markley is reporting on the continued growth of the art market for contemporary female artists, focusing in particular on the work of Yayoi Kusama. Analyzing sales figures for the last several years, Markley points out that Kusama has vastly exceeded the current sales figures for both Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons since 2007, and reframes the question of female artists’ presence in terms of comparison to direct market competitors, in favor of the 100 highest selling works list often cited in news articles and auction reports. (more…)
Boléro, a collaboration between artist Marina Abramovic and Belgian choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, is set to open tonight in Paris. Interpreting Ravel’s immediately recognizable work for dance, the work debuts at the Palais Garnier alongside Maurice Béjart’s “Firebird” and versions of “Afternoon of a Faun” by Nijinsky and Jerome Robbins. “In my own work I am completely in control, but the interesting thing with collaboration is to give up part of yourself, the ‘I,’ ” said Abramovic. “It’s very liberating to be in a new field, dance, to let things come to you and not to make decisions.” (more…)
The Dia Art Foundation has released the details on artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument, a library, performance theatre and monument to the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci, established in the Forrest Houses Projects in the Bronx. The piece will be the fourth and final work in a series of installations to Hirschhorn’s favorite thinkers, installed temporarily at locations around the world. Says Philippe Vergne, Director, Dia Art Foundation. “Gramsci Monument reinforces Dia’s commitment to off-site commissions, which is at the center of our mission. I am confident that through this project Dia will become a different, stronger institution — one that is even more engaged with the reality of art today.” Gramsci Monument will open July 1st. (more…)
Inside the Brooklyn Artists Ball at the Brooklyn Museum
The annual Brooklyn Artists Ball took place last week on April 24th, featuring award presentations to Barbara Knowles Debs, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu and Roxy Paine for their collective contributions to the vibrant and growing arts scene of New York’s second borough. The event also featured a series custom designed table settings from a number of New York artists, including Jules de Balincourt, Njideka Akunyili, Daniel Arsham, FAILE, Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw, a performance by Brooklyn’s The Push Pop Collective, and more. Art Observed was on site for the event, and took these photos showcasing the highlights of the night.
California-based artist Alex Israel recently sat down with AnOther Magazine to talk about his new show in Berlin, his new series of self-portraits (one of which is on view as part of After-Hours 2:: Murals on the Bowery), and the close ties between his work and the film culture of his home city, Los Angeles. “For me, going to the studio is a phrase that can only refer to going to a movie studio. That is why I made my work at Warner Bros. I am also a fan. I like movies and TV.” (more…)
A week after Richard Prince’s court case on fair use was decided in his favor, the artist has announced the release of a new print series, featuring a composite rendering of Jerry Seinfeld’s 57 girlfriends from his hit television show Seinfeld. Titled Jerry’s Girl, the prints are available from Two Palms Press in a fitting edition of 57. (more…)
Gutai: Splendid Playground (Installation View), Courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The main hall of the Guggenheim Museum’s signature, spiraling exhibition space is currently dominated by an enormous hanging sculpture. Long plastic envelopes swim over the atrium, filled with brightly-dyed water that casts faint, glimmering shadows on the floor below. This is Work (Water), by Motonaga Sadamasa, a foundational member of the Gutai art collective. Hailing from the Japanese town of Osaka, the Gutai helped to define the vibrant Japanese contemporary and conceptual art scene of post-war Japan. Blending an open exploration of the raw materials of creation with a playfully subversive worldview, the Gutai made enormous contributions to the contemporary art practice worldwide.
Shiraga Kazuo, Work II (1958), Oil on paper, mounted on canvas 183 x 243 cm HyÅgo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe
Frieze Magazine is currently running an interview with Massimiliano Gioni, the New Museum Curator who is currently preparing for the opening of The Encyclopedic Palace at this year’s 55th Venice Biennale. In the interview, the curator discusses his practice, and his plans for the upcoming opening of the Biennale this summer. (more…)
The Two Zodiac Heads to be Returned to China, via China Radio International
French president François Hollande has embarked on his first visit to China, accompanied by a number of high-profile French business heads. Among them is François-Henri Pinault, the Kering CEO and Christie’s head who has brought a gift of two bronze statues looted from the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860. (more…)
Sabine Moritz, Mother (2010), via Marian Goodman
Limbo, the state of being suspended in time, between past and future, repose and action, is the title of Sabine Moritz’s first solo show with Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris. Spread over two floors, the exhibition includes eighteen oil on canvas paintings, and over sixty drawings, a dense body of work started in late 2001. Moritz, who lives and works in Cologne, Germany, was on her way to New York City on September 11th, when her plane was diverted up to Nova Scotia. For three days she was stuck in this remote landscape, with thousands of other displaced travelers, watching the events and its aftermath unfold. This period of waiting and disconnect, gave her time to reflect about the changing nature of borders, conflict, and the technology of war.
Sabine Moritz, Limbo (Installation View), via Marian Goodman
Artist Paul McCarthy’s Complex Pile has been damaged in southern China following an unexpected rainfall. The work, which was on view as part of a show on inflatable art in West Kowloon, was deflated to avoid further damage. “A small hole was discovered on the surface of the piece. We are doing our best to fix it and hopefully we can inflate the artwork as soon as possible,” a spokeswoman said. (more…)
Creative Time’s Anne Pasternak spoke with the New York Times Style Section this weekend, previewing organization’s annual spring gala held at The Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg. Taking over the organization in 1994, Pasternak has brought Creative Time to the forefront of New York’s busy arts scene, producing projects like Vik Muniz’s crop duster messages over the city, and Nick Cave’s recent soundsuit installation at Grand Central. “It’s not always easy to explain, but we’re doing it all,” Ms. Pasternak said. (more…)
A set of classical Greek statues have been returned to the Greek state from Qatar, after a recent disagreement between Greek and Qatari officials. While visiting the Middle Eastern nation, Greek Cultural Minister Costas Tzavaras noticed that the nude statues had been covered to avoid offending visiting females. Refusing to uncover the statues, the Qatari government opted to return them to Greece. “In a society where there are certain laws and traditions authorities felt women would be scandalised by seeing such things, even on statues,” added an official present at the event. “The minister, of course, said while he totally respected local customs he couldn’t accept the antiquities not being exhibited in their natural state. They were great works of art and aesthetically it was wrong.” (more…)
Artist and architect Maya Lin is profiled in the New York Times, and discusses her new show at Pace Gallery, her recent work, and her thoughts on the environmental catastrophe’s caused by Hurricane Sandy last year, when much of Downtown New York was flooded. “A flood doesn’t exist except in our memory banks,” she said. “It’s a temporal event. It’s not the river and it’s not the land. It’s neither here nor there.” (more…)
Over the past 50 years, the descendants of renowned Paris art dealer Paul Rosenberg have fought to reclaim their father’s vast art collection, looted from the family’s home during World War II. Tracing paper trails and historical records, the family is remarkable for their ability to reclaim over 340 of Paul Rosenberg’s 400 works still missing, including works by Picasso, Cézanne and Braque. “They are part of the 5 percent of those who have been successful,” said Marc Masurovsky, Holocaust Art Restitution Project founder. “They set an example of how restitution should take place.” (more…)
Zhang Xiaogang (Installation View), via Pace Gallery
Currently featured at Pace Gallery’s space at 510 West 25th Street, is the first series of Zhang Xiaogang‘s painted bronze sculptures. At first glance it appears simply as a 3 dimensional representation of Xiaogang’s famous Bloodline characters, however there are in fact numerous dialogues in the works as well as the artist’s practise, that deepen and darken the situation.
