–>
Curtis Kulig, Love Me (Steel) (2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Daniel Creahan.

Over and over again, the two words, “Love Me,” are repeatedly scrawled on the canvasses of Curtis Kulig, the street artist best known for emblazoning this simple cursive ‘throw-up’ all over New York City. Viewed next to the faux-LED crosses and blatant consumerist imagery of his long-time friend and supporter Skullphone, they begin to take on a hint of desperation, a plaintive plea in a world inundated with brand-names and electronic simulacra. While the two artists have supported each other for over 7 years, Scripture, now showing at the Mallick Williams and Co. Gallery in Chelsea, is the first documented collaboration between the two artists. Regardless of the precedent, however, the installation sees Kulig and Skullphone pursuing techniques that the artists have explored in past work.
–> (more…)

Tom Sachs interviewed in the Wall Street Journal, in advance of his takeover of the Park Avenue Armory this Spring and upcoming show at Sperone Westwater on the Bowery [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪‬Tate Britain to explore “the impact of Picasso’s art on British art” this February, exhibition will include English National Ballet residency [AO Newslink]

(more…)

–>
Frank Stella, Double Mitered Maze (1967). All images on site for Art Observed by Ana Marjanovic.

Paul Kasmin gallery hosts Geometric Variations, an exhibition assembling Frank Stella’s square-shaped canvases from the 1960s and ’70s, including Concentric Square, Mitered Mazes and the Benjamin Moore series. According to the press release, the exhibition explores the “historical importance” of Stella’s canvases. Contextualizing them within Western art history discourse, H.H. Arnason pointed out that Stella’s art represents a median between the “modernism advocated by Greenberg, and Minimalism.”

More text and images after the jump…
–>
(more…)

‪

Performa opens November 1 in New York with Elmgreen & Dragset work Happy Days in the Art World, featuring Joseph Fiennes [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪‬

Cologne sentences German art fraud ring to 15 years in prison for painting 14 works sold as masterpieces by such artists as Max Ernst, Fernand Léger and others [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪‬Hewlett-Packard signs 10 year lease for Chelsea Art Museum building on Hudson River with ‘special’ plans [AO Newslink]

(more…)

Damien Hirst Legend (2011) and Myth (2010), via The Guardian

Damien Hirst has moved on to dissecting mythical creatures in his most recent public showing at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, UK, part of a Sotheby’s selling exhibition of monumental sculpture. From Legend, the winged horse with exposed bones and muscles, to Myth, a partially skinned unicorn, Hirst continues his exploration of anatomy, as well as “the relationship between science and religion,” (The Guardian). “It’s kind of like exploding a myth to make it real,” Hirst explains.

More text and images after the jump…
(more…)

‪‬Marni Kotak artfully births Baby X in Bushwick Microscope Gallery, awards herself and new son 10 foot trophies [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪

Nowness presents a city of moving images with Doug Aitken’s new video work, Altered Earth.  Says Aitken, “I felt like I was holding the earth in my hand.” [AO Newslink]

(more…)

–>
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Lavatore – impalcatura (2008-2011). All images via Simon Lee Gallery.

His second exhibition at Simon Lee Gallery, Michelangelo Pistoletto uses a process-as-product aesthetic to address themes of production, labor, and inevitably, deconstruction. The exhibition, titled Lavoro (Italian for to work or to operate), displays objects of construction as a means of revealing the art inherent to the tools that produce it, revisiting the artist’s fascination with ideas of assembly and process, and the socio-political implications thereof.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

‪‬Ai Weiwei to be named WSJ Innovator of the Year in Art, Marina Abramović to accept on his behalf at MoMA award ceremony this Thursday [AO Newslink]

(more…)

The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry, is placed on hold with aspects of construction halted [AO Newslink]

(more…)

Banks Violette video interviewed on his process and the origins of and conceptual drivers behind his work [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪‬Damien Hirst designs label for 20-year-old Somerset Cider Brandy as a favor to Alice Temperley, 10 years after being asked [AO Newslink]

(more…)

Zeng Fanzhi, Bacon, 2010

Now on at Gagosian Gallery Hong Kong is a large exhibition of paintings by Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi. Known for his representations of the human figure, this show presents many key works from the past twenty years of his career. Fanzhi’s work explores the transformations within post-Cultural Revolution China, specifically the developments in art and the art market. His paintings tackle the evolving role of Chinese history and tradition within contemporary society, and his expressionistic style makes clear that this is not necessarily a smooth transition. The paintings are tactile and frenzied both in style and subject matter. Since first being represented by Gagosian in July, this is Fanzhi’s first show at the Gagosian Gallery Hong Kong.

More text and images after the jump…
(more…)

Thomas Houseago, Lying Figure (Mother Father) 2011. Via Art & Architecture Journal Press.

On Vassivière Island, What Went Down is Thomas Houseago‘s first exclusively sculpture exhibition in France, at The Centre International d’art et due Paysage de L’ile de Vassivière. Both the building and its surroundings are filled with large, monumental sculptures inspired by the Vassivière landscape. Curated by Chiara Parisi, the artist creates with plaster, bronze, and wood, applying traditional ‘high-art’ materials to sprawling, awkward, masculine forms. Houseago has described his work as unskilled, saying “I could talk for hours about Michel Foucault, but I couldn’t draw. So I feel like I’m in a punk band. I’m completely unskilled. I feel like I just have to do it.”

Thomas Houseago, Large Lamp I (Snake Island) (2011). Via AAJP

More text and images after the jump…
(more…)

The Mound (2011), left. Triptych (2011), right.

Lisa Yuskavage is currently showing her third solo exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery. In a mix of early French Impressionism (a la Manet) and Dali-esque Surrealism, Yuskavage captures the languid, voluptuous figures of the female body through a feminist lens. The artist also takes on themes of landscape, time, and plot, in a way that extends her visual resonance.

Art Observed on site for the opening

More text and images after the jump…
(more…)

‪‬Terence Koh launches new website with minimal aesthetic, “both ‘lo-fi’ and HD” [AO Newslink]

(more…)

‪‬Warhol Foundation dissolves authentication board to focus on “charitable activities,” effect on art market worries collectors [AO Newslink]

(more…)

–>
FIAC 2011 at the Grand Palais in Paris. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

FIAC 2011 (The Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) opens this weekend in Paris for its 38th year. The international art fair, which boasts an impressive array of 168 galleries from 21 countries, will show the work of some 2,800+ artists. Running October 20–23rd, the exposition comes at the tail end of Frieze Art Fair, drawing artists, collectors, gallerists, and enthusiasts eastward from London. While the focus of Frieze leans toward contemporary, FIAC includes both contemporary and modern, including works from Picasso, Calder, and Matisse. The fair has been building momentum since 2006; Jennifer Flay, appointed general director in 2010, credits this boost to the fair’s move to the Grand Palais, one of the city’s most cherished architectural gems. The fair also expands this year to the Jardin des Tuileries, the Jardin des Plantes, the Museum of Natural History, and other venues around the city. Another innovation, a mobile application (in French) is available through Windows Phone which enables visitors to book tickets directly from their phone, as well as receive realtime news updates from the fair, find exhibitors and artists, and access videos and photos of the show.

–>
Jay Jopling of White Cube, which is exhibiting Damien Hirst’s Where Will It End.

More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)

All images for Art Observed on site by Guillaume Vandame.

The Andrea Rosen Gallery currently presents its first exhibition of Sterling Ruby and Lucio Fontana, an adventurous juxtaposition of the hip contemporary Californian with the radical and aggressive 20th Century artist. Ms. Andrea Rosen, who kindly answered questions on the show, described how the inspiration for the exhibition came as a conversation with Ruby when Rosen was doing a group show of De Kooning, Fontana, and Eva Hesse in the fall of 2008. “We were talking about contextualizing Sterling’s work and Sterling had very much liked that show, in particular my relationship to those particular ceramics which hadn’t been shown very much,” Rosen said. “So we started with a discussion and it sort of evolved in a year long conversation about what we wanted to accomplish juxtaposing Sterling and Fontana.”

More text and images after the jump…
(more…)

–>
Jenny Saville, Red Stare Head 1 (2011). Oil on canvas.  10 5/16 x 86 5/8 inches. © Jenny Saville. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by Mike Bruce.

Her first exhibition in New York City since 2003, Jenny Saville‘s Continuum is on now at the Madison Avenue Gagosian Gallery. Writes Saville, “[Flesh] is all things. Ugly, beautiful, repulsive, compelling, anxious, neurotic, dead, alive.” In the multicolored paintings of the Stare series, the body and face are disturbingly laid open. The artist depicts flesh in all forms and colors, often grotesque, as seen in several mother and child paintings, which are also heavily influenced by Biblical imagery.

More text and images after the jump…
–>
(more…)

‪‬Chuck Close, Sam Francis Foundation, the estate of Robert Graham, and Laddie John Dill sue Sotheby’s and Christie’s over adherence to California Resale Royalties Act [AO Newslink]

(more…)