All photos by Abbey Stone for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Wednesday evening’s opening of Richard Serra‘s new exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea was abuzz. The huge warehouse space seemed to vibrate as art enthusiasts made their way through the artist’s massive installation. Roughly 15 feet tall, the two separate pieces, Junction and Cycle, create a sloping, weaving maze, inviting and immersing viewers within. Whispering praise as they explored the labyrinthine pieces, one such patron murmured, “It’s like you’re in a whole new world.”

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Perfect Man 2 at White Columns, opening reception. All photos for Art Observed by Ana Marijanovic, unless otherwise noted.

Artist-curator Rita Ackermann and creative director Parinaz Mogadassi curate the Perfect Man II at White Columns, a group show exploring gender issues within contemporary socio-cultural norms. The exhibition features mostly male artists in different stages of their careers, including Richard Serra, Ken Okiishi, Ed Paschke, Rammellzee, Josh Smith, Dan Graham, Malcolm Morley, and the Bernadette Corporation, among others—a collection of thirty-four multimedia pieces: paintings, installations, sculptures, video art, and photography. The show succeeds Perfect Man I, curated by Ackermann in 2007, which brought together mainly female artists. The idea behind Perfect Man is derived from “a poem written by an American housewife that was originally published in a truck driver’s magazine,” according to White Columns. Less explanatory and highly experimental curatorship of the Perfect Man II allows viewers to draw their own conclusions on the complex gender issues.

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Installation view.

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Jackie Wullshlager interviews Michael Craig-Martin: “It is hard to overestimate [his] significance in the revolution in British art and in Britain’s relationship with art, which followed in the 1990s.” [AO Newslink]

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All photos for Art Observed by Abbey Stone.

Newly nestled in its new home at 18 Wooster Street, the Swiss Institute (SI) continues to fulfill its mission of fostering “a way of thinking which asks audiences to break with traditional assumptions about art and national stereotypes,” presenting two inaugural exhibitions this fall. Wednesday, September 14, marked the opening of Books on Books, curated by Christoph Schifferli, and This is Not My Color/ The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by artists Pamela Rosenkrantz and Nikolas Gambaroff.

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Marina Abramović’s ‘The Artist Is Present’ Goes Virtual with Pippin Barr’s New Video Game [AO Newslink]

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Beatriz Milhazes, Gamboa Seasons Autumn Love (2010). All photos via Galerie Max Hetzler.

Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes begins Berlin Galerie Max Hetzler’s season with four large paintings, collages, and a mobile.  The paintings are titled after the four seasons and continue the artist’s engagement with bold, colorful explorations of familiar objects and ideas taken as geometrical abstractions.

Installation view

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Breaking: Richard Hamilton, the “Father of Pop,” designer of Beatles White album, died this morning at 89. Recently showed at Serpentine Gallery, was working on major retrospective to show next year.   Gagosian gallery confirmed his death, at an undisclosed location in Britain. [AO Newslink]

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Steve Powers, aka ESPO, is completing A Love Letter to Brooklyn, re-envisioning a mall garage on Hoyt street, part of the Fulton Mall [AO Newslink]

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Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ed Ruscha drive around, talk about art, in multi-gallery project Pacific Standard Time’s newest ad [AO Newslink]

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David Byrne and Pace Gallery set to open Tight Spot, a 48-by-20-foot inflatable globe under the High Line on 25th Street in Chelsea, New York [AO Newslink]

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The Selby takes a look inside the home of New York artist Aaron Young [AO Newslink]

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Police arrest four alleged terrorists in Goteborg, Sweden’s 2nd largest city, and evacuate arts center during the Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art on Saturday [AO Newslink]

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As the first set of auctions following Lucian Freud’s death approaches, Sotheby’s to sell the painter’s 1952 work, Boy’s Head, for an estimated £4m [AO Newslink]

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Teengirl Fantasy at MoMA PS1 Warm Up. All photos for Art Observed by Joachim Azoulay.

For the summer’s final ‘Warm Up’ at MoMA PS1, the all-afternoon courtyard party kept entertained by music from Kenny Dope, Tanlines, Syd tha Kyd, Teengirl Fantasy, and Physical Therapy. Some of the acts had been rescheduled from their earlier performances slated for August 27th, due to Hurricane Irene. Aside from dancing, art enthusiasts enjoyed drinks throughout the space, admiring a room of mirrors or playing ping pong. And while the anticipated 9/11 exhibition was off limits, the first floor shown the works of Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception.

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An itinerary for a pilgrimage to the remote art mecca of Marfa, Texas [AO Newslink]

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News that the Tate Modern extension may be delayed with 2nd phase to begin in 2016 due to lack of funds, but also, that the Tate family of galleries had its most successful year ever, making it the second most attended art institution behind the Louvre [AO Newslink]

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Christie’s New York to sell in November $25 million worth of art from the Norton collection including works by Matthew Barney, Robert Gober, Takashi Murakami, Kara Walker and Paul McCarthy. [AO Newslink]

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Carlito Carvalhosa, Sum of Days (2010). Via MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) presents Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days, a large-scale interactive installation that engages the visitor’s visual, tactile and auditory senses. Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa (born 1961) has suspended a lengthy, white, semi-transparent fabric from the spiral-like support attached to the ceiling of MoMA’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, draping a nearly 20 meter tall stucture. The fabric loosely touches the ground forming an elliptical walkway, the audience invited to walk through the installation and touch the fabric walls. Ceiling-mounted microphones record each days’ background noises which are then played back the following day. This “accumulation” of sound through time is reflected through the title Sum of Days. The installation also includes the occasional live music performance.

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The Dia Foundation acquires 541 West 22nd Street in Chelsea as an annex for $11.5 million [AO Newslink]

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Subodh Gupta, Ali Baba (2011)

The major exhibition Paris-Delhi-Bombay, currently on view at Centre Pompidou through September 19th, displays work by nearly 50 artists mainly based or born in India. Many emerging and high-profile Indian artists have been showing recently in Paris—both the work at Indian Summer, organized at Ecole des Beaux Arts, and Anish Kapoor‘s monumental intervention at the Grand Palais, have included work by Indian artists both already established in Europe as well as those still up-and-coming.

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On the impact China has on art sales globally: “Chinese auction houses are now selling works at a pace formerly associated with those in London and New York” with “[Chinese collectors responsible for] some $8.3 billion in sales, which would make them the world leader.” [AO Newslink]

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Pipilotti Rist will hang 300 pairs of white underwear along the Southbank on the Thames during her solo show at the Hayward Gallery: “they will look like whipped cream. Or sheep’s heads, with the legs of the pants forming the eyes.” [AO Newslink]

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Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker defaced in Buenos Aires at the Plaza de los dos Congresos by vandals who write: ‘Think what good it did you to think so much before it’s over’ [AO Newslink]

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