The NYT has a piece on the healthy state of artist-run galleries in Los Angeles.“A lot of galleries will say they show new or emerging artists,” says Smart Objects founder Chadwick Gibson, “but if you go back you’ll find that they showed at three artist-run spaces first.” (more…)
Critic Avelina Lésper is facing criticsm after shattering a glass portion of a piece by Gabriel Rico at Zona Maco this weekend, reportedly after she placed a can of Coca-Cola on the sculpture. “Although it seems to have been accidental and is irrelevant as to how it happened, the action of Ms. Lésper of getting too close to the work of art to put a can of soda on it and take a picture to make a criticism, had undoubtedly caused the destruction, and is above all, a huge lack of professionalism and respect,” says exhibiting gallery Galeria OMR. (more…)
Caroline Baumann has abruptly resigned from her position as director of the Cooper Hewitt, the NYT reports, stepping down on Friday. “Baumann has been a passionate voice for design,” the museum said in a statement, “and much has been accomplished during her tenure.” (more…)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will award the first eponymous Woman of Leadership Award to collector and activist Agnes Gund. “To be compared to Justice Ginsburg is so extraordinary and an overwhelming honor,” Gund said in a statement. “I have worked most of my life to ensure that access to art should be a right, not a privilege because it can open minds and inspire dreams.” (more…)
Collector Ella Fontanals-Cisneros has called off a donation of 400 works from her massive collection to the Spanish state after a series of confrontations with minister of culture and sports, José Guirao. “What I perceived was a refusal to continue with the project,” she says. “It surprised me coming from a person like José Guirao, with knowledge in fine arts.” (more…)
Frieze LA’s Projects section gets a profile in the FT this week, showcasing its focus on engaging large-scale works. “You can present works that typically would not fit within a gallery booth or within the confines of a tent,” says curator Rita Gonzalez. (more…)
The Volta Art Fair is relaunching this year after a year off in 2019, Art News reports. “It truly is an exhilarating time,” says Kamiar Maleki, the art fair’s new director. “We have focused the exhibitor list on a strong and diverse 50-plus galleries and have loosened up the solo-project mandate to offer participants greater liberty to stage their presentations as they would do so at their home galleries.” (more…)
Art Eric Doeringer will be selling a miniature bootleg version of a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting in the collection of the Broad Museum at the Felix art fair this week, asking for $1,000. The work is part of a series of bootlegs drawn from the museum collection. (more…)
Jeff Koons via Almine Rech
Opening for its second year in the Californian sprawl of Los Angeles, the Frieze Art Fair returns for a second year under the sunny skies of the Golden State. Taking its place once again at Paramount Studios, the fair has quickly planted its flag as a major part of the early weeks of the annual fair calendar, and has become the flagship fair in the run up to the Armory Show in New York next month. (more…)
Julie Curtiss has joined White Cube, and will show with the gallery alongside her NYC gallery Anton Kern. Curtiss has seen her star on the rise in recent years after strong auction performances and a well-received solo show in New York. (more…)
The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art has postponed a number of shows at cornoavirus fears continue to mount. “UCCA would like to thank all the artists, journalists, friends of the institution, and other stakeholders who have had to reschedule travel plans and visits to our museums due to this unexpected situation,” a museum statement reads. “We hope to see you soon, and thank you for your understanding and additional support during this trying time. UCCA sends its care and concern to those affected by the virus, and expresses our sincere gratitude to the medical staff and emergency response teams selflessly working to ensure public health.” (more…)
Ai Weiwei at Lisson Gallery, all photos via Anfisa Vrubel for Art Observed
Zona Maco has opened the doors for its 17th year this week, celebrating the milestone event today with the first day of its VIP preview yesterday at the Centro Banamex. Offering a look at the stature of the fair in relation to the burgeoning artistic community in Mexico City in relation to the art and artists flying in from around the globe, the fair’s dynamic program included conferences with international guests, a section with specialized publications and editorials, and the widest program of parallel activities with exhibitions at the most outstanding galleries and museums in the country. (more…)
After much back and forth over whether or not Art Basel Hong Kong would attempt to continue in the face of the coronavirus outbreak in China, parent company MCH Group announced today that the 2020 edition of ABHK is cancelled. “Our thoughts are with those affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak all around the world. We are acutely aware of the important role that the fair plays within the region’s cultural scene and for our galleries, both in Asia and around the globe,” says Marc Spiegler, Member of MCH Group’s Executive Board and Global Director Art Basel. “Our team dedicated extensive time and effort to ensure our show in March would be a success over the course of the past year. Unfortunately, the sudden outbreak and rapid spread of the novel coronavirus radically changed the situation.” (more…)
Sotheby’s will sell a David Hockney sunflower painting in Hong Kong this spring, estimated at around $10.3 million, and will embark on a tour of Asia before its sale. “Having witnessed substantial interest in Hockney amongst Asian collectors in our international sale locations, this was a natural move for us. The flower still life is furthermore a popular motif for Asian audiences,” Yuki Terase, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, Asia said. (more…)
Bloomberg has a piece this week on collectors increasingly borrowing against their collection to fund new purchases, taking advantage of low interest rates to drive spending. “The collector base tends to come from credit-savvy, market-driven industries: private equity, hedge funds, tech, big data,” says Evan Beard, art-services executive at Bank of America Corp. “They built their companies using debt, and now they apply the same methodology to building art collections.” (more…)
Artist Pilvi Takala has been tapped for the Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale next year. “The fact that I could start researching early on means I don’t have to make any compromises due to lack of time and can be more ambitious about what I’m making,” Takala said in a statement. (more…)
Tamara de Lempicka, Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (1932), final price: £16,280,000, via Christie’s
With the UK now into its first days of Brexit, attention turned to London this week for a string of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Sales that looked to take the first test of the market. Considering the results this week, a path forward seems uneasy but possible, as mixed results between the auction houses made for a series of compelling auctions and unpredictable results (more…)
Beijing Gallery Weekend has been postponed over coronavirus concerns. “Facing this major threat to public health, all members of the team will fully cooperate with prevention and control measures while still working online with the utmost efficiency,” reads a statement from the organization. (more…)
Deutsche Bank is scaling back its art collecting activities, and has already sold some of its key works. The works sold include a massive Gerhard Richter triptych from the lobby of the bank’s Wall Street tower. (more…)
Martine Gosselink, current head of history at the Rijksmuseum, will head to The Mauritshuis as its next general director. “Alongside her wealth of experience in the museum sector, we see great added value in her historical expertise and ability to present artworks in their historical context, as a result of which the story of the Mauritshuis collection can be even better communicated,” said Lokke Moerel, chair of the Mauritshuis’s supervisory board. “The museum’s objective is to connect the present with the past and thereby contribute to contemporary themes and the social debate. We believe that Martine, together with the Mauritshuis staff, will bring this to life in an inspiring way.” (more…)
A German court this week ruled that the current holder of a work cannot its registration on a government database of Nazi-looted art, despite dealer claims that these postings make the work unsellable. “From the moment an artwork is listed in lostart.de, a serious art dealer cannot trade it,” says Rupert Keim, the president of Germany’s Federal Association of Art Auctioneers. “The seller is forced to find a solution with the claimant.” (more…)
Robert Grosvenor, Untitled (2020), via Karma
Artist Robert Grosvenor could perhaps best be described as an artist invested in space. His interests rely not only on how the object exists within it, but equally how the space around an object twists and responds, moves and carves up space. His sculptures capture a similar idea, pulling the viewer through their specific materiality and unconventional formal language that at one point might incorporate a distinct industrial materiality, while at others moving into a hard-edged, classic minimalism. Each of the elements of this historical movement’s conceptual interests are there: heft and weight, density, scale, and even color, yet Grosvenor, more and more over the past years particularly, seems to take these principles and turn them towards the everyday, mining the language of the world around him to find new ways to ask similar questions . For his third show at Karma in New York, Grosvenor continues this particular interest in the realm between space and object, presenting a room-sized sculpture that the artist refers to as a “block of water,” as well as a collection of found and variously altered models of aircraft, watercraft, and automobiles.
Robert Grosvenor, Untitled (2020), via Karma (more…)
Peter Saul and Jamian Juliano-Villani speak with each other for an interview this week in Art News, discussing their work and their senses of humor. “You know how you have all the different areas for tastes on your tongue? In paintings I’ve got to hit those marks—and humor is one of them,” Juliano-Villani says. “When I make a painting, I like to start out with something stupid, then bring it somewhere to cancel that out—then bring it back to something else.” (more…)