Dan Flavin, untitled (to Sonja) (1969), via Art Observed

An idea that began with a single light was the generative force for New York minimalist Dan Flavin‘s ongoing interests in light and space. Starting in 1963 with the creation of diagonal of May 25th, 1963, a fluorescent lamp installed diagonally on a wall, Flavin quickly adopted light as his central aesthetic focus, and his journey through the environmental capacities of  light can now be seen in Corners, Barriers and Corridors at David Zwirner.

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Gilbert & George, To Be With Art is All We Ask (1970), all photos via Art Observed

The artist duo Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore, better-known by just Gilbert & George, the self-proclaimed “Two People but One Artist,” first met in 1967 studying sculpture in London.  As the story goes, the two were taking photographs of one another holding their sculptural works, when it struck them that their own corporeal presence in the images was far more interesting than the sculptures.  As a result the pair deemed themselves “living sculptures,” and following the line of this ideology, have since considered their partnership, their artistic work (in all mediums), and even the mundane operations undertaken in their everyday lives, to be “Sculpture.”  For this reason, Gilbert & George made their mantra “Art for All,” endeavoring to make sculpture and sculptural practice accessible and liberated from the discriminatory elitism of the art world at large, instead focusing on the idea that accessible art derives from life itself. Read More »

Sterling Ruby at the Gagosian booth, all photos via Art Observed

Returning to its annual haunt at MoMA PS1, the Printed Matter New York Art Book Fair has concluded, bringing countless rare, collectible and artist-authored books to Long Island City. Read More »

Mike Kelley, Kandor 10B (2011), via Art Observed

Mike Kelley’s Kandor series ranks among the artist’s more enigmatic projects: a series of sculptures, videos and installation work that works the origin mythologies of the Superman comics into the fabric of the artist’s own life and work.  The works are equally desolate and comical, peculiar and commanding in their execution, often rendered in glowing hues of purple, red and yellow, or countered by immense chunks of sculpted detritus, recreating the titular hero’s Fortress of Solitude. Read More »

Carl Andre in His Time (Installation View), via Art Observed

Taking the minimalist exercises of Carl Andre as its starting point, Mnuchin Gallery has opened an exhibition taking the structural interests and shared visions of the New York school of minimalism during the 1960’s and 70’s as its core focus.  Titled Carl Andre in his Time, the exhibition presents pieces by Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt and more, each locked into conversation with Andre’s work.

John Chamberlain, Honest 508 (1973-74), via Art Observed

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Gego, Dibujo sin papel 88|28 (1988), via Art Observed

German-born Venezuelan artist Gego (born Gertrude Goldschmidt) is the subject of the opening fall show at Dominique Lévy this month, charting the late artist’s investigation of geometric form and space as it translates through the formal signifiers of modernity. Read More »

Francesco Vezzoli, Eternal Kiss (2015), via Almine Rech

Continuing his recent interest in the preservation, representation and context of the historical, Francesco Vezzoli is currently showing a new work Eternal Kiss at Almine Rech’s London exhibition space.  Taking a pair of classical Roman busts originally acquired at auction, Vezzoli has worked for several years restoring the works, relying on the input and advice of archaeologists and historians to approximate their original surfaces. Read More »

Thomas Ruff, Negostil 01 (2015)

Considered amongst the most prolific and groundbreaking of contemporary photographers, Thomas Ruff is the subject of an exhibition with his new body of work at Gagosian Gallery’s London location.  Over the last three decades, Ruff, who emerged during the 80’s while studying under Hilla Becher at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, with other now influential names such as Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky, has faithfully explored the visual and practical limits of photography a medium that has traced its evolution alongside the rapid changes in technological development over the past century. His constantly evolving, experimentalist approach to his practice has provided him a broad repertoire of shifting elements and touchstones. Read More »

Doris Salcedo, From Unland series (Installation View), all photos via Osman Yerebakan for Art Observed

Visiting the Doris Salcedo retrospective currently on view at the Guggenheim through October 12th, attendees may experience a peculiar bitterness, stemming from poignance of Salcedo’s historically expansive and emotionally profound body of work.  Everyday commodities, from shoes to chairs, play a key role in Salcedo’s spacious installations covering multiple floors of the museum’s Tower Galleries. With their visually mute yet bleak façades, mundane objects assembled in distinct orchestrations venture into profound narratives, reflecting Salcedo’s meticulous study on consequences of political turmoil in her country and around the globe, often exploring the tragic, human cost of political turbulence, revolt and oppression.

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Agnes Martin, Happy Holiday (1999)

The Tate Modern is currently hosting the first retrospective of Agnes Martin in twenty years on view through October 11th. The exhibition, planned to visit the Guggenheim in 2016, spans the versatile and extensive career of the artist, who remained loyal to her distinct pattern over many decades, while discovering and inventing new paths within a deliberately spare vocabulary.  Read More »