A judge has ordered the Mana Contemporary Art Storage facility to turn over all art from the collection of the Mugrabi family, after a judge ruled for the family. “The warehouse has to deliver all the art that they have to the Mugrabis now,” says the family’s lawyer, Aaron Richard Golub. (more…)

Curator and editor Shannon Michael Cane, who curated Printed Matter’s fairs and editions, has passed away.  He was a central figure in the non-profit bookstore and exhibition space’s vibrant engagement with art publications and printed art. “Shelley and I join with the Printed Matter family and the entire artist publications community in mourning the sudden and devastating loss of our friend and colleague Shannon Michael Cane,” says Phil Aarons, Printed Matter board chair. “His unparalleled passionate commitment to helping artists bring their printed materials to the public was crucial to Printed Matter and so many others. Vibrant, fearless, and larger than life, he will be profoundly missed.” (more…)

Gilbert & George are profiled in the Evening Standard this week, as the pair continue work on 3,000 square-foot exhibition space in a former brewery off Brick Lane in London’s East End. “Why? Because the Tate never shows our work and they will never, because nothing is good enough for them,” says Gilbert Proesch. (more…)

Another lawsuit over Seated Man with a Cane, the 1918 Amedeo Modigliani work claimed as Nazi loot by Phillip Maestracci, the grandson of Parisian art dealer Oscar Stettiner, will go forward in New York.  Maestracci is suing the Nahmad family to reclaim the work.  (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on the Hong Kong arts scene this week, spotlighting the city’s location and role as a central piece in the international art circuit, particularly as more Western galleries seek to engage with the city’s wealthy elite. “Hong Kong is a big art market, but there’s a huge gap between the art market and practices in the community,” said Vivienne Chow, an art critic and founder of the Hong Kong-based Cultural Journalism Campus. (more…)

The group of feminists artists (including Judith Bernstein, Betty Tompkins and Carolee Schneeman, among others) who challenged the art world’s gender imbalances in representation and thematics through powerful and often controversial images during the 1970’s are the subject of a profile in the New York Times. noting their recent popularity and cultural significance. “I became an overnight success at 72,” Tompkins jokes. (more…)

Barbara Kruger, FOREVER (Installation View). All images via Anna Corrigan for Art Observed.

Now through December 22, Sprüth Magers Berlin is presenting FOREVER, a new site-specific work by Barbara Kruger. For this exhibition, the artist has created an immersive room-wrap and several new vinyl works, which together take over all four walls and the floor of the gallery’s main exhibition room. The language around which this exhibition centers reflects Kruger’s bold and distinctive voice, one which has come to define her work over the course of her 40-year career. (more…)

Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch will once again join forces at Miami’s Moore building to present an exhibition during Miami Art Week.  This year’s edition will be titled Abstract / Not Abstract, and feature works exploring the lines defining abstract painting. “The theme and title of ‘Abstract / Not Abstract’ was Larry Gagosian’s suggestion,” Deitch says. “Millions of abstract paintings have been made since 1910, but the concept of abstraction continues to be expanded and reinvented by each generation of artists. There is an especially strong and diverse generation of painters working today in a mode that opens the definition of abstraction.” (more…)

Los Angeles’s Underground Museum gets a profile in W this week, spotlighting its contributions to the arts communities of underserved Central LA. “There’s something coming out of that place that is so radical in its potential that you can feel it,” says sculptor Thomas Houseago. “And it draws a mix of people that I don’t find anywhere else in the world.” (more…)

Allison Janae Hamilton, Tschabalala Self, and Sable Elyse Smith have been named the 2018 Studio Museum’s artists in residence. The artists all currently have work on view in impressive exhibitions at museums around New York.  (more…)

Garage Magazine has a lengthy interview with Whitney curator Scott Rothkopf on the catalog for the just opened Laura Owens show, topping 600 pages and including a number of personal financial documents and letters. “Laura’s made herself very vulnerable—she’s kind of running through the streets naked here—and there’s a there’s a tremendous amount of bravery and generosity about doing so because she hopes this book will be an inspiration for younger artists, a peek behind the curtain of what an artist’s life can be,” he says. (more…)

Josh Smith is now represented by David Zwirner, the Art News reports. “I make art for myself, to see what it will look like. I also effectively let viewers, myself included, take or leave what they want,” the artist said in a statement. “The message is indefinable, but the gist of it is; we are alive, and here together….Here is a group of painted poems, if you like…take a look and absorb what you want from them.” (more…)

National Gallery of Art Director Earl “Rusty” Powell will step down in 2019, bringing to close a tenure that saw steady growth and development for the museum. “I think I have run a pretty good race here, and it seems sort of a logical time,” Powell said. “I turn 75 next year. And this will be after that. I still have some gas in the tank. I’m not particularly interested in sitting on the porch looking at sunsets.” (more…)

A recent report by Deloitte notes the vast sums of money, upwards of $2.7 trillion, the ultra-wealthy will spend on art in under ten years, and notes the ongoing concerns over the security and transparency of the field among collectors. The report notes advanced analytics as “an important development and could contribute toward improving transparency, valuation accuracy, and risk management of art-related wealth.” (more…)

David Zwirner is interviewed in Forbes this week, as the gallery opens its massive new show of works by Yayoi Kusama. “This is exactly the kind of exhibition that Kusama wants us to have in New York and what she wants the New York audience to see, and we have the space to show the work just the way the artist wants to see them,” he says.  “So, our primary clients are not the ones that buy the art, but the ones that entrust the art to us. And those are the ones we have to look after first and foremost. And that is what we are doing here. Kusama is very happy.” (more…)

In her first interview since leaving the Stedelijk Museum, the ousted Beatrix Ruf has stated that she did nothing wrong in her operation of outside art consulting. “I am confident that I reported everything in good faith,” she says, noting her agreements with the museum on continuing to lead while running an art advisory. (more…)

Following the conclusion of a lengthy renovation project, Performance Space 122 will return to its home in the East Village in January, the NYT reports. The space will be inaugurated with the the 13th and final edition of the organization’s Coil festival. (more…)

A new report from the UK’s Center for Economic and Business Research has found that the arts are growing five times as fast as the rest of the nation’s economy. “Not only does arts and culture have a positive impact on the lives of individuals who participate, but it demonstrates how far public investment in the arts goes to stimulate growth in the creative industries,” says arts minister John Glen. (more…)

The Armory Show has announced its exhibitor list for the 2018 edition of its New York fair, with 186 galleries included this year, as well as the launch of a new Curatorial Leadership Summit program. (more…)

Jeff Koons is interviewed in Businessweek this week, as the artist discusses his recent collaborations with Louis Vuitton and Jay-Z. “What art is, for me, is the possibility that when someone views something, they’re able to pick up on the essence of their own potential: It’s a vehicle—something that stimulates their own excitement,” he says. (more…)

Maureen Bray, a former director at David Nolan Gallery and Sean Kelly Galley has been named the new executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “Maureen brings two decades of experience in leadership positions at our member galleries, and understands every facet of the role that dealers play in the greater arts ecology,” said ADAA President Adam Sheffer, who is also a partner at Cheim & Read gallery. (more…)

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is set to open this weekend, and is the subject of a lengthy spotlight in Bloomberg this week. The piece spotlights the museum’s collection, its first shows, and the completion of its ambitious design by architect Jean Nouvel. (more…)

Cindy Sherman is profiled in W Magazine this week, as the artist embarks on a new commissioned project creating warped, distended selfies for the magazine’s art issue. “I actually hate the idea of selfies,” she says. “People say, ‘oh, but you’re, like, the queen of selfies.’ I really kind of cringe at that thought.” (more…)

Lisson Gallery is now representing artist Mary Corse, who adds the gallery for joint representation with Lehmann Maupin. Corse is currently preparing a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. (more…)