Studio Museum head Thelma Golden has been appointed to the board of directors for the the Barack Obama Foundation in Chicago this week.  “I am very much looking forward to joining the Board of Directors, and working to make the Obama Presidential Center a hub for creative expression through the arts,” Golden said in a statement. “The South Side of Chicago has historically been the nexus of several important cultural movements for African-Americans, and I believe the new Center will help usher in a new era of community engagement for this extraordinary neighborhood.” (more…)

An article in Bloomberg this week notes the increasingly difficult challenges of turning a profit for smaller and less commercially-focused galleries, despite a booming art market, and points to writer/art adviser Magnus Resch’s book Management of Art Galleries for potential solutions.  “I could have just said, ‘The revenue numbers are terrible,’ but rather than being so negative I’m actually offering solutions,” Resch says. “It’s based on the analysis that I did.” (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei has been granted his full 6-month visa by the UK Embassy, following an intervention by Home Secretary Theresa May.  “She has reviewed the case and has now instructed Home Office officials to issue a full six-month visa,” an embassy official said. “We have written to Mr Ai apologizing for the inconvenience caused.” (more…)

The ArcelorMittal Orbit, Anish Kapoor’s sculpture at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, will soon have its own Carsten Höller slide, after Kapoor invited the German artist to collaborate.  “I am thrilled that my tallest slide so far will cling onto Anish Kapoor’s The Orbit, taking an existing artwork as its site,” Höller says. “A slide is a sculptural work with a pragmatic aspect; a device for experiencing an emotional state that is a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness.” (more…)

The Financial Times notes the benefits of major corporations and financial institutions from collecting art, including benefits to the galleries and artists selling work.  “The important thing is that companies run a collection professionally,” says Loa Haagen Pictet, who chairs the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art.  “They manage it, show it, and have a proper database inventory and conduct activities directed at the public.” (more…)

Anicka Yi, 7,070,430K of Digital Spit (Installation View), via Kunsthalle Basel

Following up on her widely praised commission at The Kitchen earlier this year, Anicka Yi is presenting a new body of work on view at the Kunsthalle Basel, under the title 7,070,430K of Digital Spit.  Continuing the artist’s interest in time-sensitive and formally unstable media, the exhibition includes a number of works in various states of destruction and decay, applied here to explore notions of forgetting and memory loss. (more…)

 Ai Weiwei, Bench (2004), via Faurschou Foundation Copenhagen

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is currently presenting an exhibition of collected works that span the artist’s long career, encountering and documenting the artist’s countless conflicts, arrests and vocal critiques of the Chinese regime.  As a social activist, the artist’s work reflects the history and challenges of China in the 21st Century, placed alongside his own reflection and perception of his home country.  His work is intended to act as a form of intervention, and to encourage social change within the contemporary art sphere, while reflecting on China as the product of its vastly deep historical reserves.  This practice, and its history against the backdrop of contemporary China is illustrated in detail at Farschou Foundation this year, as the institution presents Ai Weiwei: Ruptures. (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly is the subject of lengthy profile in The Guardian this week, as the artist releases the first volume of his catalog raisonné, and reflects on his lengthy career.  Of particular note are his early experiences at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston’s Art School, which he found somewhat stifling towards modern and contemporary work.  “One day in ’46 or ’47, I went down to see a secretary about something, down in the basement of the museum,” he recalls.  “There was a painting behind her. I said, ‘Is that a Braque?’ And she said yes. I couldn’t believe it. ‘Why isn’t it upstairs?’ She said, ‘Well, they didn’t like it.’” (more…)

In addition to its Chelsea flagship and a satellite in Shanghai, James Cohan Gallery is opening its third location in the Lower East Side at the ground floor space of 291 Grand Street. “After being in business for 16 years, our roster of artist continues to grow and we want the opportunity for them to exhibit sooner than later”, explained Mr.Cohan. Works of Scottish artist, Katie Paterson, will be the first exhibition at the new location in February, followed by the Propeller Group in spring.

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Wallspace, the Chelsea Gallery that launched the career of Walead Beshty and has shown artists including Mark Grotjahn, N. Dash and Jay Defeo, is closing on August 7th.  “It has been our immense privilege to nourish a roster of artists who have inspired us, challenged us and enriched our lives in immeasurable ways,” the gallery said in a statement.  “We are better people for knowing you and we thank you for working with us to make Wallspace the special place it has been.” (more…)

Thomas Hirschhorn, In-Between (2015), Photo by Mark Blower Courtesy of South London Gallery

Thomas Hirschhorn has returned to London for his first solo show in the British capital is some time, bringing a new, site-specific work that continues the artist’s interest in crisis, temporality and mediation as necessary components in the understanding and mitigation of trauma.  Borrowing from the aesthetic languages of installation and sculpture, the artist maps a fictitious moment of violence across the South London Gallery, bringing with it a state of suspended aftermath. (more…)

Watermill Center Summer Benefit and Auction, via Art Observed

The 22^nd Edition of the Watermill Center’s Annual Summer Benefit took place this past weekend, honoring long-time Watermill supporter and philanthropist Inga Maren Otto. This year, the gala’s theme was “Circus of Stillness… power over wild beasts”. Hosted by Robert Wilson, it brought together works of art and performance from some 25 countries, with over one thousand attendees. The evening raised a total of over $1.9 million dollars towards Watermill Center’s Artist Residency Program, International Summer Program, and other educational events for its artists.

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The Seattle Art Fair, bankrolled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, opens today, with an impressive list of major blue-chip galleries in attendance.  “I’ve been going to the Venice Biennale for at least a decade and always enjoy the stimulation of seeing the work of new and up-and-coming artists,” says Allen. “In 2013 I started thinking, ‘what’s keeping us from doing this in Seattle?’” (more…)

While Ai Weiwei’s passport has been returned to him, the artist has reportedly been limited in how long he can travel in Britain in the coming months.  While he had planned a six-month stay, the British Embassy had reduced his stay to only 20 days, citing an unreported conviction in Chinese court.  “The decision is a denial of Ai Weiwei’s rights as an ordinary citizen, and a stand to take the position of those who caused sufferings for human rights defenders,” the artist said in a statement on his Instagram. (more…)

In an unexpected turn, Art News and Art in America have announced a merger that sees Peter Brant taking controlling interest in the pair of companies.  “The idea is to make artnews.com the single domain for the company when it comes to any digital editorial content — news coverage or information,” says ArtNews CEO Izabela Depczyk. “That means content from Art in America will be housed on the website as well… all the archival content [from all magazines], back issues, subscriptions, anything and everything will be housed on artnews.com.” (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has recorded at least 6.3 million visitors in the past year, the most in the 40 it has been recording attendance statistics.  The figures are attributed to the museum’s new seven day operating hours and a number of popular exhibitions. (more…)

Artists in Oakland and the Bay Area at large are outraged after the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area filed a lawsuit against the city for requiring all new building projects to include plans for public art on the premises.  “Developers owe it to the city and residents to enrich the landscape and culture of the urban space,” says Emma Spertus, artist and founder of the Oakland studio building and residency program Real Time and Space. (more…)

Katherine Bernhardt has completed a commissioned mural for Venus Over Los Angeles, covering the outside of the gallery in her signature cartoonish drawings of food and cigarettes.  The mural is on view through August 9th. (more…)

The New York City government has pledged $10 million towards Spaceworks, a city-based non-profit aiming to convert public spaces into affordable studio space for artists and community art sites.  The sites will be located in The Bronx.  “It’s a borough that is clearly under-resourced in terms of creative space,” says executive director Paul Parkhill. He is also hiring a full-time community organiser based in the area “to make sure there is a grassroots conversation early on, so people know what is happening.” (more…)

Following a number of walkouts and week-long protests, the staff at London’s National Gallery has announced its first full strike this August.  “Our members in the National Gallery have been engaged in a heroic struggle to defend the functions of a national institution,” PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said in a statement. “They have taken 52 days strike action so far and are prepared to take more. Accordingly, we have served the employer with notice today of more sustained action in August.” (more…)

Barbara Hepworth, Pelagos (1946). All Images courtesy Tate London

Now through October 25^th, the Tate Modern in London is hosting an exhibition of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptural work. The Yorkshire-born artist is known for her elegant abstract forms, and is considered among the most important British modernist sculptors of her time.  Hepworth has continued to produce consistently throughout her lifetime, creating a wide array of structures and employing a variety of materials evocative of natural landscapes and relationships, two of her main points of inquiry.

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Olaf Breuning, Life III (2015), via Michael Benevento

Compiling a body of work from the past several years of the artist’s practice, Michael Benevento  in Los Angeles is offering a broad look at the recent practice of Olaf Breuning, exploring the artist’s interest in vastly differing modes of production, and the thematic interests that unify his work.

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A Venice court will hear the lawsuit filed by The Icelandic Art Center (IAC) in Reykjavik over the closure of Christoph Büchel’s Icelandic Pavilion “mosque” in the Italian city over a perceived “security threat.”  The work was closed in May after remaining open for only two weeks. (more…)

The Financial Times profiles Patricia Barbizet, Christie’s newly minted chief executive, who moved from her early work with Renault through her longtime career working under François Pinault.  “My mother was an artist, my brothers and sisters are film and theatrical producers, my father was in cinema. I chose Renault — spot the odd one out,” she jokes. (more…)