Peter Coffin, LIVING (Installation View), via Art Observed

Given the recent string of shows and events opening at Red Bull Studios’ New York location in Chelsea, one has to wonder just who the energy drink brand has recruited to curate it’s well-appointed space. From the recent DISown concept store to Peter Coffin’s just-opened “Living” installation, the selection of works seem wholly of a similar focus and artistic project. (more…)

The New York Times takes an inside look at the selling techniques and strategies galleries are embracing during massive art fairs like last week’s Art Basel, including massive mailings of available works (“jpeg bombing”) and pre-selling works before the fair opens.  “‘First Choice’ V.I.P. access is no longer the priority as most of the major pieces at fairs are bought in advance,” says collector Kamiar Maleki.  “But still, nothing beats coming to the fair.” (more…)

This year’s temporary summer pavilion by the Serpentine Gallery has opened in Hyde Park, an enormous rounded structure likened to a doughnut, and designed by Chilean architect Smilijan Radic.  The rounded fiberglass space is designed to act as a public social space, and will remain open through October.

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Over 60 artworks at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf have been destroyed, allegedly by janitorial staff, who slashed artworks with a knife and stomped the works’ stretchers to pieces before leaving the destroyed pieces in the school’s yard.  “It’s just terrible for the students,” says Director Rita McBride. “The works are irreplaceable.”  (more…)

The Foundation Louis Vuitton is set to finally open its museum this coming October, showcasing the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton corporate art collection, Bernard Arnault has announced.  It will express the artistic, cultural and emotional values, as well as the art of living, promoted by Bernard Arnault and the LVMH Group, but it is truly a charitable foundation, devoted to the public as a whole,” says advisor Jean-Paul Claverie. (more…)

Nicholas Penny has announced his retirement from directing London’s National Gallery, leaving a remarkably successful legacy behind him.  Penny, who brought attendance up to record highs during his tenure (including a 6 million visitor count last year) is planning to step down next year after a replacement has been found.  “Following my retirement I have many plans, but chiefly look forward to spending more time with my family, friends and books,” he said. (more…)

Jenny Saville is interviewed this week in The Telegraph, discussing her painting techniques, and love of the human form.  “I paint flesh because I’m human,” she says. “If you work in oil, as I do, it comes naturally. Flesh is just the most beautiful thing to paint.” (more…)

SFMoMA is reportedly close to reaching its $610 Million Fundraising goal, Bloomberg reports this week.  The campaign, which is seeking funding for its new museum construction that will double the space for the space’s collection and will add several million to its endowment, has already reached 94% of its goal.  “In 1995, we were the pioneers when SOMA was pretty run-down, and the tech boom followed us,” says director Neal Benezra “Our expansion will solidify the neighborhood as a cultural hub.” (more…)

A public art collaboration between the Whitney Museum and the Highline will debut work by Alex Katz on the façade of 95 Horatio Street, just south of the elevated park.   The work, titled Katherine and Elizabeth, will remain on view for 8 to 12 months. (more…)

A new slide sculpture by Carsten Höller has opened in Rhein, Germany, installed on the Vitra campus.  The slide tower is designed with a rotating clock mechanism atop its structure, which is arranged to form the Vitra logo for a few minutes everyday.  “A slide is a sculptural work with a pragmatic aspect, a sculpture that you can travel inside,” Höller  says. “However, it would be a mistake to think that you have to use the slide to make sense of it.” (more…)

Fourteen monumental sculptures by Alexander Calder are going on view this summer at the Rijksmuseum’s outdoor gallery in Amsterdam.   The works will be on view during normal museum hours, and accompany an exhibition of works from the collection of the Calder Foundation and Musée National d’Art Moderne and Centre Pompidou, among others, (more…)

Following a previous excursion by Pace Gallery in the Swiss Alps, the gallery will return to a temporary space in the Engadin gallery town of Zuoz, bringing works by Donald Judd and John Chamberlain for an exhibition running from July to September. “Many collectors have beautiful houses and spend a significant amount of time in this part of Switzerland,” says director Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst. (more…)

Ragnar Kjartansson, Me and My Mother (2010), via Art Observed

When The New Museum opened its doors for its spring season last month, curator Massimo Gioni noted subtle threads of comparison in the pieces on view.  Meant to be a concise yet meticulous look into a series of individual works or focuses from a disparate group of artists, the series of exhibitions currently on view play on a series of common threads, incorporating mixes of sound and music, documentary, performance and history from artists Camille Henrot, Hannah Sawtell, David Horvitz, Jeanine Oleson and Roberto Cuoghi, arranged in a way that perhaps makes best sense to address as a singular experience the artists’ works, shared themes, and interests.

Hannah Sawtell, ACCUMULATOR (2014), via Art Observed (more…)

Sterling Ruby, ACTS/SOME RISE SOME REST (2014), via Hauser and Wirth

Hauser and Wirth’s current show of works by Sterling Ruby is something of a grab-bag, incorporating a wide swath of the artist’s current practice in sculpture, assemblage and collage spread across the gallery’s vast 18th Street exhibition space.  The large-scale and commanding physicality of the works is offered ample room for viewers to circle and consider, but Ruby doesn’t’ waste the space on a small set of works either.  Sculptures and hanging works take up almost every square inch of the gallery, arranged in close proximity.  It’s easy to miss one work or another, caught up in the commanding presence of a third nearby.

Sterling Ruby, SUNRISE SUNSET (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth (more…)

Sophie Calle, Rachel, Monique (2014), all photos by Emily Heinz for Art Observed

Since May 9th until June 25th this year, the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, in conjunction with Paula Cooper Gallery, has been transformed into a gateway that marries the universality of sacred space and the experience of life and death through the singular exploration of a specific life.  Artist Sophie Calle is known for her deeply emotional work and propensity for crossing the boundaries of personal and social space in a way that is successful in its dramatic and often controversial appeal to the human condition. “Rachel, Monique” may be one of her strongest works in this vein to date.

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Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1906) via Sotheby’s

Following hot on the heels of the events of Art Basel just last week, the London outposts for Christie’s and Sotheby’s will open their doors for a pair of highly touted Impressionst and Modern Art Evening sales, beginning two final weeks of major art auctions before the art world moves into the summer lull.

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Grey (1927) via Sotheby’s

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Zhang Wan, Artificial Rock at Art Unlimited photo by Art Observed

As Sunday winds down, the 2014 edition of Art Basel in Switzerland is drawing to a close, concluding another week that saw the small Swiss city at the center of the art world for one dizzying week of sales, projects and installations.  The wealth of collectors, dealers and curators saw dealers bringing big-ticket works to the table across the board, and the steady stream of sales for blue-chip works and high priced works continued well beyond the VIP days early last week.

Andra Ursuta, Orthodoctrinator at Art Unlimited (more…)

Tim Barber, Relations (Installation View), via Art Observed

In his most recent body of work, Tim Barber captures everyday moments and splits them open to reveal the complex interactions within. On display at Capricious 88, Relations invites the viewer to relate to the universality of the seemingly unrelated, yet similarly impactful, images.

Tim Barber, Relations courtesy Capricious (more…)

Thomas Hirschhorn, Flamme Èternelle (Installation View), via Flamme Eternelle Website

“I am interested in the ‘too much’, doing too much, giving too much, putting too much of an effort into something. Wastefulness as a tool or a weapon’ says Thomas Hirschhorn about his practice. The Swiss-born artist’s new exhibition, Flame Èternelle in Palais de Tokyo in Paris is the indisputable proof of this effort of presenting the ‘too much’.

Thomas Hirschhorn, Flamme Èternelle (Installation View), via Palais de Tokyo (more…)

Recently appointed Stedelijk Museum director Beatrix Ruf is interviewed in The Art Newspaper this week, discussing her vision for the museum, her previous work at Kunsthalle Zurich, and what she thinks arts institutions should be focusing on in the 21st Century.  “The big general question for us all is how museums should be made to function,” she says. “We are all looking into the meanings of heritage and the interplay between the caretaking of heritage and how to develop collecting further.” (more…)

Heman Chong, Mrs. Dalloway (2014), via Art Observed

On view at P! in New York is two-person exhibition featuring works by Elaine Lustig Cohen and Heman Chong, in which the artists curate and commission works from each other.  The exhibition emphasizes the concept of holding multiple roles within creative work.  Both Lustig Cohen (b. 1927) and Chong (b. 1977) have worked in a variety of different positions and roles in the art world, including artist, designer, curator, dealer, and writer, and hold a mutual respect for each other’s work. For the exhibition, this respect played out in the gallery as Chong selected works from Lustig Cohen’s body of paintings, while Cohen commissioned Chong to create nine new pieces within his ongoing series of imagined designs for book jackets.

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Jake and Dinos Chapman are looking to their hometown of Hastings for their next show, seeking crowd-funding that would reward donors with artist designed tattoos.   “We will be seeking out the dark underbelly of Hastings, to find its seething evil,” says Jake Chapman, “And then we’re going to tickle it.” He adds it’s “the only way we’re going to get down to Hastings to see our mum and dad”. (more…)

Pu Zhiqiang, the lawyer representing Ai Weiwei in his case to reclaim his visa from the Chinese has been arrested and detained by the government, after attending a meeting commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.  “The current suppression of rights lawyers is worse than in the 2011 ‘Jasmine’ period” says friend and colleague Teng Biao. (more…)

The city of Paris has named a public square in its 13th Arrondissement after Jean-Michel Basquiat, a fitting choice given the area’s popularity with street artists and street art tourists.  “Basquiat is one of the biggest contemporary artists,” 13th Arrondissemnet mayor Jérôme Coumet says. “He defended the cause of African-Americans in the US, and was also a lover of France. He was the artist who blazed the trail for street art, and art in public space.” (more…)