Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has released a series of specially designed skateboard decks for The Sk8room. Featuring shots of some of the artist’s work (including his iconic sunflower seeds work), overlaid with text from the artist. The set of three decks follows in the wake of other Sk8room Collaborations with Damien Hirst and Banksy. (more…)
Dealer Victoria Miro is profiled in the Financial Times this weekend, discussing the opening of her second gallery space in London, her impressive stable of artists including Chris Ofili, Grayson Perry, Peter Doig, Conrad Shawcross, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Yayoi Kusama, and the changing nature of the art market. “It affects production: it doesn’t suit all artists.” Miro says. “Work is probably not as precious as it was. We are in a quick world. The collector base is moving. There’s a time element – you can go to an art fair and see so much in a few hours. I really regret that people don’t spend the time to look at things.” (more…)
Robert Ryman, Untitled (2010), Photo: Bill Jacobson, Courtesy of the Pace Gallery
The work of American artist Robert Ryman (b. 1930, Nashville, Tennessee), is at once rigorous and experimental, playing with the possibilities of material, scale, brushstroke, and installation itself. He is most commonly identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art, and frequently explores the classical distinctions between sculpture and painting, as well as concerns with themes of perception, context, and enforced limitations. Since the 1950s, Ryman has focused on the conceptual nature of his work, exploring the varieties found in primarily white paint on square surfaces. Preferring to be known as a “realist” rather than a minimalist, his work presents compositions at face value, prompting an examination of the optical and material properties of the painting discipline. (more…)
Thomas Houseago, Sleeping Boy I (2012), courtesy Sasha Patkin for Art Observed
In the first ever large-scale presentation of the work of artist Thomas Houseago, Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, New York, presents “As I Went Out One Morning” – a unique exhibition combing both indoor and outdoor sculpture in several media, including bronze, aluminum, plaster, charcoal, and drawings. (more…)
Elmgreen and Dragset’s long-awaited installation, Tomorrow, which creates the fictional home of a disillusioned, homosexual architect, has opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Featuring works by the artists alongside objects from the museum and a nearby antiques market, the show will seek to alter the perception of the museum and its collection. “There are lots of clever art shows at the moment where you go and look and it’s almost as [predictable as] mathematics,” Says Michael Elmgreen. “We do something where even we ask ourselves: ‘What is it about?'” (more…)
Christie’s completed its first auction mainland China yesterday, selling a variety of artworks, jewelry and collectibles for a total sale of $25 million. One highlight was a painting by Pablo Picasso, which achieved a final price of over $1.5 million. “I’m very happy with the results, with the right place, with the right people, with the right moment,” said Christie’s executive Steven Murphy. (more…)
Rapper A$AP Rocky was spotted this week wearing a piece from Supreme’s Jean-Michel Basquiat Collection, which is set for release today both online, and in Supreme flagship stores nationwide. Featuring photographs and graphics from Basquiat’s work, the line has been hotly anticipated by urban fashion enthusiasts and art lovers alike. (more…)
Part of the upcoming release of Lady Gaga’s newest release, ARTPOP, the singer has commissioned Jeff Koons to create a sculpture of herself for the cover of the album. “I’m still trying to figure out if we drugged him and mind controlled him into doing this.” Gaga joked. (more…)
Capitalizing on Atlantic City’s immense casino tax funds, New Jersey governor Chris Christie has launched a major public art campaign, installing large-scale works around the city. A number of artists have already been recruited for the project, including Robert Barry, Kiki Smith, and John Roloff, with more to be announced soon. “What makes my heart race is to bring artists into new situations where they have to interact with the people,” says curator Lance Fung. “There are around 30 million visitors here every year, and most of them are not art people.” (more…)
Public art pioneer Suzanne Lacy has announced a major project coming to Brooklyn on October 19th. Created in collaboration with Creative Time, the project will install “300 women and a few men” on the stoops of apartments in Prospect Heights, and on the steps of the Brooklyn Museum to engage pedestrians and visitors in dialogues on contemporary gender politics. The project is informed by 5 months of research Lacy completed this year with an advisory board of 16 activists. (more…)
The 2012 Turner Prize nominee formerly known Spartacus Chetwynd has undergone another identity change, documenting the process in The Guardian this week. Originally named Alalia Cichosz before changing her name in 2006, the artist has yet again changed her name to Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, in honor of the deceased soul singer. “For the last six months or so, I’ve been thinking about changing my name again – this time to Marvin Gaye Chetwynd. Again, it’s a good experiment. It could work like a shield, or a spell. In the end I just thought: ‘I’m going to try it, because nothing matters very much.'” She writes. (more…)
The Serpentine Sackler, via The Guardian
The newly completed redesign of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery is set to open this Sunday in London’s Kensington Gardens neighborhood, featuring a sloping new design extension by architect Zaha Hadid, which complements a freshly renovated gunpowder store initially constructed in 1805.
The Serpentine Sackler, via The Guardian (more…)
An enormous inflatable concert hall, designed in a collaboration between Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki, is set to open this week in the coastal Japanese town of Matsushima. The project is intended to provide a temporary place for events in a region badly damaged by the 2011 Tsunami, and was initiated by Michael Haefliger of the musical event Lucerne Festival. “I felt a strong desire to make a contribution to overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe, within the scope of what we have to offer.” He said. (more…)
Cy Twombly, Sunset (1957), Image Credit: Tom Powel Imaging / Courtesy Dominique Lévy, New York.
Twenty minutes of continuous, monotone sound, followed by twenty minutes of absolute silence; such is the premise for Yves Klein’s 1949 Monotone Symphony, a powerful piece considered to stand at the core of the artist’s pioneering conceptual ouevre and one that bore remarkable influence on fellow artists Cy Twombly and Lucio Fontana, each of which drove their own sense of dichotomous action on canvas and sculpture, defining the continued explorations of abstraction and concept in post-war art.
Yves Klein, Pluie Bleu (S 36) (1961), Image credit Tom Powel Imaging, © Yves Klein, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York ADAGP, Paris 2013.
A major legal battle over the estate of copper heiress Huguette Clark has reached a settlement, with the Corcoran Gallery of Art receiving a large share of Clark’s fortune, including $10 million in cash, half the proceeds from the sale of Monet’s Water Lillies, and a seat on the board of a new national arts foundation. “We’re going to be very guarded with these funds,” said Corcoran President Peggy Loar. “This will help our operating situation, but very carefully.” (more…)
The Fall/Winter issue of Document Journal will feature a special edition designed by Paul McCarthy. Dawing a naked figure over the photographed body of Kate Moss, as shot by Mario Testino, McCarthy turns a subdued image into a lurid, Freudian exercise. (more…)
A number of artists who left the MOCA Board in 2012 have joined the search team for selecting a new director for Los Angeles’s contemporary art museum. John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie and Ed Ruscha have all signed on as part of the 14-person board, and will help in the search and selection process. “Pertinent qualities [for a new director] would be fundraising, experience in how a museum operates, and most importantly, vast curatorial skill,” Baldessari said. “It would be a real opportunity to whoever is appointed, because there’s nowhere to go but up.” (more…)
Cecily Brown, Untitled (The Beautiful and the Damned) (2013), Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
A collection of new and recent paintings by London-born artist Cecily Brown, is currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills through October 12. The show includes fifteen paintings primarily focusing on the the human form as an abstraction, and follows up on a previous body of work shown in at Gagosian’s New York gallery earlier this year.
As exhibitions of Balthus prepare to open in New York, critic Jerry Saltz writes on the history of one of the artist’s more sordid works, The Guitar Lesson. Only exhibited once in 1977, the work has moved through the back channels of the art world in the past 40 years, finally coming to rest in the collection of shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos. “I don’t love Balthus’s work, but I grant that all parts of the best examples are charged with something wild, almost half-human, some sleeping need, rage, frustration, and restraint. What makes the banishment of The Guitar Lesson so bitter isn’t only that MoMA came this close to owning a second take on the blatant sexuality of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Saltz writes. (more…)
Phillips has announced plans for a first-ever digital art auction, held this October 10th in New York, featuring a number of online works including one website, a YouTube video and a number of digital files able to be exhibited on a number of different devices. Featuring work by artists Brenna Murphy, Addie Wagenknecht and Clement Valla, the auction is curated by Lindsay Howard of Bushwick’s 319 Scholes gallery. (more…)
With the first career retrospective of artist Pierre Huyghe set to open at Centre Pompidou this week, the French artist sat down Art Newspaper to discuss his selection of works for the show, the act of exhibition, and the focus of his work. “I look at how things change, are transformed, or metabolise. The word might not be perfectly appropriate and I might change it. But I am trying to find a word to say ‘something that is alive.'” He says. (more…)
The shortlist for the next installation on London’s Fourth Plinth has been released, calling on the public for “lively debate.” Featuring works by David Shrigley, Hans Haacke, and Ugo Rondinone, among others, small maquettes of the sculptures are currently on view at The Crypt, St Martin-in-the Fields. “The placing of challenging artwork amidst the historic surroundings of Trafalgar Square creates a delicious juxtaposition that gets people talking and debating, underpinning London’s reputation as a great world city for culture.” Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, said. (more…)
A new development on the Lower East Side has been green lighted by city authorities, and will include a New York outpost for Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum. Essex Crossing, a $1.1 billion development planned by L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, will include a community center, rooftop garden, as well as the 10,000 square foot space occupied by the museum. (more…)
The same statute that forced the removal of a Playboy installation in Marfa earlier this year is currently threatening the well-known Prada Marfa installation, The Guardian reports. Texas officials have declared the Elmgreen and Dragset installation an illegal advertisement, and is currently exhibited without permits or licenses, but are searching for an amiable resolution to the issue. “We want to find a solution to this,” said Texas Department of Transportation Spokesperson Veronica Beyer. “We know people want to see art in this great state, but it has to be legal.” (more…)
