In support of her ongoing Kickstarter campaign for the Marina Abramovic Institute, artist Marina Abramovic will log into popular website Reddit today, for one of the site’s ongoing “Ask Me Anything” sessions. The artist will open herself to questions from fans and users from around the world, submitted via the site’s simple message board structure. (more…)
Performance art pioneer Marina Abramovic has taken to crowd-sourced fundraising site Kickstarter in order to help finance the construction of the Marina Ambramovic Institute in Hudson, New York. The project goal of $600,000 will look to alive a portion of the final construction cost of $20 million, and has already raised over $26,000. Prizes available in exchange for donation include a webcam chat session with the artist, a special video game version of the Institute by artist Pippin Barr, or a ride in a brainwave controlled go-kart. (more…)
The Art Production Fund, in conjunction with philanthropist Fabiola Beracasa, has announced the opening of an “outdoor pop-up exhibition” in the Long Island town of Montauk. The exhibition will be held in a vacant lot at 333 Old Montauk Highway, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 8, and will include site-specific installations by Anya Kielar, Virginia Overton and Olympia Scarry. “These artists are taking into account nature, which is a force unto itself, and our complicated relationship with it,” Says APF founder Doreen Remen. (more…)
In artist Omer Fast’s new video installation, a former US drone operator in Afghanistan and Pakistan, describes why 5,000 feet is the optimum flying height for a combat drone. The 30-minute film-work will be screened at the Imperial War Museum, London through to 29 September, 2013. (more…)
For the next three consecutive Saturdays, the city will temporarily close the Park Avenue tunnel to car traffic. The tunnel, which runs from 33rd to 40th Streets, will be transformed into an interactive art show created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The project will turn participants’ short messages into waves of sound and arching light, determined by the pitch and volume of the messengers’ voices. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal reports on the long, convoluted journey of a 63-year old mural painted by artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Originally created outside of Paris by the well-known Austrian, Paradise: Land of Men, of Trees, of Birds and Ships has since moved from Paris to Switzerland to Long Island, before coming to rest in a Brooklyn warehouse. The work’s long history and current restoration needs illustrate the challenges facing the preservation of such large-scale works, particularly given its 10 x 16 foot size and its weight of over 3,000 pounds. The move to its current location “took me two days with six guys and heavy equipment and a tow truck,” Says current owner Chris Muth. “If it fell in the process it would have been destroyed, and if it we had been under it we would have been dead.” (more…)
Jake & Dinos Chapman, The Sum of All Evil (Installation View), courtesy White Cube Hong Kong
Currently at Hong Kong’s White Cube, British artists Jake & Dinos Chapman are exhibited The Sum of All Evil, the artists’ first in China, including a group of lurid, bizarre dioramas alongside their familiar series of “reworked paintings.”
Jake & Dinos Chapman, One Day You Will No Longer Be Loved (that it should come to this…) (2010), via White Cube
Argentine artist and activist Leon Ferrari has passed away at the age of 92. Ferrari, whose works often invoked Roman Catholic imagery in conjunction with images of imperialism and military power, frequently drew the scorn and ire of religious leaders, including current Catholic leader Pope Francis. While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis, then known by his birthname Jorge Mario Bergoglio, had condemned Ferrari for his blasphemous images of the Holy Mother in an electric blender. “Leon Ferrari hasn’t left, he’ll stay with us,” said Estela de Carlotto, president of human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in an interview. “He’s left so much with us that happily he’ll never be forgotten.” (more…)
Seeking to strengthen its international ties, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the “Global Museum Leaders Colloquium,” a two-week program next April that will bring over a dozen museum heads from institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America to the table, discussing the shared challenges and issues museums are facing worldwide.. “It’s all about promoting international collaboration,” said Met Director Thomas P. Campbell. (more…)
The impending departure of Jeffrey Deitch from MOCA has cast light on the numerous challenges that the museum faces as it begins its search for a new director. Debates over curatorial capacity and fundraising were frequent points of contention during Deitch’s tenure, and will likely pose new hurdles when the museum begins to talk to potential candidates. “Whoever they get to replace Jeffrey Deitch will need to have an absolute guarantee of complete curatorial freedom to do the shows they want, when they want,” says former Museum of Contemporary Art board member Dean Valentine, who currently serves on the advisory board at the Hammer Museum. (more…)
Dan Colen, To Be Titled (2011), via New York Times
Snarky and straightforward, the press release for Zach Feuer and UNTITLED’s joint g roup show Jew York speaks with a hint of exasperation, a feeling of exhaustion over the bumper crop of cultural explorations and increasingly globalized scope of the contemporary art world: “There’s nobody left to survey, and nowhere left to do it. So we figured our only option was to do a show of Jews, and do it in New York.” (more…)
American sculptor Walter De Maria, via LA Times
Walter De Maria, the New York sculptor known for his monumental sculptures that helped pioneer the conceptual, minimalist and land art movements of the mid to late twentieth century, has passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 77.
Walter De Maria, The Broken Kilometer (1977), via New York Magazine (more…)
Alfred Jensen, Twelve Events in a Dual Universe (1978) ©ARS, NY and DACS, London 2013, Photo: Linda Nylind, Courtesy Hayward Gallery
Currently on view at the Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre in London is a new exhibition of work entitled Alternative Guide to the Universe, a compilation of works by artists who taught themselves their crafts, focusing on work that offers a new perspective on our socially accepted conventions of artistic practice and cultural perception.
Lee Godie. Lee and Cameo on a chair… (early to mid 1970s), © the artist, Courtesy Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Collection
Artist Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock has been unveiled on London’s Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. The unveiling yesterday caps several months of debate and protest over the deceptively subversive statue, and Mayor Boris Johnson took the opportunity to make several double-entendre driven quips about Prime Minister David Cameron. “If you were to Google the sculpture in a few years’ time,” Johnson said, “search engines would collapse at the behest of the prime minister. Er, quite properly of course.” (more…)
Painter Peter Doig is profiled in the New York Times, in advance of his retrospective exhibition at the Scottish National Galleries in Edinburgh. Speaking from a rented studio in Manhattan, the artist discusses his new paintings, his studio and home in Trinidad, and the start-stop nature of his creative process. “Sometimes you get so frustrated, you end up washing off or scraping off what you spent hours or days applying,” he said. “By going backward, you see something you could have never achieved by going forward.” (more…)
Maurice and Paul Marciano, known as the co-founders of Guess Jeans, have purchased the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, with the intent of turning the space into a museum for their contemporary art collection. The property was purchased by the Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation, for the price of $8 million. “We have been looking for a home for the collection,” said William F. Payne, a spokesman for the foundation. “It’s a legacy project for the family.” (more…)
Subodh Gupta, What does the vessel contain, that the river does not (2012) (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth
Following its success at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, New Delhi-based artist Subodh Gupta’s sculpture What does the vessel contain, that the river does not is on view for the first time outside of India at Hauser & Wirth, Savile Row, London through July 27th.
Subodh Gupta, What does the vessel contain, that the river does not (2012) (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth (more…)
In response to the massive public response drawn by its current Rain Room installation, the Museum of Modern Art will keep the work by Random International open until midnight this Sunday, July 28th, its closing day. The work has attracted over 65,000 visitors since it opened in May, and has seen wait times of up to nine hours during busy days to stand inside the stream of pouring water. (more…)
Thomas Houseago, Roman Masks III, (2013) Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Currently on display at Gagosian Gallery in London is an exhibition of new sculpture by British contemporary sculptor Thomas Houseago entitled Roman Figures. Showcasing a continuation of the artist’s signature, rugged forms and unique approach to figuration, the exhibition is a strong continuation of Houseago’s celebrated practice.
A light installation by James Turrell has been uncovered in a Malibu Beach House, the Wall Street Journal reports. The work had sat dormant in the guest house of late art collector Sydney Goldfarb’s Malibu home, and was uncovered when resident Tobey Cotsen visited Turrell’s current show at LACMA, where she realized that she had a Turrell of her own. The work has since been confirmed by the artist’s studio. “Where have I seen that before?” She said to herself during the exhibition. “I’ve seen it in my house.” (more…)
MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch has officially announced his resignation, leaving the museum three years into his five year contract. The museum has already formed a search party to locate his replacement, but Deitch will remain on board until a new director is found, helping to smoothen the transition, as well as to aid in the completion of MOCA’s ambitious $100 million endowment fundraising campaign, expected to conclude this fall. “As colleagues, friends and great admirers of Jeffrey Deitch’s talent, we respect his decision and thank him for his tremendous dedication,” said MOCA Board co-chair David Johnson. “His efforts have helped to solidify MOCA’s financial stability while changing the way Angelenos, and those around the world, engage with contemporary art.” (more…)
Per Kirkeby, Untitled (2012), via Michael Werner
A tangible sense of degradation runs through the canvases of artist Per Kirkeby, currently on view at Michael Werner in London. Walking a fine line between impressionist figuration and pure abstraction, his works seem balanced on a pin, teetering between a fully realized environment and complete structural breakdown, a process the artist acknowledges as “an ongoing process of sedimentation.” The first exhibition of new work since his 2009 retrospective at Tate Modern, Kirkeby’s new exhibition sees him returning to the same interrogations and explorations of the natural environment, as well as his own interpretation of it.
Per Kirkeby, Recent Paintings (Installation View), via Michael Werner (more…)
Rhizome has announced its list of 2013 Commission Award Winners, including its first round of award recipients for the Tumblr Internet Art Award. Projects run the spectrum of internet and performance based works, including an online television show by Colin Self and American Medium, an app design by Aaron Meyers and Lauren McCarthy titled God’s Eyes (where one user at a time is granted omniscient access to all other user’s camera phones), a new visualization system for net art collective The Jogging, and even a one-week national tour by performance art/musical duo Extreme Animals. (more…)
The FIAC art fair, occurring late this October, will also serve as the ground for the first major exhibitions of work from the collection of François Pinault. Titled Triple Locked: Works from the Pinault Collection, the exhibition will feature over 50 works from artists Michelangelo Pistoletto, Diana Thater, Bill Viola, Damien Hirst, Julie Mehretu and Chen Zhen, among many more. (more…)
