Xavier Veilhan, Mobiles (Installation View), via Galerie Perrotin

Galerie Perrotin in Hong Kong is currently presenting a solo exhibition by French sculptor, photographer and painter Xavier Veilhan, the first exhibition by the artist to focus exclusively on his mobiles.  Combining a selection of past work with a series of new installations created specifically for the exhibition, Veilhan explores the mobile as a fluid continuation of his work on the intersections of geometric form and three dimensional space. (more…)

Artist Jan Mostaert’s painting Discovery of America, depicting a group of Spanish soldiers aiming cannons at an indigenous group of people, has been purchased by the Rijksmuseum.  Previously owned by Marei von Saher, the work had been taken from her father in law, dealer Jacques Goudstikker, by the Nazis during World War II, and was returned to von Saher in 2006.  “It’s a picture that a lot of people were interested in both in North and South America because of it being such an important historical picture,” said dealer Hugo Nathan, “but Mostaert is arguably the most important early Dutch painter, as opposed to being a Flemish master, and the Rijksmuseum was always hoping to secure it for the Dutch nation.” (more…)

The winning design has been announced for the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, an inverted “T” by Pritzker Prize winners Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.  Featuring 183,000 square feet of exhibition space, the design will be more than twice the size of the Tate Modern, and will stand as the centerpiece of the expanding cultural district in the West Kowloon area of the city.

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Filmmaker Jem Cohen’s recently opened Museum Hours has garnished considerable attention, setting a story of friendship and art within Vienna’s Kunsthistoriches Museum.  “The use of the Kunsthistorisches is heartfelt and also very funny,” Says film critic Christoph Huber, “a slice of everyday life that I hardly see covered in my national cinema.” (more…)

A recent study of laboratory mice at Keio University in Japan has sought to uncover whether the small animal could distinguish between various works of art by Kandinksy, Renoir, Picasso and Mondrian.  Using various rewards for the animal, the researchers discovered that mice were able to distinguish works as unique, and were also, in some cases, able to identify an artist’s work by their style of painting.   (more…)

Andy Ralph, Manifold Destiny (2013), via L&M Arts

L&M Arts’ current exhibition, Neo Povera, presents a group of works in the spirit of the 1960’s Arte Povera movement, meant to exist purely in and of their own material while pushing the boundaries of acceptable art.  The Arte Povera movement attempted to strip symbolic implications from an object, leaving only the true material, thus making art that is unassuming, present, undivided from reality, minimal in material cost, and devoid of signifiers.  At its conception, the group of Italian artists brought together by Germano Celant intended to dissolve the boundary between elite art and a common experience.

Neo-Povera (Installation View), via L&M Arts (more…)

Artist Imran Quereshi recently sat down with Bloomberg to discuss his current installation on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his inspiration for the work, and his attempts at bringing a certain understanding of violence to his audience.  “We’ve had so many bomb blasts and people suffering in Pakistan, and when these things happen, people are asked to stay away and officials investigate. And nobody really knows what the reason behind the violence was. I made this work interactive so that people could investigate it themselves and get multiple meanings out of it.”  He says. (more…)

The  New York Times writes on the ongoing contention between the nation of Turkey and the J. Paul Getty Museum over a number of potentially looted items currently held in the American museum’s collection, highlighting the difficult issues at play in repatriation claims.  While many museums are speeding up their processing of these claims, many factors must be taken into account before handing over past property.  “Museums must untangle a lot of knots before making such an irrevocable decision,” said Stephen K. Urice, an expert on cultural heritage law at the University of Miami School of Law in Florida. (more…)

Israeli Shipping mogul Eyal Ofer has made a £10 million donation to the Tate Modern, bringing the museum within reach of its £215 million fundraising drive to fund a major expansion program. “I am delighted that the Eyal Ofer Family Foundation has chosen to make such a major contribution towards Tate Modern’s future.” Says Sir Nicholas Serota, the Tate’s current director. “It is exciting to see such outstanding philanthropy continuing from one generation to the next. The generosity of Eyal Ofer and his family will help to make Tate Modern a truly 21st-century museum.”  (more…)

The Tate Modern has announced a selection of new exhibitions focusing on artists from the African continent.  Featuring retrospectives of work by Sudan’s Ibrahim El-Salahi, 82, and the Lebanese artist Saloua Raouda Choucair, as well as a large-scale installation by Meschac Gaba (where the artist created his own, fictional museum), the move underlines the museum’s more global view towards the contemporary landscape.  “These are all exhibitions that 20 or 30 years ago were quite impossible,” says Tate Modern director, Chris Dercon. “At some point it will be absolutely normal and absolutely necessary to have all these kinds of work, all these artists, together in one museum.” (more…)

Mark di Suvero, Little Dancer (Installation View), via Paula Cooper Gallery

Mark di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor that often works in kinetics, incorporating dynamic movements to add an element of illusive grace to his monumental sculptures. Continuing his exhibition partnership with Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, the artist is currently exhibiting a new sculpture, Little Dancer, as well as a number of other works in both sculpture and canvas.

Mark di Suvero, Little Dancer (Installation View), via Paula Cooper Gallery (more…)

The inaugural Nouvelles Vagues exhibition in Paris this month will showcase the innovative and increasingly spectacular work of 53 international, freelance curators selected from a pool of 1,600. The state-funded Palais de Tokyo and 31 independent Parisian galleries are holding the event through to September 9th. Among the highly anticipated pavilions are Catalan artist Marti Anson’s house built in the Palais de Tokyo, curated by France’s Marie Griffay, and the exhibitions at Galerie 1900-2000 on the Left Bank, curated by French artist Laurent Grasso.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Takashi Murakami (Installation View), via Galerie Perrotin Hong Kong

After 20 years of collaboration, Galerie Perrotin Hong Kong and Takashi Murakami present what will be the artist’s 9th solo show at the gallery, featuring new paintings he created under his alter-ego Mr. Dob, as well as self-portraits of Murakami surrounded by his own characters.

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Jeff Koons has partnered with Champagne makers Dom Pérignon to release an extremely limited edition packaging design or the company’s 2003 Rosé.  Made in stainless steel, the design is a miniature of Koons’ Balloon Venus, and is available for the price of $20,000 a bottle.  “I’m very proud of the ‘Balloon Venus,’” says Koons. “It’s a work that I enjoy and I think really represents my oeuvre of work. ‘Balloon Venus’ represents the continuation of life’s energy. A great vintage also represents the vintages that will come, and so it’s about the continuation of something. It’s a continued creative process.” (more…)

Artist Maurizio Cattelan’s Toiletpaper magazine, done in collaboration with photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, has just announced a special edition of collaboratively designed sweatshirts with Italian fashion house MSGM.  Incorporating a number of images from the magazine, the sweatshirts work between a nostalgia for past italian fashions and an irreverent take on the sweatshirt itself.  “I don’t like nostalgia,” says designer Massimo Giorgetti. “I prefer irony.” (more…)

Controversially held for centuries outside of China, two bronze zodiac statues looted from Beijing’s summer palace were returned by François-Henri Pinault on Friday.  The Christie’s owner first promised to return the heads in April, during a visit to the country by president Hollande and a number of ranking French businessmen.  “This donation is a token of our family’s appreciation for China as well as our passion for the preservation of art and cultural heritage,” Mr. Pinault said in a statement. (more…)

James Franco, Psycho Nacirema, (still) (2013), courtesy Pace London

On view at Pace London is an exhibition of works by American actor James Franco, presented by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon entitled Psycho Nacirema. The exhibition, which marks Franco’s first major gallery exhibition in the United Kingdom, continues Franco’s intriguing explorations of celebrity, cultural symbols, and obsession.

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The last of artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s monument structures, constructed in in tribute to writer Antonio Gramsci, opens today at the Forest Houses housing project in the South Bronx.  Consisting of a library, performance space and Internet access point, the Gramsci Monument will stand all summer, welcoming all visitors to engage with the writings of the Italian anarchist at a space constructed by Forest Houses residents.  “I tell them, ‘This is not to serve your community, per se, but it is to serve art, and my reasons for wanting to do these things are purely personal artistic reasons,’” Hirschhorn says. “My goal or my dream is not so much about changing the situation of the people who help me, but about showing the power of art to make people think about issues they otherwise wouldn’t have thought about.” (more…)

The invasion of financiers in the art market, the introduction of art as investment, and the internet have altered the value system of works at auction, placing a new emphasis on the reassurance of well-known artists and established sales records. The new ethos can be see in in recent sales of Giacometti’s L’Homme qui march I,’ which sold for over £65 million at Sotheby’s, London in February 2010. The sculpture was an edition of six, with four additional ‘artist proofs.’ The existence of editions allows for direct price comparisons and understanding of the piece’s artistic standing.

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Painter John Constable’s 1821 canvas The Hay Wain, widely regarded as one of Britain’s most iconic paintings, has been a attacked by a protestor from the group Fathers4Justice.  The alleged protestor, 41 year old Tim Haries, was arrested on charges of attaching a small photograph of a young boy to the work while it was on view at The National Gallery.  “A member of the Gallery’s security team quickly intervened and called for assistance. The photograph was approximately 4 inches wide, and the back had been coated with glue.”  Said a Gallery spokesman. (more…)

Alex Katz, Yellow Seagull (2000), courtesy MdM Mönchsberg

The Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg in Salzburg, Austria has collaborated with the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine to present a comprehensive view of work by Alex Katz. Mostly drawn from the collection of over 700 of Katz’s works held by the Colby College Museum of Art, the exhibition also includes a number of paintings on loan from European museums and private collections.

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Haroon Mirza, Pavilion for Optimisation (2013), via Lisson Gallery

In one of the pale, white rooms of Lisson Gallery’s current show of works by Haroon Mirza, a light continually goes on and off, accompanied by a bizarre whooshing noise.  The sound is that of an ant, walking across a small copper plate buried inside of an ant farm, and mixed together with the sounds of a shower head draining into a plastic bin.  At turns confusing, surreal and immersive, the viewer cannot help but linger in this minimal environment, seeking to understand the subtle links between action and reaction. (more…)

Ugo Rondinone, Soul (Installation View), via Gladstone Gallery

Gladstone Gallery is currently presenting a series of new works by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, exploringhuman creativity, expression and individuation through a series of primitive stone sculptures, collectively titled Soul.  Complementing the artist’s enormous sculptural installation Human Nature, on view at Rockefeller Center, the exhibition features a series of individually carved stone statues. (more…)

This coming November, the Dia Foundation will auction a number of its works in order to increase its resources for further acquisitions. The decision follows the Foundation’s recent purchase of the Alcamo Marble building, for its new Chelsea location.  “Dia cannot be a mausoleum, (…) It needs to grow and develop” says Dia director, Philippe Vergne. Among the works to be sold are pieces by Cy Twombly, Barnett Newman, and Richard Chamberlain.  (more…)