Bruce Nauman, Carousel (1988), via Hauser and Wirth

Turning a fresh perspective on the works of American artist Bruce Nauman, Hauser and Wirth is currently presenting a curated retrospective of the artist’s work, focusing on his large scale installations and neon works.  Organized by Hauser and Wirth curator Philip Larratt-Smith, the exhibition presents Nauman’s work through a Freudian lens, using psychoanalytic evaluation and subconscious motivators as organizing principles in the presentation of Nauman’s work. (more…)

Tacita Dean, Fatigues (F) (2012), via Marian Goodman Gallery

Marian Goodman Gallery is currently hosting the first showing of Tacita Dean’s, Fatigues, a recent series of drawings initially exhibited in Kassel at this past summer’s documenta (13).

Tacita Dean, Fatigues (Installation view), via Marian Goodman Gallery

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Following up on the success of last year’s special series of sound art installations at the Frieze New York Art Fair, the organization has announced the program for 2013’s Sounds Program.  Premiering in the VIP cars and available for listening at stations throughout the fair, the roster of artists includes Trisha Baga, Charles Atlas and New Humans, and Haroon Mirza.  Says curator Cecelia Alemani: “Last year Frieze Sounds captured visitors’ imaginations beyond my expectations. This year I wanted to commission artists who could use both the medium of sound and the journey to Randall’s Island as inspiration to metaphorically transport visitors up the East River.” (more…)

High profile technology companies, investors and entrepreneurs are quickly becoming major players in the art world, financing tech-centered arts installations and entering the currently lucrative art market.  Interested less in globally recognized artists and more in digitally forward-thinking projects, these new buyers are changing the landscape and market for contemporary art.  An engineer will look at a photograph or video art in a way a banker couldn’t— we think in ones and zeros, we think in terms of screens,” says collector and tech-entrepreneur Trevor Traina.

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With the Art Dealers Association of America celebrating both its 50th anniversary and 25th year of the ADAA Art Show (running March 6th-10th), The Art Newspaper spoke with Director Linda Blumberg about the organization’s history, its response in the wake of hurrican Sandy, and the future of the art market.  “We don’t know where it’s going to go. Are fairs going to replace galleries? I rather doubt it, but it’s our role as an organisation to make sure people understand why galleries are so important. We’re keen on getting that message out.”  She says. (more…)

New York City’s Jack Shainman Gallery has announced an ambitious expansion, including a new space on 24th street in Chelsea on Manhattan’s West Side, and a five-acre schoolhouse property two hours north of the city in Kinderhook, NY.  “The space in Kinderhook is kind of a life dream. It’s an amazing building built as an elementary school in 1931 and inaugurated by FDR,” says owner Jack Shainman.  “Primarily, we’ll store our collection there, but it has great viewing rooms and exhibition rooms, and we will do exhibitions there in the summer. Previously, we often had to rent space to show large works. It will have about a 27-foot ceiling in the main gallery space, where we’ll have artists do special projects.” (more…)

A selection of 10 works by Andy Warhol depicting endangered species will go under the hammer later this month at Sotheby’s.  The Endangered Species series, referred to by the artist as “animals in make-up,” include a bighorn ram, Pine Barrens tree frog, African elephant, and others, is expected to sell for £250,000 to £350,000.  “I think he was making a statement by representing these animals in the same way as Monroe, the Queen, and Muhammad Ali. He wanted to highlight the issue of them disappearing.” Says Séverine Nackers, Sotheby’s head of prints in Europe. (more…)

The installation of two new outdoor art projects are underway in New York, and set to open early next week.  Titled “No Limits” and “Topsy Turvy,” the works share an interest in reevaluating and reinterpreting the New York skyline; “No Limits” (by Alexandre Arrechea) through its bizarre re-imaginings of iconic buildings, and “Topsy Turvy” (by Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder) through its camera obscura depiction of its surroundings in Madison Square Park.   (more…)

As part of its ongoing week of Andy Warhol online auctions, Christie’s has posted an interview with the creator of Girls (and daughter of artists Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham), Lena Dunham, discussing her take on Warhol, and how the artist would engage with contemporary society today.  “He would watch Real Housewives. We all just have to accept that. ”  She says. (more…)

With the two year shut-down of SFMOMA for its major expansion project beginning this June, the institution is gearing up to announce a range of exhibitions and events across the Bay Area.  The museum released a small press announcement on its Facebook recently, welcoming external input, and hinting at events to come.  The construction will span 2013 to 2016, and will cost the museum $555 million. (more…)

Richard Wentworth, Black Maria (Installation View), via King’s Cross London

The result of a major commission project, Richard Wentworth‘s “Black Maria,” a timber theatrical structure set within the atrium of the Granary Building in the Saint Martins College of Art and Design, King’s Cross, is an installation that acts as a central public space during the day and a screening and discussion room during the evening and night. The structure was opened for its 4-week run on February 13th, 2013, and is available for viewing during normal hours at Central St. Martins.

Richard Wentworth, Black Maria (Installation View),via King’s Cross London

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980 Madison, the block long building currently home to Gagosian Uptown alongside several other art galleries and exhibition spaces on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is currently up for sale.  Sources report that the building owners are looking to take advantage of a hot New York sales market, and some are reporting that the building could be worth over $400 Million.   (more…)

Following in the wake of Christie’s premium increases last week, Sotheby’s auction house has announced that it will increase its buyer’s premiums to 25 percent for the first $100,000 spent; 20 percent for $100,000 to $1.9 million and 12 percent on all exceeding prices.  The increase makes Christie’s a less expensive shopping option, and comes days after the news that Sotheby’s sales incomes have declined since last year. (more…)

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! (1963), via Tate Modern

Blazing a path through the world of contemporary and avant-garde art, Roy Lichtenstein stands as a giant of post-war painting, sculpture and conceptual art.  Celebrating the artist’s position at the vanguard of 20th century art, the Tate Modern is hosting a massive retrospective of the artist’s work, the first of its kind since the artist’s death in 1997.

Roy Lichtenstein, Sea Shore (1964), via The Guardian

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A number of paintings on the Berlin Wall’s East Side Gallery segment are under threat of demolition in the face of property development.  The stretch of wall is slated for demolition to make way for a set of luxury condominiums, and would see see the disappearance of the infamous mural of Soviet and East German leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Eric Honecker (respectively) locked in a passionate kiss.  “In this very place people died, and the idea of building luxury flats here would be like erecting a petrol station in front of one of Berlin’s museums,” said Sascha Disselkamp, manager of the Sage nightclub, who represents several high-profile Berlin nightclubs. (more…)

ARTNews sat down with the current head of the Tate Modern, Chris Dercon, to discuss his career, overseeing massive additions to the museum, including its new performance space The Tanks, and his personal philosophy to curating.  “Today, to be really cool and sexy is to be sharing,” he says. “Inclusivity instead of exclusivity. Let the private collectors in the private museums do the exclusivity game.” He said. (more…)

Since February of 2011, Sotheby’s stock valuation has been on a slow decline, signaling a potential downturn in the global art market.  Earnings per share, recorded last year at $2.46, are now down to $1.68, and sales are projected to fall 9.4%, caused in part by a weaker asian market than 2011’s record setting year.  Analysts are comparing the current state of the art market to the dot com bubble of the the early 2000’s.  “It hearkens back to what the Japanese were doing with buildings in New York in the late 1980s.” says Yale University lecturer Vikram Mansharamani. (more…)

In the face of a $40 Million cut as a result of Congress’s budget stalemate, the Smithsonian Museums are prepared to maintain their normal hours, vowing to find their way around the cuts in more creative ways.  The museums will absorb the cuts through delays in maintenance and construction, as well as other internal adjustments.  “We think we have a plan that allows us to squeak through to the end of this fiscal year. But we can’t sustain this,” Said Dennis Kelly, Director of the National Zoo. “At the end of the fiscal year, if we’re still in this mode, the entire Smithsonian is going to have to rethink all of our priorities.” (more…)

St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum has been announced as the location for next year’s Manifesta 10 exhibition.  The biennial exhibition of contemporary European art will see mark its 20th anniversary, as well as its first version of the event in Russia.  “With the arrival of Manifesta, the Hermitage will highlight its traditions: its roots within the epoch of Catherine the Great and her passion for the contemporary art of her time, and the role that the museum’s collections and exhibitions have always played in the artistic life of Russia. We see contemporary art is a natural, albeit intricate, development of these age-old traditions.”  Says Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky. (more…)

The notoriously reclusive painter David Hockney has reportedly snubbed repeated attempts to grant him the Freedom of the British city of Bridlington, where he has lived and worked for many years.  Local officials in the East Yorkshire town have also attempted to name a town gallery after him, but abandoned the effort when they could not establish contact.  “Unfortunately, we have not been able to obtain any response from Mr Hockney regarding the renaming of a gallery at The Spa or indeed in relation to the granting of the Freedom of Bridlington and I have to conclude therefore that this is something which does not appeal to him.”  Said Nigel Pearson, chief executive of Bridlington. (more…)

Julie Mehretu, Mind Breath and Beat Drawings (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris is currently exhibiting a new series of works by painter and illustrator Julie Mehretu. in a show which Mehretu described as a ‘self-ethnographic project,’ involving a dissection of her identity as an artist through a free abstraction of her personal creative practice. The show is Mehretu’s first solo exhibition in France.

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The Brooklyn Museum announced today that it will hold an ambitious retrospective for the secretive art collective Bruce High Quality Foundation this summer.  The show, titled Ode To Joy: 2001-2013, will include a broad number of works (“under 17,000” according to a BHQF representative) from the collective’s decade of creative activity, and will document their ongoing practice of satire, political commentary, and exploration of contemporary America. (more…)

Following the success of the massive 2011-2012 arts initiative Pacific Standard Time, the J. Paul Getty Trust has announced a follow-up festival, to run in 2017.  Titled Los Angeles and Latin America (or L.A./L.A. for short), the show will explore the Latin American ties to the Los Angeles art scene, and the cross-pollination of ideas and cultures as a product of these roots.  “The fact that nearly half of the population of Los Angeles has roots in Latin America is so profound that it warrants a major exhibition and research project with accompanying publications,” said Getty Trust head James Cuno. “These are complicated roots, over many generations, and relationships between the U.S. and those antecedent countries have changed considerably over time, so we want to be respectful of those complexities.” (more…)

Alex Turnbull, a musician and filmmaker who once fronted the British punk band 23 Skidoo, is releasing a documentary chronicling the life of his father, sculptor William Turnbull.  Titled Beyond Time, the film details Turnbull’s highly regarded career alongside his family life, as well as his relentless creative drive.  “Bill cared if people didn’t like his work,” Alex says. “But do you change what you do if they don’t? No. That was Bill.” (more…)