Artist Damien Hirst designs community of higher-priced eco-homes in North Devon. “Damien is a local developer who truly cares and wants to create an exemplary development,” says architect Mike Rundell.

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Tauba Auerbach, Installation View (2012). All photos taken by Ryann Donnelly for Art Observed

Tauba Auerbach’s first one-person exhibition, Float is on view at Paula Cooper’s Chelsea gallery in New York City through June 9. Included in the show are Auerbach’s signature fold paintings, new monochromatic weavings, and sculptural objects modeled after prismatic crystals, and marbled onyx. Her work is endowed with a general threat to logic, as she strives consistently and elegantly toward the destruction of our limited visual perceptions.

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This summer the recently opened Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London celebrates its 12^th anniversary.  Since 2000, this architectural event has featured temporary structures by such designers as Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel.  This year, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, along with Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (Herzog & de Meuron), known for their design of the Tate Modern and previous collaboration with Ai on Beijing’s Bird Nest National Stadium, has dug down into the Kensington Gardens to create an underground pavilion commemorating its long history.

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‬Agata Olek yarn bombs Antony Gormley iron men sculptures, part of his Another Place series on Crosby beach, UK. “By covering them and giving them a new skin, I made them more alive,” says Olek.

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‬High-profile artists such as Jeff Koons invited to teach for a day at NYC public schools as part of Visual Arts Appreciation Week, started by the nonprofit Studio in a School.

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After a 10 month lockout, the contract dispute between NY art handlers and Sotheby’s has been resolved. The new agreement includes an increase in compensation and preserves health/retirement benefits.

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‬Russian gallerist Dasha Zhukova presented plans yesterday to move her Garage Center for Contemporary Culture to a temporary venue designed by Shigeru Ban and constructed from paper tubes 24 inches in diameter, to be housed in Moscow’s Gorky Park.

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‬Parrish Art Museum to re-open in Water Mill on the East End of Long Island, November 10th.  The 34,400 sqft building will nearly triple its current exhibition space.

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‬The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC has applied for a visa to allow artist Ai Weiwei to attend the opening of his exhibition. “The museum…is “optimistic” that the artist, although still at odds with the authorities, will be allowed to make the trip.”

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‬Award winning documentary “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present” to premier at NYC Film Forum June 13 and show through June 26.

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‬The Cy Twombly foundation has paid $27.75  million for a 25-foot-wide Beaux Arts mansion near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with plans to convert it into a museum dedicated to his work. Twombly was “a towering figure in American art. It is only fitting that there should be a permanent space in New York dedicated to his achievements,” says Nicola Del Roscio, foundation president.

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‬The Economist writes on the political and economic factors behind mainland China-based galleries expanding into Hong Kong: “A presence in Hong Kong makes a lot of sense for us. We can show [our artists’] work to a wider and more diverse audience” says Steven Harris, founder of M97 in Shanghai.

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Collector sues Chicago gallery for losing signed instructions for Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing #448”, “The unique nature of Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings renders their accompanying certificates of authenticity critical to the works’ value,” reads the complaint.

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‬Joan Miró’s “Peinture (Étoile Bleue)” to lead Sotheby’s London auction June 19, estimated to bring £15m-£20m. “[This is] one of Miró’s most important paintings, effortlessly bridging the transition between figurative and abstract art,” says Helena Newman of Sotheby’s Europe.

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Anthony McCall, You and I Horizontal, (2006),  installation view at Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, (2006). Photo: Blaise Adilon. All images via Hamburger Bahnhof.

Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Anthony McCall’s largest museum exhibition to date is on now at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof. McCall’s solid light films, such as Line Describing a Cone, from the 1970s established the artist’s reputation as being part of the cinematic avant-garde. After a break of twenty years, McCall began making films again in 2003, utilizing new technologies, like digital projection. The current exhibition consists of seven such projections; five single projections and two double projections, and of these three are horizontal while four are vertical.

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The WSJ reviews art dealer Michael Findlay’s book “The Value of Art” and his critical views on commoditization: “One of the signs of a decaying culture is a reverence for form over content,” he writes.

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‬Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to collaborate with Hermès for new collection of scarves, featuring patterns from his photography exhibition “Colors of Shadow”.

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‬Yayoi Kusama’s traveling exhibition to make its final stop at the Whitney on July 2. “This survey celebrates a career of exceptional duration and distinction, tracing the development of Kusama into one of the most respected and influential artists of her time.”

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‬A new interview with artist and social activist Ai Wei Wei highlights his continued conflict with the Chinese government: ““It has never been important to stay, until now”, “I never really think I have done too much. I just gave one person’s opinion and I tried to be calm and I never did anything to hurt anyone”.

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NY Times reports on the theories and paradoxes behind the value of art “Art is often valuable precisely because it isn’t a sensible way to make money.”

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George Condo‘s cover art for Kanye West‘s new single “Cold” released.

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‬Christie’s to offer the “The Lock” by John Constable, expected to sell at £20 million to £25 million, at its Old Master & British Paintings Evening Auction in London on July 3rd. “This superb landscape…is sure to attract bidding from museums and collectors from all over the world,” says Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Europe.

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New York-based artist Hanna Liden’s show Ghost Town is on now at Maccarone Gallery in the West Village. The show features mixed media sculptures, installations, and photographs; most of which represent Liden’s recent work steeped in a visual language specific to downtown Manhattan. However, three photographs of a female Greco-Roman style sculpture belong to a previous body of work that Liden has been waiting to showcase. These photos, with the close-up of the engraved graffiti on the body of the sculpture, are imbued with the same urban specific aesthetics that comprise the rest of the show.

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‬Larry Gagosian enlists architect Annabelle Selldorf to help open a café including new gallery space at his flagship Gagosian Gallery on 980 Madison Avenue.

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