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Ugo Rondinone, ERSTERJUNIZWEITAUSENDUNDELF (2011). All images courtesy of Almine Rech Gallery.

New Horizon is the sixth solo exhibition by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone at Almine Rech Gallery Brussels. For the first time since 1997 the artist’s iconic “horizon paintings” are being presented along with a series of watercolors. The now New York-based multi-media artist has continually questioned the relationship between viewer and artwork as well as the role of the artist and his place in the world. This series of works offer an entry point into the artist’s personal meditations around these inquiries while challenging the notion of public versus private domains.

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‪Damien Hirst interviewed before his show of ‬300 spot paintings in 11 Gagosian galleries “‘What would be more appealing … to have made the Mona Lisa painting itself or have made the merchandising possibilities — putting a postcard on everyone’s walls all over the world? Both are brilliant, but in a way I would probably prefer the postcards” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Tracey Emin to sell limited edition prints and works out of new east London shop, Tracey International [AO Newslink]

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Designer Adam Kimmel and Leelee Sobieski commission artist Dan Attoe for short film ‘Dan Attoe Makes a Painting’ featuring battle scene with a sasquatch [AO Newslink]

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‪‬London Tate’s partnership with BP Oil up for review in 2012: renewal protested by petition of 8,000 while Tate trustees defend good that has come from BP contributions [AO Newslink]

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Nan Goldin, Swan-like embrace, Paris (2010). All images courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery.

Nan Goldin: Scopophilia at Matthew Marks Gallery is the artist’s first exhibition in New York since 2007. Scopophilia, referring to the love of looking, contemplates Goldin’s images gathered from throughout her career, presenting them alongside recent photos shot at the Musée de Louvre. Her unprecedented after-hours access to the Louvre’s collections gave rise to new pairings and new interpretations of older work, as well as a 25-minute slide show.

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Spencer Sweeney at Gavin Brown’s enterprise. All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

Alongside owning and operating the well-known downtown venue Santo’s Party House, Spencer Sweeney divides his time among music, visual arts, and event promotion. Accordingly, his current show at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, The Pharaoh’s Lounge, explores the intersection of these interests, with a show that blurs the lines between art installation, night club, and, quite literally, a hookah lounge. Dara Friedman also presents separately a black and white film, The Dancer, in an additional space of the gallery.

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‪‬Doug Aitken to illuminate Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC with 360-Degree “Liquid Architecture” Projection This Spring [AO Newslink]

Read article via Art Daily

Anish Kapoor announced as the label designer for Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2009.  Mouton has commissioned a different artist to produce its label every year since 1945, including Picasso, Andy Warhol, Chagall, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. [AO Newslink]

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Tom Sachs, James Brown’s Hair Products (2009). All images via Tom Sachs.

The press release for Work, Tom Sachs’ current show at Sperone Westwater Gallery begins with quotes from both himself and soul pioneer James Brown on the word itself. It’s a fitting introduction for Sachs, who has continually explored the nature of “work” in contemporary art through pop art tropes of “readymade” objects by emphasizing the handmade nature of the piece, or occasionally by simulating it, bringing dialogues on authorship and originality to the forefront. For this show, Sachs takes major cues from the Godfather of Soul, commonly nicknamed “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” enshrining Brown through his own worldly possessions. These repurposed artifacts range from sculptures of his hair dryer, replicas of his hair products, and a piece called James Brown’s Last Supper: a TV Dinner tray housed in a television cum road-case that blends Brown’s demise with the inescapable nature of his legacy.

Tom Sachs, Cinderblock (2011)

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Neo Rauch, Heilstätten (2011). All images via David Zwirner.

Wedding a definitively German identity with a surrealist perspective and an unmoored historical context, Neo Rauch’s current show of new work, Heilstätten at David Zwirner in New York, provides an intriguing view of an artist and country coming to terms with its own past. A frequently cited practitioner of hauntological symbolism, Rauch’s paintings are heavy with the weight of their own implications. Strangely distended figures culled directly from the history books of German art inhabit evocative and surreal scenes that blend Communist art propaganda with German history and a disambiguation of perspective. The result is a collection of paintings that are equally nostalgic and political, and occasionally tragic.
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‪‬Walton Ford discusses Audubon and human-animal relations in studio interview [AO Newslink]

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Michaël Borremans, The Knives (2010)

Michaël Borremans: The Devil’s Dress is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at David Zwirner in New York. Borremans’ art is heavily influenced by 18^th and 19^th century artists, including Édouard Manet and Diego Valázquez, and his painterly style recalls works from both the Romantic and Realist periods. “One of the reasons I consciously chose to work in painting is that you can’t use it only as a medium. It has this historical connotation, and either you want [that connotation] or you don’t want it. So if you paint, you should make use of that. It’s inherent to the medium, and it’s very important. If you don’t want it, take another medium. It’s as simple as that. Therefore this dialogue with other painting is to me very essential,” Borremans said in an interview in 2007.

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Installation view

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Allora & Calzadilla, Under Discussion (2005); still. All images courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.

Collaborative duo Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s interdisciplinary body of work permeates the realms of sculpture, photography, video, social interventions, and performance, engaging with both art and activism. Now at Lisson Gallery in London is “Vieques Videos 2003–2010,” three video works addressing the island of Vieques, shown together for the first time. From 1941 until 2003 Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, was occupied by the US Military and used as a weapons testing range. A grassroots civil disobedience campaign, led by inhabitants of Vieques, gained international support and led to the eventual evacuation of the military, though environmental and political concerns remain largely unresolved. Informed by and engaging with weighty political, historical, and social issues, Allora & Calzadilla often employ the absurd, creating a more approachable framework for confronting overwhelming material.

Allora & Calzadilla, Half Mast\Full Mast (2010); still.

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Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, Portrait of a Gentleman, 1631-34, via Bonhams.com

A newly discovered portrait by the famed 17th century Spanish painter Diego Velazquez sold at Bonhams in London yesterday for £3 million, or $4.7 million. The sum represented nearly half of the earnings at Bonhams’ Old Master Paintings sale. The painting was brought to Bonhams’ Oxford location in 2010 as part of a group of paintings by the 19th century British artist Matthew Shepperson. Questions about the painting’s attribution led to an investigation of the portrait by both in-house and outside experts. The Velazquez attribution was aided by the use of x-ray technology. The painting is one of only about 100 works by the artist known to exist, very few of which are in private hands. The painting sold for $4.7 million, reportedly to an American buyer.

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Paul McCarthy, White Snow Cake (2011). Bronze  Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Multimedia artist Paul McCarthy brings fairy tales to Hauser & Wirth‘s New York gallery space in a second installation of the series. Works included in “The Dwarves, The Forests” are based on the drawings that made up the 2009 show “White Snow.” The exhibition series will continue, as Hauser & Wirth’s Andrea Schwan tells Art Observed, with a third installation, in which pieces from “The Dwarves, The Forests” will serve as sets for video art, to be hosted by the gallery sometime in 2013.  On view until December 17, “The Dwarves, The Forests” includes pieces cast in bronze and wrapped in gauze, and one, White Snow and Dopey, Wood (2011), that is McCarthy’s first wood sculpture.

Paul McCarthy, White Snow and Dopey, Wood (2011). Black Walnut.

More images, story, and related links after the jump…

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Richard Hughes, Dead Flies (2010). Anton Kern Gallery. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

Art Basel Miami Beach attracted some 50,000 visitors for the fair’s 10th edition this year in Miami South Beach. Showcasing over 2,000 artists represented by over 260 galleries, the decadent week seemed to exist outside of the current dubious economic situation worldwide. Miami Beach Convention Center hosted the main fair, housing an endless number of gallery booths, a VIP Collectors Lounge, and Art Basel Conversations throughout the week. Nearby the Bass Museum of Art opened a solo exhibition by Erwin Wurm, its front lawn, Collins Park, spotted with sculptures by artists such as Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst. Seventeen satellite fairs got in on the action as well, Art Observed focusing on NADA and OHWOW in particular, while Scope, Pulse, Design Miami, and Art Miami, among others, also drew crowds. The week would not be complete without its exhausting nightlife, exclusive events at hotels like Delano, Mondrian, Raleigh, Shelborne, Shore Club, The Standard Miami, and W, partying late into the morning hours.

Lucian Freud, Seated Figure (1980-82); The Painter’s Mother (1972). Richard Gray Gallery.
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Zhang Huan, 49 days nO. 1 (2011). Blum & Poe. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

Collins Park, located just outside of The Bass Museum of Art on Collins Avenue just off the ocean, held the Art Public sector of Art Basel Miami Beach 2011, including artists such as Antony Gormley, Glenn Kaino, Thomas Houseago, and Zhang Huan,.   The following is a photoset of the works.

Artist Glenn Kainto participating in his Levitating the Fair piece

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Agathe Snow, Hear No Evil, See No Evil (2008-2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Alexandra Bregman.

OHWOW’s It Ain’t Fair lived up to its name as a successful destination apart from the Art Basel main fair last week. Located in Miami’s Design District, the show featured 20 artists in the fourth consecutive curated group show by OHWOW, this year’s theme: Materialism. As explored in Marxist philosophy, materialism at its most literal, tangible entity, focuses on the tactile rather than the abstractly metaphorical. Experimental materials served to manifest the ideology, with David Benjamin Sherry’s sand-filled photograph frame, Justin Beal’s use of plexiglass and plastic wrap, and the unique approach of Angel Otera, peeling and reapplying paint. “There’s not a bad piece in here,” said Operations Director Lydia Ruby. By Saturday evening, the gallery had sold most works on view, and had noted the remarkable curiosity and intellectualism overheard in the showroom.

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MoMA PS1 and DIS magazine held a sunset cocktail party during Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 honoring Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch featuring a special performance organized by DIS Magazine with DJs Telfar, Total Freedom, and Physical Therapy at the pool and Sunset Lounge of the Mondrian Hotel.  A Kim Kardashian look alike contest was held.   The following is a photoset from the event.

PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach

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‪‬New York Magazine proclaims top ten art shows of the year, championing ‘The Clock’ by Christian Marclay [AO Newslink]

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse

The Visionaire Magazine Art Basel Rio Party delivered colorful dancers to the wading pool of Delano, the pool already glowing with candles afloat. The extremely exclusive event also entertained guests with a 3-D stereoscopic projection and a Victorian table set in the shallow pool, with plenty of bed-like lounging arrangements and curtained private rooms around.

Jefferson Hack

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

Artists and gallerists headed south from the Deauville location of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) art fair to host a poolside cocktail party at Shore Club Friday night. A few large colorful abstract paintings framed the atmosphere, and a subtler Curtis Kulig banner draped above the DJ—a facade to more obscured lounging and a secret fabric gazebo.

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse and Samuel Sveen

The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) art fair explores “new or underexposed art that is not typical of the ‘art establishment.'” Posting up nearly 50 blocks north of the main fair—Art Basel Miami Beach—the satellite fair moved to its Deauville Beach Resort location in 2009 to cut costs, making it a more affordable venture for the younger galleries while remaining a non-profit organization. Since first launching in 2003, the fair has clearly demonstrated the demand for emerging artists and their work, many of the galleries consistently selling out their booths within the first few days of the fair, if not hours. And despite this year’s questionable global economic environment, the fair proved a success once again, with galleries like Lisa Cooley, Kate Werble Gallery, The Hole, The Journal Gallery, Leo Koenig Inc., and White Columns all pleased with the results, prices topping out around $50,000. Also at the fair, multimedia artist Jayson Musson A.K.A. Hennessy Youngman lectured/performed “His History of Art” Thursday evening.

Kate Werble Gallery

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