‪Artist Michael Heizer to move 340-ton boulder for permanent installation at LACMA; a $10 million, 9 night journey from quarry through Los Angeles [AO Newslink]

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Auction brewings: A 1961 Roy Lichtenstein could go for $35 million at November 8th auction at Christie’s; a Picasso is estimated to sell for $25 million at Sotheby’s [AO Newslinks]

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On the Chinese factor within the art market: “The Chinese stars initially anointed by the West are still the segment’s top sellers, but the Chinese are also seeking out lesser-known artists whose works center on potent themes like political corruption.” [AO Newslink]

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Opening night. All images for Art Observed on site by Ana Marjanovic.

Rosy Keyser’s solo exhibition Promethean Dub is on view now at the Peter Blum gallery in Chelsea. Using both traditional and nontraditional materials on her abstract canvases, including house paint, enamel, and mica, Keyser explores the theme of rebirth and sustainability. As explained in the press release, the title of Promethean Dub refers to the “myth of Prometheus, who was responsible for endowing humankind with the fire of life and the musical genre Dub, born of poverty and ingenuity, a means of creating new sounds by reformatting preexisting songs.”

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Photos for Art Observed on site by Samuel Sveen.

Art Observed was on site for the Whitney Studio Party, the after-party of the Whitney Museum‘s annual gala. In honor of Calvin Tomkins—the New Yorker writer and profiler of 95 artists—dinner was followed by a dance party down the hall in the larger warehouse space at Pier 57 on the west side. As ?uestlove spun all night, guests danced and drank among various socialites and artists, including Nate Lowman and Ryan McNamara.

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?uestlove

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ASCO artists, self-portrait series

“ASCO: Elite of the Obscure” comes highly recommended as a way of experiencing a movement that is often neglected within a larger art history context. As noted within the Los Angeles exhibition’s literature, ASCO takes its name from “the forceful Spanish word for disgust and nausea,” and was a movement primarily active from 1972 to 1987. Much of the work featured describes both the joys and hardships of being Latino in a Hollywood culture, a traditionally Caucasian experience. The work—a combination of sketches, collaged photos, graffiti, and even costumes—falls in the tradition of Dadaism and Surrealist art of the 1920s and 1930s, but with a particular Chicano psyche.

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Neo Rauch to donate all graphical works from 1992 and on, establishing new foundation in hometown of Aschersleben, Germany [AO Newslink]

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Gerhard Richter provides some frank statements on the art market and the upcoming sale of his work at auction during the press conference for his soon to open show at the Tate Modern “It’s just as absurd as the banking crisis” [AO Newslink]

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Video on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

A glowing sky over Greenpoint in Brooklyn drew several thousand art and light enthusiasts for the Bring To Light | Nuit Blanche New York 2011 light festival, a one-night event on October 1st. Wandering a playground and weaving through dark warehouse alleys, even out onto the India Street Pier, visitors could see over 50 installations—depending on how hard they looked—including sculptures, light projections, interactive installations, and live music and performances by both established and emerging artists. ‘Nuit Blanche’ translates to ‘white night’ or ‘all-nighter,’ a European tradition turned art festival ten years ago in Paris. New York’s second annual installment was joined by not only Paris, but also Brussels and Toronto in a simultaneous night of light, an effort to “re-imagine public space and civic life.”

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Rikrit Tiravanija, (Untitled) 2008-2011 (the map of the land of feeling), (2011). Via Carolina Nitsch

Currently on view at the Carolina Nitsch Project Room is Rikrit Tiravanija’s print project (Untitled) 2008-2011 (the map of the land of feeling) I-III, a three-part scroll three feet high and totaling 84 feet in length. The scroll took three years to complete, created using various techniques of screen-printing, offset lithography, and inkjet printing, finally producing elaborate layers that chronicle the artist’s physical and temporal passage of the last 20 years of his life. Tiravanija lives a perpetual negotiation of cultures, born to Thai parents in Buenos Aires and raised in Argentina, Bangkok, Ethiopia, and Canada. His career as an artist maintains his constant state of itinerancy and is gracefully recorded as “the map of the land of feeling.”

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Courtyard ‘zinester’ tent at MoMA PS1. All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

Over 200 exhibitors, ranging from artists and zinesters to antique booksellers and international publishers, tabled their wares at MoMA PS1 this weekend. Free admission was granted throughout the museum, with the book fair beginning in the courtyard and extending to the first and third floors, while other exhibitions were also on view—in particular, the 9/11 exhibition on the second floor. The sixth annual event was presented by Printed Matter, Inc., and also included several performances, talks, and book-signings.

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Interview with William Acquavella about life, the day of Lucian Freud’s death [AO Newslink]

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Young gallerists are looking beyond Chelsea [AO Newslink]

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An hour by hour, interactive feature on a typical day of Jeffrey Deitch, Director of LA MoCA [AO Newslink]

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Terence Koh x Opening Ceremony release a new collaboration in the form of a “furry sneaker” [AO Newslink]

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Pacific Standard Time’s latest video ad features Jason Schwartzman and a looming John Baldessari [AO Newslink]

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KAWS, Untitled (HTLD2) (2011). All images on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

Amid a crowded fall season in Los Angeles, Honor Fraser hosts “Hold the Line,” the newest show of works by New-York based media and urban culture phenomenon KAWS. Dubbed an “art entrepreneur,” Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, has created an industry around his troupe of animated characters.

KAWS, Companion (2011).

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Performance view. All photos for Art Observed on site by Zachary Concepcion

Tuesday night, Haunch of Venison‘s new Chelsea gallery co-hosted a Kreëmart one-night-only performance with The American Patrons of Tate. Kreëmart is an artist collective that often collaborates with well known contemporary artists to produce performances and installations that use the medium of food, generally confectionery, to reposition one’s perspective and  interaction with such sweets.  Cake sculptures and banana ice cream (served by monkeys), along with two candy-obsessed women, kept visitors high on sugar whilst speculating the powdery white substance of Terence Koh‘s Untitled on the floor.  The evening teamed up seven artists with pastry chefs to indulge the senses in art, all works interactive and made specifically for the 2011 show.

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Terence Koh, Untitled.

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Cindy Sherman buys $4.65M 10.2-acre waterfront Hamptons estate in Springs, NY, in a greater area that has been home to the likes of Warhol, de Kooning, Lichtenstein and Jackson Pollock [AO Newslink]

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The MoMA adds itself to the list of museums that have acquired Christian Marclay’s crowd-drawing video piece, The Clock [AO Newslink]

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James Turrell, Carn White (1967). Photo on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

The James Turrell exhibition, Present Tense, is currently showing at Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Santa Monica. Presented in conjunction with the Pacific Standard Time (PST) programming, the exhibition includes some of Turrell’s most recognizable works, ranging from the 1960s to today. Although the official opening weekend of PST is the first weekend in October, many participating galleries across Los Angeles have already begun to open their doors to exhibitions, many which explore the development of an art capital in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1980. In addition to the solo exhibition at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Turrell’s work will also be included in historical group shows, including Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in Southern California, 1964-1971 at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach.  As the list of exhibitions makes clear, Turrell’s work is some of the most important to come out of the Los Angeles scene since its early years in the 1960s. And indeed the sparse but powerful installations on view at the gallery deliver all that we would expect of such an influential body of work.

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Questions of originality raised regarding Bob Dylan’s The Asia Series, now showing at Gagosian [AO Newslink]

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Ida Ekblad, Installation View (2011). Via Greene Naftali

Currently on view at the Greene Naftali Gallery is a solo exhibition by Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad, presenting new works characterized by the combination of lyrical elements in painting, sculpture, and poetry.

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Rob Pruitt’s graffiti wall of zebras. All photos on site for Art Observed by Giffen Ott.

Art Observed was on site again this year for the RxArt + Chanel Beauté 11th Annual PARTY Benefit. Imbibing works by contemporary artists such as Nate Lowman (who’s Reverse Snowman Holding His Own Head was the highest going piece, at $24,000) and Dan Colen, Miranda July, and Yoko Ono, guests bid via silent auction, the proceeds going toward a good cause. According to their website, “RxArt is a non-profit organization dedicated to placing original fine art in patient, procedure and examination rooms of healthcare facilities. Our mission is to improve otherwise sterile environments through contemporary art, promote healing, and inspire hope in patients, families and staff.” Held at the Highline Stages in Chelsea, party-goers included artists KAWS, Terry Richardson, Aurel Schmidt, and José Parlá, among other celebrities and organizers such as Bill Powers and Jen Brill.

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