Ross Bleckner, via Art Observed

Painter Ross Bleckner has returned to New York this spring, with an exhibition of new paintings at Mary Boone Gallery, featuring several continuations of past series of works, while branching off in new directions.  It’s been some time since the last solo exhibition of works by Ross Bleckner in New York, nearly four years to be exact, and the artist seems to have been biding his time, putting together a strong selection of works.

Ross Bleckner, ALP30 (2013), via Mary Boone (more…)

Kehinde Wiley, via Art Observed

On Wednesday night, the Brooklyn Museum opened the doors for its annual Gala, bringing together a diverse group of artists, collectors and trustees to honor painter Kehinde Wiley, artist Jenny Holzer, and developer Jane Walentas.

Orly Genger, via Art Observed

(more…)

The Museum of Modern Art has announced that it will host the first-ever U.S. museum retrospective of works by Robert Gober.  Titled The Heart Is Not a Metaphor, Mr. Gober’s work will be on view beginning in October.  “Robert is totally involved and approaching himself as if he were one of his subjects,” says Ann Temkin, chief curator of painting and sculpture. (more…)

Artist Pharrell Williams is continuing his ventures into the art world later this year, curating a show at Emmanuel Perrotin’s Paris space.  The show, titled G I R L after the artist’s hit album, will feature 40 works by 32 artists (half of them women), including Tracey Emin, Alex Katz and Bharti Kher, as well as Daniel Arsham and Gregor Hildebrandt.  The works selected mix images of women and of love, viewed from a variety of angles,” the artist’s team said in a press statement. (more…)

Artist Joan Jonas will represent the United States at the Venice Biennale next year, the New York Times reports.  The pioneering video and performance artist was selected by the State Department’s bureau of educational and cultural affairs, and will create a site-specific work at the U.S. pavilion.   “Joan has been a visionary for such a long time,’’ says Paul C. Ha, the director of the M.I.T. List Visual Arts Center, and commissioner of the exhibition. “Yet she hasn’t had much exposure in Venice.’’ (more…)

Tauba Auerbach is interviewed in the Evening Standard this week, following the opening of her first solo exhibition in London at the ICA.  “I don’t think beauty and complexity are at odds,” she says.  “I feel that I’m more compelled to spend time with objects that I find seductive. I want to examine them and understand them.” (more…)

A trio of sculptures by Jake and Dinos Chapman are set to be installed at Hampstead Heath in London.  The rudimentary sculptures of a group of dinosaurs, titled The good the bad and the ugly, were previously installed at the Gherkin building.  Installed next month, they will constitute the largest piece of public art the park has seen since 2005, when Giancario Neri’s The Writer was placed on view.   (more…)

The shortlist for the BP Portrait Award has been announced, featuring works by Thomas Ganter, Richard Twose, and David Jon Kassman.  The nominees will be on view at London’s National Portrait Gallery from  June 26th to September 21st, with the winner announced just before the exhibition opens on June 24th. (more…)

Ali Banisadr, Ran (2014), all images courtesy Sperone Westwater

Currently on view at Sperone Westwater in New York is an exhibition of new works by Iranian painter Ali Banisadr.  Entitled Motherboard, the exhibition is Banisadr’s first solo show at at the gallery, and will remain on view through April 19, 2014.

(more…)

Jordan Wolfson, (Female Figure) (2014), via Art Observed

How does memory function in the 21st century?  How does nostalgia?  These are questions bound up in the work of Jordan Wolfson, on view now at David Zwirner.  Spread along a series of assemblages, video, and the artist’s notoriously eerie animatronic robot, the show is a striking step for the artist, showing his unique approach to art-making in an ever-stronger expressive capacity.

Jordan Wolfson, Raspberry Poseur (2012), via David Zwirner (more…)

Heidi Bucher, Untitled (Herrenzimmer), (undated) via Osman Can Yerebakan

Known for her ongoing focus on the relationship between the body and architectural space, the late Heidi Bucker is being commemorated with an exhibition at the Swiss Institute. The exhibition, running through May 11th at the gallery’s SoHo space, stands out being the first solo exhibition of the artist in the United States in more than forty years.

Heidi Bucher, Untitled (9 Objects), (1972-1987), Courtesy Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (more…)

In a recent investor presentation, Daniel Loeb outlined his five point plan for bringing Sotheby’s back to profitability, pushing his case for allowing Third Point a more vocal position in the company’s proceedings.  Loeb’s plan includes action points on curated auctions and private sales, attacks on the company’s planning on its S|2 Gallery, and inquiries into how to utilize the auction spaces during downtime.   (more…)

The City of Detroit is nearing a pension cuts deal which may allow the Detroit Institute of Arts to spin off from city ownership, provided state funding, foundation contributions and Detroit Institute of Arts fund-raising would provide $816 million to reduce potential cuts to city pensions.  The city is sell engaged with talks with representatives from the city’s largest pension funds. (more…)

The New York Times reports on a tax loophole regarding several states where art purchases can be awarded tax-free status if the newly gotten works are first lent to an art museum.  The tax loophole explains why Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud, the most expensive work ever sold at auction, was first exhibited at the Portland Art Museum after its record-setting purchase last year.  “It is an amazing opportunity for these smaller cities to show these works,” says Mack McFarland of the Pacific Northwest College of Art. “But one does have to wonder, doing a cost-benefit analysis on a more global scale, whether or not the tax break for these wealthy collectors is worth it.” (more…)

The recently announced dissolution of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC is looking to take longer than anticipated, NPR reports.  Concerns over the architecture of the space and any intended changes or repairs will require an extensive review process, and the logistics of George Washington University taking over the Corcoran’s art school while the National Gallery of Art takes over the collection.  “The minute you start touching that building, which is to get the infrastructure of that building straightened out, there will be major ADA problems, Americans with Disabilities Act problems,” says former Corcoran director David Levy, “because that building was built at a time when nobody thought about those things.” (more…)

A recent article in the Financial Times traces the past 40 years of the art market in conjunction with the term “the art world,” and questions the state of the market as the increased focus on art as an investment opportunity continues to drive blue-chip artists to ever-higher sales records. (more…)

The Guggenheim Museum seems to have won its dispute with Paul McCarthy and Mike Bouchet. The artists’ Bilbao photo installation (featuring a photo of the museum as a battleship) has been removed removed after the Guggenheim stated its disapproval.  The Guggenheim has stated that it “respects the artists’ rights and it likewise protects its own image rights.” (more…)

Cécile Eluard, daughter of surrealist poet Paul Eluard, is interviewed in the Guardian this week, recounting her experiences growing up surrounded by some of the most famous artists of the day, including Max Ernst, Dali, and Pablo Picasso, who would take her to boxing matches.  “He never got old,” Eluard says of Picasso. “I never felt the 40-odd years between us. We would go and have a swim in Vallauris, I would come and visit him whenever I liked in his studio in rue des Grands Augustins in Paris. He would show me his little sculptures made of bric-à-brac. He was so alive, so earthy, so absolutely not abstract!”   (more…)

Peter Coffin, Untitled (Unfinished Hand Holding a Bell Bubble) (2013), via Art Observed

Currently on view at CANADA Gallery in New York is a selection of works from Agathe Snow, Peter Coffin and Willy Le Maitre, and featuring a bizarre series of assemblage, sculpture and photography appropriately titled The Weird Show.  Spread out along the gallery’s long, narrow rooms, the group of works on view offer a look at the work of the trio through a similar framework of pastiched cultural formats. (more…)

A recent installation by Paul McCarthy and Mike Bouchet in Bilbao, Spain has raised the ire of the Guggenheim Museum.  Depicting the museum’s Frank Gehry-designed facade covered in guns as if it was a battleship, Powered A-Hole Spanish Donkey Sport Dick Drink Donkey Dong Dongs Sunscreen Model has drawn a removal notice from the museum, which claims copyright over the museum’s image.  “We believe that the image displayed on the said property includes connotations that discredit this institution, so we urge you to withdraw the said canvas ASAP,” Alba Urresola, the Guggenheim’s associate director of legal and internal control, said in a notice sent to Bouchet’s gallery.  (more…)

A new documentary on Ai Weiwei, The Fake Case, is preparing for release, profiling the artist’s release from his 81-day detention under the Chinese state, the artist’s response after his imprisonment, and his preparation for S.A.C.R.E.D., a series of works that documented his time while he was held without bail for tax evasion, a charge one person in his film notes doesn’t even exist in China.  “Nobody in China would believe it, because nobody pays taxes in China anyways, so there’s no such thing,” they say. (more…)

A new venture has opened its doors in London, allowing interested buyers to purchase shares in art on view, and to take the work home to show for a fraction of each year.  Called My Art Invest, investors can buy shares in works for as little as $8, with share value determined by an artist’s market value, including works by Basquiat and Damien Hirst.  “We want to democratise art,” says Tom-David Bastok, My Art Invest’s 25-year-old founder. “For me, it’s very, very, very important that everybody can put a foot in the art market.” (more…)

This spring, three shows of work by artist Ai Weiwei are opening in London, Berlin and New York, with a major retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, an exhibition at Lisson Gallery in London, and the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date at the Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin.  The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum includes the artist’s S.A.C.R.E.D. works, half-sized dioramas depicting his 81-day imprisonment that commanded major critical attention at the Venice Biennale last year.  The exhibitions come with a hope that Chinese tourists may be exposed to Ai’s work outside his own country.   “Because my work is banned from being shown inside China, the only way they can become aware of it is from the outside,” he said. (more…)

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (2010), all images courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Painter Rudolf Stingel is currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, presenting an exhibition of the artist’s monumental landscapes. Although several of the works were exhibited in 2010 in Berlin at the Neue Nationalgalerie, this exhibition at Gagosian New York represents their U.S. premier.

(more…)