Laure Prouvost, For Forgetting (Installation View), via Art Observed

Laure Prouvost has a lot to say.  Creating multifaceted, occasionally dizzying multimedia installations using wood, paint, video and various props, the 2013 Turner Prize Winner’s work is hyper-loaded in its signifiers and subjects, moving rapidly from the divine to the profane and back, all expressed with a masterful storytelling bent.  It’s just this line, in fact, that the artist makes express use of in her first U.S. installation, occupying the lobby of the New Museum, telling a lightning-fast narrative of identity theft and financial scamming in the post-digital economy.

Laure Prouvost, For Forgetting, 2014 (still). Installation and video. Copyright the artist. Courtesy the artist and MOTINTERNATIONAL, London and Brussels (more…)

The LA Times takes a look at the Menil Drawing Institute, set to open in 2017.  The new museum, designed by Johnston Marklee & Associates, will sit at the southern edge of the Menil Campus, and boasts a number of striking features, including a thin, plate-steel roof and a special public space shaped by illusory curves in the shape of the building.   (more…)

Richard Artschwager, Running Man (triple), (2013), Photo by Rober McKeever, Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

Gagosian’s Upper East Side Gallery is currently featuring the final works of the late Richard Artschwager. This exhibition coincides with the final destination of Artschwager’s traveling Retrospective, Richard Artschwager!, which just ended at Munich’s Haus der Kunst in January. Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Yale University Art Gallery, the comprehensive display of Artschwager’s life’s work was his second retrospective, the Whitney having exhibited an earlier iteration in 1988. Collectively titled No More Running Man, the works on view at Gagosian swerve in and out of generic categorization, at once painting and sculpture, to systematically present the enigmatic leitmotif of the Running Man. While one will find echoes of the past in these works, they represent the evolution of a highly protean and prolific master, whose style and subject resisted singularity for over sixty years.

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The Los Angeles-based Blum & Poe Gallery has announced that it will open its first gallery space in New York, on the Upper East Side.  The new space will be helmed by Andrea Neustein, the daughter of artist Joshua Neustein.  The gallery currently boasts Carroll Dunham, Takashi Murakami, and Jim Shaw  among its roster. (more…)

The NADA Art Fair has announced its list of exhibitors for the 2014 edition of the fair in New York, returning to Basketball City on Pier 36 in Manhattan, and running concurrently with the Frieze New York Art Fair this May.  The list of over 80 galleries includes The Hole, Invisible-Exports, Marlborough Chelsea, and more. (more…)

Keith Sonnier, Ba-O-Ba (1970), Caterina Verde, Keith Sonnier/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pulling works from the beginning and current periods of the artist’s career, Pace Gallery is currently presenting two bodies of work by artist Keith Sonnier, showcasing an extended perspective on the artist’s work and its evolution.  Working alongside fellow post-conceptual artists interested in the capabilities for light and lighting in installations and mounted works, Sonnier first embraced the use of neon in his pieces in the late 1960’s, using panes of glass and wrapped neon lighting to emphasize the interplays and gradual shadings of color caused by reflection and spacing.  A number of seminal works from this period are exhibited here, including  Ba-o-Ba V, and Neon Wrapping Incandescent, influential pieces that marked Sonnier’s newfound interest in the capabilities for light in a sculptural work. (more…)

The Hammer Museum has named its list of artists for Made in L.A., which will open in June.  The list of 35 artists participating in the exhibition include Piero Golia, Tony Greene, Wu Tsang, and project space Public Fiction.     (more…)

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC has announced that it will be taken over by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University, part of a new plan for the longstanding arts institution.  The plan would see the Corcoran School of Art and Design made part of George Washington University, with the University covering the millions of dollars in much-needed renovations.  “There is no way to continue the Corcoran as we knew it or as we know it,” said Peggy Loar, interim director and president of the Corcoran. “That’s going to be the kernel of pain for some people.” (more…)

Sol Lewitt, Horizontal Progression #6 (1991), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Sol Lewitt, considered by many as the founding father of conceptual modernism, is regarded as one of the most influential artists of the last half of the 20^th century. The cube, as a “grammatical device” from which Lewitt’s work often develops speaks to his ambition to reduce art to its essentials, and approach the relationship between artistic creation and the mechanization of thought.  Lewitt is also known for his large-scale two and three-dimensional works, particularly his wall drawings executed in 1968. In these wall drawings, predetermined line-making procedures and formulas typically associated with commercial production were enlisted in the installation of this work across galleries. (more…)

An article in The Art Newspaper analyzes the potential vote on Scottish Independence this year, and the potential impacts an independent Scotland may have on the nation’s art collection.  If Scotland changes its tax structure to more heavily impact the wealthy, some are worried that lending collectors are likely to remove their works from Scottish museums, moving them south.  The National Galleries of Scotland board chair Ben Thomson, however, is more optimistic. “We are extremely confident that we will continue to enjoy very positive support from the Scottish government for our ongoing collaborations with private collectors,” he says. (more…)

Thomas Struth, Ride, Anaheim, California (2013), via Marian Goodman

German Thomas Struth is presenting a series of new photos this month at Marian Goodman’s New York gallery space, presenting a series of recent works, among which are 5 large format photos made at Disneyland, part of a recent series the 59-year old photographer is currently working on.

Thomas Struth, Mountain, Anaheim, California, (2013) via Marian Goodman (more…)

Alex Prager, Crowd # 9 (Sunset), Courtesy of Lehmann Maupin

With a double show at Lehmann Maupin’s New York galleries, entitled Face in the Crowd, and another exhibition in Corcoran’s DC gallery, photographer Alex Prager has emerged from Los Angeles to take up major art world real estate this winter. Prager’s work is instantly recognizable, a savvy blend of mid-century nostalgia repackaged for our current moment, and it seems the rest of the fashion and art world have finally caught up with her. (more…)

A selection of masterpieces from the Frick Collection are set to tour outside of the United States for the first time ever, showing in The Hague’s Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery.  The works will include some of The Frick’s most notable pieces, including John Constable’s spectacular The White Horse, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres‘ portrait of the Comtesse d’Haussonville. (more…)

Cornelius Gurlitt, the German man at the center of the controversy over thousands of Nazi-looted artworks found in his Munich apartment, has launched a website in an attempt to tell his side of the story.  “Some of what has been reported about my collection and myself is not correct or not quite correct,” Gurlitt says on the site. “Consequently my lawyers, my legal caretaker and I want to make available information to objectify the discussion about my collection and my person.” (more…)

Actor George Clooney has chimed in on the growing debates over repatriation, calling for Great Britain to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, and subsequently drawing strong response from British citizens and officials.  “He’s an American,” says John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.  “I suspect he doesn’t know why it is that Britain came to acquire the Elgin Marbles. There’s a very strong view in this country that they should stay in the UK.” (more…)

Alex Katz / Dara Friedman (Installation View), all images courtesy Gavin Brown’s enterprise

On view at Gavin Brown’s enterprise from January 11th through February 22nd is an exhibition of cutout works from American Pop artist Alex Katz, paired with a new Super 8 and High Definition film by Dara Friedman entitled PLAY, (Part 1&2).

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Marianne Boesky is profiled in the WSJ this week, spotlighting her reputation for risk-taking, including showing a never-before-seen South African artist in her booth at the Armory Fair next month, Serge Alain Nitegeka, and her early gamble on Japanese art-star Takeshi Murakami. “I couldn’t even give his work away,” she says. “I could even go so far as to say I was mocked for showing it.”
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Larry Gagosian is featured in the Financial Times’ How to Spend It section this week, recounting his personal style inspirations, and his current reading list.  “I tend to mix it up, so I might read a biography and then follow it up with a page-turner,” he says. “I used to read Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, but now I stick to contemporary fiction and books related to current events.”  (more…)

The New York Times profiles Anthony Elms this week, the co-curator of this year’s Whitney Biennial, set to open March 7th in New York, discussing the exhibition’s monumental reputation, and the almost equally considerable criticism it draws each outing.  “I know someone’s not going to like the show, so I might as well just go forward and try to do it the way that seems right,” Elms says.  “Anything I can do to put more artists in more people’s faces is something I’ll say yes to.” (more…)

Oldenburg and van Bruggen, Study, Soft Shuttlecock (1994). All Images Courtesy The Pace Gallery.

Now through February 22, Pace Gallery‘s 534 W. 25^th Street location is hosting “Grounded”, an exhibition featuring floor-based sculpture by major figures in contemporary art. The show contains work produced from 1967 to 2013 that invite the viewers to experience a new perspective on sculptural forms. The artists that contribute to this show include works by Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, Tara Donovan, Tom Friedman, Tim Hawkinson, Maya Lin and others, focusing on the spatial interactions between art, the ground, and the viewer’s perception. (more…)

Sue Williams, Philip Zelikow, Historian (2013) All photos courtesy of 303 Gallery

303 Gallery presents Sue Williams WTC, WWIII, Couch Size, on view through February 22nd, 2014. Williams’ ninth solo exhibition with the gallery, this show features six new large-scale paintings, of ‘couch-sized’ proportion.  This titular reference to the commercial appraisal of artworks marks the comic butt of a seemingly sinister thematic program, which proclaims the World Trade Center and World War III as its subject. Williams’ nominal list introduces the ironic tone that colors her paintings, their dark subject matter bursting with chromatic brilliance and her signature comic levity.

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The German government has announced plans to search its public museums through an independent center, the Wall Street Journal reports.  The news follows the ongoing outcry over the seized collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, and the attempted claims laid by families from whom the art was looted during WWII.  “These are delicate matters to articulate,” says German Culture Minister Monika Grütters. “It’s a matter of earning back trust.” (more…)

Fashion line and retailer Opening Ceremony has announced that it will present a collection of ready to wear clothing inspired by Magritte next week at London’s fashion week, including a capsule footwear collection in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik, Birkenstocks, and Vans.  “We really wanted to think about this triptych of footwear, and think about different types of people,” said creative director Humberto Leon. “Everyone in the office wants it.” (more…)

Artist Eric Fischl is profiled in the Financial Times, and speaks about his current retrospective at the Albertina, his life and career, and the reception of his work by both collectors and museums.  “I very naively thought as a young artist that the work I was doing was not suited for individuals to live with because it had such harsh content, Fischl says, “but I thought museums would want it because it is about the truth of life. Turned out to be the opposite. Museums are afraid of sexual content.” (more…)