James Franco, Psycho Nacirema, (still) (2013), courtesy Pace London

On view at Pace London is an exhibition of works by American actor James Franco, presented by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon entitled Psycho Nacirema. The exhibition, which marks Franco’s first major gallery exhibition in the United Kingdom, continues Franco’s intriguing explorations of celebrity, cultural symbols, and obsession.

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The last of artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s monument structures, constructed in in tribute to writer Antonio Gramsci, opens today at the Forest Houses housing project in the South Bronx.  Consisting of a library, performance space and Internet access point, the Gramsci Monument will stand all summer, welcoming all visitors to engage with the writings of the Italian anarchist at a space constructed by Forest Houses residents.  “I tell them, ‘This is not to serve your community, per se, but it is to serve art, and my reasons for wanting to do these things are purely personal artistic reasons,’” Hirschhorn says. “My goal or my dream is not so much about changing the situation of the people who help me, but about showing the power of art to make people think about issues they otherwise wouldn’t have thought about.” (more…)

The invasion of financiers in the art market, the introduction of art as investment, and the internet have altered the value system of works at auction, placing a new emphasis on the reassurance of well-known artists and established sales records. The new ethos can be see in in recent sales of Giacometti’s L’Homme qui march I,’ which sold for over £65 million at Sotheby’s, London in February 2010. The sculpture was an edition of six, with four additional ‘artist proofs.’ The existence of editions allows for direct price comparisons and understanding of the piece’s artistic standing.

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Painter John Constable’s 1821 canvas The Hay Wain, widely regarded as one of Britain’s most iconic paintings, has been a attacked by a protestor from the group Fathers4Justice.  The alleged protestor, 41 year old Tim Haries, was arrested on charges of attaching a small photograph of a young boy to the work while it was on view at The National Gallery.  “A member of the Gallery’s security team quickly intervened and called for assistance. The photograph was approximately 4 inches wide, and the back had been coated with glue.”  Said a Gallery spokesman. (more…)

Haroon Mirza, Pavilion for Optimisation (2013), via Lisson Gallery

In one of the pale, white rooms of Lisson Gallery’s current show of works by Haroon Mirza, a light continually goes on and off, accompanied by a bizarre whooshing noise.  The sound is that of an ant, walking across a small copper plate buried inside of an ant farm, and mixed together with the sounds of a shower head draining into a plastic bin.  At turns confusing, surreal and immersive, the viewer cannot help but linger in this minimal environment, seeking to understand the subtle links between action and reaction. (more…)

Financial Times editor Simon Schama recently sat down with artist Grayson Perry for an interview covering the artist’s new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.  Discussing his influences and practice, the artist goes on to discuss the broader context of British art in the global community. “We are all so desperate to hunt for Englishness, to try and connect to the European renaissance, that we are missing our own brilliant contribution to world culture, which is to say, “Oh come off it!” That’s what we do, hold complex ideas and manage to be ambiguous in a humane way, to celebrate humanity while at the same time satirising it, that’s what makes us English.” (more…)

A new website, titled BitPremier, is currently offering a number of luxury goods for purchase using the digital currency BitCoins. The initial offering of products on the site include works by Peter Beard and LeRoy Neiman.  “This is a way for them to diversify their assets into bitcoins. At this point, it’s a lot easier to sell a $1 million painting to get bitcoins than trying to buy a million dollars of bitcoins on an exchange.”  Says Bitpremier founder Alan Silbert. (more…)

New York’s Harris Lieberman Gallery, which has operated in the city for 7 years has closed, after finishing its last show on June 15th. “We had a great seven years,” said co-founder Jessie Washburne-Harris, “but we decided it was time to make a change”  Ms. Washburne-Harris will join Metro Pictures as a director beginning July 15th. (more…)

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Great deeds – against the dead!, (2003), via Yoshii Gallery

From May 1^st until June 29^th the Yoshii Gallery, New York is exhibiting a series of works entitled Insult to Injury by Jake and Dinos Chapman. For Insult to Injury, the artists reworked Francisco de Goya’s The Disasters of War, a set of 80 etchings, by changing all the visible faces of victims to heads of clowns and puppies.

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Nobody Knows Why, (2003), via Yoshii Gallery

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Ellsworth Kelly, Curves on White (Four Panels) (2011), via Matthew Marks Gallery

Capping off a trio of New York shows this spring, Ellsworth Kelly has brought a his work to Matthew Marks Gallery, taking up all three of the gallery’s New York City locations with a series of new paintings and sculptures that illustrate the artist’s continued interest in location, color and form.

Ellsworth Kelly, At Ninety (Installation View), via Matthew Marks Gallery (more…)

Gursky Sells at Sotheby’s, via Sotheby’s

The final auction hammers have fallen for the first half of 2013, concluding June’s London auction weeks. While the results of this week’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s were solid, final sales events before the summer break showed a marked tapering off in both sales prices and quantities. With the bountiful auctions, events and fairs, including the $1.1 billion New York auctions, Frieze New York, Art Basel Hong Kong, and the Venice Biennale with its record 86,000 attendance count.

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Isabel Rawsthorne (1966) via Sotheby’s (more…)

Yoshitomo Nara, Missed Autumn Rendez-Vous (2013), via PACE Gallery

The images of Japanese kawaii have become, at this stage of the contemporary arts dialogue, something of a trope, an analytical signifier earmarking a work for commentary on Japan’s encounters with global pop culture.  Creeping into press releases, catalogues and countless reviews as a convenient sounding point for Japan’s obsession with the bizarre and the cartoonish, the use of the word often leaves something to be desired, doing little to quantify the aspects or implications it actually carries.

Yoshitomo Nara, (Installation View), via PACE Gallery (more…)

Marc Quinn, All the Time in the World (Installation View), via Mary Boone

Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea is currently exhibiting four new bronze sculptures and one oil painting, which together make up an exhibition by Marc Quinn entitled All the Time in the World. The display was opened to the public on May 4th, during the busy weeks around Frieze New York, and will remain on view through June 29th, 2013.   The exhibition also corresponds with Quinn’s major retrospective of works currently on view at the Fondation Giorgio Cini in Venice this summer. (more…)

Artist Ed Ruscha is profiled in the most recent issue of the New Yorker, discussing his life in Los Angeles, his practice, and the inspiration for some of his most iconic works, including his famous painting Oof.  “It had one foot in the world of cartooning,” he says. “You get punched in the stomach, and that’s ‘Oof.’ It was so obvious, and so much a part of my growing up in the U.S.A. I felt like it was almost a patriotic word.” (more…)

During a recent visit to London, David Zwirner spoke with Spear’s about the current state of the art market, offering his perspective and opinion on the current struggle that small and mid-size galleries are currently facing.  ” Those [mid-size] galleries have to be strong. That’s a little bit on the local communities to support them.”  He said.  “When I was a mid-size gallery and a small gallery, I really got my support from New York. It seems that the audience seems to gravitate towards the galleries that have a little glory attached to their name. That’s too bad.” (more…)

Russian Marat Guelman has been fired from his post as the director of the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, and is currently under investigation for his financial practices.  The firing comes days after Guelman’s exhibition Welcome! Sochi 2014 (a protest against the upcoming winter olympics as a Kremlin publicity project) was raided by authorities.  “All of this looks like they received an order from Moscow. To find something at any cost,” he said. “And this is even though I’m not in any way part of the opposition, but simply a person who openly speaks what I think.” (more…)

Blinky Palermo II Gelber Fluß, (1976), via David Zwirner

David Zwirner is currently presenting an exhibition of German artist Blinky Palermo’s works on paper from the years 1976-1977, on view at the gallery’s 20th Street exhibition space in New York. The exhibition was organized by the Palermo archive to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the artist’s birth, and the selection of works on display are culled from both museum and private collections, made mostly in New York City where he lived from 1973-1976, shortly before his death in the Maldives in 1977.

Blinky Palermo, Works on Paper (Installation View), via David Zwirner (more…)

The Bruce High Quality Foundation, which opens its first ever museum retrospective tonight at the Brooklyn Museum, is profiled in the most recent issue of the Village Voice.  Speaking with two members of the amorphous collective, the interview covers the group’s history of art world subversions, their efforts towards a more populist art world, and their take on the economic value of art.  “Art’s most radical quality is that it’s useless,” says one member. “People have used art for lots of purposes throughout history, but artists have to protect its uselessness—it serves as a shield against corruption.”  (more…)

The sale of Pablo Picasso’s 1909 work Compotier et tasse has been blocked by U.S. authorities at the request of the Italian government.  The painting’s current owners, Gabriella Amati and her late husband, Angelo Maj, are being charged with embezzling $44 million from the city of Naples, and the work is suspected to have been purchased with the stolen money.  Immigration and Custons Enforcement director John Morton said: “Restraining this valuable artwork is an effort to help recover some of the estimated $44 million that this couple stole from the tax-paying citizens of Naples.” (more…)

The Divine Comedy, Ai Weiwei’s heavy metal album has been released this week, and is also available for streaming at his website.  Turning to music to continue his active dissent against Chinese political oppression, the album includes tracks documenting his abuse at the hands of the police and political confrontation, inspired by his 2011 detention at the hands of the government. (more…)

Wim Delvoye, Suppo, (2010), via Sperone Westwater

Belgian artist Wim Delvoye has continually pushed his signature brand of surrealist social critique over the past 30 years, creating works that subvert societal norms with a trenchantly humorous twist.  Often using the forms of classical art and architecture, Delvoye twists and bends these forms to create new dialogues with his medium, his subjects, and his own era. Cultivating a number of recent laser-cut works in steel and bronze, Sperone Westwater is currently presenting a minimal, yet potent review of Delvoye’s current work, examining his ongoing explorations of gothic architecture, religious symbolism, and modern psychology. (more…)

Details are emerging about a major exhibition of work by Damien Hirst, billed as the largest exhibition of work by the artist yet to be assembled, slated to open later this year in Doha, Qatar.  The show, titled Relics, will cull work from the full range of the artist’s work, and will include a number of the artist’s diamond-encrusted work. (more…)

A museum show intended to heal relations between the United States and Italy over claims of looted work has encountered turbulence, after Sicilian officials have refused to ship several works over concerns over tourism.  When asked about the region’s refusal to cooperate, Sicilian official Mariarita Sgarlata noted:  “How would an American tourist react who, trusting his Frommer’s travel guide,  has gone out of his way to visit the island of Mozia to admire this work of art in its original setting, only to discover that the statue is in Tokyo or St. Petersburg?” (more…)

Fashion designer L’Wren Scott has announced the completion of her fall line, inspired by painter Gustav Klimt.  Speaking at a press conference last week, Scott discussed the artist’s inspiration on her work, and the inspiration he took from the fashion and culture of his era. “He was very avant garde and scandalous, in more ways than the children.” Ms. Scott said.  “It was a movement coming from something very strict to loosening up, but as you see, Klimt was a man who missed the waistline. He painted it in everyone of his portraits. He wanted to see the female form.” (more…)