Artist Olafur Eliasson has unveiled a new project in Copenhagen, Denmark, an immense installation featuring 112 tons of ice.  Ice Watch, created in conjunction with geologist Minik Rosing, to commemorate the Fifth Assessment Report on the Climate, a drastic report on the rapidly changing state of the global atmosphere. “I hope that people will touch the inland ice on City Hall Square and be touched by it,” said Eliasson. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the recent increase in attempts by museums around New York to increase its focus on digital elements in the presentation of exhibitions and installations, fusing strong curatorship with immersive digital engagement projects.   “You want the way people live their lives to happen in the museum,” says Carrie Rebora Barratt, the Met’s deputy director for collections and administration. (more…)

E.V. Day, CatFight (2011-2014) via E.V. Day Studio

On view now at Mary Boone’s uptown gallery is the haunting sculpture series Semi-Feral by artist E.V. Day. The show centers around a large, site-specific sculptural piece comprised of multiple casts of saber-tooth tiger skeletons floating above the floor of the gallery space.  Day’s work, often concerning sexuality and femininity, takes its point of departure here from the slang term “cat fight.”  A phrase that typically robs a fight from any viciousness, Day returns the notion to its original, ferociously natural element.

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A new conservation approach is being used to return Mark Rothko’s badly damaged Harvard Murals series to public view, works that have sat in storage for years to avoid any additional damage to their already badly faded surfaces.  Using a series of colored light projections, the works will restore portions of the surface that had faded from view.  “Where’s the line between what is Rothko and what is the projection?” says Mary Schneider Enriquez, the museum’s associate curator of modern and contemporary art. “What is the original work of art when you project light on it? Is it the same work of art? As a teaching museum within Harvard, that’s the kind of discussion we want to generate.”  (more…)

Jim Shaw, The Deluge (2014), all images via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

With a humorous wit and sarcastic tone, Jim Shaw has been mining the deep archive of Americana for decades, uniting the supposedly separated elements of high and low culture into comic pieces that carry a deeply caustic undertone. The artist’s newest show at Metro Pictures, I Only Wanted You to Love Me, continues this trend, featuring acrylic on muslin works that pull from expansive investigations of visual representation through strong symbolism and appropriation. (more…)

The New York Times profiles Leto Gallery, an upstart Polish exhibition space run by Marta Kolakowska, which is committed to challenging projects and a committed interest in social themes.  “I think it is important what Marta is doing in terms of Polish art but it is also a bit of fun,” says artist Konrad Smolenski, who works with the gallery and represented Poland at last year’s Biennale.  “With her, it is not about selling but building strong connections to people and being honest with what we are doing. That is something that I really appreciate and I cannot imagine a different kind of relationship with a gallerist.” (more…)

Marcel Dzama, Une Danse des Bouffons (still) (2013), via Art Observed

Marcel Dzama’s latest film, Une Danse des Bouffons (A Jester’s Dance) (2013), is on view now at David Zwirner’s 525 and 533 West 19th Street spaces, marking the premier showing of the film in the United States.  The exhibition, featuring a number of collaborations and multi-media projects, includes a 7-inch vinyl release of the film’s soundtrack, with haunting, largely instrumental music by members of the band Arcade Fire.

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Richard Nonas (Installation View), via Art Observed

Richard Nonas’s newest series of sculptures, currently on view at Fergus McCaffrey’s 26th Street Chelsea location, are an interesting take on the minimalist object. Folded, twisted metal and wood forms stand in stark opposition, with sharp angles drawing lines of interaction and interrelation from work to work, subsequently toying with notions of space between a cohesive environment and a series of isolated, complexly rendered objects. (more…)

Paul Sietsema, Red painting (detail) (2014), all images courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

On view at Matthew Marks is an exhibition of new work from LA-based artist Paul Sietsema. The exhibition includes new paintings and drawings, in addition to Sietsema’s two most recent films, all focusing on varying themes of production, consumption, proliferation of cultural objects and the systems in which these objects circulate.

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The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the ongoing court battle between Ronald Perelman and Larry Gagosian, noting the immense legal fees that the collector has racked up (over $3 million) in his ongoing battle over the sale of a Cy Twombly work he claims was fraudulently overpriced, and Gagosian’s subsequent lawsuits over his failure to pay.  “Ron Perelman’s disingenuous claims that he is a crusader are nothing more than a cover for the fact that he is a notorious bully with a well-known history of filing meritless litigations who once again won’t pay what’s owed,” says Gagosian’s lawyer, Matthew S. Dontzin. (more…)

Gavin Brown is opening a new location on the Lower East Side at 291 Grand Street, a building which has also recently seen the addition of Margaret Lee’s 47 Canal.  The gallery will also maintain the same name has his original space.  “We couldn’t think of what else to call it!” the gallerist says. (more…)

Gerhard Richter is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal this week, as the artist opens a new show of works at Marian Goodman in London.  “Abstract pictures do indeed show something, they just show things that don’t exist,” he says. “But they still follow the same requirements as figurative works: they need a setup, structure. You need to be able to look at it and say, ‘It’s almost something.’ But it’s actually representing nothing. It pulls feelings out of you, even as it’s showing you a scene that technically isn’t there.” (more…)

Helen Frankenthaler, Cool Summer (1962), © 2014 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Photo by Rob McKeever

On view at Gagosian Gallery in New York is an exhibition of work by American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler, focusing on a period of her career (1962-1963) in which the artist focused primarily on composing with color and tone rather than formal lines and shapes.  The display will remain on view through October 18th. (more…)

A Picasso canvas that has never before been exhibited will go on view this week in London.  The 1901 self-portrait is being exhibited at Ordovas Gallery, alongside works by Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon and Damien Hirst. (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach has announced its selections for the 2014 edition of its special section, Kabinett.  Focusing on special curated shows and group exhibitions, Kabinett this year will feature  a solo exhibition of work by Mickalene Thomas by Kavi Gupta, and an installation by James Turrell at Mexico’s Galería OMR, among others.  The fair will open on December 1st. (more…)

The New York Times profiles the upcoming exhibition of Leonard Lauder’s Cubist collection (on view October 20th), a series of works collected over the years by the cosmetics tycoon who taught himself a great deal about the world of fine art as a child attending the Met.  “I didn’t discover Cubism then,” he said. “But just by looking, you learn what’s good.” (more…)

The Guardian profiles painter Eric Fischl’s recent series of works documenting the peculiar, occasionally surreal landscapes and politics of the modern art fair circuit.  “The big collectors do this kind of speed-dating thing,” the artist tells The Guardian. “They try to get in and out before anyone buys what they are after and certainly before the hoi polloi gets to look. And then you’ve got people who are just there for the social scene. So you have people texting or not paying any attention at all. But when you stop the moment you can see this weird world that is taking place. They are being regarded and judged by the work itself in some ways.” (more…)

The Louvre is reportedly loaning over 300 works to its new museum in Abu Dhabi, The Guardian reports, including works by Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and Matisse.  “This will be the first time many of these works will travel to Abu Dhabi or even the Middle East, and are a rare opportunity to see important art from French museums,” said Sultan bin Tahnoon al-Nahyan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority. (more…)

In the run-up to Frieze Art Week, Lisson Gallery has installed a series of posters on the walls of the London Tube station near Regent’s Park, featuring texts designed by artists Ryan Gander and Cory Arcangel.  The work is part of a broader series of projects by Arcangel, Gander and Joyce Pensato at the fair who “are intervening and disrupting the [Frieze] stand through installation, performance and collaboration—manipulating how the public interact with works and staff members, who will be sporting custom-made shoes, suits and other wearable works of art,” according to the gallery press release. (more…)

Carsten Höller, Dice (2014), via Gagosian

After a summer pause, the major art fair circuit will look to get back up and running this fall, as collectors, dealers and artists flock to Regent’s Park in London for the 2014 edition of the Frieze Art Fair. (more…)

Artist Mark Flood has opened his own gallery space in Chelsea on 22nd Street, directly adjacent to his dealer Zach Feuer, where none of the art is for sale, and where Flood is offering space for artists that he loves and supports.  “In New York, little things can have big repercussions,” he says. “I think it’s good to kind of help everybody out. I guess that’s what everyone in the art world is doing. It seems like kind of a sinister business, but it’s full of people who are obsessed with art. I’m another one of those. I don’t have to do anything but look at these great paintings.” (more…)

The Royal Academy of Art has announced plans for a landmark retrospective of the work of Ai Weiwei, planned for 2015.  “There are many artists and exhibitions I would like to put on but there’s something timely about Ai Weiwei,” says Programming Director Tim Marlow.  “He’s one of the most famous artists in the world but I don’t think his work is as well known as it should be.”
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Jason Rhoades, The Grand Machine/THEAREOLA (2002), via Henry Murpy for Art Observed

On view at David Zwirner in New York is an exhibition of works from Jason Rhoades’s PeaRoeFoam project, which originally debuted at the gallery in 2002.  PeaRoeFoam is considered a key work in Rhoades’ career, but it has not been exhibited comprehensively (including all three parts of the trilogy) until now.

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Cory Arcangel, Asshole 2 / Lakes (2014), via Team

Given Cory Arcangel’s past exhibition tendencies, the work on view at the artist’s newest Team Gallery solo exhibition downtown is something of a concise affair.  Gone are the artist’s abstracted consumer objects, video game hacks and gradient paintings, substituted for a series of simple flat-panel televisions, each bearing a pixelated digital image, and offset by a deep red carpeting that runs along the gallery’s floor.  On-screen, the smiling faces of Hilary Clinton (or rather, Hilary Clinton’s book jacket), Jay-Z and P. Diddy, among others, stare out of the viewer, as a delicately waving digital effect below them gives the impression of a liquid reflection. (more…)