Ai Weiwei’s name and works have been removed from a show of Chinese contemporary art in Shanghai, following government pressure over his inclusion. “We were not really a party to this,” says Uli Sigg, the Swiss collector and organizer of the show. “In the end it was the Power Station and the cultural bureau. In the end we said we must accept. We don’t understand but we must accept that his works will not be in there.” (more…)
Marianne Boesky Gallery has announced that it will open a new exhibition space in downtown New York, titled Boesky East. Located at 20 Clinton Street, the space will open its doors May 4th with an installation by Pier Paolo Calzolari. “I’m looking forward to expanding our reach into such an exciting neighborhood for art,” Boesky told Art Observed. “Clinton street will be a wonderful complement to our Chelsea and Uptown locations.”
Alice Workman, the newly appointed director of Hauser and Wirth’s Somerset Gallery location, is profiled in The Guardian this week, discussing her views on the unique countryside space it occupies, and how the space will operate once fully operational. It’s really a combination of all the things the Wirths are passionate about,” she says. “We want different audiences to engage in different ways – some might come for the garden, the restaurant or the exhibitions, but will hopefully discover other things while they’re here.” (more…)
Gao-Yuan, Ai-Weiwei (2012), all images courtesy Martin-Gropius Bau
Opening on April 3rd at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, and organized by the Berliner Festspiele, is the largest solo show of works by Ai Weiwei ever to be exhibited. Taking up 3,000 square meters in 18 rooms, the installations and sculptures. Entitled Evidence, the politically driven works from the artist, architect, and amateur politician alludes to the term meaning “proof that will stand up in court.” The works were designed in his studio on the outskirts of Beijing, and many of which were specifically designed for display in the museum’s spacious exhibition halls.
Pieter Vermeersch, Untitled (2013), all images courtesy Team Gallery, Inc.
Currently on view at Team Gallery in Lower Manhattan is a solo show from Belgian artist Pieter Vermeersch, composed of large paintings on canvas and wall murals, for which he has employed techniques of grid painting and color mapping, reminiscent of Gerhard Richter and Robert Bechtle. The exhibition will continue through April 27, 2014.
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…)
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…)
Hauser and Wirth has opened its newest gallery this spring in an unexpected location, an 18th-century farmhouse in Somerset, England. Just outside the town of Bruton, the gallery space underlines the gallerists continued commitment to museum-quality spaces, similar to its renovated space on 18th Street in New York. (more…)
Haim Steinbach, basics (1986), All Images Courtesy Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery in London is currently presenting once again the world is flat., an exhibition celebrating Haim Steinbach’s forty-year career as a multimedia artist. Born in Israel and living in New York, Steinbach has presented a distinctive artistic practice by redefining what ‘collecting’ is, arranging familiar daily objects in his own methods while attributing further content and ground, allow the artist to invite viewers into extended readings on what is visible, but also on what lies beneath the surface of the work. (more…)
Rankin, A. Galerie, Paris, all photos by Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed
Launched in 1998, the Art Paris fair has charted a course of its own through the increasingly glutted calendar of sales events internationally, sitting squarely between the behemoth proceedings of New York’s Armory Show and the bustle of Hong Kong’s recent Art Basel edition. This past weekend saw the 2014 edition of the Art Paris Art Fair come and go, as 140 galleries set up shop in the Grand Palais for several days of strong sales, and an impressive attendance count of 58,387, up 10% from last year. (more…)
Bernd Leifeld, who has served as the director of the Documenta art festival since 1996, has announced that he will step down from his post, having organized four successful editions of the event during his tenure. “I am leaving with two weeping eyes,” Leifeld said in an interview with the German Press Agency. “But I wanted to decide for myself when I leave.” (more…)
The Venice Biennale will reportedly move its opening date up a month, The Art Newspaper reports. Scheduled to open on May 9th next year, the new dates are forcing art fairs to readjust their scheduling plans for that summer. “We haven’t finalized the 2015 dates yet, but we’re aware of the potential crunch points in the calendar next year and are looking to make a decision in the forthcoming weeks,” says a spokeswoman for Frieze. (more…)
Outside the Park Ave Armory, via Art Observed
Tucked away at the Park Avenue Armory uptown, the ADAA’s annual Art Show offers a more subdued fair experience versus the immense proceedings of the Armory Show across town. With less than half the number of participating galleries, and a more focused exhibition policy leaning towards solo artists and thematic presentations, the fair is a strong counterpart to the Armory, one that invites a lingering, open browsing experience below the Armory’s softly lit drill hall.
Pablo Picasso, Tête de Jeune Fille, via Art Observed (more…)
The FIAC Art Fair will launch a Los Angeles edition in April of 2015, bringing the organization to the US for the first time. The inaugural fair will include about 150 exhibitors, and chose Los Angeles for its “extremely dynamic” location and proximity to Asia and Latin America, according to director Jean-Daniel Compain. (more…)
Animal New York reports that this year’s edition of the Bruce High Quality Foundation’s Brucennial will be the collective’s last, as it shifts its attention to its University operations and other projects. The Brucennial, set to open on March 7th, will also focus solely on women artists. “We’ve grown this show big enough to command an audience of thousands and thousands of visitors, not to mention media attention,” the organization said in an e-mail statement. “So for The Last Brucennial, we will spotlight all women artists.” (more…)
Looking Back / The 8th White Columns Annual (Installation View)
The White Columns Annual is open again this year, presenting a series of works centered around the title Looking Back. This year, curator Pati Hertling has been invited to select works based on her “personal experience of looking at art in New York” over the past year.
Lucy Dodd and Sergei Tcherepnin at The White Columns Annual, All Images via White Columns
Michael Beutler, Weaving Workshop (2009-2013) all images courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
At the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the largest ever textile show presented by the museum to date, including more than 100 woven works by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger, as well as several contemporary artists. The show will remain on view through February 9th.
The Delfina Foundation has reopened its doors after a ten-month. £1.4 million renovation, making it London’s largest artist residency program. The foundation’s gallery space opens today with an exhibition titled The Politics of Food. “It’s great to be in a place that takes food as seriously as I do,” joked UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey. “I expect hundreds of MPs will be beating a path to the door, especially when they hear how tidy it’s kept and that there is food here.” (more…)
The Guardian reports on the rising rent and low return on investment in the rapidly developing London neighborhoods of St. James and Mayfair, and the impacts the growth in high-end construction is having on the long-standing galleries of the area. The story centers around Cork Street, where a number of storied London galleries are located. “I am an angry old man,” says gallerist Leslie Waddington of the 80-year old gallery Waddington Custot. “Cork Street has been built up over the years and relies on a mix of different galleries. We are the victims of a kind of commercial fascism, where those making decisions based on profit feel they are unaccountable.” (more…)
Philippe Parreno, “ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE OUT OF THE WORLD” (Installation View) Courtesy Palais de Tokyo
Responding to a carte blanche invitation from Paris’s prestigious Palais de Tokyo, Algerian-born Philippe Parreno has transformed its gallery space with an exhibition meant to establish a dialogue between architecture and the concept of the show as a medium in and of itself.
Honoré Daumier, The Sideshow (Parade de Saltimbanques) (1865-66) Courtesy Royal Academy of Arts
On view at the Royal Academy of Arts is an exhibition of 130 works by 19th century artist Honoré Daumier, composed primarily of paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculptures, that strengthen the artist’s history as both a perceptive and nuanced painter, as well as a truly comic satirist.
Former Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen is included on the shortlist of Hugo Boss Prize finalists, alongside Camille Henrot, this year’s Venice Biennale Silver Lion winner for most promising new artist, Charline Von Heyl, and several others. The winner will receive a $100,000 prize, as well as an exhibition at the Guggenheim. (more…)
–>
NADA, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed
Another year of Art Basel Miami Beach means another year of the New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, which opened its doors yesterday for the first day of its run at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach.
–>
Tony Matelli at Marlborough Chelsea, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)
