Frieze London has announced its “Projects” section for the 2014 edition of the fair in Regent’s Park.  Curated by Nicola Lees, the seven projects located both on-site and around London will include a “living stage” by Nick Mauss, where ballets will be performed each day, and a secret map of the fair routes by Sophia Al Maria, underlining conspiracies hidden throughout.  The presentations will also feature a reconstructed musical performance from the career of conceptual comedian Andy Kaufman, enacted by Jonathan Berger. (more…)

Art Basel has announced its list of talks and salon discussions for next week’s fair in Switzerland.  The offering of talks will include  Wolfgang Tillmans reviewing his career output and a talk with Baer Faxt publisher Josh Baer, who will review the current state of the art market.   (more…)

Artist Mélanie Matranga has been awarded the first annual Frieze Artist Award, a new prize that welcomes emerging artists to create an ambitious work for the Frieze London fair.  Matranga’s work will feature a set of videos “that follow a young artistic couple as they negotiate ‘freedom, success and the proper functioning of a couple.’ The episodes will be filmed during the construction of Frieze London in Regent’s Park, including a purpose-built café, which Matranga has designed for use by visitors.” (more…)

Art Basel has announced its selections for the Parcours section of the Swiss fair, installing public works by, Darren Bader, Pierre Bismuth, Ryan Gander, and more.  The show will consist of 15 site-specific projects installed around the city, and will also include Seth Price’s audio work 8-4 9-5 10-6 11-7, an eight-hour dance track meant played around Basel. (more…)

The colorful, shifting glasswork of Andrew Erdos

The annual festivities surrounding Bushwick Open Studios seem to get bigger each year, and 2014 was no exception, as the yearly summer art open wrapped its eighth year of open artist studios, new gallery shows, and a freshly inaugurated art fair in the heart of one of Brooklyn’s hotbeds for creative talent.

Seren Morey at 56 Bogart (more…)

Mark Flood, Available Nasdaq Symbol (Installation View), via Art Observed

Few artists are prepared to plumb the depths and egoistic state of the art market, image culture and corporate personhood the way Mark Flood has for the past decades.  Time and again, the artist’s occasionally crass, bold-faced techniques and assemblages of mass-media signifiers toys with the spectacle of consumption, mocking both advertisements and political symbolism as bound up in a state of image-consumption.  It’s this dichotomy, writ large against the backdrop of the art market that defines his current show of work at Zach Feuer in New York. (more…)

MoMA PS1 has announced the line-up for its annual Warm-Up Series of concerts at the Museum.  Held each Sunday, highlights include performances by Pantha du Prince, Total Freedom, Dam Funk and Detroit Techno legend Kevin Saunderson.   (more…)

Qingtai Hu at Shanghai, All Images © MCH Messe Schweiz (Basel) AG

After a hectic week, the Art Basel Hong Kong event is winding down, leaving behind it a record of strong sales and high-profile attendees, continuing the fair’s prominent footprint in Hong Kong’s ever-strengthening draw for collectors and artists.  Pi Li and Doryun Chong of the M+ Museum could be seen browsing the works, as well as Uli Sigg, Takashi Murakami and Carsten Nicolai, who had just opened his astounding installation at the International Commerce Center. (more…)

A rendering for Carsten Nicolai’s Alpha Pulse, via Wall Street Journal

Coming hot off the heels of Frieze New York, Art Basel’s growing Hong Kong fair opens this week, shifting the art market’s attention halfway around the globe for the newest entry in the Basel fair franchise as it prepares for its second year. (more…)

Nada Entrance, all photos via Patrick Jaojoco for Art Observed

Returning to the southern tip of Manhattan, and the fittingly loose confines of the Basketball City sports complex, the NADA New York fair caused quite a stir this year, bringing a high quality fleet of exhibitors and artists to the space for a free fair that did away with much of the high profile glitz of Frieze up the East River, without sacrificing on quality works.  Welcoming a number of small regional galleries alongside a strong count of downtown mainstays, the 80-gallery fair presented a compelling alternative to Frieze’s big ticket names and prices, while keeping a strong focus on size and selection. (more…)

Frieze Art Fair, via Art Observed

Following Thursday’s preview event and Friday’s initial day of public entry, Frieze Art Fair is up and running, opening the doors on a revamped fair that has already drawn considerable praise for its strong, diverse selection of galleries and artists, mounting a combination of impressive works alongside more challenging, unique installations that offer a fitting cross-section of the contemporary field.

William Kentridge at Goodman Gallery, via Art Observed (more…)

Joel Kyack, Clever Formal Gestures ≠ Something to Say, via Francois Ghebaly

As the month of May begins in earnest, another edition of Frieze Art Fair’s New York edition prepares to open its doors on Randall’s Island this week, bringing its familiar bounty of events, talks, special programs, competing events and a number of high-profile auctions and openings across Manhattan.

Yayoi Kusama, INFINITY-NETS [AOQBZ], via David Zwirner (more…)

Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1907), via Christie’s

As the art world turns its attention to New York this week during the hustle and bustle of Frieze Week, Sotheby’s and Christie’s will hold their annual spring auctions of Impressionist and Modern Art, boasting an impressive collection of works that speaks to the current strength of the auction market, and the enthusiasm of its buyers.  The competition between the two auction houses has remained fierce over the past year, even while Sotheby’s has fought off advances from Daniel Loeb and his Third Point team.  Now, with an agreement between the parties reached just this morning, the auction house will turn its full attention to its upcoming sales, and the feverish sales estimates some are predicting for the pair of auctions early this week.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait de femme (Dora Maar) (1942), via Christie’s

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Frieze New York has announced that it will restate artist Allen Ruppersberg’s work Al’s Grand Hotel, a 1971 installation that saw the artist turning a Los Angeles house into a gallery, performance space and functioning hotel.  “My hope is that the hotel at Frieze will function as a space where people can physically and mentally take a break from the bombardment of the other galleries at the fair and walk into a time capsule where you can almost jump back to 1971,” says curator Cecilia Alemani. (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…)

Kazuo Shiraga, via Art Observed

As dealers wrap their final sales today, and begin wrapping up their works for the trip home, the bustle of Armory Week is drawing to a close in NewYork City.  Strong sales seemed to be the theme of the week, with galleries across the board reporting impressive figures and percentages for their fair offerings, with some galleries selling out of their full selection of pieces before the fair closed the doors on its VIP preview on March 5th.

Xu Qu, via Art Observed (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 Independent Art Fair (Installation View), all photos via Elene Damenia Art Observed

The Independent Art Fair opened its doors last evening for its vernissage, welcoming collectors and press to the increasingly popular fair at Chelsea’s Center 548 on 22nd Street.  With a markedly looser atmosphere, and a closely selected group of 50 galleries and non-profits, the Independent has moved into a desirable niche position between the bigger fairs uptown, and the list of exhibitors made this more than apparent.  Big names dotted the floors of the space, with Gavin Brown’s Enterprise returning to the fair, alongside Untitled, Balice Hertling and Michael Werner, all of which brought first-class works to the sale.

Andra Ursuta at Ramiken Crucible, via Art Observed (more…)

Outside the 2014 Armory Show, via Art Observed

The doors of The Armory Show opened this morning for its VIP preview, welcoming collectors and press from around the world to Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s West Side.  This year, the fair welcomes 205 galleries to its annual selling event, down again from last year’s 214 in what seems to be a running trend to trim the fat at the larger fairs worldwide.

Armory Show (Installation View), via Art Observed (more…)

Outside last year’s Armory show, via Art Observed

As March rolls into New York, so too does the art world, as the city prepares for the 2014 edition of Armory Week, capped by The Armory Show on Piers 92 and 94 of Manhattan’s West Side, and complemented by a series of additional events, fairs and openings around the city.

Serge Alain Nitegeka, Exterior I: Studio Study I (2013), via The Armory Show (more…)

Vanessa Branson, the founder of the Marrakech Biennale and sister to Richard Branson, is interviewed in Financial Times this week, previewing the fifth edition of the event, and its continued mission of “building bridges between cultures.”  “I want to stress how the arts send a really positive message to the rest of the world and are an economic driver – innovation creates great business,” Branson says. (more…)

The Armory Show’s commissioned artist Xu Zhen has unveiled a plan for New York’s Citibike program during the art fair next week, covering a 10 bikes with a special graphic.  20 fair attendees who ride to the Armory Show on the bikes and post an image to social media of the bike at the fair will earn free admission to the event. (more…)

Considering a recent figure counting a total of 278 art fairs happening each year around the world, the New York Times looks at the successes of Arco in Madrid this past weekend, and the fair’s increasingly global focus in attempt to sidestep a struggling Spanish economy.    “We sell mostly to museums and foundations at Arco,” said Galeria Vermelho director Marina Buendia. “We’ve been at Arco for six years and things are getting better.”  (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…)