Neo Rauch, Heillichtung (2014), via Art Observed
The newest show of work by Neo Rauch, on view at David Zwirner, is a fitting continuation of the German artist’s take on painting, combining surreal imagery with a vaguely familiar technique recalling the intertwined political and cultural history of his German homeland. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal writes on the Chinatown gallery operated by young curator and art dealer Amy Li out of her father’s He Zhen Snap Button Co. Shop “There are so many assumptions attached to the word ‘gallery,’” Li says. “This is just a space where I work as a curator and art dealer. I didn’t know anyone who could introduce me to a job opening. That’s why I continue to do this.” (more…)
Center548, the current home of Zach Feuer Gallery and the Independent Art Fair, as well as the former location for the Dia Foundation, has been purchased by Property Markets Group, a real-estate development group. The galleries are seeking new exhibition space outside the building. (more…)
Outside the Grand Palais for FIAC, all photos via Art Observed
As the doors to one fair close, another set has opened on the opposite side of the English channel. Paris’s FIAC is now in full swing after opening its VIP preview yesterday at the Grand Palais, packing in guests to view the fair’s deep selection of works from Europe and abroad. (more…)
Genieve Figgis, Our First Party (2014), All images via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed.
Following her American debut at Harper’s Books in East Hampton this past summer, Genieve Figgis moves to the Upper East Side for her first New York City show at Half Gallery. One of the recent rising stars of the art world, the Dublin native received major international attention with her unearthly depictions of aristocracy’s heydays, maneuvering between an impressionistic figurativeness and bold abstraction. In Good Morning, Midnight, the artist continues her ambitiously exhilarated portrayals of joyous escapism. (more…)
Gagosian Gallery has announced that it will represent the estate of artist Walter de Maria, continuing a relationship the artist had with the gallery during his life, showing there several times. The gallery’s first step is assisting in establishing a Foundation to oversee his estate and work. “Walter so wished to establish his own foundation, but sadly, he did not accomplish this during his lifetime,” says Elizabeth Childress, former director of the artist’s studio. “It is an important step to have as a protection and a promotion of his legacy.” (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…)
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…)
Dealer Marian Goodman is profiled in The Guardian this week, as she prepares to open her new exhibition space in London. In the interview, Goodman discusses first discovering the work of Gerhard Richter, and her work in bringing him to international prominence. “He was a bit drowned out by all these loud, expressionist voices,” she says. “So I wrote him a letter just telling him how much I loved the work and maybe I could make a difference. Then I went to meet him in Düsseldorf in 1984 and everything started from there.”
Fergus McCaffrey, via Art Info
Fergus McCaffrey Gallery has announced new plans to expand its spaces, opening new spaces in St. Barths and Tokyo over the next several years. “The continuity of artist production in St Barths is compelling,” says McCaffrey. “There is an interesting and very rich history of work being made there; including what might have been Cy Twombly’s last works, Polaroid photographs of flowers in the graveyards in Lorient and St. Jean.” (more…)
London’s Herald Street Gallery has announced plans to open a temporary space in Golden Square, the Soho area that has received notable attention from a number of galleries in the past several months. Sadie Coles and Marian Goodman have both open spaces nearby in recent months, and this new exhibition space seems to have intentions on staying for some time. “Programming will run into 2015,” says a gallery spokesman.
Lehmann Maupin New York has filed a $10 million Wrongful Eviction lawsuit against its Chelsea landlord, 293 Tenth Ave. Corp., run by Michael Silvermintz. The suit claims that Silvermintz’s firm sent an eviction notice late last year, but failed to produce the demolition permit required by the lease. Since then, the gallery claims that the landlord has “engaged in a systematic pattern of conduct that unreasonably interferes with and obstructs plaintiff’s use and occupancy of the subject premises.” (more…)
Wolfgang Tillmans’s Berlin gallery Between Bridges has embarked on a new project, creating an accommodating space for the appreciation of classic pop and dance albums. “The Playback Room” as it is called, is currently featuring Colourbox, the 1980’s dance act behind “Pump Up the Volume.” “Some records are just perfect artworks, but you just cannot go anywhere to listen to the way the musicians heard it at the mastering stage,” said Tillmans. “While you can play them on your stereo or iPhone there is never a space dedicated to them and you can never listen in studio quality.” (more…)
Sprüth Magers Gallery has purchased a 14,000 square foot building in West Hollywood this week, signaling the gallery’s intent to open a new exhibition space in Los Angeles, directly across the street from LACMA. “It’s an artist’s city,” says Philomene Magers. “It’s the cultural and intellectual climate of the city that really excites us. And while we already have collectors in the region, we are hoping to meet many more.” (more…)
Marianne Boesky Gallery has announced a group of new directors taking over at both New York locations. Kristen Becker, who previously worked as Director at Luhring Augustine, will take over at Boesky’s Chelsea location, while the gallery’s new downtown space will be co-run by Kelly Woods and Veronica Levitt. “I’m thrilled to be expanding our dedicated and talented team with these new additions,” Boesky told Art Observed. “Kelly is a perfect fit to co-direct our new Lower East Side location with Veronica Levitt who will be moving there from Chelsea into her new role. Kristen brings a great depth of experience and energy to our Chelsea team. All three will surely augment our service to our artists and our clients in every way.” (more…)
The Financial Times reports on the newly opened Hauser and Wirth location in the Somerset town of Bruton, and the anticipated boon the space may offer for the area’s arts community and real estate. “Somerset is a large county but there are not many galleries exhibiting contemporary art,” says director Alice Workman. “So as well as the space being for the local community, we’re confident we’ll attract a national and international art-loving audience who will probably bring new custom to Bruton and have a positive impact on the local economy.” (more…)
Fischli/Weiss, Installation view of “Eine Ansammlung Von Gegenständen”, all photos via Emma Hazen forArt Observed
The ongoing collaboration of Swiss duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss has yielded countless material explorations: chain reactions and careful reproductions of various objects and spaces that introduce a momentary reflection on construction, industry and use. But rarely have the artists’ objects taken on the state of historical document in the manner that they do in their most recent show at Sprüth Magers, turning back from their respective intentions to become historical documents of their own. (more…)
Billionaire Leon Black, the owner of Phaidon Press and the recent buyer of Artspace, has purchased the $50 million former home of the Knoedler Gallery on the Upper East Side, a 17,000-square-foot Italian Renaissance-style home at 19 East 70th Street that was last inhabited by London developer Christian Candy. (more…)
The New York Times has published a profile on painter, performer and gallerist Emily Sundblad, one of the proprietors of the multifaceted Reena Spaulings Gallery space. “When people asked what it was called, we told them different names,” Sundblad notes. “We didn’t know exactly what the space was yet, but we knew for sure that it wasn’t a traditional New York gallery, and we didn’t want our own names on it.” (more…)
The Wall Street Journal recaps the early days of the trial surrounding the potential dismantling of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the outcome of the hearings last week in Washington, D.C. Despite ample testimony and comment on the state of the museum and its board, the newspaper notes that no one on hand made any statement regarding the future of the art in the museum collection. This point is significant when considering the museum’s mandate, as any attempt to break up the Corcoran collection would fly in the face of its founder’s request for “the perpetual establishment and maintenance of a Public Gallery and Museum.” (more…)
A new contemporary art gallery is coming to Mayfair in September 2014. Ben Tufnell and Matt Watkins, the former directors of Haunch of Venison, have partnered with Nicholas Rhodes, the director of the London gallery Master Piper, in the creation of Parafin, which will feature works by contemporary artists such as Nancy Holt, Katie Paterson, and Uwe Witter. (more…)
A new gallery is scheduled to open in 2016 at Goldsmith College, University of London, which will showcase art created by the college’s current students and alumni, who include Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, and Sarah Lucas. The gallery will be housed in the renovated water tanks of the early twentieth century Laurie Grove Baths, a project which will cost 1.8 million pounds. Sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, who announced the plans alongside architect Sir David Chipperfield, called the future gallery a “resource for the university and for London.”
A recent article in the New York Times takes a closer look at a new movement in the physical display of digital art. The movement seeks a middle ground between digital photo frames used in homes and professional digital art displays used in galleries, creating a larger, more sophisticated screen on which art aficionados can display both personal pictures and favorite artists. These screens are capable of showing only one image at a time, however, an effort by developers to encourage a “slower, more thoughtful pace.”
Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel (1916/64) © Succession Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2014. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Philippe Migeat
Cunningly installed just down the street from the monumental Jeff Koons retrospective at The Whitney Museum, Gagosian Gallery is currently presenting a small but impressive exhibition of Marcel Duchamp’s body of readymades, offering a nuanced historical counterpoint to some of the artist’s most distinguished predecessors. (more…)
