Former MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel has joined gallery Hauser and Wirth to help develop a space in Los Angeles.  Schimmel, who has never worked at a commercial gallery, will bring his experience to what is initially described as a museum-like exhibition strategy.  “I think it’s going to be quite different in the respect that it will be done on a larger scale, have fewer exhibitions and a combination of selling and non-selling exhibitions,” he said. (more…)

Indian artist Subodh Gupta – Art Observed sat down with the Financial Times recently to discuss his new show at Hauser and Wirth , his youth in India, and his utilization of everyday materials. “I am always good in an unconventional space. The material tells a story. If it is broken, it comes from the reality of life.”
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Roni Horn, Untitled (“Consider Incompleteness as a Verb”), (2010-2012), via Hauser and Wirth Zurich

Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth Zürich is a solo show by American visual artist and writer Roni Horn, encompassing the artist’s signature glass sculptures alongside a photographic series created between 2010 and 2012.

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Bruce Nauman, Carousel (1988), via Hauser and Wirth

Turning a fresh perspective on the works of American artist Bruce Nauman, Hauser and Wirth is currently presenting a curated retrospective of the artist’s work, focusing on his large scale installations and neon works.  Organized by Hauser and Wirth curator Philip Larratt-Smith, the exhibition presents Nauman’s work through a Freudian lens, using psychoanalytic evaluation and subconscious motivators as organizing principles in the presentation of Nauman’s work. (more…)

Eva Hesse, No Title (1965), via Hauser and Wirth

Eva Hesse’s 1965, on view at Hauser and Wirth in London, is a visual representation of a productive period in the late artist’s life.  Named after the formative year in which the pieces on view were created, it reflects the artist’s physical and mental states during this period, a time when she undertook a residency at Kettwig an der Ruhr, Germany.  Living in an abandoned textile factory, Hesse built a new style of working from the sewing machines, fabrics and other cast-off material in her space, simultaneously building a new artistic and personal awareness for herself in the process.

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New York Magazine sat down with Iwan Wirth at the opening of Hauser and Wirth’s new space in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea last month, spotlighting the global arts enterprise he has built from the gallery’s modest Swiss origins, as well as his active encouragement of his impressive stable of artists.  “I think with Iwan it’s not a commercial venture. It’s very much about the artists and what they need and what they want,” says Paul McCarthy. (more…)

The first edition of Frieze Masters will run from October 11-14th, with a focus on ancient to modern art; it will open alongside 10-year-old contemporary Frieze Art Fair, both in Regent’s Park in London. The Masters section will host talks by artists such as Cecily Brown, Glenn Brown and Luc Tuymans to discuss the effect that historical work has on their own practice. Dealers are expecting crossover from both fairs and some, such as Hauser and Wirth, have booths at both. The interior has been designed by Selldorf Architects, using natural light and high ceilings, allowing viewers to “wander from one century to another”. (more…)

Paul McCarthy – Dirty Dotty, Yellow (1995), Hauser and Wirth, Zurich

Currently on view at Hauser and Wirth Zurich is a selection of 60 photographs from PROPO, the ongoing project of American multi-media artist Paul McCarthy.  Examining the ongoing process of work, documentation and presentation constantly at play in an artist’s career, the PROPO photographs present a new facet to McCarthy’s already diverse body of work.

Paul McCarthy – Daddies Ketchup (1995), Hauser and Wirth, Zurich

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Paul McCarthy, White Snow Cake (2011). Bronze  Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Multimedia artist Paul McCarthy brings fairy tales to Hauser & Wirth‘s New York gallery space in a second installation of the series. Works included in “The Dwarves, The Forests” are based on the drawings that made up the 2009 show “White Snow.” The exhibition series will continue, as Hauser & Wirth’s Andrea Schwan tells Art Observed, with a third installation, in which pieces from “The Dwarves, The Forests” will serve as sets for video art, to be hosted by the gallery sometime in 2013.  On view until December 17, “The Dwarves, The Forests” includes pieces cast in bronze and wrapped in gauze, and one, White Snow and Dopey, Wood (2011), that is McCarthy’s first wood sculpture.

Paul McCarthy, White Snow and Dopey, Wood (2011). Black Walnut.

More images, story, and related links after the jump…

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FIAC 2011 at the Grand Palais in Paris. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

FIAC 2011 (The Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) opens this weekend in Paris for its 38th year. The international art fair, which boasts an impressive array of 168 galleries from 21 countries, will show the work of some 2,800+ artists. Running October 20–23rd, the exposition comes at the tail end of Frieze Art Fair, drawing artists, collectors, gallerists, and enthusiasts eastward from London. While the focus of Frieze leans toward contemporary, FIAC includes both contemporary and modern, including works from Picasso, Calder, and Matisse. The fair has been building momentum since 2006; Jennifer Flay, appointed general director in 2010, credits this boost to the fair’s move to the Grand Palais, one of the city’s most cherished architectural gems. The fair also expands this year to the Jardin des Tuileries, the Jardin des Plantes, the Museum of Natural History, and other venues around the city. Another innovation, a mobile application (in French) is available through Windows Phone which enables visitors to book tickets directly from their phone, as well as receive realtime news updates from the fair, find exhibitors and artists, and access videos and photos of the show.

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Jay Jopling of White Cube, which is exhibiting Damien Hirst’s Where Will It End.

More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)

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Subodh Gupta, Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas. All images courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Opening tonight at Hauser & Wirth New York is an ascetic new exhibition by Indian artist Subodh Gupta. The artist, who is often referred to as “The Damien Hirst of Delhi,” earned his nickname from a dazzling sculpture of a skull entitled Very Hungry God (2006). He is the leader of a group of Indian artists whom mega-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist frequently heralds as art world game-changers, and his works regularly fetch auction prices over 1 million USD.

In contrast to this glitzy reputation, “A glass of water” is shockingly subdued. The exhibition takes its name from a work in which a metal drinking cup rests atop a table, filled to the brim with fresh water. Its origin and constant replenishment remain a mystery. The tension created– that the cup may overflow at any moment, from a visitor’s step or breath– “serves up a rich metaphor for the almost unbearable tension between luxury and depletion, accumulation and deprivation, acquisition and exhaustion that are the daily diet of exploding international culture,” explains the exhibition statement.

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All photographs by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved

Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth New York is “Else,” the first exhibition in the United States devoted exclusively to the drawings of Roni Horn.  The show, composed of six new large-scale works up to eight by ten feet in size, will remain on view through June 19, 2010 at 32 East 69th Street.

The new works lend themselves to multiple viewing angles: from far away they appear as densely-packed thumbprints and dissipating hearts. A closer look reveals involved diagrams reminiscent of tesselations and multiplying cells. The heavily textured images are composed of cut paper, red painted lines, and the artist’s fractured pencil notes. Ever aware of the material, the stamp of the paper manufacturer feature prominently on the outer edges of several works. The intricacy and density of the compositions are contrasted with the artist’s simple, large scrawled signature, which floats, relaxed, detached from the rest in a sea of oaktag.

Björk at Friday night’s opening

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School, 2008 Subodh Gupta [ All images via Hauser & Wirth unless otherwise noted]

Currently showing at Hauser & Wirth London, 15 Old Bond Street is “School,” a selection of most recent works by Subodh Gupta.  The show features forty five brass stools paired with stainless steel thali trays (traditional Indian trays with multiple compartments used for meals containing several dishes).

More images and text after the jump….
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