An Alphabet City apartment building slated for demolition has become the site for a number of murals and installations. The building will be torn down in late January, but the owner has, in the meantime, opened the space up for artists to create their own murals and sculptures inside the space. (more…)
A questionably offensive sculpture at Queens’ Socrates Sculpture Park has merited a fence installed around the work. The piece, Bear Eats Man by Thordis Adalsteinsdottir, depicts a wooden bear gripping a man from behind and biting into his neck, but a closer look reveals that the victim may in fact have an erection. A wooden enclosure has been placed around the piece, with a warning notifying visitors about the subject material. “We are presenting it and showing it,” John Hatfield, the park’s executive director, said. “It’s an interesting and engaging piece.” (more…)
The Wall Street Journal reports on a lost painting by Magritte, which researchers claim was cut up into separate pieces and painted over. While the practice is relatively common, the work in question, The Enchanted Pose, was exhibited on its own in 1927 before being reused. Several parts of the piece have already been located, and museums around the world are searching for other missing pieces. (more…)
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Accelerated Buddha, exhibition view, all images courtesy Fondation Pierre Bergé
Currently on view at Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent is an exhibition of work by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, exploring the historical/cultural emergence and relevance of Buddhism in Japanese culture. Entitled Accelerated Buddha, the exhibition is the gallery’s 20th exhibition, which opened on October 10th and will run through January 26th 2013.
Cyprien Gaillard, Today Diggers, Tomorrow Dickens (Installation View), via Art Observed
Coming off his impeccable retrospective at MoMA PS1 earlier this year, Cyprien Gaillard returns to New York with two series of works that continue his fascination with the complexly layered experience of history, and the forces that keep this process constantly in flux. Moving towards a more active exploration of these phenomena, Gaillard’s show feels as if the artist is taking a more active role in his creative inquiries.
Cyprien Gaillard, Today Diggers, Tomorrow Dickens (Installation View), via Gladstone Gallery (more…)
The Wall Street Journal notes the increasing popularity of posting photographs from art shows and openings on social media platforms like Instagram. The article comes after a number of major immersive installations that encourage first-rate photo opportunities, like Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room at David Zwirner and The Whitney, or MoMA’s popular Rain Room installation. “When you have an experience like that—especially after any wait—it lends itself to an assumption of accomplishment,” says David Graver, a 29-year-old who writes for Coolhunting.com. (more…)
Kevin Francis Gray, 12 Chambers (2013) Courtesy Pace London
On view at Pace London through mid January is an exhibition highlighting new sculptures by Irish artist Kevin Francis Gray. These realistic, detailed works were crafted from bronze and marble in a traditional manner uncommonly seen in the contemporary art world. Included in the display are five double life-size bronze heads, a group of twelve life-size nude figures cast in bronze, and a life-size sculpture of two white marble figures alluding to the tradition of covering of dead bodies in Judeo-Christian cultures.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Appearance of Collage #6 (2012), Courtesy Pace Gallery
Though Soviet-born artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are New York-based, they were little known in the New York art scene until this Fall season. Popular in Europe, their 2013 New York tour started with their successfully-launched, 8th rendition of the floating installation, “The Ship of Tolerance”, at the Dumbo Arts Festival. Ilya Kabakov, a former childrens’ book illustrator and graphic artist did his conceptual art work in secrecy until he accepted a grant to work in Austria and grew to prominence in Europe. Upon arriving to New York, he reconnected with his distant cousin, Emilia, a former pianist and linguist, and presently an art advisor and curator. She helped him navigate the arts scene in New York and the two soon began collaborating. They married in 1992 and have been sharing credits ever since on everything they have produced with the exception of several of Ilya’s paintings. (more…)
Jacob Kassay, Untitled (2013), Courtesy 303 Gallery
Now on view at 303 Gallery is the space’s first exhibition of works by Jacob Kassay. Composed entirely of new works, IJK opened on November 1st and will remain on view through December 20, 2013.
Ry Rocklen at Night Court, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed
Ry Rocklen loves sports, or rather, he likes winning. “I love the pageantry of it,” he says, walking past a table constructed entirely out of materials used in sports trophies: shining columns, golden basketballs and baseball players, and imitation marble. The pieces could be seen at Rocklen’s installation Night Court, a commission for Absolut’s beachfront space on Miami Beach during Art Week. “The pieces originally come from a series called Trophy Modern that I opened earlier this year,” Rocklen says. “And when I was offered the commission for this show, I thought I would try and take it a little further.” (more…)
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…)
Sarah Lucas, Nice Tits (2011), Copyright of the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ
English sculptor, photographer, and installation artist Sarah Lucas has long been labeled as the “wildest” member of the Young British Artists who emerged in the 1990s, with a career of pieces that has openly and aggressively challenged sexual identities, psychological states, and cultural images of the body through her evocative and often grotesque assemblages and Situations. Entitled SITUATION Absolute Beach Man Rubble, her current retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery examines this ongoing interest in the body and its cultural reifications.
Jeff Koons, Elephant Sculpture, which sold for $20 million at David Zwirner Gallery
Another year has come and gone for the dizzying spectacle that is Art Basel Miami Beach, which closed its doors last night after 5 hectic days of art sales, exhibitions, special events, parties and appearances. The following is a summary of the Main Fair with a photoset and newslinks.
Piet Mondrian, Komposition II, with red, 1926, at Helly Nahmad Gallery (more…)
Andrea Pinheiro, via Cooper Cole Gallery
Perhaps one of the best located of the fairs during Miami Beach’s annual December Basel onslaught, Untitled Miami once again set up on the Miami Beach, bringing a number of smaller galleries from the United States and abroad into the fray of Miami Art Week. Taking cues from last year’s successful week of sales,curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud brought forth another carefully chosen group of galleries and contributing artists for the fair, emphasizing both overall cohesion and stylistic divergence at its picturesque beachfront location.
Rachel Foullon at Halsey McKay, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)
A car designed by Keith Haring, photos by Daniel Creahan for Art Observed
The iconic Herzog & de Meuron-designed parking garage at 1111 Lincoln Road is a beacon of Miami Beach’s car culture, with a tony parking fee that guarantees one of the finest collections of automobiles parked in one location in the city on any given night. Taking inspiration from the boldly designed structure, Adam Lindemann and his team at New York’s Venus Over Manhattan have opened the space up to one of the more interesting thematic shows of this year’s Art Basel festivities: Piston Head, a show of artist-designed cars. (more…)
The collaboration between Ai Weiwei and Alcatraz National Park has been officially announced, with the Chinese artist installing a number of site-specific works that respond to the former prison’s long history. “The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned,” Ai said in a statement. “This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.” The show will run September 27, 2014 to April 26, 2015. (more…)
Laure Prouvost, via The Guardian
Tonight Laure Prouvost was awarded the Turner Prize of £25,000 ($33,850). Prouvost was nominated for her works, Wantee, commissioned with Grizedale Arts, which was shown as part of the Schwitters in Britain exhibition at Tate Britain, and Farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells, which was made during her residency in Italy as the recipient of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women and which was exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery. Born in Lille, France in 1978, Prouvost has lived in London since she began studying at Central St. Martins arts college. Prouvost is known for films which frequently employ deliberate language misuse, text and image juxtapositions, fast-paced cuts, montage, and which are situated within atmospheric installations. The 2013 Turner Prize exhibition runs until January 5th, 2014 at Ebrington in Derry~Londonderry. (more…)
Pablo Picasso, Tête d’homme, 1969, Acquavella Galleries, Art Basel Miami Beach 2013
As December begins, the art world prepares yet again for the grand spectacle of Art Basel Miami Beach, with its sprawling rows of booths and late-night parties that have defined it as the apex social event of the Art world’s calendar. Over 250 galleries will be at the main fair this year, alongside numerous public exhibitions, talks, performances and more. Art Observed will be on site in pursuit of coverage for the duration of the week.
Marcel Duchamp, 1935/41-1958, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, Art Basel Miami Beach 2013
David Shrigley, Life Model (2012), via Turner Prize
As the 2013 art calendar draws towards its conclusion this December, the annual Turner Prize exhibition has opened its doors, this time in the Northern Irish town of Derry-Londonderry, to four of Great Britain’s most prominent and talented artists: Tino Seghal, David Shrigley, Laure Prouvost and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. The annual prize, which will be awarded today, December 2nd, opens to one of its most diverse sets of final entries in past years, spanning a complex body of work that includes performance, choreography, video, sculpture, drawing, and painting among a worldly group of artists that call the UK their home.
Tino Seghal, via Turner Prize (more…)
Coinciding with Art Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami will open Tracey Emin’s first American museum show, exhibiting a selection of the artist’s neon works. Confronting spiritual and human concerns, the works offer a strong overview of the artist’s career, even though some may overlook her more religion-focused pieces. “Because sex sells, they actually filter out the ones about love or God,” the artist notes. (more…)
A Dublin man who put his fist through a €10 million painting by Claude Monet has stated in court that the incident was a complete accident. Andrew Shannon was at Dublin’s National Gallery of Ireland last year, when, feeling faint, he fell forward, putting his hand directly through the canvas of Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, and tearing it. However, other testimony was less forgiving. “It was no accident. I did not believe what he was saying as regards his condition. His whole manner was unconvincing. His behavior didn’t ring true to me,” said Christian Clotworthy, the guard at the museum who detained Mr. Shannon. (more…)
Architect Maya Lin and her husband, art dealer and collector Daniel Wolf, have purchased a former jail house in Yonkers, NY, with the intention of converting it into an arts space. The 10,000 square-foot space will include place for performances, lectures, and exhibitions of the couple’s large collection of works. “The jail offers enormous potential but the breathtaking view of the Palisades from the doorstep of the Hudson inspires a vision as unique and beautiful as the building itself,” Lin says. (more…)
Steven Parrino, Skeletal Implosion, 2001
Dedicated to the movement of abstraction throughout the past decades of art, and equally to the divisive concept of “the end of painting,” The Show is Over is an exhibition presented by Gagosian Gallery in London, combining works from a variety of artists to point to a single thesis: that painting as a medium of expression will never be quite be “over.”
Richard Prince, “Untitled,” 2012
The global recovery rate for stolen art has been placed at a strikingly low 1.5%, The Art Newspaper reports. Partially caused by the low priority given to such crimes by most police forces, the field is generally led by private companies, which charge a high percentage of the work’s value for recovery, leaving many dreaming of a better system. “There is a certain need for an international database,” says Mark Dalrymple, a loss adjuster at London’s Tyler and Co. (more…)
