William Kentridge, Untitled (Drum Machine) (2012), via Marian Goodman

On September 17th, Marian Goodman Gallery opened its new exhibition of films, drawings, sculpture, and prints by William Kentridge. Entitled “Second-hand Reading,” the exhibition will continue through October 26, 2013.  Emerging from a series of projects Kentridge started in 2012 called Six Drawing Lessons, originally showed at The Norton Lectures series at Harvard University that year, the works capture the artist developing a concept of the studio as a place of deep meaning, placing an emphasis on work in the studio as a significant act. During that time he also created his sound installation and breathing machine, entitled The Refusal of Time. (more…)

Artist Damien Hirst at Blain Southern Gallery. All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

As Frieze London prepares to open its doors to the press and VIPs tomorrow morning in Regent’s Park, gallerists around the city are aiming to pull out all the stops in attracting collectors during the week’s events.  Such seemed to be the case with Blain|Southern‘s Candy, a blockbuster exhibition of works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Damien Hirst focusing on the artists’ shared material and aesthetic interests in the sugary snack as artistic medium, which opened last night.

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Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Ona has received considerable attention since its installation earlier this fall at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.  Bloomberg spoke with the artist recently, discussing its construction, her views towards her work, and the inspiration behind the towering sculpture.  “I knew, if I wanted to be in front of it, I needed to have some presence, some power. So I made a piece that was sand cast in bronze. I wanted the sand casting because it would be more matte. I hate shiny, glossy things.”  The artist says. (more…)

Following pressure from both Michigan art-lovers and the broader art world, an ArtPrize installation has been removed from the surface of Alexander Calder’s La Grande Vitesse.  Fleurs et Riviere, a magnetic work by David Dodde, had been attached to the surface of the sculpture, in an attempt to add “whimsy,” but instead received harsh criticism from the Alexander Calder Foundation in New York.  “The Calder Foundation wasn’t pleased, and the relationship with the foundation is important to us, so it’s a lesson learned,” said Grand Rapids city manager Greg Sundstrom. (more…)

A Tale of Two Cities, one of the most impressive works on view at Chris Burden’s current New Museum retrospective, was almost destroyed by the artist before the show.  Fearing the requirements of rehabilitating the long unexhibited piece, Burden had planned to destroy the piece as a last conceptual gesture, but museum authorities stepped in to convince him to try saving the work with a small restored section of the original piece.  “Once he saw the first mock-up, it was like a problem had been solved, and he was on to asking about specific toys,” says Donna Williams, the curator of the Orange County Museum (which owns the work). (more…)

A pre-war bank building in Shanghai has become the home of Bank, an arts exhibition space owned by cultural promoters Mabsociety.  “In the past, we were curating for other institutions and doing some pop-up exhibitions,” founder Mathieu Borysevicz says. “We think of ourselves as ‘post-gallery’.” (more…)

Elmgreen and Dragset’s long-awaited installation, Tomorrow, which creates the fictional home of a disillusioned, homosexual architect, has opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Featuring works by the artists alongside objects from the museum and a nearby antiques market, the show will seek to alter the perception of the museum and its collection.  “There are lots of clever art shows at the moment where you go and look and it’s almost as [predictable as] mathematics,” Says Michael  Elmgreen.  “We do something where even we ask ourselves: ‘What is it about?'” (more…)

Capitalizing on Atlantic City’s immense casino tax funds, New Jersey governor Chris Christie has launched a major public art campaign, installing large-scale works around the city.  A number of artists have already been recruited for the project, including Robert Barry, Kiki Smith, and John Roloff, with more to be announced soon.  “What makes my heart race is to bring artists into new situations where they have to interact with the people,” says curator Lance Fung. “There are around 30 million visitors here every year, and most of them are not art people.”  (more…)

Public art pioneer Suzanne Lacy has announced a major project coming to Brooklyn on October 19th.  Created in collaboration with Creative Time, the project will install “300 women and a few men” on the stoops of apartments in Prospect Heights, and on the steps of the Brooklyn Museum to engage pedestrians and visitors in dialogues on contemporary gender politics.  The project is informed by 5 months of research Lacy completed this year with an advisory board of 16 activists. (more…)

An enormous inflatable concert hall, designed in a collaboration between Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki, is set to open this week in the coastal Japanese town of Matsushima.  The project is intended to provide a temporary place for events in a region badly damaged by the 2011 Tsunami, and was initiated by Michael Haefliger of the musical event Lucerne Festival.  “I felt a strong desire to make a contribution to overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe, within the scope of what we have to offer.” He said. (more…)

The shortlist for the next installation on London’s Fourth Plinth has been released, calling on the public for “lively debate.”  Featuring works by David Shrigley, Hans Haacke, and Ugo Rondinone, among others, small maquettes of the sculptures are currently on view at The Crypt, St Martin-in-the Fields.  “The placing of challenging artwork amidst the historic surroundings of Trafalgar Square creates a delicious juxtaposition that gets people talking and debating, underpinning London’s reputation as a great world city for culture.”  Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, said. (more…)

The same statute that forced the removal of a Playboy installation in Marfa earlier this year is currently threatening the well-known Prada Marfa installation, The Guardian reports.  Texas officials have declared the Elmgreen and Dragset installation an illegal advertisement, and is currently exhibited without permits or licenses, but are searching for an amiable resolution to the issue.  “We want to find a solution to this,” said Texas Department of Transportation Spokesperson Veronica Beyer. “We know people want to see art in this great state, but it has to be legal.” (more…)

Chris Johanson, Being in My Life (2013), Courtesy of MOCA Pacific Design Center

In keeping with Los Angeles-based artist Chris Johanson’s aim to create “peaceful” art, Within The River of Time is my Mind presents a serene body of new painting, sculpture, and found wood, site-specific installation at is on display at MOCA‘s Pacific Design Center through October 13^th.  The solo exhibition, organized by art critic and guest curator Andrew Berardini, corresponds with the release of Chris Johanson, the most recent monograph in Phaidon’s celebrated Contemporary Artist series. (more…)

Artist Matthew Day Jackson is profiled in the New York Times Magazine this week, profiling the artist’s impressive series of projects, his longtime love of drag racing, and the experience of living in contemporary America.  “I just recognize that we live in an extraordinarily violent place. And that the boundaries between the haves and the have-nots and those who are and those who are not are usually defined by violence.”  (more…)

Capitalizing on the current interest in early European and American Modernist movements, the Guggenheim has announced plans for an exhibition focusing on the pioneering work of the Futurist movement in Italy.  “Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe,” will open February 21st, and will be accompanied by an auction of early modernist works at Sotheby’s.  “It’s time to re-evaluate and broaden our notion of what avant-garde means,” said curator Vivien Greene.   (more…)

Maurizio Cattelan, KAPUTT (Installation View), via Fondation Beyeler

KAPUTT, an installation by Italian-born sculptor, painter, and installation artist, Maurizio Cattelan is currently on display at the Fondation Beyeler until October 6th. Known for his humor and morbid imagery, especially in his use of taxidermied animals, Cattelan has been described as “as one of the great post-Duchampian artists, and a smartass, too” by Jonathan P. Binstock, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  This installation draws upon many of the themes found in the artist’s previous work, and viewers may be reminded of the numerous tongue in cheek sculptures Cattelan has already exhibited at the Vienna Secession; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Kunsthalle Basel; MoMA and MoMA PS 1, New York; Museum Fridericianum, Kassel; The Tate Gallery, London; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. (more…)

Gilbert0 Zorio, (Installation view), Photo: Peter Malet, courtesy Blain|Southern

A collection of major works selected from the long-running career of Gilberto Zorio is currently on view at Blain|Southern gallery in London Hanover Square. The show includes recent works, new site-specific installations, and important sculptures from the 1960s. Zorio’s first UK exhibition in five years, this show offers a wide range of examples of his work, revealing his evolution as an artist, both marking his profound impression on the Arte Povera movement and showcasing his extension beyond the influential Italian movement.

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Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #564, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

As an aspiring painter in New York City during the late 1950s, American artist Sol LeWitt struggled to find his “touch,” in the midst of the waning days of Abstract Expressionism- a movement which focuses on the importance of individual creation.  After taking a job at the book counter of the Museum of Modern Art in 1960, LeWitt became familiar with the engineering aesthetic of Russian Constructivism and Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential photographs, developing an interest in reducing art to its bare essentials. Literally recreating art from square one though his explorations of geometric forms, LeWitt is now considered to be one of the essential founders of both Conceptual and Minimal art. Differing from strict Minimalists by his focus on systems and concepts over materials, LeWitt’s art is one in which ideas and collaboration are paramount.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #564 (2013), Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery (more…)

Part of the 2013 London Design Festival, Alex de Rijke of dRMM Architects and Dean of Architecture at the Royal College of Art has created a complex, interlocking staircase installation on the grounds in front of the Tate Modern.  Endless Stair will open on Friday, and is open to the public during the day.  It closes on October 10th. (more…)

Opening September 16th, a former Getty filling station in West Chelsea is scheduled for conversion into a temporary public art program, beginning with an exhibition of sheep sculptures by the late French artist Francois-Xavier Lalanne.  The project was initially conceived by dealer Paul Kasmin, who represents the Lalanne estate, and real estate developer Michael Shvo, whose company purchased the station this summer.  Sheep Station, as it is called, will feature 25 of Lalanne’s “Mouton” sculptures, each made of epoxy stone and bronze.

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As tensions mount in the Middle East over a potential war with Syria, the Italian government has cancelled a museum loan that would have sent Botticelli’s The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala to the Israel Museum.  The Italian Ministry of Culture has cited logistic and safety concerns regarding the work, and expressed hope that the work would soon be exhibited in Jerusalem. (more…)

Outside at Riverfront Studios, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Station to Station, the traveling art happening organized and led by Doug Aitken, kicked off Friday night at Riverfront Studios in Brooklyn, featuring a vibrant array of music, performance, video, installations and appearances that launched Aitken and his traveling band of artists and musicians on a nationwide tour, which will conclude in Oakland at the end of September.  With different artists and performers appearing on each stop, the event will continue to shift and evolve with each subsequent event. (more…)

The Princeton University Art Museum has announced plans to install 12 billboards around the University, city and state, featuring the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres.  The selected work, Untitled (1991), features an empty, but once occupied bed, evoking powerful emotions of intimacy and loss.  “Apart from its sheer beauty, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work invites us to consider issues of love and searing loss, and to become more aware of the meaning of private emotion and public space,” says Museum director James Steward. “In an age in which the scourge of AIDS remains with us globally, Felix’s immersive vision remains essential, and is a potent reminder of how this disease ravaged the art world twenty years ago.”  (more…)

Conrad Shawcross, ADA (2013), Courtesy Palais de Tokyo

On view at Palais de Tokyo in Paris is a major exhibition, organized by 21 young curators from 13 different countries, who were in turn selected from a candidate pool of 500. Nouvelles Vagues occupies all of Palais de Tokyo’s exhibition space as well as around 30 galleries throughout Paris. (more…)