Robert Irwin, Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue³ III, all images courtesy Pace London

Currently, Pace London‘s 6 Burlington Gardens location is presenting the gallery’s first exhibition of works by American artist Robert Irwin. The new work springs from the artist’s pioneering practice during the West Coast’s monumental Light and Space movement.  Born in 1928, Irwin has been exploring the concepts of perception and space for over sixty years. Beginning as a painter, he was a foundational member of the Light and Space movement in the 1960s, helping to develop a concept of art as a response to specific life experiences in equal measure with the work’s surrounding environmental conditions.

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Barry Bergdoll, MoMA’s Architectural Curator for the past six years, has announced that he will be leaving the position to return to Columbia University as chair of the Art History Department.  “The university has now requested that I return to teach full time,” Mr. Bergdoll said in a letter to journalists. “It is for me a great honor that I feel also recognizes the scholarly work that I have continued to pursue most recently in exhibitions and publications here at MoMA.” (more…)

A Ukrainian artist is accusing Nataliia Zabolotna, the exhibition curator and director at Kiev’s Mystetskyi Arsenal, of censoring a work using daubs of black paint.  The mural, Judgement Day, was censored claiming it was not in the spirit of the exhibition’s focus on the “Great and Grand,” and has already led to the resignation of deputy director Alexander Solovyov.  “I think that censorship is unacceptable, even more so by [an] institution which aims to engage in and support art.”  He said. (more…)

Artist Chris Burden, whose upcoming retrospective at the New Museum this fall will fill all five floors of the institution, will also bring a series of works to the space’s exterior.  Burden will install a pair of 36-foot skyscraper structures (Two Skyscrapers) on the roof of the museum, as well as Ghost Ship, an automated, double bowed boat that will circle the building’s facade.  The exhibition will be the first major retrospective for Burden in New York, and opens on October 2nd. (more…)

The Times Square Alliance has announced the next selection for its Midnight Moment series, which gives over the billboards in Times Square to video work from a variety of artists each night from 11:57pm to midnight.  This August, the series will welcome Jack Goldstein’s The Jump, coinciding with his ongoing retrospective at the Jewish Museum.  “Digitally-remastered for our contemporary screens, this seminal work references the dynamic history of an artist’s role in leading sign technology, once again drawing attention to the cutting-edge technology and innovation showcased nightly on Times Square’s signs,” said TSA director of public art Sherry Dobbin. (more…)

Jane and Louise Wilson, Atomgrad 7 (Nature Abhors A Vacuum) (2010), via 303 Gallery

Over the course of their career, British twins Jane and Louise Wilson have documented the highly complex and haunting architectural ruins of modernity. Their work depicts the near-theatrical decay of industrial and military advances of the twentieth century, or rather, turns the spaces of said decay into a theatrical space. The artists’ current exhibition at 303 Gallery combines the work from two recent projects: the photographs Atomgrad, Nature Abhors A Vacuum I, V, VI, VII and VIII, 2011; and Blind Landing, H-Bomb Test Facility, Lab 1 and Lab 4, 2012.

Jane and Louise Wilson (Installation View) via 303 Gallery

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Donald Judd, Untitled (1965), via David Zwirner

The tight, straight lines of Donald Judd run directly through the entirety of his career, from his early painted works on through to the increasingly large sculptural works and stacks of the 1980’s and 90’s.  Moving to purify notions of space, light, color and depth, Judd’s career wove a strikingly influential path through the landscape of post-war and contemporary art.  It is this tradition that David Zwirner in London seeks to explore, pulling together a small but tightly organized collection of works by Judd for a show exploring the range and depth of the artist’s career, from his early sculptural explorations with iron and plexiglass, on through to his more refined “stacks,” and wall-mounted installations. (more…)

Rachel Harrison, Coffee Cart (2013), Courtesy of the Artist and Greene Naftali, New York

Currently on view at Matthew Marks Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York is an exhibition organized by American painter Terry Winters. Titled “Roving Signs,” the group of works made by a variety of artists reflects Winters’ interest in traditional American folktales and the cultural heritage of the United States, as well as the various semiotic interpretations and variations that the use of these symbolic images and stories holds in contemporary art.

The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Autotechnogeoglyphics: Vehicular Test Tracks in America (2006), Courtesy CLUI Archive, Los Angeles

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A pair of installations by sculptor Carol Bove are currently on view in New York, including an appointment-only installation on the High Line, as well as a show of works on the Museum of Modern Art’s fourth floor.  Both recent series of works, the installations showcase an evolution of the artist’s practice, moving towards a more refined, cohesive stylistic approach. (more…)

The Art Production Fund, in conjunction with philanthropist Fabiola Beracasa, has announced the opening of an “outdoor pop-up exhibition” in the Long Island town of Montauk.  The exhibition will be held in a vacant lot at 333 Old Montauk Highway, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 8, and will include site-specific installations by Anya Kielar, Virginia Overton and Olympia Scarry.  “These artists are taking into account nature, which is a force unto itself, and our complicated relationship with it,” Says APF founder Doreen Remen. (more…)

Jake & Dinos Chapman, The Sum of All Evil (Installation View), courtesy White Cube Hong Kong

Currently at Hong Kong’s White Cube, British artists Jake & Dinos Chapman are exhibited The Sum of All Evil, the artists’ first in China, including a group of lurid, bizarre dioramas alongside their familiar series of “reworked paintings.”

Jake & Dinos Chapman, One Day You Will No Longer Be Loved (that it should come to this…) (2010), via White Cube

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American sculptor Walter De Maria, via LA Times

Walter De Maria, the New York sculptor known for his monumental sculptures that helped pioneer the conceptual, minimalist and land art movements of the mid to late twentieth century, has passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 77.

Walter De Maria, The Broken Kilometer (1977), via New York Magazine (more…)

Alfred Jensen, Twelve Events in a Dual Universe (1978) ©ARS, NY and DACS, London 2013, Photo: Linda Nylind, Courtesy Hayward Gallery

Currently on view at the Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre in London is a new exhibition of work entitled Alternative Guide to the Universe, a compilation of works by artists who taught themselves their crafts, focusing on work that offers a new perspective on our socially accepted conventions of artistic practice and cultural perception.

Lee Godie. Lee and Cameo on a chair… (early to mid 1970s), © the artist, Courtesy Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Collection

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Subodh Gupta, What does the vessel contain, that the river does not (2012) (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth

Following its success at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, New Delhi-based artist Subodh Gupta’s sculpture What does the vessel contain, that the river does not is on view for the first time outside of India at Hauser & Wirth, Savile Row, London through July 27^th.

Subodh Gupta, What does the vessel contain, that the river does not (2012) (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth (more…)

In response to the massive public response drawn by its current Rain Room installation, the Museum of Modern Art will keep the work by Random International open until midnight this Sunday, July 28th, its closing day.  The work has attracted over 65,000 visitors since it opened in May, and has seen wait times of up to nine hours during busy days to stand inside the stream of pouring water. (more…)

Thomas Houseago, Roman Masks III, (2013) Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Currently on display at Gagosian Gallery in London is an exhibition of new sculpture by British contemporary sculptor Thomas Houseago entitled Roman Figures.  Showcasing a continuation of the artist’s signature, rugged forms and unique approach to figuration, the exhibition is a strong continuation of Houseago’s celebrated practice.

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A light installation by James Turrell has been uncovered in a Malibu Beach House, the Wall Street Journal reports.  The work had sat dormant in the guest house of late art collector Sydney Goldfarb’s Malibu home, and was uncovered when resident Tobey Cotsen visited Turrell’s current show at LACMA, where she realized that she had a Turrell of her own.  The work has since been confirmed by the artist’s studio.  “Where have I seen that before?” She said to herself during the exhibition. “I’ve seen it in my house.” (more…)

Paul and Damon McCarthy, Rebel Dabble Babble (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth

Hauser and Wirth, continuing its ongoing focus on California artist Paul McCarthy, is currently presenting a new video and sculptural installation by the artist, titled Rebel Dabble Babble.  Taking the real life relationships between Nick Ray, James Dean (played by James Franco) and Natalie Wood during the making of Rebel Without a Cause as the inspiration for the work, McCarthy and his son Damon have created an immersive, savagely warped exploration into the film, its creation, and the decaying image of Americana that it sought to depict, while challenging the interplay between a cultural artifact and its production.

Paul and Damon McCarthy, Rebel Dabble Babble (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth

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British artists Gilbert and George have been announced as the next commission for the High Line’s popular Billboard exhibition series.  Opening September 3rd, the artists will exhibit a version of their 1984 piece Waking, featuring the pair surrounded by attractive young men.  “With all the talk today about urban life and gay marriage,” Said High Line Art director Cecelia Alemani, “it seems even more appropriate now.” (more…)

Thomas Hirschhorn, Gramsci Monument (2013), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

“Everyone is an intellectual.”  These words by Italian anarchist/Marxist Antonio Gramsci adorn the walls of Gramsci Monument, the fourth and final entry into Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s monumental installation series to his favorite thinkers and writers, currently open in the Forest Houses housing project in the South Bronx.  Opening the platform to cultural dialogues, political research and community art efforts, Gramsci Monument continues Hirschhorn’s efforts at destabilizing the spatial encounters of a work of art, broadening its scope to a space where all participants are welcome to create their own meaning. (more…)

James Turrell, Roden Crater (Sunset) (2009), via Kayne Griffin Corcoran

With concurrent shows opening at LACMA, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, James Turrell is certainly in the spotlight this summer. The Kayne Corcoran Griffin gallery is also joining in on the artist’s ubiquity, filling its new space on south La Brea with an exhibition focused on the Roden Crater project. Aptly named Sooner Than Later, Roden Crater, the show examines Turrell’s unfinished transformation of the crater into a sight-specific masterwork that has been in development since 1974. (more…)

Artist Thomas Hirschhorn, in New York for the opening of his Gramsci Monument at Forest Houses in the Bronx, appeared last week at Artists Space in Manhattan, for a discussion with art historians Hal Foster and Lisa Lee on his practice, writing and the necessity of documentation. “The act of writing is a good way of taking it seriously, to be clear with the work, and also to be clear with intention.  The act of writing is most important for the artistic will.”  He says. (more…)

Floor Cone (1962), in front of Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, (1963) Image courtesy of Oldenburg van Bruggen Studio.

Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929, Stockholm) is widely regarded as one of the founding pioneers of Pop Art, a superstar in the history of art, and a visionary who opened new doors on the world of conceptual practice, sculpture and performance.  Embracing this foundational role, the artist’s current retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art maps the early beginnings of Oldenburg’s career, alongside the formative years of Pop Art.  (more…)

Taiyo Kimura, Performance Study With Plastic Bag (1997), via MoMAPS1

In the hustle and bustle of the art fairs and auctions of the two weeks prior, the opening of MoMA’s EXPO 1: New York went almost unnoticed, despite its three-venue makeup that includes modules at the museum’s midtown location, the PS1 annex in Queens, and at the newly built VW dome in the Far Rockaway, all which explore new conceptions of ecology and politics in the post-millenial landscape.

Steve McQueen, Static (2009), via MoMAPS1 (more…)