The New York Times profiles the reopening of the SculptureCenter in Long Island City, Queens, following its expansive renovation, and its take on the presentation of the work within its space.  “There are plenty of white boxes in New York, and we don’t want to be another one,” says executive director and chief curator Mary Ceruti.  “People come here ready to see art because they’ve made the effort, and that’s a good thing. Would I like more people to make that effort? Yes, and that’s part of why we did this.” (more…)

Richard Tuttle is interviewed in the Financial Times this week, in advance of the artist’s new installation commission at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.  “There’s a whole body of my works which starts with the material and then moves to the other sides where the material doesn’t matter,” he writes. (more…)

The Guardian visits Tracey Emin in her Spitalfields studio this week, as the artist prepares for an exhibition of new work next month at White Cube.  “Work is good,” she says.  “If I don’t make things, I become ill and depressed. Painting makes me feel like a better human being. It’s what I’m supposed to be doing.”  (more…)

Painter Chris Ofili is profiled in the New Yorker this week, in advance of the artist’s upcoming retrospective at the New Museum.  “Painting is a kind of pursuit, a hunt,” he says. “I think it’s more interesting when you can corral your subjects, instead of just going right to them. Enjoy and engage with the process—you want to keep going into the unknown, to the point where you don’t think about how long it’s going to take to get there.” (more…)

The Guardian joins Frank Auerbach for a tour of the V&A’s John Constable show this week, as the artist reviews Constable’s longstanding influence on his work.  “With the passage of time,” he says, “Constable has meant more and more and more to me. It is not so much about the more well-known qualities – the clouds and the freshness and the light. It is more that I can’t think of another painter who has invested quite so much in every single image.” (more…)

The New York Times interviews Marcel Dzama this week, in the wake of the artist’s opening at David Zwirner, alongside his collaborators Kim Gordon and Tim Kingsbury (of Arcade Fire).  The trio worked together on Dzama’s newest film Une danse des bouffons (A jester’s dance), a fantastic film incorporating numerous Dadaist and Surrealist references into a work inspired by the affair between Marcel Duchamp and sculptor Maria Martins.  “It’s amazing how many things you can do when you’re just pretending,” says Gordon. (more…)

Artist Yayoi Kusama is interviewed in The Telegraph this week, in the run-up to the artist’s show of new work at Victoria Miro next month.  In the article, the artist discusses her life between Japan and New York, and her reasons for moving to New York in the late 1950’s.  “Japan was a very feudalistic society and I felt I wanted to live more freely,” Kusama notes. “So I decided to go to America. I thought lots of people were making beautiful images in America… It was a very interesting society to me, especially the younger generation. Everyone seemed to try really hard to find their own way.” (more…)

Artists Gilbert and George are interviewed in the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing their most recent exhibition at White Cube, Scapegoating Pictures for London. “We thought it strange that the world’s governments, churches, mosques and schools are all confronting the issue of Islamist fervor, but the world’s artists aren’t touching it,” says George Passmore. “We try to create art we feel the world need.” (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…)

As part of a series called “This much I know”, the Guardian solicited artists Gilbert & George for their life lessons. Among observations on topics that ranged from relationships to religion to politics, the duo, whose latest show at Lehmann Maupin closed on August 8th, made several remarks about art and the art world, including their definition of art as “the friendship that’s formed between the person and the picture – both at the moment of seeing and later on as you remember”.

(more…)

After announcing her retirement as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Emily Rafferty sat down with the Wall Street Journal for an interview in which she discusses her time at the Met and her future plans. Although Rafferty maintains her decision to retire as President is the right one for both herself and the Met, she also discusses the possibility of a future position in the public eye, saying in the interview “I came to the decision after a lot of thought. I’d like to have another experience in the public sector; I don’t know what it will be yet. My time clock gave me every possible signal”.  (more…)

John Myatt, the famous forger who spent years behind bars for his fraudulent versions of works by Monet and other artists, is interviewed this week in The Independent, and comments on the state of fraud investigations in the current art landscape.  “The art industry has been nodding through paintings with extremely dubious histories,” he says. “It’s been colluding with galleries and auction houses for 50 to 60 years and I know the Police Art & Antiques Unit even went to one museum with evidence of fraud and they weren’t interested – they said they were happy that the contagion [of fakes] had now been removed from their archives.” (more…)

A new Internet program called Touching the Art has premiered on the Ovation Youtube channel.  Hosted by Casey Jane Ellison, the show takes an irreverent tack on discussing and analyzing the mechanisms and trends of the contemporary art world, with a sense of humor much akin to Hennessy Youngman’s Art Thoughtz.  “Is art somehow better because the person who starred in Transformers made it?” Ellison asks in one segment. (more…)

Jenny Saville is interviewed this week in The Telegraph, discussing her painting techniques, and love of the human form.  “I paint flesh because I’m human,” she says. “If you work in oil, as I do, it comes naturally. Flesh is just the most beautiful thing to paint.” (more…)

Filmmaker Matt Black explores the creative philosophy of Jeff Koons during a studio visit for a new video profile on Nowness, delving into the artist’s work and inspiration.  “Much of his work focuses around the idea of sensuality and being alive,” Black says. “It’s not a cold world he creates.” (more…)

The Independent profiles Celia Paul, a painter who for years has lived in the shadow of her former lover Lucian Freud, and who has worked tirelessly in pursuit of her craft, including sending her young son to live with his grandmother so that she could continue her work.  “An artist has to be very selfish,” she says. “Being ruthless has been painful at times but my son is very close to me, and he has a very close relationship with his grandmother.” (more…)

The New York Times has published a profile on Jeff Koons, in the run-up to the artist’s landmark retrospective at the Whitney, particularly noting the difficulties that the artist’s monumental works are posing for the museum’s limited space.  “It’s the perfect storm of difficulties,” said Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s associate director of programs. “There are the sheer physical demands of the objects themselves, their high values and the fragile materials, to say nothing of the cliffhanger of waiting for works that have been in production for years.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the collection of Leslie Wexner, who has shifted from being a major collector of a number of blue-chip 20th Century artists to exclusively focusing on the work of Pablo Picasso.  “My feeling was, and still is, that when you look at Picasso, you realize that he was the true founder of modern and contemporary art,” Wexner says. (more…)

Marina Abramovic is in The Guardian this week, discussing her techniques in the “Abramovic Method,” as a way of increasing awareness and consciousness while preparing for performances. “It’s very much to do with concentration, and to the borderline of how far we can concentrate on one thing at a time.” (more…)

Artist Marina Abramovic is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing her upcoming retrospective at The Serpentine, where the artist will freely wander the space of the gallery, and will allow visitors to come in and watch her.  “It’s the public and me and nothing else,” she says. “I took the objects away. But the encounter, I’ve never done anything as radical as this. This is as immaterial as you can go.” (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing the expanse of his career, his approach to photography, and his taste for viewing other artist’s work, including that of artists from many centuries earlier.  “I’ve always understood looking at other and older art as looking at friends’ work,” Tillmans says. “We’re separated through time, but we’re all dealing with ultimately similar questions.” (more…)

Nate Lowman is in the New York Times Magazine this week, taking part in a dialogue with musician Devon Welsh of the band Majical Cloudz, where the pair discuss the interaction of sound and visuals in their work.  “If you discover as a kid that being a musician, or being an artist is something that you like, everyone should hold onto that,” Lowman says. (more…)

Marc Quinn is interviewed in The Guardian this week, answering a quick round of questions on his fears, hopes and secret passions, including an interesting answer to the question of what era he would visit in time: “To the beginning of the 20th century with knowledge of all the artworks to come,” he says. “If I then made them all myself, would it have the same effect on culture?” (more…)

Alice Workman, the newly appointed director of Hauser and Wirth’s Somerset Gallery location, is profiled in The Guardian this week, discussing her views on the unique countryside space it occupies, and how the space will operate once fully operational.  It’s really a combination of all the things the Wirths are passionate about,”  she says. “We want different audiences to engage in different ways – some might come for the garden, the restaurant or the exhibitions, but will hopefully discover other things while they’re here.” (more…)