Peter Doig sits down with the Financial Times this week for the newspaper’s Lunch with the FT segment, and discusses his life as a painter, as well as his childhood split between Trinidad, Canada and the UK.  “My thinking is always between places. Something I would like to achieve in my paintings is a place in between places.” (more…)

Damien Hirst’s Other Criteria is looking to expand.  The West End London shop is looking to sell its £435,000 lease and seek a larger space in the neighborhood.  Other Criteria is also reportedly planning to open a location in New York’s Soho neighborhood later this year.   (more…)

Mayor of London Boris Johnson is actively courting the Guggenheim Foundation to open a location on the grounds of the 2012 London Olympics, the Art Newspaper reports.  The area, which has already been earmarked as a new cultural quarter called E20, will be home to a new location for the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Johnson wants the Guggenheim to set up shop as well.  “We are in talks with other global cultural brands, as we will need at least one more cultural institution to achieve the critical mass and very high visitor numbers the site deserves,” Johnson says. (more…)

Darren Almond, Fullmoon at Volcanic Archipelago (2013)

Photographer Darren Almond is currently exhibiting a selection of works from both his “Fullmoon” and “Present Form” series, alongside a group of small bronze sculptures at White Cube’s location in the Bermondsey neighborhood of London. The works will remain on view through April 13, 2014. Over a period of 13 years, Almond has worked on a photographic series entitled Fullmoon picturing scenes from every continent, all taken under the light of a full moon. Utilizing long exposure times and well-placed cameras, the images capture details within the darkness that the human eye is normally unable to see, all while adding an eerily surreal atmosphere to the environments on view, stuck somewhere between the bright light of day and dark night. These works represent a continuing effort by Almond to follow themes of geology, myth, and history alongside his fascinations with time and light themselves.

Darren Almond, To Leave a Light Impression (2013), all photos via White Cube

(more…)

Laure Prouvost, For Forgetting (Installation View), via Art Observed

Laure Prouvost has a lot to say.  Creating multifaceted, occasionally dizzying multimedia installations using wood, paint, video and various props, the 2013 Turner Prize Winner’s work is hyper-loaded in its signifiers and subjects, moving rapidly from the divine to the profane and back, all expressed with a masterful storytelling bent.  It’s just this line, in fact, that the artist makes express use of in her first U.S. installation, occupying the lobby of the New Museum, telling a lightning-fast narrative of identity theft and financial scamming in the post-digital economy.

Laure Prouvost, For Forgetting, 2014 (still). Installation and video. Copyright the artist. Courtesy the artist and MOTINTERNATIONAL, London and Brussels (more…)

Fashion line and retailer Opening Ceremony has announced that it will present a collection of ready to wear clothing inspired by Magritte next week at London’s fashion week, including a capsule footwear collection in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik, Birkenstocks, and Vans.  “We really wanted to think about this triptych of footwear, and think about different types of people,” said creative director Humberto Leon. “Everyone in the office wants it.” (more…)

Francis Bacon, Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966), via Christie’s

Another week of contemporary art auctions have come and gone, with a number of high-profile works changing hands in London this week, and a number of new records being for artists across the board.  All auction houses boasted strong sales results, with Christie’s once again taking the lead.

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild 776-1 (1992), via Phillips (more…)

Francis Bacon, Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966), via Christie’s

Following the first two weeks of the annual set of early-year auctions in New York and London this year, the market will focus its attention this week on contemporary works, with a trio of auctions taking place this week in London.  This year, the proceedings will kick off at Phillips in London on February 10th, and will see a day day break between auctions, with Sotheby’s joining the auction fray on the 12th, and Christie’s wrapping up the week on the 13th.

Roy Lichtenstein, Interior with Painting of Trees (1997), via Sotheby’s (more…)

A pair of George Condo shows on view in London showcase recent work by the artist both before and after a bout with Legionnaire’s disease, showcasing a wildly divergent pair of styles influenced by the artist’s inability to paint during his illness.  The works are on view at both Simon Lee Gallery and Skarstedt, opening concurrently with London’s contemporary auctions this week. (more…)

Artists David Shrigley and Hans Haacke have been announced as the 2015 and 2016 commissions for London’s Fourth Plinth sculpture project.  Shrigley will install an enormous hand giving a thumbs up on the plinth in 2016, while Haacke will show a skeletal horse sculpture as next year’s piece.  “What’s exciting for me is the opportunity to make something on a scale you couldn’t possibly imagine making yourself.”  Shrigley says. (more…)

Camille Pissarro, Le Boulevard Montmartre, Matinée De Printemps (1897), via Sotheby’s

With the closing hammer at Sotheby’s last night, another set of impressive evening sales for Impressionist and Modernist Art, with a number of longstanding auction records falling in a flurry of bids.  The continued strength of the market could be felt across the board, but the week was particularly auspicious for Christie’s, which secured an astounding $288.13 million sale for its 48 lots, the highest sale for an auction ever in London, while Sotheby’s achieved $104.4 million for its 90 lot offering.   (more…)

Juan Gris, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux (1915), via Christie’s

After the beginning of the February auctions in New York last week, attention will shift across the Atlantic to London, where the Impressionish and Modern art auctions will commence today, February 4^th with Christie’s evening sale.  This year, the modern sale will offer some strong works from both auction houses, boasting impressive estimates that belie a strong offering across the board, rather than a handful of big ticket works. (more…)

Jake and Dinos Chapman, The Sum of all Evil (2012-2013), via Serpentine Sackler

An exhibition of Jake and Dinos Chapman, the English brothers turned artistic-collaborators, is currently on view at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London’s Hyde Park through February 9.  Titled Come and See, the show is something of a magnum opus – the Chapmans display an interest in any and all media, from painting to film. Their cheeky disregard to a medium-centric practice allows them to mesh subject material in mock conspiracy-theory style. Posed KKK members, McDonald’s characters and scenes of war and chaos reminiscent of Urs Graf or their frequent muse, Francisco Goya are assembled in an “overtly-designed-chaos” where homage and meaning are tossed about for the sake of pointed caricature. (more…)

The British Government has placed an export ban on The Infant Moses trampling Pharaoh’s Crown, a 17th century painting by Nicolas Poussin which was originally purchased for £14 million by a private collector as part of a sale to raise funds for the renovation of Woburn Abbey.  “It would be a terrible shame if this dramatic work by Poussin was to be moved abroad permanently,” says Cultural Minister Ed Vaizey. “I hope that a UK buyer can be found and that the painting remains here in the UK where it can be enjoyed by the British public.” (more…)

Artist Martin Creed is profiled in the New York Times, previewing the artist’s upcoming career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London, and discussing his unique take on conceptions of the word “art.”  “I would not disagree with me not being an artist, because I don’t know what art is,” Creed states. “I’m just making a painting or a sculpture or whatever it may be. I’m not making art, because art would seem to me to be in the eye of the beholder.” (more…)

A number of iconic works from the early years of the YBAs will go on sale at Christie’s in London next month.  Offered by commodities trader Frank Gallipoli, the works were all part of Charles Saatchi’s iconic Sensation show in 1997, including pieces by Tracey Emin and Jenny Saville, and are being cited as a test of the market for works from the 1990’s British movement, which some believe may have passed their market peak. (more…)

The Delfina Foundation has reopened its doors after a ten-month. £1.4 million renovation, making it London’s largest artist residency program.  The foundation’s gallery space opens today with an exhibition titled The Politics of Food.  “It’s great to be in a place that takes food as seriously as I do,” joked UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey. “I expect hundreds of MPs will be beating a path to the door, especially when they hear how tidy it’s kept and that there is food here.”  (more…)

The Guardian reports on the rising rent and low return on investment in the rapidly developing London neighborhoods of St. James and Mayfair, and the impacts the growth in high-end construction is having on the long-standing galleries of the area.  The story centers around Cork Street, where a number of storied London galleries are located.  “I am an angry old man,” says gallerist Leslie Waddington of the 80-year old gallery Waddington Custot. “Cork Street has been built up over the years and relies on a mix of different galleries. We are the victims of a kind of commercial fascism, where those making decisions based on profit feel they are unaccountable.” (more…)

An article in The Guardian traces the history of Van Gogh’s famous sunflower paintings, as two of the original versions of the still life are preparing to go on exhibit at London’s National Gallery.  Originally received quite poorly by the art establishment, the works occasionally caused heavy contention among artists and critics exhibiting alongside “the laughable pot of sunflowers by Mr. Vincent.”  The article also discusses the artist’s long relationship and correspondence with his brother Theo.  “Always continue walking a lot and loving nature,” Van Gogh once said to his brother, “for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see.” (more…)

Yutaka Sone (Installation View), via David Zwirner

Yutaka Sone’s marble scale-models of some of the world’s most famous island cities are now on display at David Zwirner’s London gallery. The show, entitled Sculpture, includes replica banana trees and three of Sone’s city replicas: Hong Kong Island (Chinese) (1998), Little Manhattan (2007–2009), and Venezia (2013, brought together for the first time. The three marble works span over twenty years of the artist’s practice, and have each taken years of painstaking labor to produce. (more…)

Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale in London next month will be lead by a 1994 piece by Gerhard Richter, valued at $49 million.  Wand (Wall) sat for many years in the artist’s personal collection, during which time it was exhibited in a number of major exhibitions.  “As its title suggests, Wand (Wall) presents a compelling wall of colour with horizontal bands of cadmium red, blue and magenta that deliberately echo the chromatic intensity of a Mark Rothko,” Sotheby’s notes in its statement. (more…)

Christie’s London art auction next month will see the sale of another iconic Francis Bacon painting, a portrait of the painter’s lover George Dyer, which is estimated to sell for $49 million.  “These sellers understand margins, and the uplift can be colossal,” says dealer Alan Hobart. “The auction houses have the buyers at the top end of the market. It’s globalized money. Bacon is now an auction commodity.” (more…)

Sotheby’s London will host the second half of sales from the Krugier Collection this February, following a sale at Christie’s late last year where several of the top lots failed to sell.  The sale next month is noted to include a number of more personal works, and carries of total estimate of $39 million, somewhat more than a third of the $113.7m that Christie’s realized. (more…)

Christie’s offerings for its February 4th, 5th and 7th auctions in London are already indicating a strong sale, with works by Picasso and Magritte leading an offering that is anticipated to earn nearly $380 million.  Picasso’s Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil leads the auction, and has not been on sale in over 50 years, valued at £15-£20 million.  “This stellar sale presents international collectors and institutions with rare opportunities to acquire exceptional works with illustrious provenance by key impressionist and modern masters,” Jay Vincze, Christie’s International Director and head of its Impressionist and Modern Art Department, said in a statement. (more…)