Tacita Dean, Fatigues (F) (2012), via Marian Goodman Gallery
Marian Goodman Gallery is currently hosting the first showing of Tacita Dean’s, Fatigues, a recent series of drawings initially exhibited in Kassel at this past summer’s documenta (13).
Tacita Dean, Fatigues (Installation view), via Marian Goodman Gallery
As part of its ongoing week of Andy Warhol online auctions, Christie’s has posted an interview with the creator of Girls (and daughter of artists Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham), Lena Dunham, discussing her take on Warhol, and how the artist would engage with contemporary society today. “He would watch Real Housewives. We all just have to accept that. ” She says. (more…)
The Brooklyn Museum announced today that it will hold an ambitious retrospective for the secretive art collective Bruce High Quality Foundation this summer. The show, titled Ode To Joy: 2001-2013, will include a broad number of works (“under 17,000” according to a BHQF representative) from the collective’s decade of creative activity, and will document their ongoing practice of satire, political commentary, and exploration of contemporary America. (more…)
Artist Peter Beard’s wife, Nejma Beard, spoke with New York Magazine in its new issue, detailing her efforts to help reclaim his reputation in the art market. Beard, who was a close friend of Andy Warhol, has seen a resurgence in popularity in the last several years, and his wife’s efforts have helped to set new auction records for his work on the open market. “Now that art is almost entirely a commodity,” Peter Beard writes, “I’m glad to be, shall we say, commodious.”
Trevor Paglen at Metro Pictures (Installation View), via Metro Pictures
American artist, geographer, and author Trevor Paglen’s first solo exhibition at Metro Pictures has opened this month, a selection of large color prints and black-and-white diptychs related to his ongoing project, The Last Pictures. Compiling a striking collection of photographs from across the wide spectrum of human experience, Paglen creates a static document of mankind, flung into the Earth’s orbit.
Trevor Paglen opening at Metro Pictures (Installation View), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved
It was 100 years ago this week that the first Armory Show brought the avant-garde of Europe to the United States, turning conceptions of painting and art-making on its ear. Lasting only four weeks, the show offered American art-goers some of the first glimpses of work by Picasso, Edvard Munch, Duchamp, and many more. (more…)
Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery
“My grandfather died when I was fourteen and became an abacus. In the way ice turns into water, he became this object he left behind.” So begins the performance of Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto’s Talking in Circles Talking, an immersive performance and installation at Soloway Gallery in South Williamsburg. Exploring the notions of value and vibrancy at play in the space between human relationships and physical objects, Sasamoto effectively fuses personal discourses with her surrounding environment.
Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery (more…)
In a new twist, New York’s now defunct Knoedler Gallery, which has faced several lawsuits in the past few years for selling forged works attributed to Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others, is now being sued by its investor David Mirvish for failing to sell two authentic works. The gallery shut down after allegations of selling a fake Pollock for $17 million came to light, effectively breaching an agreement between Mirvish and the gallery to sell two Pollock masterpieces. “David Mirvish, one of the world’s foremost art collectors, fervently believes in the authenticity of the works and is determined to receive that to which he is entitled,” said Mirvish’s lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr. (more…)
Vanity Fair Magazine sat down with curator and dealer Vito Schnabel (son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel), to talk about finding his way into the art world, his recently opened group show “White Collar Crimes” at Acquavella Galleries, and his practice as a curator: “It’s very personal; it’s just what I like and what I’m drawn to and what I get enthusiastic or excited about, and what I feel like working with or putting my time into.” (more…)
In his largest U.S. exhibition to date, Los Angeles-based artist Paul McCarthy will present a re-imagining of Snow White at the Park Avenue Armory this summer as part of the institution’s 2013 season. The season also includes a staging of Marina Abramovic’s opera, and a performance of Stockhausen’s “Licht,” with a moonscape designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija. According to Rebecca Robertson, the armory’s president and executive producer, the varied calendar of works is intended to “blur the line between high art and popular culture” and “ask tough questions about the world in which we live.” (more…)
Song Dong, Facing the Wall (1999), via PACE Gallery
On view at both of Pace Gallery’s New York exhibition spaces is an exhibition of work by Chinese artist Song Dong, compiling the artist’s recent work from dOCUMENTA 13 and the Kiev Biennial, as well as older work.
Song Dong, Doing Nothing Mountains (2011-2012), via PACE Gallery (more…)
Keith Sonnier, Lit Circle Blue with Etched Glass (1968), via Mary Boone Gallery
Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery is currently glowing with Keith Sonnier’s early fluorescent works from 1968 – 1970, on view through February 23. Along with Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, and Donald Judd, Sonnier’s approach to spatial and aesthetic considerations radically changed the conceptions of sculpture, embracing experimentation with unconventional materials and approaches to presentation. The works on view at Mary Boone mark the period in which Sonnier first began working with neon light tubes, using them as a method to explore everyday materials, and to examine the impact that light makes on the surrounding environment.
A Miami pastor and art dealer has been arrested for attempting to sell several forged works attributed to British artist Damien Hirst. Kevin Sutherland had approached Sotheby’s in December about selling one of Mr. Hirst’s “spin” paintings at auction, but when the auction house realized the work as forgery, it promptly contacted the New York Police Department. Working undercover, officers arrested Sutherland after he attempted to sell them several more forged Hirsts in Gramercy Park Hotel last week. (more…)
Yayoi Kusama announced this week that she is ending her partnership with the Gagosian Gallery, and joining David Zwirner Gallery’s already formidable roster of artists. The news comes after several months of speculation and rumors that Kusama would be breaking her ties with Gagosian. (more…)
Paul Klee, Comedians’ Handbill (1938), via Metropolitan Museum of Art
On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 24, “Late Klee” presents a concentrated survey of the last fifteen years of Paul Klee’s life and career. The one-room exhibition consists largely of small-sized works on paper and cardboard, each representing a facet of the artist’s prolific oeuvre and wide-ranging interests. (more…)
Peter Saul, Francis Bacon Descending a Staircase (2012), via Mary Boone
Defying critical characterization and classification for the bulk of their careers, artists Jim Shaw and Peter Saul have continually pushed the art of figurative drawing in new directions. Exploring the multi-generational impact of these two artists, curator Klaus Kertess has brought the two artists together at Mary Boone New York to exhibit a selection of their works on paper. Bringing the subconscious to the forefront of the viewer’s attention, the artists’ show is packed with images of altered realities, presented in their trademark styles.
Fabio Viale, Stargate (Installation View), via Sperone Westwater
Exploring the intricate interrelations between object, environment, product and creator, Italian sculptor Fabio Viale creates staggeringly lifelike marble busts of the the everyday, paying homage to the vast heritage of Italian sculpture while inviting a range of interpretations and correlations between his works. For his first solo show at New York’s Sperone Westwater gallery, titled Stargate, the artist is exhibiting a selection of recent works that juxtaposes the classic medium against the often banal detritus of contemporary society, in turn exploring the values afforded to each.
Fabio Viale, Souvenir Pieta (2006), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved
New York Magazine sat down with Iwan Wirth at the opening of Hauser and Wirth’s new space in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea last month, spotlighting the global arts enterprise he has built from the gallery’s modest Swiss origins, as well as his active encouragement of his impressive stable of artists. “I think with Iwan it’s not a commercial venture. It’s very much about the artists and what they need and what they want,” says Paul McCarthy. (more…)
The Art Basel festival has announced the gallery list for its 44th edition in Basel, Switzerland, welcoming 304 galleries from across the globe. The festival will also feature several special exhibitions, including presentations by Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City, Parra & Romero in Madrid, and Take Ninagawa in Tokyo, alongside its usual lineup of talks, exhibitions, installations and special commissions. (more…)
Daniel Buren, “Electricity” at Petzel Gallery (Installation View) Photo by Elene Damenia
This January, Daniel Buren presents his third solo exhibition across two New York gallery venues; his work will be showcased at the Bortolami Gallery at 520 West Street and Petzel Gallery at 537 West 22nd Street. The galleries will simultaneously exhibit works from the series Electricity, Paper, Vinyl – WORKS IN SITU & SITUATED WORKS. Bortolami is showing Buren’s recent works from 2012, while pieces from 1968 – 2012 will be on view at Petzel through February 16th.
Daniel Buren, Projection, travail in situ (2012) at Petzel Gallery, Photo by Elene Damenia
Joseph Mallrond William Turner, Heidelberg With a Rainbow, via Sotheby’s
It was an unpredictable time for the art auction this past week, as collectors descended on New York City for Christie’s and Sotheby’s spring auction of Old Masters and Renaissance art work last week, driving up prices on a number of works while other pieces failed to command bids.
Cyprien Gaillard, Artefacts (2011), via MoMA PS1
Over the past several years, French artist Cyprien Gaillard has created a body of work that negotiates the complex spatio-political, geographical and cultural maps of contemporary culture. Continuously revisiting themes of decay, flux, erosion and conflict, his work picks through the saturated visual landscape of modernity, and exposes the interlocking mechanisms of destruction and creation at work, as well as the grey area between these polar states. (more…)
Sol LeWitt, Cut Torn Folded Ripped (Installation View), via James Cohan
A pioneering force in post-war American art, Sol LeWitt’s geometric explorations of space, image and meaning was foundational in the development of both the conceptual and minimalist schools of artistic practice. Perhaps most famous for his “wall drawings,” the artist also explored a range of paper and sculptural techniques over the course of his career.
Sol LeWitt, A Square of Chicago without a Circle and Triangle (1979), via James Cohan
The National Museum of China has opened a new exhibition, featuring a large collection of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Earth, Sea and Sky: Nature in Western Art is the first large-scale collaboration between the two major arts institutions, and pulls from the American museum’s vast collection. “Never before has an exhibition of this scope and theme, drawn entirely from the Met’s holdings, traveled to China.” Says Met director Thomas Campbell. (more…)
