British artist Tracey Emin will exhibit her first American public art installation next month, taking over the enormous LCD billboards of Times Square with a selection of the artist’s handwritten text pieces on love. The six works will be on view each night from 11:57PM to Midnight in February, coinciding with Valentine’s Day, and presented by the Times Square Alliance. (more…)
German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer’s 1515 woodcut “The Rhinoceros” has sold at Christie’s in New York City for $866,500, setting a new record for the artist’s works. Originally estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, the price of the piece quickly exceeded its estimate. While some highly valued works, including Knight, Death and The Devil failed to attract bidders, Dürer’s record price for a single work was broken three consecutive times over the one-hour auction. (more…)
Maxwell Snow, Shroud V (2012), via Colette
Paris’s iconic Colette concept store is currently exhibiting new photographic works from artist Maxwell Snow, brother of the late Dash Snow. Monochromatic images feature French actress Rebecca Dayan and model Arizona Muse in a homage to 19th century Romanticism, fittingly titled after Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott”. (more…)
In what will become a permanent installation, artist Xavier Veilhan has installed his sculpture of Jean-Marc Bustamante a few steps from the Museum of Modern Art. The piece sits at the entranceway for RXR Realty, the company that commissioned its installation, and was created with the use of three-dimensional scanning technology and stainless steel construction.
Richard Deacon, Four by Four (2012), via Marian Goodman
Marian Goodman is currently presenting a selection of new works by Welsh sculptor Richard Deacon, documenting the artist’s ongoing interest in form and surface through a variety of both hung and freestanding sculptures. Composed of both wood and metal works, Deacon’s pieces on view explore the implications of texture on the form and presentation of the work, and the dissonances in volume and presence that result. (more…)
Black Cake, Installation view at 83 Grand Street, Courtesy of Team Gallery, New York
Black Cake at Team Gallery is a multi-generational group exhibition curated by Alex Gartenfeld, the young critic and curator whose former West Street Gallery project space was a notable new addition to the downtown art scene before it closed last summer. The exhibition takes its point of departure from the Gaelic spring ritual of Beltane (by way of scholar Roberto Calasso’s account in his 1994 book The Ruin of Kasch), during which a cake would be prepared and divided among members of a tribe. One piece would be covered in ash (hence the name “black cake”), and whomever chose this piece would be pushed into the Beltane bonfire, becoming a sacrificial casualty of the fertility holiday. The exhibition presents the diverse aesthetic iterations of “sweetness” and social identity in contemporary art, notions addressed dynamically across a variety of media through the works on view.
Dealer Christopher D’Amelio, formerly of Paula Cooper Gallery and his own space in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, has announced that he will be closing his gallery to join the expanding gallery network of David Zwirner. Mr. D’Amelio will be positioned at the gallery’s 20th Street space in New York City. “Chris brings a lot of experience and knowledge, especially when it comes to Minimalism.” Said Zwirner in an interview with the New York Times. (more…)
Jonas Mekas, Jonas Mekas (Installation View), Via Serpentine Gallery
Lithuanian-American artist Jonas Mekas has worn many hats over his sixty-plus year career. Emigrating to the United States after his imprisonment in labor camps during World War II, Mekas began creating films that embraced a diaristic approach to documenting the events of his own life, but were informed by his active participation in the New York avant-garde film scene of the 1950’s. (more…)
Frieze has announced the gallery list for its second annual Frieze New York art fair. The fair will see 53 galleries from New York join a strong contingent of exhibitions from around the globe. Running from May 10th to the 13th, the fair will return to its location overlooking the East River on Randall’s Island between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and will again feature a full lineup of commissions, panel discussions and featured exhibitions. (more…)
Peter Burr, Special Effect (2012), Courtesy of Peter Burr
Over the course of his career, video artist Peter Burr has worn many hats; founding avant-garde animation label Cartune Xprez, playing and animating for the performance art duo Hooliganship, and working on a variety of video projects and installations around the globe. His newest work, titled Special Effect, will hold its U.S. premiere at the Museum of Moving Image on Friday, January 18th. Taking the eerie, haunting film Stalker by Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky as its jumping off point, the show is a multifaceted media presentation, incorporating music, live performance, projection, body mapping, and a selection of videos from contributors across the new media landscape.
Art Observed had the opportunity to speak with Burr about the show, his take on Stalker, and his approach to creating this ambitious work.
Andy Kaufman “On Creating Reality” (Installation View)
Revered for his vast wealth of original material and unique approach to performance, comedian and performance artist Andy Kaufman left an enduring legacy that challenged and transcended conventional assumptions of genre and presentation. Frequently characterized as a comedian or “personality,” Kaufman’s work on television and in live performance frequently confounded and amazed his audience, and positioning him as a pioneer of new media performance and relational aesthetics. His work in the 1970’s and 80’s before his death in 1984 included turns as an Elvis impersonator, “The Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World,” and even a foul-mouthed lounge singer named Tony Clifton. (more…)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is held a ground breaking ceremony today to launch the renovations on its Fifth Avenue entrance. The new design will feature new fountains alongside the building and additional trees for shade. “We wanted to bring in more trees, more shade, and plantings, so that it’s a more friendly place for our visitors.” Says Museum Director and CEO Thomas Campbell. (more…)
Francis Alÿs, REEL-UNREEL (2011), via David Zwirner
In REEL-UNREEL, the recently completed film by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, two Afghan boys race through the streets of Kabul, dodging traffic, pedestrians, and other children while military helicopters fly overhead. Mimicking a game hoop-rolling, they push two large film canisters, a trail of film spilling out behind them as they go. Winding through the streets and up into the hills of the Afghani capital, the reels of film take their fair share of abuse as they are dragged through dirt, puddles, and even a small fire before being mistakenly rolled straight off a cliff. (more…)
Peter Campus, Three Transitions (1973) via Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
Peter Campus has been working with video art and photography since the 1960s as a major contributor to the burgeoning New York-based video art scene. Throughout the span of his career, Campus has put forth a dynamic and diverse oeuvre, which was showcased last month at now and then, a major retrospective of his work at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York. We had a chance to sit down with the artist in December and ask him a few questions, included here.
Carroll Dunham (Installation View), via Gladstone Gallery
Walking the line between representational abstraction and pure expressionism, the work of American painter Carroll Dunham works in a language that incorporates his unique viewpoint and artistic background into the classical formats of portraiture and landscape. (more…)
Wade Guyton, Untitled (2010), Courtesy The Whitney Museum.
Through January 13, The Whitney hosts a mid-career solo exhibition of the work of Wade Guyton. Often aligned with abstract Modernist giant Andy Warhol, Guyton self-identifies as a painter, despite a body of work lacking the processes of hand-to-paper creation. Through frequent use of his signature X’s and U’s, Guyton explores the symbols of modernity and calls into question the nature of production in the fine arts.
The first public art installation to utilize the Taxi TV format begins running today. A collaboration between artist Ryan McGinley and Icelandic musicians Sigur Rós, the 30-second video will air in 3,000 equipped taxicabs across New York City. “I wanted to bring a childhood innocence to the streets, through a character whose own light and wonder affect the world around her. Iʼm always interested in an atmosphere where dreams and reality mingle on equal terms.” Says McGinley. (more…)
Art Fag City has compiled a list of new additions to the annual Armory Show, and another of previous guests not attending this year. A number of major galleries will not be attending this year, including Zach Feuer, Paul Kasmin, Greene Naftali, and Andrew Kreps Gallery. (more…)
Ferdinand Hodler, The Dents du Midi from Champéry (1916) Courtesy Neue Gallery
Over the course of his lifetime, Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler moved among a variety of subjects and approaches, from audacious works of symbolism, to sweeping landscapes, to a vigorous body of portraiture. This expansive oeuvre is currently on view at New York City’s Neue Gallery in “View to Infinity,” showcasing the diversity and unique perspectives running through Hodler’s work. The show is presented in conjunction with the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, where it will show from January 27 to May 26, 2013
Ferdinand Hodler, Two Women in Flowers (1901-1902) Courtesy Neue Gallery
Longstanding New York arts institution The Kitchen is still recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy last November. While the space was able to reopen by the end of November, the organization is still scrambling to cover the losses suffered during the storm, including damages to speakers, lighting fixtures, electronics, and the theatre stage. (more…)
New York art dealers R. Scott Cook and his wife Sousanna A.E. Cook have been ordered to pay $17.96 million in damages to collector George Ball after allegedly fleeing the country with 11 of his works, including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Henri Matisse. Ball claims that the couple had agreed to sell his pieces at Christie’s on his behalf, but instead left the country for France without ever listing the works.
Barnaby Furnas, Jonah in the belly of the Whale (2012) courtesy Marianne Boesky
Visceral and dynamic, the canvases of American graffiti artist and painter Barnaby Furnas ripple with a kinetic energy. Filling his paintings with evocative imagery, explosive movement and the near-omnipresent splatters of blood that has become one of his calling cards, Furnas has culled a reputation for his unique take on culture and history.
Barnaby Furnas, The Gutter #2 (2012) courtesy Marianne Boesky
Richard Prince, Anyone Can Find Me (1990), courtesy Skarstedt Gallery
Skarstedt Gallery’s uptown exhibition space in Manhattan recently exhibited a series of multi-media works by American painter and photographer Richard Prince. Blending hand-drawn landscape and mass media imagery, his “White Paintings” create an complex interplay between image and language. (more…)
Jack Goldstein – Where Is Jack Goldstein? (Installation View), courtesy Venus Over Manhattan
A member of the first graduating class of CalArts in 1972, Jack Goldstein made enormous and immediate contributions to the fine arts landscape in the 1970s and 1980s before vanishing from the public eye and tragically ending his own life in 2003. Now, almost ten years after Goldstein’s death, collector Adam Lindemann is hosting an ambitious retrospective of Goldstein’s early work at his Venus Over Manhattan Gallery, pulling from Goldstein’s practice in painting, photography, poetry and film, including a recreation of Goldstein’s influential performance piece, Two Fencers. (more…)
