Crain’s Business takes an inside look at the growing trend of high-end pawnshops, accommodating wealthy collectors interested in quickly monetizing their artworks.  The growing popularity of personal asset loan companies like Borro has seen more art collectors in particular using the site, like one Marc Kaye, who used the site to get a loan on a $64,000 Picasso drawing during a dry spell.  “I was in just a little pinch, and this was an elegant and discreet way to get cash,” he says. (more…)

Doug Wheeler at David Zwirner, via Art Observed

The new installation by Doug Wheeler, currently on view at David Zwirner’s 20th Street gallery, cites itself as an exploration of the horizon, a delicately shifting light installation inside an enormous ellipsoidal room.  Painted a harsh white, the floor and ceiling reflect the subtly changing neons running just out of site underneath the floorboards of the work.  Comparable to the work of James Turrell, Wheeler’s pieces make much of the illusory capabilities of light acting on space.  His 2012 installation at Zwirner, a massively lit wall giving the impression of an infinite color scape in front of the viewer, bears resemblance to a number of Turrell’s infinite lightscapes, allowing the viewer to slowly gain an awareness of their own act of seeing, and the behavior of their eyes in space.    

Doug Wheeler, LC 71 NY DZ 13 DW (2013), Photo by Tim Nighswander, Imaging4Art © 2014 Doug Wheeler; courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London (more…)

Frank Thiel, Perito Moreno #161 (2012/13), via Sean Kelly Gallery

Nowhere is a Place, currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery, showcases the latest work of German photographer Frank Thiel. For his fifth solo show with the gallery, Thiel presents a grand departure from his best known subject, the disintegrating architectural landscape of Berlin, instead focusing his lens on the glaciers of the Argentine Patagonia. Traveling to Los Glaciares National Park in 2011 and 2012, Thiel captures the colossal ice fields in vivid high definition, printed on a massive scale meant to match his subject’s monumentality.

Frank Thiel, Perito Moreno #91, (2012/13), via Sean Kelly Gallery (more…)

Richard Tuttle, a work from Looking for the Map, via Art Observed

On view at Pace New York from February 7th through March 15th is an exhibition comprised of drawings and studies artist Richard Tuttle has made to prepare for his large-scale commission at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, opening in October of this year.

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The New York Times delves into the work and life of Oscar Murillo, charting the artist’s meteoric rise over the past two years, and his current popularity on the market.  “I came to this by simply working,” Murillo says. “It’s the market, and that has nothing to do with me. I’m just trying to keep things normal. I’ve had to live below my means for so long that I’m keeping it that way.” (more…)

Ed Ruscha will be featured as part of the High Line Art program’s ongoing commission series this summer, installing his 1977 piece that reads “Honey, I Twisted Through More Damn Traffic Today,” at 10th and West 22nd.  “It has an intimate quality and is a piece you can experience by just walking by it,” said Cecilia Alemani, director of High Line Art.  The piece will go on view May 6th, and is Ruscha’s first ever public art installation in New York.  (more…)

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Gaugin’s travels to French Polynesia later in his life, and his search “for the childhood of mankind,” a series of travels covered in MoMA’s current show Gaugin: Metamorphoses, curated by Starr Figura, with assistance from Lotte Johnson. (more…)

Photographer Collier Schorr is profiled in the New York Times this week, following the opening of her newest show at 303 earlier this month.  “I don’t know what to do until I meet them,” Schorr says of engaging with the models she shoots. “Who are you? I’m going to take that picture.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal spotlights Jane McSweeney as its “Donor of the Day” in a recent article, tracing her positions on the MoMA film board, the Board of Directors for MoMA Ps1, and her work with the Art Production Fund.  “I literally breathe deeper when I’m around art,” said Ms. McSweeney. “It makes me feel that there are great possibilities on the earth.” (more…)

The newest commission for the Sculpture Committee of the Fund for Park Avenue are now on view for the 2014 season, a series of swirling, ambitious sculptures by Alice Aycock.  “The notion is that there is this big wind that moves up and down the avenue, and that it makes the forms or blows the forms and leaves it in its wake,” said the artist. (more…)

New York Magazine has published a detailed summary of the current situation at Sotheby’s, including the departure of longtime auctioneer Tobias Meyer, the friction between Daniel Loeb and Sotheby’s head Bill Ruprecht, and most notably, Loeb’s often incisive perspective on dealing with companies he wants to turn around.  “Sometimes a town hanging is useful,” Loeb once told Bloomberg Markets, “to establish my reputation for future dealings with unscrupulous CEOs.”  (more…)

Emmanuel Perrotin is profiled in W Magazine this month, underlining the gallerist’s penchant for risk-taking, and his adventurous spirit in regards to his relationship with his artists.  “There are a lot of dealers in Europe who just want to complain,” Perrotin says. “I’m rather positive and energetic. But it’s true that the bigger you get, the more you start to worry and to ask yourself how well you’re really doing.” (more…)

Los Angeles Collectors Jane and Marc Nathanson have announced that they will auction three works from their collection at Sotheby’s May 14th auction in New York, among them Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #20, estimated between $9 million and $12 million. “We’re trying to fine-tune our collection as we’re getting older,” Mr. Nathanson said, continuing on to say that the works for sale  “don’t really fit in” with their interests in pop art. (more…)

A recent New York Times article traces the rising rents of the Industry City business incubator and studios, and the resulting exodus of artists a recent rent hike at the Red Hook building has caused.  Red Hook is the most recent in a string of rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, where artists are continually being driven out.  “All I can see is going further out, then having to move again,” said 73-year old painter Richard Castellana. “I just can’t take it anymore.” (more…)

Kazuo Shiraga, via Art Observed

As dealers wrap their final sales today, and begin wrapping up their works for the trip home, the bustle of Armory Week is drawing to a close in NewYork City.  Strong sales seemed to be the theme of the week, with galleries across the board reporting impressive figures and percentages for their fair offerings, with some galleries selling out of their full selection of pieces before the fair closed the doors on its VIP preview on March 5th.

Xu Qu, via Art Observed (more…)

Outside the Park Ave Armory, via Art Observed

Tucked away at the Park Avenue Armory uptown, the ADAA’s annual Art Show offers a more subdued fair experience versus the immense proceedings of the Armory Show across town.  With less than half the number of participating galleries, and a more focused exhibition policy leaning towards solo artists and thematic presentations, the fair is a strong counterpart to the Armory, one that invites a lingering, open browsing experience below the Armory’s softly lit drill hall.

Pablo Picasso, Tête de Jeune Fille, via Art Observed (more…)

The Independent Art Fair (Installation View), all photos via Elene Damenia Art Observed

The Independent Art Fair opened its doors last evening for its vernissage, welcoming collectors and press to the increasingly popular fair at Chelsea’s Center 548 on 22nd Street.  With a markedly looser atmosphere, and a closely selected group of 50 galleries and non-profits, the Independent has moved into a desirable niche position between the bigger fairs uptown, and the list of exhibitors made this more than apparent.  Big names dotted the floors of the space, with Gavin Brown’s Enterprise returning to the fair, alongside Untitled, Balice Hertling and Michael Werner, all of which brought first-class works to the sale.

Andra Ursuta at Ramiken Crucible, via Art Observed (more…)

Chuck Close is in the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing his recently renovated apartment in the East Village.  Close bought the apartment in 2011, and has installed a number of works from his collection, as well as painting the walls a bright red, inspired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  “All artworks that interest me are constructed,” he says.  “They don’t have to be massive works. They just have to engage me.” (more…)

Margaret Lee at Jack Hanley (Installation View), via Art Observed

Currently on view, Closer to right than wrong/ Closer to wrong than right is Margaret Lee’s second solo show at Jack Hanley Gallery. For the exhibition, Lee—co-founder of the Lower East Side gallery 47 Canal, an arbiter of art-world cool—has assembled a showroom of sorts, featuring an array of furniture-like pieces festooned with a uniform black and white Dalmatian print. While Lee’s previous work frequently dealt in a brash take on domestic objects, such as eggplant or cucumber-shaped telephones, the tone of the current exhibition is comparatively subdued. A tongue-in-cheek minimalism prevails, with polka dots turning the installation’s assorted objects—a chair, a lamp, a side table, and even a painting on the wall—into the sort of kitsch that undermines what could otherwise be mistaken as a serious design sensibility.

Margaret Lee at Jack Hanley (Installation View), via Art Observed (more…)

Bjarne Melgaarde, via Art Observed

Plurality suits the Whitney Biennial.  It’s long embraced the diffuse narratives and varied identities of a nation as broad and intricate as the United States, and this year is no different, with 103 participants (both artists and several collectives) from around the country.  But the 2014 event, and the last to take place in the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer-designed space on Madison and 75th, has taken this interest in the varied artistic practices and themes dominating the American contemporary, and opened it to even wider dialogues, welcoming three separate curators (Michelle Grabner, Anthony Elms and Stuart Comer) with varying backgrounds to each select one floor of the museum, and explore their own particular concerns.  The result is a set of three almost completely separate thematic projects, each of which leaves itself open to dialogue with the floors nearby.

Works by John Mason, via Art Observed (more…)

Outside the 2014 Armory Show, via Art Observed

The doors of The Armory Show opened this morning for its VIP preview, welcoming collectors and press from around the world to Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s West Side.  This year, the fair welcomes 205 galleries to its annual selling event, down again from last year’s 214 in what seems to be a running trend to trim the fat at the larger fairs worldwide.

Armory Show (Installation View), via Art Observed (more…)

Aki Sasamoto, Sunny in the Furnace, via Aki Sasamoto

Late this week, amid the hustle and bustle of Armory Week in New York, The Kitchen will open artist Aki Sasamoto’s newest performance, Sunny in the Furnace, running from March 6th to the 8th in the organization’s theatre space.  Incorporating Sasamoto’s playful, intricate series of object-oriented encounters and reflections, the work will see her expand her practice onto a larger scale, incorporating the work of fellow artists Sam Ekwurtzel, Jessica Weinstein, Pau Atela, and Madeline Best, as well as live music by percussionist John Bollinger. taking Sasamoto’s recurring focus on memory and material to new levels of complexity.

Aki spoke with Art Observed this past week to preview her show, and talk a bit about her personal creative process. (more…)

Outside last year’s Armory show, via Art Observed

As March rolls into New York, so too does the art world, as the city prepares for the 2014 edition of Armory Week, capped by The Armory Show on Piers 92 and 94 of Manhattan’s West Side, and complemented by a series of additional events, fairs and openings around the city.

Serge Alain Nitegeka, Exterior I: Studio Study I (2013), via The Armory Show (more…)

ArtNews has published a profile on Michelle Grabner, the sculptor and curator tapped to curate this year’s Whitney Biennial.  “One of the interesting things about including an artist is that they really understand process from within, and I think that affects how Michelle approaches the works of art she selects and the exhibition itself,” says Whitney chief curator Donna De Salvo. “She has been a curator at a pioneering gallery, but also she is incredibly well published and has engagement with artists across the country. A mix of all those aspects were needed for participation in the Biennial.” (more…)