HWKN’s winning architecture project “Wendy” debuted today at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. The spiky, nylon based structure “tests how far the boundaries of architecture can expand to create ecological and social effect…During the summer of 2012, Wendy will clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road.”
Fragment of Ru Ware pottery piece from Song Dynasty; Photos by Rachel Willis for Art Observed unless otherwise noted
Brice Marden: New Paintings is currently on display at two of the Matthew Marks Gallery locations in the Chelsea district of New York. 502 West 22nd Street, the smaller of the two galleries, houses Ru Ware Project while the remainder of the New Paintings exhibition is being shown at the 526 address down the street. Both parts of the show were made as individual responses to two specific trips that Marden took overseas; one to China and the other to Greece. The aesthetic of the show epitomizes Marden’s interest in historical antiquities and how they relate to contemporary art, particularly abstraction.
All photos on site for Art Observed by Lisa Marsova
On June 9th White Columns in the West Village debuted DO YOUR THING, a group show curated by New York based DJs Thomas Bullock and Eric Duncan (also known as RUB N TUG). Bullock and Duncan have been regular fixtures on the downtown scene for over ten years and and are known for not only their art world presence but also for throwing a series parties together.
‬The dates of the showing of Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” in New York are released. The overwhelmingly popular mash-up video work will screen for free at the Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on Broadway from July 13 to August 1.
‬Andrea Rosen Gallery to expand on 24th Street, Chelsea to a new venue named Gallery 2. “We’ll begin in September with an artist whom I can’t name just yet. It will be the artist’s first solo show in New York,” says Rosen.
‬Photographer Nan Goldin awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for lifetime achievement in the arts. As Luc Sante chairman of the selection committee remarks, Goldin created a medium “halfway between still photography and cinema.”
Top collector Dakis Joannou’s DESTE foundation debuts its “destefashioncollection” exhibition in the window displays at Barneys New York. “We have incredible customers who come from the art world…that’s a big part of our customer base. To have that communication…is part of our uniqueness,” says Barneys CEO Mark Lee.
Live painting of models Ilva Heitmann and Maciej Markowicz by Marcy Rosewater for “People and Places”
This past weekend, Arts in Bushwick organized the 6th annual Bushwick Open Studios festival. Since its start in 2007, BOS has shared an expansive community of art with the public in hopes of promoting interaction and discussion. This year there were over 500 participants, ranging in scale from multi-floor gallery spaces, street art, pop-up studios and personal apartments.
Oliver Warden’s “Untitled Box 2.0″ installation resembles a plain mirror at first, but reveals a live man inside (the artist) as soon as viewers flick on the box’s light switch. Photos for Art Observed by Elene Damenia and Lisa Marsova
‬High-profile artists such as Jeff Koons invited to teach for a day at NYC public schools as part of Visual Arts Appreciation Week, started by the nonprofit Studio in a School.
All photos by Lisa Marsova for Art Observed.
Canadian artist Bruce LaBruce has done extensive work in photography and film, with world premiers at such festivals as Sundance. He is perhaps best known for his erotic zombie content as seen in his 2010 film L.A. Zombie and 2009 solo show “Untitled Hardcore Zombie Project”, which opened at Peres Projects in Los Angeles. His most recent solo exhibit was “Obscenity” at Madrid’s La Fresh Gallery this past February. Yesterday evening he showed both his print and live work at The Hole gallery in New York City. His book signing for the new release of Bruce(X)ploitation was accompanied by a bloodied and fairly jarring performance piece, featuring the assault of a prisoner by two suited army men.
‬The Cy Twombly foundation has paid $27.75 million for a 25-foot-wide Beaux Arts mansion near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with plans to convert it into a museum dedicated to his work. Twombly was “a towering figure in American art. It is only fitting that there should be a permanent space in New York dedicated to his achievements,” says Nicola Del Roscio, foundation president.
‬Larry Gagosian enlists architect Annabelle Selldorf to help open a café including new gallery space at his flagship Gagosian Gallery on 980 Madison Avenue.
The Dia Art Foundation hires architect Roger Duffy to construct its new Chelsea home, “We want to make sure that 22nd Street will re-engage with new generations of artists,” says Dia’s director Philippe Vergne.
Charles Tennant (1978) by Robert Mapplethorpe, via Sean Kelly Gallery
Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is “50 Americans”, an exhibition presenting fifty works by the renowned American artist Robert Mapplethorpe (1946- 1989). Fifty Americans, each from a different state in the country and some of whom were not yet familiar with the artist’s work, were invited to choose an artwork by the legendary photographer out of a selection of 2,000 images. Each participant revealed why he or she found each work to be particularly meaningful in a text box accompanying the piece. “50 Americans” is an exhibition which offers a fresh view of Mapplethorpe’s work and his practice while also revealing the tastes of the everyday Americans who acted as the curators.
Nick Marden (1980) by Robert Mapplethorpe, via Sean Kelly Gallery
More images and text after the jump….
–>
Aerial short of Randall’s Island, via The Art Newspaper
Frieze, the hallmark London contemporary art fair which has steadily built itself up since 2003, today announced its expansion to New York where it will host a fair in Randall’s Island Park. Frieze Art Fair will open on May 2nd for VIPs, with the public gaining access between May 3rd and 6th.
The fair will coincide with the city’s 2012 contemporary art auctions and will be around the same size as its London counterpart, with roughly170 galleries from 33 countries participating. Notably, the fair fall outside of the traditional art fair week in March, anchored by the Armory Show. This may prompt some galleries to re-evaluate which fairs they will participate in. Similarly, the timing of Frieze’s New York fair may affect galleries who may have opted for Art Basel in June.
more story after the jump…
Kazimir Malevich, Rectangle and Circle (1915). Via ibiblio
Through a collaboration with the heirs of Kazimir Malevich, the Gagosian Gallery is displaying six of Malevich’s paintings as the centerpiece in their current show, ‘Malevich and the American Legacy.’ Surviving paintings by this trailblazer in geometric abstract art are a rarity, and it is uncommon to see them on display outside of a museum. ‘Malevich and the American Legacy’ affords viewers some intimacy with these influential paintings while displaying works by a sampling of the artists Malevich inspired, including Carl Andre, John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, James Turrell, and Cy Twombly.
More text and images after the jump…
Ed Ruscha, Give Him Anything and He’ll Sign It (1965)
Collector Emily Fisher Landau made a gift of about 400 works of art to the Whitney Museum. Estimated to be worth between $50 and $75 million, the works of almost 100 artists range in date from 1950 to 2006—the earliest being a Robert Rauschenberg photograph of Jasper Johns in his studio, and the latest a 2006 Lisa Yuskavage etching. To commemorate this remarkable donation, the Whitney is showing eighty of the works in an exhibition titled Legacy on the fourth floor of the museum, which was named for Landau in 1995.
More text and images after the jump…
Conrad Shawcross, The Nervous System (Inverted), 2010. Organized and presented by the Pace Gallery. Installed at The Sculpture Garden, 590 Madison Avenue. May 10 – July 10, 2010. Wood, metal, acrylic chord, and mechanical system. Installation dimensions variable. Image via ArtObserved.
Conrad Shawcross: The Nervous System (Inverted) is an evolutionary piece that combines art and invention, a sculpture that completes itself as the audience looks on. At 590 Madison Avenue, New York, 162 multicolored bobbins suspend 50 feet in the air, feeding rope into motorized contraptions. The inconspicuously gradual weaving and intertwining, set against the glassy atrium ceiling, occurs at multiple levels of the piece. The ropes combine in groups of three until one entity remains: a thick, colorfully woven rope that hangs to the floor, where it passes through a pulley and coils finally in a heap. The complex machinery will ultimately produce one sturdy, 1,7000-foot braided rope, which will be cut into pieces and sold at the exhibition’s close.
Conrad Shawcross, The Nervous System (Inverted), 2010.
More text and images after the jump…
This morning ArtObserved attended the official press preview of New York’s latest public art show – Antony Gormley‘s ‘Event Horizon.’ Through August 15, 31 life-size figures cast from the artist’s own body will inhabit the pathways and sidewalks of Madison Square Park, as well as the rooftops of the many architectural treasures that populate New York’s Flatiron district, including the Empire State building. Event Horizon marks Gormley’s public art debut in the US – a milestone for an artist who has created some of the most important public art pieces of our time that include Angel of the North and Another Place in the UK. Antony Gormley originally created Event Horizon for London’s Hayward Gallery in 2007 – the sculptures were installed on bridges, rooftops and streets along the South Bank of London’s Thames River. Event Horizon will run together with Gormley’s Breathing Room II – on show at Sean Kelly Gallery through May 1, 2010. Full coverage of both events will follow shortly.
Antony Gormley introduces his installation this morning in Madison Square Park alongside New York’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg
More images and related links after the jump….
(more…)
