Josh Kolbo, Untitled (2013), all photos via Emily Heinz for Art Observed

There was a vibrant buzz around Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea as one of the gallery’s smaller exhibition space filled in for the opening of the group show Fixed Variable, featuring the work of Lucas Blalock, Ethan Greenbaum, John Houck, Matt Keegan, Josh Kolbo, Kate Steciw, Chris Wiley and Letha Wilson, and examining the relationship between the nature of the photograph, the nature of the object, and the intersection between the two.

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Tim Barber, Relations (Installation View), via Art Observed

In his most recent body of work, Tim Barber captures everyday moments and splits them open to reveal the complex interactions within. On display at Capricious 88, Relations invites the viewer to relate to the universality of the seemingly unrelated, yet similarly impactful, images.

Tim Barber, Relations courtesy Capricious (more…)

Andreas Gursky, Alba (1989), C-Print, Diasec, 87 x 108 7/8 x 2 3/8 inches (framed), Copyright: Andreas Gursky / DACS, 2014, Courtesy Sprüth Magers Berlin London

On view at Sprüth Magers London is an exhibition of important early landscapes from German photographer Andreas Gursky, created between the late 1980s and early 1990s. The photos were taken before Gursky began exploring the use of digital photography, and are simple in form and content, often titled after the location where they were taken. The exhibition will continue through June 21st.

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Hanna Liden, Let it Go (2014), all images courtesy of the artist and Maccarone, New York

Currently on display at Maccarone in New York is a group of new photographic works by Swedish artist Hanna Liden. Entitled I hope these ruin a perfectly bad day, the series of still life photos repurpose her urban leitmotifs as makeshift vases for brightly colored flowers. The exhibition will continue through June 21, 2014.

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Nan Goldin, Veils (2011-14), all images courtesy Gagosian Gallery

On view at Gagosian Rome is a unique exhibition of works by American photographer Nan Goldin. Entitled Scopophilia, referring to the Greek word that means “love of looking,” or, more specifically, an erotic pleasure that comes from looking at images of the body, the works focus on themes of sex, violence, rapture, despair, and the blurring of gender.

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Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Woman and daughter with makeup) from Kitchen Table Series(1990), all images courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim

Documenting the landmark work of video maker, photographer, spoken word poet and textile artist Carrie Mae Weems, The Guggenheim is currently presenting a body of work spanning over thirty years in the artist’s career, including a number of the artist’s most significant and iconic works.

Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography (Installation View) (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing the expanse of his career, his approach to photography, and his taste for viewing other artist’s work, including that of artists from many centuries earlier.  “I’ve always understood looking at other and older art as looking at friends’ work,” Tillmans says. “We’re separated through time, but we’re all dealing with ultimately similar questions.” (more…)

Artist Stan Douglas has unveiled an interactive multimedia application this week at the Tribeca Interactive Festival, titled Circa 1948, which allows users to move through and physically interact with the architectural spaces of post-war Vancouver.  “It’s not a game,” Douglas says. “It’s a narrative. There’s no task: you’re not told to find this, kill that. There’s no beginning, middle or end – you’re sort of always in the middle. But that’s always the best part of a novel, say: not the beginning or the end. In the middle you know what’s going on.” (more…)

Leigh Ledare, An Invitation: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 (2012) Courtesy of Mitchell-Innes & Nash

On view through April 26th at Mitchell-Innes & Nash is Leigh Ledare’s new exhibition, articulating socially issues commonly held as taboo or obscene through a wide spectrum of mediums including archival materials, text, film and photography. Famous for his photography series, Pretend You’re Actually Alive, in which he photographed his mother through an arguably sexualized gaze, Ledare aims to examine the set perception on the photographer as a subject and the model as an object. (more…)

Laurie Simmons, How We See/Look 1/Julia (2014)

Currently on at Salon 94 Bowery is an exhibition of new photos by Laurie Simmons, based on her research on a subgenre of Japanese cosplay called “Kigurumi,” in which characters called “Dollers” or “Kiggers” change their identities, often flipping genders or becoming cartoon characters, by wearing onesie spandex suits and cartoonish masks.

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Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (2010), all images courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Painter Rudolf Stingel is currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, presenting an exhibition of the artist’s monumental landscapes. Although several of the works were exhibited in 2010 in Berlin at the Neue Nationalgalerie, this exhibition at Gagosian New York represents their U.S. premier.

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Damien Loeb, Tycho (2013), via Acquavella

Acquavella is currently showing a rare exhibition of new works by painter Damien Loeb,  featuring a series of paintings and sketches created over the past year, and focusing on Planet Earth’s unique position in the solar system.  Titled SOL-D, the series of oil paintings and sketches take their inspiration from a series of photographs Loeb made over the past decade, digital images captured on airplane flights, stargazing, and satellite images that document the celestial atmospheres of Earth and beyond. (more…)

Following the resolution of his court case against photographer Patrick Cariou, Richard Prince’s Canal Series will return to Gagosian Gallery this May.  The last showing of the works, in 2008, generated more than $10 million in sales, and Larry Gagosian will look to achieve high sales again.  “Because of the litigation, everything was frozen,” Gagosian said in a telephone interview. “The art had to be put in storage. We couldn’t sell the catalog. But now that the air has cleared, it seemed like a good moment to take another look at the work.” (more…)

The British Pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale will spotlight the work of Sarah Lucas, the BBC reports.  “Having consistently pushed the limits of her practice, there’s a sense that Lucas – seemingly more active than ever – is coming into her own,” says Gregor Muir, executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and a member of the selection committee. (more…)

Photographer Nan Goldin is profiled in The Guardian this week, as the artist prepares for the release of her new book, Eden and After.  Reviewing the impact of her early series The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Goldin discusses ties between her work and the ubiquitous nightlife photography present on Instagram today.   “Most of that stuff is so easy and lacking in any kind of emotional depth or context,” she says. “Nowadays, people forget how radical my work was when it first appeared. Nobody else was doing what I did.” (more…)

Brendan Fowler, (That) hat on bedspread (countries of origin:my deposition was postponed and Matt’s took all day) (2014), via Half Gallery

Brendan Fowler’s new works, currently on view at Half Gallery uptown, are nothing if not elusive.  The show, on view last month at Los Angeles’s LAXArt, to New York as a follow-up of sorts to the last showing of photographic works by the artist at MoMA’s survey of new photography late last year (a series of Fowler’s highly-popular crash works).  Here, Fowler seems more interested in the image itself, rather than the potentials for combination and assemblage of the modern image.  The works are created entirely using a commercial grade embroidery machine and thread, leaving layered, textured works that offer a striking commentary on the photographic image. (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…)

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

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Thomas Struth, Ride, Anaheim, California (2013), via Marian Goodman

German Thomas Struth is presenting a series of new photos this month at Marian Goodman’s New York gallery space, presenting a series of recent works, among which are 5 large format photos made at Disneyland, part of a recent series the 59-year old photographer is currently working on.

Thomas Struth, Mountain, Anaheim, California, (2013) via Marian Goodman (more…)

Alex Prager, Crowd # 9 (Sunset), Courtesy of Lehmann Maupin

With a double show at Lehmann Maupin’s New York galleries, entitled Face in the Crowd, and another exhibition in Corcoran’s DC gallery, photographer Alex Prager has emerged from Los Angeles to take up major art world real estate this winter. Prager’s work is instantly recognizable, a savvy blend of mid-century nostalgia repackaged for our current moment, and it seems the rest of the fashion and art world have finally caught up with her. (more…)

In partnership with Creative Time Reports, Trevor Paglen and The Intercept have embarked on a project to illustrate and visualize the various surveillance structures and institutions currently active in the United States.  Providing images of the headquarters for the largest organizations in the U.S. surveillance network, Paglen is seeking to provide a tangible visual signature for these often abstracted institutions.  “I hope these images first of all will be helpful for people to wrap their heads around what some of these agencies are, to point to them and acknowledge that they exist, that they’re doing work,” Paglen says.  “Beyond that I hope that they can contribute to a wider cultural vocabulary that we can use to try and see these institutions, to understand them and the effect they have on the society around them.” (more…)

Stan Douglas, Luanda-Kinshasa (Installation view), all images courtesy David Zwirmer

Currently on view at David Zwirmer’s 533 West 19th Street location is the debut of a new film by Stan Douglas entitled Luanda-Kinhshasa, featuring a reconstruction of the famed Columbia 30th Street studio, where some of the most iconic recordings of the twentieth century were originally produced. The film will be on view at the gallery through February 22, 2014.

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Artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s budding practice as an architect is profiled in a recent article by The Wall Street Journal, noting the artist’s published guide to museum architecture, his work renovating and constructing spaces, and his newly conceived Odawara Art Foundation museum, part of which juts out from a cliff to view the Pacific Ocean, and tactfully incorporates its surroundings into its design.  “This is related to memories of ancient culture of the human civilization,” says Sugimoto. (more…)

Sophie Calle, Le Major Davel (1994), via Galerie Perrotin

For her newest exhibition at Galerie Perrotin, Sophie Calle returns to themes of absence and presence, memory and “the real” through the exploration of three situations in which iconic artworks were stolen or destroyed, and the subtle emotional and structural fallout caused by the disappearance of iconic works by Rembrandt, Degas, and others.

Sophie Calle, Dérobés (Installation View), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)