Billed as the world’s largest art exhibition, the newly announced Art Everywhere project will turn billboards and poster sites around the United Kingdom into exhibition spaces for works from the national collection.  The project is curated in part by the British public, who will vote on their favorite works from a curated shortlist.  Damien Hirst has offered a work for exhibition, and is a vocal supporter of the project.  “Art is for everyone, and everyone who has access to it will benefit from it. This project is amazing and gives the public a voice and an opportunity to choose what they want to see on their streets.“  He says. (more…)

The Hirshhorn Museum’s proposed “Seasonal Inflatable Sculpture Project,” informally referred to as “the Bubble,” has been officially decided against, after years of debate and wrangling over its installation on the museum’s property on the National Mall.  The news comes shortly after Hirshhorn director Richard Koshalek announced his decision to resign after a split vote on the Bubble several weeks ago.  “If the board were more together and if we were seeing more results of that, then we might have made a different decision,” Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin said. “Because it’s divided, it makes it hard to move forward.” (more…)

British artist David Shrigley has chosen an unlikely subject for his sculptural commission outside the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich: Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee, Bubbles.  Standing near a fan monument to Jackson, Shrigley’s sculpture will aim to bring attention to Bubbles’s currently unfunded care in Florida. “Michael Jackson’s will made no provision for the care of Bubbles, yet the Estate of Michael Jackson still claims ownership of him. It costs $20,000 US a year to care for each of the 30 apes at the sanctuary and whilst some Michael Jackson fans have donated money to the cause there is still a massive shortfall in funding. Apes live almost as long as humans, so the cost of lifetime care for the apes will run into many millions.”  The press release on the website claims. (more…)

Tracey Emin’s Roman Standard, a single bronze bird mounted atop a 13 foot pole, has been unveiled in New York’s Petrosino Square.  A collaboration between the Art Production Fund, White Cube and Lehmann Maupin, the piece is intended as a point of contemplation.  “Most public sculptures are a symbol of power which I find oppressive and dark,” said Emin. “I wanted something that had a magic and an alchemy, something which would appear and disappear and not dominate.”  (more…)

Nine massive stone sculptures by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone have been installed in Rockefeller center this week, a collaboration between the artist at New York’s Public Art Fund.  Titled Human Nature, the primitivist sculptures each way 17 and 1/2  tons, and were installed by crane.  “My first thought was how big,” said Keith Douglas, managing director for Rockefeller Center. “He was saying ‘huge colossal sculptures,’ and I’m thinking, ‘In comparison to what?’ and multiplying times nine.”  (more…)

Artist Anthony McCall’s ambitious Column project, planned for public installation in the UK city of Merseyside, has been abandoned after being projected to finish late and over budget.  The project has already received over a half a million pounds of public money.  “Of course it is very important to us that we manage the risks associated with our investment of taxpayers’ money. We have monitored the development of Column closely, but in a very small number of cases the price we pay for exciting ideas is that the risk doesn’t pay off.”  Said Arts Council executive Laura Dyer. (more…)

Beginning April 25th, the Art Production Fund will unveil a series of murals on the steel shutters of local businesses on The Bowery in New York.  Titled “After Hours 2: Murals on the Bowery,” the project has welcomed a number of artists, including Laura Owens, Adam Pendleton, Dana Schutz and many more to create works only seen when the businesses close for the night.  “They’re all site-specific, and they all relate to the neighborhood,” says APF co-founder Yvonne Force Villareal. (more…)

For the launch of Lily Cole’s television show Art Matters, on British television channel Sky Arts, the actress and model will interview sculptor Antony Gormley, visiting his studio as well as traveling to the location of some of his most famous public works.  The show will also feature a selection of interviews with curators and critics on Gormley’s practice. (more…)

Leo Villareal, The Bay Lights (2013) Courtesy of The Bay Lights; Photography Lucas Saugen

The work of Leo Villareal often operates on grand scales, using bright LED lights to accent and underline the inherent characteristics of human structures around the world.  Frequently using coded algorithms to create complex, shifting patters of light on buildings, walls, and other constructions, his infinite variations of light offer new ways of seeing and viewing already present architectures.

Following up on a number of massively successful public projects (including his popular “Buckyball” installation at Madison Square Park in New York), Villarreal has unveiled his largest installation to date: a string of LED lights running the length of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.  TitledThe Bay Lights, his work highlights the iconic dimensions of the bridge, and projecting its stature into the night sky of the San Francisco Bay.

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Artist Doug Aitken is currently preparing to unveil a “digital land artwork” at the Seattle Art Museum.  Titled Mirror, the work consists of thin strips of LED lights and digital video of Seattle and the surrounding regions, and will be on view for the public beginning on March 24th.  “Land art from the 1960s and 1970s exists in remote locations. I was interested in creating something very urban,” Aitken says.  (more…)

The installation of two new outdoor art projects are underway in New York, and set to open early next week.  Titled “No Limits” and “Topsy Turvy,” the works share an interest in reevaluating and reinterpreting the New York skyline; “No Limits” (by Alexandre Arrechea) through its bizarre re-imaginings of iconic buildings, and “Topsy Turvy” (by Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder) through its camera obscura depiction of its surroundings in Madison Square Park.   (more…)

In the face of a $40 Million cut as a result of Congress’s budget stalemate, the Smithsonian Museums are prepared to maintain their normal hours, vowing to find their way around the cuts in more creative ways.  The museums will absorb the cuts through delays in maintenance and construction, as well as other internal adjustments.  “We think we have a plan that allows us to squeak through to the end of this fiscal year. But we can’t sustain this,” Said Dennis Kelly, Director of the National Zoo. “At the end of the fiscal year, if we’re still in this mode, the entire Smithsonian is going to have to rethink all of our priorities.” (more…)

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…)

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.

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In a bid for the attention of the international arts community, the city of Munich has partnered with artists Elmgreen & Dragset for a year-long series of public art installations across the Bavarian capital.  “We hope the art will become a reason for people to come to Munich,” says Michael Elmgreen, one half of the duo. “And that by placing different artworks throughout the city, it will encourage them to explore the whole place. It’s an optimistic, maybe naive hope to get people into the streets again.” (more…)

A $13 million public art project in Atlantic City, NJ called “Artlantic,” in a 7 acre lot just off the Boardwalk in town will be inaugurated on Friday. “Artlantic: wonder,” is the two-site first phase of the project, which was unaffected by Hurricane Sandy. One component of the installation is a sculpture by Kiki Smith, “Her” (2003), which will be installed in a “red garden,” also designed by the artist, and will change with the seasons. (more…)

Barbara Kruger – Belief + Doubt (2012), Hirshorn Museum

Descending the stairs into the basement of the Hirshorn Museum in Washington, DC, visitors are greeted with a towering series of sharp, incisive phrases: “Belief + Doubt = Sanity,” “Forget Every Thing,” “Plenty Should Be Enough,” all spelled out on the walls and floors in red, black, and white.  These are the words of media artist and provocateur Barbara Kruger, who rose to prominence with her sharp critiques of consumer culture.

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Artist Paul Ramírez Jonas at the Key to the City kiosk in Times Square – all images by Lucy Kissel for ArtObserved

Together with the public arts organization Creative Time, New York-based artist Paul Ramírez Jonas has reinvented the civic honor of bestowing a “Key to the City” for one of the summer’s most exciting public art programs. Through June 27, 25,000 custom-made keys will be exchanged between everyday citizens in a bestowal ceremony at the Key to the City kiosk located at the heart of Times Square – catapulting a citywide exploration of secret doors, community gardens, graveyards and hidden deposit boxes at over 20 sites throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Mayor Bloomberg – who normally awards the ceremonial key to distinguished heroes and esteemed visitors – received the first one yesterday. “Every day, millions of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world interact with one another in every neighborhood” Bloomberg said, noting how the project “celebrates those interactions by helping bring a tradition typically reserved for special occasions to our everyday lives. The keys….will provide New Yorkers with a new way to experience some of our cultural organizations, city landmarks and small businesses.” Participants are encouraged to share their photos of the project on the Key to the City Flickr Page – a special prize from DKNY and a Creative Time book will be awarded to every person who takes a photo of themselves at all of the sites. Information on public hours, a map of the various sites and how to get to the kiosk can be found on the Key to the City website.

More images and a round-up of related links after the jump….
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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….
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