Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (2013), via Peres Projects

Los Angeles-based Alex Israel makes work that seems constantly engaged with his home city, the Californian metropolis that plays home to so many of image-driven outlets of the culture industry.  Borrowing from the high-gloss, high production-value world of the Hollywood studio systems and culture corporations, Israel’s works explore the trappings and conventions of celebrity, perception and fame in the context of a city so actively engaged in the manipulation of each.

Alex Israel, Self-Portraits (Installation View), via Peres Projects (more…)

Vollis Simpson, a self-taught North Carolina artist renowned for his whirligigs, died on Friday at his home after complications from a heart valve replacement.  He was 94.  Simpson was known to scour junkyards for bits to assemble his quirky, wind-powered whirligigs. His pieces have been featured in numerous art museums and exhibitions across the country, including his 55-foot-tall, 45-foot-wide work Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, on permanent display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.  A park in his honor, the Wilson Whirligig Park, will be opening in the fall in the city of Wilson, N.C.

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The Venice Biennale

Every two years, the floating city of Venice floods with with the multitudes of art visitors, customers, gallerists and exhibitions that are all a part of the Venice Biennale. This year, marking the 55^th edition of the world’s largest art fair, sees the continuation of an event that first began in 1896. Between June 1^st and November 24^th over 300,000 visitors will travel to Venice for the expansive installations of exhibitions of work from artists in 88 nations, at both official and fringe sites. Art Observed will be on-site this week, with photos from variety of events around the city.

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The Smithsonian Institution has announced a series of summer closures in order to make up for the current national budget sequester.  Beginning yesterday, the Institute closed several rooms at the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Museum of African Art as it cut back on security and maintenance during the summer.  The measures are scheduled to conclude on September 30th. (more…)

Recognized contemporary artists Ryan Gander and Cory Arcangel have both announced the launch of their own lines of clothing.  Gander’s line is a collaboration with Japanese clothing line A.Four Labs, while Arcangel’s, titled “Arcangel Surfwear” is “all designed for comfortably surfing…. the web of course,” says a project manager. (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…)

Beginning May 1st, The Smithsonian Institution will initiate rolling cuts to the hours of certain museum institutions, and will close other galleries to compensate for the sequestration budget cuts.  The cuts, which consisted of a 5% reduction of the total budget, has been handled by scaling back travel and training programs, but museum leaders warn that major sacrifices may be necessary if the reductions remain in place through 2014. (more…)

Russian billionaire Leonid Mikhelson has joined the board of trustees at The New Museum, mirroring the increasing number of international members on Museum boards across the U.S.  “As art is thriving in so many centers, it is imperative to have an active group of supporters with diverse perspectives and deep connections to these communities.”  Said New Museum director Lisa Phillips. (more…)

Miroslaw Balka, The Order of Things (2013), via Gladstone Gallery

Polish sculptor and conceptual artist Miroslaw Balka is currently exhibiting a new sculptural work, titled The Order of Things, at Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea.  Consisting of a towering set of containers and a length of hose, the work creates a continuous flow of water, pumping pitch-black water from one container through the piping, up over the rafters above the tanks, and out into the other tank.  (more…)

The National Gallery in Washington, DC has announced a renovation to its East Building that will add 12,260 square feet of exhibition space, as well as a rooftop sculpture garden.  The new spaces will host a selection of modern art from the Gallery’s collection, including a room potentially dedicated to Mark Rothko.  “This gift to the nation by these generous donors will enable us to exhibit more art from our ever-growing modern collection in spaces that will be at once spacious, airy and contemplative.”  said director Earl A. Powell. (more…)

Financier and art collector Richard Hollander has donated a large block of photographs by the prominent photographer Edward Steichen to a trio of U.S. museums, ensuring that the artist’s work will be available to the public across the United States.  The photographs were purchased at directly from Steichen’s estate, and will be given to the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Block Museum in Chicago.  “I’ve gotten the bug,” Hollander said. “Now I want to share my vision.” (more…)

The National Museum of China has opened a new exhibition, featuring a large collection of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Earth, Sea and Sky: Nature in Western Art is the first large-scale collaboration between the two major arts institutions, and pulls from the American museum’s vast collection.  “Never before has an exhibition of this scope and theme, drawn entirely from the Met’s holdings, traveled to China.” Says Met director Thomas Campbell. (more…)

A small statuette stolen in 1901 from the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai, France has been discovered and returned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The statue’s origins were uncovered during a routine history check, and was promptly handed back to the French institution.  “We don’t want to hold onto, nor do we have any business holding onto, stolen objects,” says the MFA’s full-time provenance researcher, Victoria Reed. (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…)

A recurring theme of late for American museums has been that of repatriation, with several major institutions announcing that they will return ancient works to foreign countries claiming that the works were theirs.  However, many critics and museum employees posit that these claims on ancient art are often little more than extortion, and that the claims do little more than starve the cultural offering of museums and institutions around the globe, all while ignoring key issues of theft and looting.  “Has any of this affected the real evil, which is looting?” asks Stephen Urice, a cultural property lawyer at the University of Miami. “From what I see, it’s getting worse.” (more…)

Mr. – Give Me Your Wings – Think Different (2012), Courtesy Lehmann Maupin

Japanese artist Mr. has a remarkable ability for blurring the lines of contemporary culture.  Using the forms and imagery of the potent manga, otaku and kawaii subcultures of his homeland, the artist turns the lens towards the Japanese identity, highlighting what these icons say about the national culture.  On now, Lehmann Maupin gallery in New York City is presenting a large-scale installation by the artist that incorporates these works into a broad statement on the the emotionally frustrated climate of Japan after a year of economic stagnation and natural disaster. (more…)