David Hockney, The Jugglers, June 24th 2012 (detail), (2012), © David Hockney, Via Hockney Pictures and Pace Gallery

The Jugglers, June 24th 2012 (2012), the U.S. premiere of artist David Hockney’s first video installation, presents a panorama of bright color and whirling objects, tinged with mordant humor. In a darkened room on the second floor of the Whitney, the viewer will find a bare theater with a single long bench and eighteen screens arranged in a grid. The screens switch on to reveal a composition of red and blue horizontal blocks almost as flat as Hockney’s early acrylics. Also bearing similarities to his Polaroid collages, Hockney has chosen to create a fractured composition using video to achieve the same effect by combining feeds from eighteen different cameras mounted in his Yorkshire studio on a sunny day. The light is even and saturates the space, permitting no highlights or shadows, and without figures, the red and blue studio looks relatively seamless on the screen. (more…)

German television station ikono has announced a 3 week, 24/7 video art festival, streaming on their channel and online next month.  The On Air Art Festival will begin September 6th, and will feature work by Bill Viola, Alfredo Jaar, William Kentridge, and A.K. Dolven, among others.  “I thought why not achieve for the arts with TV as radio has been achieving for music? Why not use this mass medium for bringing the entire world of arts into the homes of an international public? ” Says station founder Elizabeth Markevitch. (more…)

The Times Square Alliance has announced the next selection for its Midnight Moment series, which gives over the billboards in Times Square to video work from a variety of artists each night from 11:57pm to midnight.  This August, the series will welcome Jack Goldstein’s The Jump, coinciding with his ongoing retrospective at the Jewish Museum.  “Digitally-remastered for our contemporary screens, this seminal work references the dynamic history of an artist’s role in leading sign technology, once again drawing attention to the cutting-edge technology and innovation showcased nightly on Times Square’s signs,” said TSA director of public art Sherry Dobbin. (more…)

“Picasso Baby,” the final cut of rapper Jay Z’s marathon performance at Pace Gallery earlier this month, will premiere this Friday on HBO.  Directed by music video veteran Mark Romanek, the film will document the 6 hour performance, which included cameos and interactions with Marina Abramovic and Alan Cumming, among many more.  “Concerts are pretty much performance art,” Jay Z says, “but with this smaller venue you can get a bit more intimate.  You can feel the energy of the people.” (more…)

Paul and Damon McCarthy, Rebel Dabble Babble (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth

Hauser and Wirth, continuing its ongoing focus on California artist Paul McCarthy, is currently presenting a new video and sculptural installation by the artist, titled Rebel Dabble Babble.  Taking the real life relationships between Nick Ray, James Dean (played by James Franco) and Natalie Wood during the making of Rebel Without a Cause as the inspiration for the work, McCarthy and his son Damon have created an immersive, savagely warped exploration into the film, its creation, and the decaying image of Americana that it sought to depict, while challenging the interplay between a cultural artifact and its production.

Paul and Damon McCarthy, Rebel Dabble Babble (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth

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Laurel Nakadate, Portland, Oregon #1 (2012), via Leslie Tonkonow

Strangers and Relations is a two-part project by American photographer and filmmaker Laurel Nakadate, in which the artist photographs strangers she connected with through the Internet, and arranged to meet in 31 different states within the US. and parts of Europe. The exhibition is being held at Leslie Tonkonow in New York City. (more…)

Bill Viola, Chapel of Frustrated Actions and Futile Gestures (Detail) (2013), via Blain Southern

Several new works by American video artist Bill Viola are currently being hosted by the Blain Southern gallery in London through July 27. Viola is considered a leading voice in the field of New Media, and is known for the existential and essentialist themes that surface in his work. Drawing from Buddhist, Zen, and mystical tradition, Viola approaches human mortality and spirit through video, sound and digital installation.  (more…)

Paul McCarthy’s WS has become the Park Avenue Armory’s second most well-attended show at the venue’s history, having already drawn 11,000 visitors since its opening last month.  The work, already gaining major press for its challenging subject matter, runs until August 4th.  “There’s a much narrower potential audience for this than for most things we’ve done before,” says Armory President Rebecca Robertson, “so I think the attendance we’re seeing is very strong.” (more…)

Filmmaker Jem Cohen’s recently opened Museum Hours has garnished considerable attention, setting a story of friendship and art within Vienna’s Kunsthistoriches Museum.  “The use of the Kunsthistorisches is heartfelt and also very funny,” Says film critic Christoph Huber, “a slice of everyday life that I hardly see covered in my national cinema.” (more…)

James Franco, Psycho Nacirema, (still) (2013), courtesy Pace London

On view at Pace London is an exhibition of works by American actor James Franco, presented by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon entitled Psycho Nacirema. The exhibition, which marks Franco’s first major gallery exhibition in the United Kingdom, continues Franco’s intriguing explorations of celebrity, cultural symbols, and obsession.

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Paul McCarthy, WS (2013), via Park Avenue Armory

There’s a lot that can be said about Paul McCarthy’s WS installation, which opened this week at the Park Avenue Armory in upper Manhattan.  One could note the full spectrum of sexual atrocities committed on-screen during his numerous filmic works, or the bizarre references to Walt Disney and his fantastic empire of entertainment, or even to the prosthetic noses he seems to put on all his characters of late.  No matter the line of discussion, McCarthy’s show, presented by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and Armory artistic director Alex Poots, is a dizzying and difficult immersion into McCarthy’s powerful body of work.

Paul McCarthy, WS (2013), via Park Avenue Armory”

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Los Carpinteros, Tomates (2013), via Sean Kelly

Cuban artist collective Los Carpinteros are currently presenting a show of new and recent work at Sean Kelly’s Chelsea art space, pulling together a trio of projects that serve as a strong summary of the artists’ complex and multifaceted practice.

Los Carpinteros, Irreversible (Installation View), via Sean Kelly (more…)

Tracey Emin, I Followed you to The Sun (2013) via Lehman Maupin

Tracey Emin, a central member of the Young British Artists (YBA) group, is on-view at the Lehmann Maupin gallery through June 22. The gallery is hosting a multi-location show of Emin’s work, exhibiting in both its Chrystie Street and Chelsea locations, as well as promoting her project Roman Standard, installed in Petrosino Square through September 8. Roman Standard, open for public viewing in the square features a single bronze bird perched on a thirteen-foot pole and welcomes quiet contemplation, something of a departure from Emin’s more well-known, confrontational work.

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Monkeytown, the unique film and performance event presented by Brooklyn artist Montgomery Knott, will stage its first iteration in Manhattan this summer, at Chelsea’s Eyebeam Art and Technology Center.  The event will run for 60 days, beginning tonight, and features a selection of works by Theo Angell, Shana Moulton, Eve Sussman, and more, alongside a dinner and beer or wine pairing.  “It’s strange to be a restaurateur, as I think of this as an art installation. But I’m very aware of service.”  Knott says. (more…)

Mike Kelley, Eternity is a Long Time (Installation View), Photo by Agostino Osio Courtesy Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan All Mike Kelley works © Estate of Mike Kelley  

Running in tandem with this summer’s Venice Biennale, Milan’s HangarBicocca is currently presenting a selection of works by the late American conceptual master Mike Kelley, culling together a series of sculptures, installations and video from the last few years of his life, alongside several of his earlier notable conceptual pieces.

Mike Kelley, Eternity is a Long Time (Installation View), Photo by Agostino Osio Courtesy Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan All Mike Kelley works © Estate of Mike Kelley   (more…)

David Pappaceno, Psychic Birth (Installation view,2013), at English Kills Gallery.

This past weekend, locals, gallerists, collectors and other art enthusiasts flocked to Bushwick, Brooklyn for the seventh-annual Bushwick Open Studios, organized by nonprofit community group Arts in Bushwick. With over 550 spaces participating, many with more artists than one, it was impossible to see everything, even for the most dogged observer. Art turned out at every corner—in galleries, art studios, apartments, bars/restaurants, shops and event spaces— in this rapidly-developing district with a concentration of studios and gallery spaces that rivals Chelsea.

M. Henry Jones, Jim Jarmusch (2013) at Microscope Gallery

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Bashir Makhou, Giardino Occupato (Installation View) (2013) All photos by Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Otherwise Occupied is an exhibition of Palestinian artists organized by al Hoash, a Palestinian art organization based in Jerusalem, as part of the 55^th International Art Exhibition at Venice Biennale 2013. The show is one of 48 Collateral Events hosted around the city. The exhibition features the work of two prominent, internationally renowned artists: Bashir Makhoul and Aissa Deebi. Makhoul is the head of the Winchester School of Art, England, while Deebi is a founding member of ArteEast, a Brooklyn-based organization that supports Middle Eastern art and culture. Both have exhibited work at the Elga Wimmer Gallery in Manhattan, and mainly work with photography. In the past, both have addressed the themes of diaspora, exile and, more broadly, Palestinian politics, unsurprising given that both artists were born inside the 1948 borders of Palestine, and have since immigrated to become citizens of other states. Currently, they are working in the globalized art world, exemplified by Massimiliano Gioni’s Central Pavilion, The Encyclopedic Palace. Nevertheless, the artists still consider themselves Palestinian, underlining the complex political identities of modernity Gioni expressed in his press conference.

Bashir Makhou, Giardino Occupato (Installation View) (2013)

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Ai Weiwei, S.A.C.R.E.D. (Installation View inside steel diorama) (2013)

Since his 2011 detention for alleged tax evasion by the Chinese government, artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei has taken the world by storm, with exhibitions and retrospectives around the world, alongside documentary profiles, constant press coverage, and a notably enigmatic heavy metal album.  His ubiquity in the artworld, set in contrast to his physical restriction from leaving China, is clear, and consistent at the 55th Venice Biennale, where the artist is holding two separate solo installations.

Ai Weiwei, S.A.C.R.E.D. (Installation View) (2013)

Ai Weiwei, Straight (Installation View) (2008-2012) (more…)

Mika Rottenberg, Still from Sneeze (2008), via Magasin 3

Sneeze to Squeeze is the first solo exhibition of work by New York-based video artist Mika Rottenberg in Sweden. Exploring the themes of labor, production and contemporary body-image, this major exhibition captures the spirit of the artist’s broad range of filmic work, while also offering a thorough, studied look at her work in installation and photography.

Mika Rottenberg, Still from Squeeze (2010), via Magasin 3 (more…)

Marc Quinn, Breath (2013)

Time and again, Artist Marc Quinn has defined himself as an artist of grand statements.  Utilizing imagery and materials from his surroundings, often cast on symbolically enormous scale, the artist has created a body of work that digs at the complex interrelations of art and science, life and meaning, process and creation.  The act of viewing seems central to Quinn’s body of work, collected for a major solo exhibition in Venice this summer, and running concurrently with the Venice Biennale at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.  Scale and image converge to create a striking and powerful impression of the human condition for viewers who find themselves in front of his work.

Marc Quinn, Self (2011)

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Artist Ai Weiwei has just released “Dumbass,” a new music video from his new heavy metal project.  Detailing his 81 days in detention in 2011, the song and video are an attempt to recreate his trying ordeal in the Chinese penal system.  The first song from his album The Divine Comedy, “Dumbass” revisits his detention, which Ai says “was very hard, but I had to do it because that helped me to overcome the trauma.” (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei was on hand last week to film and upload a large fight on Beijng’s Ghost Street between ethnic Tibetan and ethnic Han Chinese street vendors.  The video quickly went viral, gaining the attention of viewers worldwide.  “I had arrived in the middle of the fight,” he said later. “I saw someone lying on the ground with blood.” (more…)

Luxury aviation company VistaJet recently commissioned artist Tom Sachs, working in collaboration with former assistant Van Neistat, to create a series of flight safety videos to be shown onboard the company’s fleet of airplanes.  Taking inspiration from Todd Haynes’s 1987 cult classic Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which was shot with a cast of only Barbie dolls, the duo created a short using stop motion and dolls to reconceptualize the traditional airline safety film. (more…)

Marcel Dzama, The Chessmen (2010), courtesy David Zwirner London

Currently on view at David Zwirner gallery in London is a solo exhibition of new work by Marcel Dzama, spanning a diverse range of media that centers on the aesthetic and thematic elements of Chess. The exhibition, entitled Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets opened on April 5th and will continue through May 11th, 2013.

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