Currently on view at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne is Auto-Theatre – the first major European retrospective of Franz West. For this exhibition, West himself grouped over 40 works in themed constellations allowing the visitor to experience the sheer complexity and singularity of his oeuvre. The title Autotheater (Auto-Theatre) points to the performative, interactive dimension of his work and included are the West’s earliest Adaptives (Passstücke) and collages from the 1970s, papier-mâché sculptures, furniture and site-specific installations, his picture walls from the Eighties and his latest sculptures for public spaces.

More text, images, links and video after the jump….


Passstücke, Franz West (2007)

In 1974 West began to develop his famous portable sculptures called Adaptives (Passstücke). In Biology, adaption is a structure or form modified to fit a changing environment and in the 1970s, West attempted to bring this to his art works. The outcome of these experiments were small, portable sculptures called Adaptives (Passstücke) that were only completed as artworks when the viewer picked them up and carried them around, or performed some other action with them. This new, interactive approach left a lasting mark on the younger generations and new tendencies in the nineties, such as “Design Art” and “Relational Aesthetics”.

Endlich zwei gute Skulpturen, Franz West (2002) Museum Ludwig Colone

Ordinary Language, Franz West (1993)

West has also extended this dialogue with the viewer to include his furniture sculptures, which he has produced since the mid-eighties. His colorful and comfortable furniture has transformed exhibition spaces in its invitation to visitors to use it and render the space habitable and sociable. In Ordinary Language, for example, visitors are invited to relax in the comfortable armchairs.

Auto Sex (mit Heimo Zobernig), Franz West (1999)

Since the nineties he has worked increasingly with others artists, such as for instance Michelangelo Pistoletto (Spiegel in Kabine mit Passstücken = Mirror in Cubicle with Adaptives) and Heimo Zobernig (Auto Sex).

Allzweckkasten, Franz West (1998)

Spiegel in Kabine mit Passtücken (Spiegel von Michelangelo Pistoletto), Franz West (1996)

Franz West: Autotheater – via Vernissage TV

The exhibition will move on in May 2010 to Madre in Naples and in September 2010 to Kunsthaus Graz.

Related Links:
Museum Ludwig Homepage
Franz West: Autotheater / Retrospective at Museum Ludwig, Cologne [Vernissage TV]

Olafur Eliasson is currently on show for the sixth time at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, through March 20, in a spectacular exhibition that extends the artist’s study of modes of perception, specifically concerning one’s experience of space and time. In this instance Eliasson’s particular fascination is the phenomena of light, movement and color and the relationship between them.

Multiple shadow house, 2010. Installation view

More images and text after the jump…
Multiple shadow house, 2010

It is, however, the viewers themselves that become the key initiator of the experiment – their body becomes the central figure of the work. The work Multiple shadow house (2010) is a simple structure, purpose-built in the main gallery, consisting of multicolored lamps in rows shining onto several large projection screens. When a body enters the space and begins to interact with this light installation beautiful and subtle overlaid visions of their shadow fan across the screens – as they move around forward and backward the image is thus altered and can be manipulated. In this way the project is a creative collaboration between the artist, viewer, space and technology. Essentially the artwork is redundant without the presence of the figure – no only to enjoy it – but to articulate it’s potential effects.

Multiple shadow house, 2010

Multiple shadow house, 2010

This is very common of Eliasson oeuvre, which has consistently challenged the motionlessness, inflexible and non-malleable nature of much tradition fine art works. In many ways Eliasson allows autonomous authorship to dissolve, instead both meaning and aesthetic quality are in fact generated by the viewer. Today it is generally agreed that judging artwork is a very subjective process, albeit informed by outside factors; Eliasson has created the ultimate subjective art experience, the individual actually activates the work. This encourages a hyper-awareness of how we all shape our own experience and perception of the world around us.

Multiple shadow house, 2010

Multiple shadow house, 2010

Other pieces in the exhibition include Intangible afterimage star (2008) another projection this time of multicolored geometric shapes that constantly shift over and cut across each other. In this instance the viewer’s participation is only notable internally as the after-image briefly lingers on the retina combining with the actual image to magical affect. In the galleries upstairs several watercolors and an oil painting, Colour experiment no. 3 (2009), illustrate Eliasson’s consideration and experimentation with space, light and color.

Test, 2009

Intangible afterimage star, 2008

Color Experiment No. 3, 2009

Multiple shadow house, 2010

Multiple shadow house, 2010

Top: Grey to Yellow Movie, 2009. Bottom: Yellow to Grey Movie, 2009.

Folded Grey Movies, 2009

ArtObserved video of the installation, Multiple shadow house, 2010 [ArtObserved Twit Vid]

Related Links
Olafur Eliasson: Multiple Shadow House [Tanya Bonkadar Gallery]
Olafur Eliasson: “Kepler Was Wrong” at Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid through March 6, 2010 [ArtObserved]
Olafur Eliasson: “Your Chance Encounter” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, through March 22, 2010 [ArtObserved]
Eye Candy: Olafur Eliasson’s Amazing New Art Installation [Fast Company]
Olafur Eliasson: Multiple Shadow House [Daily Serving]

On show at the Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, is the much anticipated “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel), the second exhibition of works by Brazlian twins Os Gemeos (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo). This exhibition presents a series of entirely new, and previously unseen, works that include large canvases, musical sculpture-objects, mechanical and interactive site-specific installations actually created inside the gallery walls.

O Devoto, 2010
More images and text after the jump…

Born out of the Brazilian graffiti scene they have, more recently, gained equal notoriety in the contemporary museum and gallery worlds. After meeting and befriending Barry McGee in Sao Paulo the twins were encouraged to transport their pieces from urban sites onto canvas, as well as producing sculptural, graphic and photographic works. The twins have enjoyed a number of major successes in New York over the past few years, including an exhibition at Deitch Projects, entitled “Too Far Too Close”, in 2008 and most recently the monumental mural on East Houston and Bowery, the wall made famous by Keith Haring’s 1982 mural.

Os Gemeos at work on their mural in at E. Houston and Bowery

Os Gemeos & Alex Fakso|Amor e tudo, 2010

Their gallery works retain the much-loved urban zest that one might recognize of Basquiat or Chris Ofili; yet their visual vernacular is specifically of Sao Paulo. Since the 1980s the twins have been intimately involved in the Brazil hip-hop, street scene – embracing break dancers and the like – their love affair with this element of their culture is very apparent in their paintings. Yet, simultaneously the imagery is infused with cultural and musical folklore from the Northeast of the country, which imbues the works with their emotive and magical element.

Their naively constructed characters are ostensibly of the children’s storybook ilk, and have once been described as jaundiced Edward Gorey illustrations [Constance Wyndham, Art in America, 2005]. Their yellowed skin, flat-faces and wide set eyes have become a visual autograph for the twins; it is these figures that are the epicenter of the Os Gemeos universe. This is most evident in this particular exhibition where the figures appear largely to hover in strange landscapes of vivid color and pattern, evoking textile design.

O vaso de porcelana, 2010

In one corner of the gallery a purpose built bedroom-like interior space that could be the home of the young boy depicted on the wall. Here their very purposefully graphic, two-dimensional figures appear to occupy three-dimensional, real space. Throughout the exhibition the characters alternate between canvas, wall and sculptural form.

Overall the outcome is a lyrical and lively exhibition that is oddly surreal yet also hyper-real. In the artists’ words: “we only report scenes from a magic, love, hate, and real place that live inside us, a real dream, the scene of our own universe, a place called “Tritrez.”

Os Gemeos, “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel) installation view

O Joao de Barro equilibrista, 2010

Os Gemeos, “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel) installation view

Related Links
Os Gemeos, “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel) [Galleria Patricia Armocida]
Os Gemeos [Deitch Projects]
Os Gemeos: Too Far Too Close [Deitch Projects]
Os Gemeos: Houston Street and Bowery Mural [Deitch Projects]
Os Gemeos at Deitch Projects, New York, through Aug 9 [ArtObserved]
Street Art to Adorn the Tate Modern in London [ArtObserved]
A World Springs to Life on an Urban Wall [New York Times]

AO was at the press preview for “Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim” as the museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on the East Side. For this new exhibition, organizer Nancy Spector commissioned two hundred proposals from artists, designers, and architects to fill the void.  Through April 28, proposals are on the walls of the Guggenheim, a set of dreams and interventions.

Detail from “Remember Beuys” (2009), by Bolles+Wilson, at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

More images, story, and relevant links after the jump…

View of the press preview. Photo taken by Art Observed.

Obstructing the void calls for its subversion. In drawing the void, the architect duo Weiss/Manfredi trespass it. group8 works against the institution that it proposes to fill, so that patrons would actually be able to taste the void — interacting with it physically — and so that the artists would leave the Guggenheim with a structure of chocolate at its core, implying an idea of whimsy that battles the hierarchical nature of “serious” art. The void is reflected, and turned to banners: in Thomas Hirschhorn’s proposal, the void becomes a place to examine the artist’s function, and the institution’s, in structuring an art that supposes to liberate.

Weiss/Manfredi, “Trespassing the Void” (2009), at the Guggenheim. The lettering reads, “DRAW THE VOID – TRESPASS THE VOID.” Photo by Art Observed.

group8, “Tasting the Void” (2009), at the Guggenhim. Photo by Art Observed.

24H Architecture, “Untouching The Void” (2009), at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

Above, “Reflecting the Void” (2009), by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), at Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed. Below, detail.

These and other works examine the idea of intervention in a museum. They intervene in each other, contemplating different models from Pipilotti Rist’s “Grabs,” which fills the void with an oversized vagina, to Cerith Wyn Evans’s “Chimera Ritual for FLW,” the proposal for which is a piece of paper describing her idea that has as its postscript, “No image is to be used to illustrate the proposal.” The exhibition’s organizer, Nancy Spector, tells me that no proposal is to be picked above another; this is not a contest. It is a leveling.

Jonathan Meese, “Babymetabolism De River Deep Mountain High” (2009), at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

Thomas Hirschhorn, “<<Banners>>” (2009), at Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

- R. Fogel

Related links:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum [Museum Homepage]
Now Showing: ‘Contemplating the Void’ at the Guggenheim [T Magazine]
Artists’ visions celebrate Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary [Reuters UK]
Critic’s Notebook: The void as muse [LA Times]

Currently showing at Hauser & Wirth London, 15 Old Bond Street is “School,” a selection of most recent works by Subodh Gupta.  The show features forty five brass stools paired with stainless steel thali trays (traditional Indian trays with multiple compartments used for meals containing several dishes).

More images and text after the jump….

Fragment of the installation

A signature domestic life–related piece for Gupta, School also contains a note of highly personal significance for the artist – the stools are cast from the seat used by Gupta’s father and the brass version carries his initials. Removing this traditional object from its original environment and multiplying it, Gupta creates a powerful metaphor for the private realm as an indispensable component to the cultural, social and economic development in every society. ‘School” is a Gupta’s second show at Hauser and Wirth.  It follows the success of the exhibition of October 2009 “Common Man”, which debuted his humorous sculptural tribute to the artist’s empirical mentor Marcel Duchamp.  The exhibition is on view until March 27, 2010.

School Installation View

Et tu, Duchamp?, 2009, the centerpiece of Gupta’s first solo exhibition at Hauser and Wirth

Subodh Gupta (b. 1964) is a contemporary Indian artist, best known for incorporating the objects of everyday use, such as lunch boxes, bicycle spare parts, utensils to create sculptures reflective of India’s economic and social development as well as the artist’s own past. Gupta received his BFA from College of Arts & Crafts, Patna, India.  He lives and works in New Dehli.  “The Damien Hirst of Dehli” as The Guardian called Gupta, speaks about his works: “All these things were part of the way I grew up. They are used in the rituals and ceremonies that were party of my childhood. Indians either remember them from their youth, or they want to remember them.” And: “I am the idol thief. I steal from the drama of Hindu life. And from the kitchen – these pots, they are like stolen gods, smuggled out of the country. Hindu kitchens are as important as prayer rooms”.

Everyday, Subodh Gupta, 2009

The works by Subodh Gupta were included into numerous exhibitions internationally, including Tate Britain, ‘Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009’, London, England, The Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture ,Moscow, ‘Un Certain Etat du Monde? Works from the Pinault Collection’, Moscow, Russia and CHANEL Mobile Art, an international traveling exhibition.

Spooning, Subodh Gupta, 2008

Relevant Links:
The artist’s page at Hauser and Wirth Gallery  [Hauser and Wirth]
The Damien Hirst of Dehli [Guardian]
The Art of Subodh Gupta [WhiteWall Magazine]

Through March 10, Sterling Ruby has two new pieces at PaceWildenstein’s downtown gallery.  On view are “Pig Pen” and “Bus,” two industrialized traps that confine, says a gallerist, humanity’s basic primitivism. This is an artist’s apocalyptic endgame.

Sterling Ruby, “Bus” (2010) at PaceWildenstein.

More images and story after the jump…

Installation view, Sterling Ruby’s “2Traps” at PaceWildenstein.

Where “Pig Pen” is a stationary cage, “Bus” is a vehicle of transportation converted into a sculptural object, emphasizing 2Traps’s feel of ultimate stasis. They are the same size — about 10′ x 9′ x 40′ — but “Pig Pen” is almost cubist nature, comprised of smaller blocks themselves composed of the security doors found on many urban homes, where “Bus” is just that automobile fitted with speakers, sub-woofers, chrome, and confinement cages. That is, the artist in both cases confines an animalistic interior, but “Bus” comments most explicitly on societal stagnancy.  Argues Ruby, today’s transportation holds its patrons still, defines them as animals in a procedurally ordered, dehumanized/dehumanizing society.

Detail from Sterling Ruby’s “Pig Pen” (2009-2010), at PaceWildenstein.

Back view, Sterling Ruby’s “Bus” (2010) at PaceWildenstein.

Detail, Sterling Ruby’s “Bus” (2010), at PaceWildenstein.

Born in Bitburg, Germany, Sterling Ruby studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Center College of Design. He has had solo exhibitions at Galleria d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and more. Ruby is recently represented by PaceWildenstein, which hosts this show. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

- R. Fogel

Related links:
PaceWildenstein [Gallery Page]
Sterling Ruby’s Caged Heat [T Magazine, NYT]
Sterling Ruby, PaceWildenstein [Art Hag]

When Tino Sehgal’s work took over the Guggenheim Museum in New York on January 29th it was a quiet experience. There were no opening parties, no fuss and none of that Art World glitter to make one jump from exuberant excitement.  The walls of Frank Lloyd Wright’s majestic rotunda were stripped bare and seem to have newly acquired a long lost naïveté.  The lobby still brimmed with crowds of people clustered around the impenetrable center. The Kiss unfolded, rolled and scattered itself in a graceful poise of a feline. The subtly choreographed sequence of animated poses referenced erotic works from Rodin, to Courbet, to Jeff Koons. Occasionally, a couple or a small group of visitors would creep closer for a brief encounter or settle in contemplative thought on the floor of the proposed stage.

More images and text after the jump…
Tino Sehgal at The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY via NY Times

Beyond the softly lit and sensually charged area awaited a vastly different sort of work. It was also alive and moved according to the carefully mediated framework that Tino Sehgal had previously transmitted, but the experience of contemplation, apprehension, and interaction with it was broken into two polarities. This Progress is imbued with the possibilities of being utterly ignored or unexpectedly discovered via experiential and transformative gesture of sequenced conversation and perambulatory ritual.

The “constructed situation” as Tino Sehgal tends to describe this genre of his work, is a series of encounters. You step on the ramp and a child, of about 10 years old, greets you with a frank expression: “This is a piece by Tino Sehgal.” And so the situation begins to propel itself into existence. When beckoned to follow, your curiosity pushes you on. When asked “What is progress?” you are caught unaware and respond in a manner of conversation, expounding and formulating ideas as they come to mind. Further up the ramp, you stumble upon a teenager, whose mission is to continue the existing paraphrased conversation. The child casually departs. Now the situation morphs itself into another framework of transferring ideas, of shifting generational approach, of expounding, questioning oneself, questioning the other – after all talking about progress in itself is a highly speculative task. And thus arrives a middle-aged and, later, older gentleman.  The topics slightly change, so does one’s matter of speaking and before long the constructed journey through time and mind is over. This end is punctuated with a brief and poignant title, which marks the revolution of a thought: “This Progress.” The end is a beginning.

Tino Sehgal’s exhibition introduces a new wave of aesthetic dematerialization of an object, a movement which began in the 1960’s and has reverberated through Performance and Conceptual art, and recently challenged sculptural forms. The artist, who is 34 years young, has become the darling of the art circles and is intent on reevaluating the relationship artists developed with various cultural institutions and the exhibitionality of the work within the public space. Sehgal initially studied political economy at Humboldt University in Berlin before discovering dance practice as a transformative force in his practice. And dance he did, with some of the most experimental French choreographers – Jérôme Bel and Xavier Le Roy. Having worked for some time as a choreographer himself, Sehgal decided to make a transition into art where “the political ideas behind his work would be considered with more gravitas.” Thus the “constructed situations,” whether interactively challenging or kinetically perplexing, provide a fresh and dynamic experience of cultural environment.

While Tino Sehgal may resist the object and the material permanence of consumerist society, he does not by any means protest or avoid the existence of market society. In fact, he is very much a part of it: selling the rights to re-enact his situations under his (or apprentice’s) strict supervision. “The Kiss” on view at the Guggenheim is, in fact, owned by the Museum of Modern Art and is on loan for the duration of no less than 6 weeks (a period specified by Sehgal in the contract). All sale transactions of Sehgal’s work are conducted verbally, in presence of a notary. According to MoMA’s director, Glenn Lowry, the purchase of “The Kiss” “was one of the most elaborate and difficult acquisitions” the museum has ever attempted. No documentation, written or recorded, remains or is otherwise avoided to the best of Sehgal’s ability. Photographs or video recording of the Guggenheim show are also prohibited.

However, Sehgal’s show is one of those that will not need any visual remnants to carry out its impact. It is an experience that will rouse one out of his complacency and re-introduce the space of a museum as an arena for questioning, learning, admiring and discovering. A feeling or a thought no photograph will capture, Sehgal’s interpreters will draw out and release into the world. An afterthought will be yours to situate.

Tino Sehgal (top left corner) in Central Park. Image by Philip-Lorca diCorcia via W Magazine

Related links
Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim Homepage
“How I made an artwork cry” by Jerry Saltz [NY Magazine]
You Can’t Hold It, but You Can Own it [NY Times]
In the Named Museum: Talking, Thinking, Encountering [NY Times]
Making Art Out of an Encounter [T Magazine]
Tino Sehgal [W Magazine]

~ J. Solovyeva

Every March for the past 12 years, artists, galleries, collectors, critics and curators from all over the world have made New York their destination during Armory week. Launching the week of cultural activities, Mayor Bloomberg predicted that 60,000 visitors are expected bring in around $44 million. The week’s main event, The Armory Show, opened its doors to a record number of VIP ticket holders yesterday morning reflecting a renewed optimism in the art market. This year, the show has expanded to include 285 dealers, up from 239 in 2009. Pier 94, at 12th Avenue and 55th Street, showcases 211 cutting-edge contemporary galleries, institutions and non-profit art organizations, a further 78 dealers specializing in Modern and Secondary market works at the adjacent Pier 92.

Jay Jopling shows a client around the White Cube booth, all photographs by Oskar Proctor for Art Observed

The True Artist Makes Useless Shit for Rich People to Buy, Bert Rodriguez at the Fredric Snitzer Gallery booth – priced at $25,000

This year sees the introduction of ‘Armory Focus,’ a new of section of the fair that will feature an important art community every year and premieres with Berlin. 22 of the German capital’s leading and emerging galleries will cluster at one end of Pier 94. The fair’s Executive Director Katelijne De Backer sees a kinship between Berlin’s art world and that of New York due it the communities history for experimentation and willingness to take risks. Many of the galleries we spoke to had exhibitied at the fair in previous years but admitted to being greatly encouraged to participate this year due to substantial backing by The Armory who contributed at least $3,000 to shipping costs per gallery.

John Baldessari at Barry Friedman

Following on from 2009, a notable trend at this year’s fair is the large number of booths at this devoted to single-artist exhibitions. David Zwirner’s booth, dedicated to a series of photographs by Philip-Lorca diCorcia, was packed throughout the day. By mid-afternoon the booth had shifted 25 of 100 polaroids, selling for $4,000 apiece. Many of the participants in the new Armory Focus:Berlin section also featured solo exhibitions. Galerie Barbara Thumm presented a large canvas from the Berlin-based artist, Valérie Favre, that sold within hours of the opening.

Spitpot, Erwin Wurm at Lehmann Maupin

This year, The Armory Show coincides with the opening of the Whitney Museum’s Biennial, as a result, a significant number of recognizable works by artists in the museum show took pride-of-place at yesterday’s fair. Our first sighting was at the booth of Ratio 3, San Francisco who were offering stills from Ari Marcopoulos’ video featuring two kids making electronic music in their tiny bedroom, Detroit. While the stills had not yet sold, we were informed that the video is on hold for a museum and another for a private collector. In addition, Dashwood Books have published 500 copies of a zine featuring stills from the video.

The Walthamstow Tapestry, Grayson Perry at Victoria Miro Gallery

Chuck Close in attendance at The Armory Show

We also spotted works by Dawn Clements at Pierogi, Sharon Hayes at Tanya Leighton Gallery, Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery and we negotiated the crowds at Sean Kelly’s booth to glimpse photographs by James Casebere. Buyers stormed the Sean Kelly booth throughout the day in search of photographs by Marina Abramovic, ahead of her performance retrospective that is set to begin at MoMA on March 14. Buyers were also enticed by the two sculptures, priced at $300,000 and $225,000, by Antony Gormley whose Event Horizon installation will open at New York’s Madison Square Park on March 23rd.

Executive Director of The Armory Show Katelijne De Backer

In celebration of the city’s artistic communities, Armory Week will highlight the art scene of a different each night of the week with public events including receptions, open studios, art tours, museum discounts, performances, panels, artist discussions and parties. One of the predicted highs of the week will take place in the Lower East Side Sunday on March 7th. The New Museum will act as a hub for the day’s activities, including self-guided walking tours and gallery crawls conducted by art professionals Aaron Thompson, Pearl Albino, Rita de Alencar Pinto and Heather Hubbs.

Other highlights of this year’s Armory Arts Week will include talks by the MTA’s Arts for Transit staff discussing art at different stations; SoHo Night, an evening of extended exhibition viewing and special programs by the nonprofit art institutions in the neighborhood; a walking tour of the High Line led by curator Lauren Ross; children’s tours of Chelsea galleries; several opening receptions and open studios in Long Island City; and galleries open after hours in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Related Links:
The Armory Show Homepage
Armory Week Homepage
Fowler’s $7,000 Geometrics Pump Collectors at N.Y. Armory Show [Bloomberg]
Fair Mania: Armory Arts Week in New York [Flavorwire]
Survival of the fittest? NYC fairs multiply despite recession [The ArtNewspaper]
Bustling Armory Opening Heralds Contemporary Art Market Resurgence [ArtInfo]
The Armory Show’s Commissioned Artist Susan Collis on ‘Fiddling While Rome Burns’ [NY Magazine]
Buckle Your Seatbelt! It’s the Armory Show [MediaBistro]
The Armory Show: Vernissage [Whitewall Magazine]

Marina Abramovic gave a lecture Monday evening at the MOMA as a precursor to her major retrospective which will open there on March 14th. Abramovic has had a prolific career as a performance artist, much of her work pushes the boundaries of the physical body in endurance based pieces that posit her body as the art object.  The lecture was introduced by Klaus Biesenbach, director of MoMA’s PS1, as a way for Abramovic to speak before entering into a lengthy period of silence, a requirement for the main performance piece to the show, her longest solo piece ever performed.  She will spend over 600 hours in the museum over a period of three months without speaking or moving.

more images and text after the jump…

The talk began with Abramovic mounting the stage under a stark spotlight and saying to the audience, at my age, it is important that I write an artist’s manifesto.  She went through her manifesto, dropping pages of paper to the floor as she read them, dark spectacles on her nose, her words and presence commanding the audience.  There she covered a range of subjects relating the artist to life – love, death, suicide, society, self-idolatry, etc.,  more on the Manifesto can be found here.

The slideshow fired up, taking us quickly through her early life and early work including a piece called Rhythm 0 performed in Naples in 1974.  She put 72 objects (such as a gun, a bullet, an ax, a knife, a bone, a rose, etc.) a table and herself clothed in a white tshirt and black pants. A small sign instructed the audience that they could do anything they wanted including kill her.  She said that at first the audience was passive and quite playful, but they soon turned aggressive, cutting her, drinking her blood, dressing her up as a whore or the Madonna.  Abramovic also noted that the women wiped her tears away and didn’t inflict harm on her but instructed the men what to do.  The piece lasted six hours – she says when she went home after the performance she discovered “a piece of gray hair on my head.”

Marina Abramovic and Ulay

She then moved onto another period of her work – when she met Ulay.  They met on her birthday, and both wore two hair sticks stuck through a bun at the back of their heads.  Ulay and she fell in love and began making work together, living out of a car with a dog.  She showed a slide of their artist’s statement which read:

ART VITAL
no fixed living-place
permanent movement
direct contact
local relation
self-selection
passing limitations
taking risks
mobile energy

Abramovic showed some of her most famous works she performed with Ulay that happened in the seventies.  Relation in Space was a piece where Ulay and her walked briskly toward each other naked, when meeting slammed bodies together, with only the sound of their bodies amplified for the duration of one hour.  Another work entitled Expansion in Space was performed at Documenta in a garage under a supermarket after the artists arrived and find out they had been uninvited.  She said that she decided to take matter in her own hands.  This impromptu location drew a huge crowd who watched as she and Ulay hit their bodies with as much force as possible against two large columns moving them apart slowly and painstakingly across the room towards two other stationary columns.  Imponderabilia is another important piece, the video drew laughter from the audience. The piece consisted of Ulay and Marina standing naked in a doorway forcing everyone who entered the gallery space to rub uncomfortably against their nude bodies and also to choose which body – female or male they would face.  Many of these pieces will be reperformed by other people during the retrospective. An audience member asked the question of Abramovic – how do you feel about someone reperforming their work? Klaus responded aptly, saying that a playwright will have other’s direct his play, a composer will have other musicians play his opus, and with Abramovic it is no different.

Abramovic also spoke of a time period when her and Ulay went to the desert in Australia to live with aborigines. She said that answers were found in the desert because one was stripped of all context and confronted with oneself. She said that all the greats went to the desert, Jesus, Moses, etc. and they went into the desert a nobody and came back a somebody.

Their intense work and personal relationship ended with a magnificent performance in which they each started from either end of the Great Wall of China, he at the Gobi Desert and her at the Yellow Sea and walked all the way along until they met in the middle.  It was a way to say goodbye after twelve years of being together, Abramovic called the experience of this performance, “tragic, romantic and difficult.”  She mentioned that this was the first time that the footage documenting the piece had been brought together, for seven years, Ulay had kept his footage and her separately.  She hadn’t spoken to him until this retrospective, and she respectfully told the audience that he was the “guest of honor” and referenced her manifesto in which she said, “an artist must learn to forgive”.

At the end of her talk, it became open for audience questions – among the full theater were notables such as David Blaine, the magician famous for his arduous endurance work (its difficult not to make the assumption that his work is inspired by hers), Todd Eberle (who once said to me that he liked to take photos of people who had done something interesting in their lives), artist Marco Brambilla (who has a video on a compilation with Abramovic entitled Destricted), director Alison Chernick (known for her documentary on Matthew Barney No Restraint).  After a few questions, it became quickly clear that Abramovic is intensely focused and passionate about her work, she offers no compromises or apologies, and is steadfast in her commitment to push the boundaries of her own body.  After an impassioned response to a question, in which Abramovic leaned over the podium with piercing eyes, her speech gaining pace and volume, Klaus ended the talk by saying that he did not want the audience to exhaust Marina before her three month piece.  Abramovic, in a flourish, encouraged the audience to interact and participate.

- Hikari Yokayama

Through March 13, Andrea Rosen is hosting 85 new works by the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, in an exhibition that diverges from much of his typical series. A picture of a baby opens the show, which includes pictures of the Gaza security fence, a triathlon, egg cartons, cities, nature… “Previous shows,” Tillmans tells Dominic Eichler, “…often included absurd moments and odd subject matter that had nothing to do with the core narrative of the ‘real’ utopias portrayed in my pictures. But this show reverses the balance – a few pictures from ‘my world’ are met with a majority of ‘outside’ world.”

Installation view of the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans. Photo by Jeremy Lawson

More images, story, and relevant links after the jump…
Tillmans notes that he wants “it to be possible to trust” his pictures, themselves always exploring the tension between viewer subjectivity and the artist’s “author function,” as it were. Brannie Jones, the director of the gallery, tells me that this show takes Tillmans’s art in an entirely new direction. Indeed, the exhibition invites the viewer in, with images recognizable and without adornment. The pictures, produced over the last year or so, are unframed. There are juxtapositions that beg gallery patrons to draw their associations, like cities presented differently and called deserts. There is color and everyday, popular monuments and personal achievement.

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Heptathlon” (2009), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Varanasi, c” (2009), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Arup” (2007), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “yet untitled” (2008), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Born in 1968 in Remscheld, Germany, Wolfgang Tillmans studied at the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art Design and at Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße, in Bremen, Germany. He was featured in the Venice Biennale’s 2009 art centerpiece, “Making Worlds,” and has had solo exhibitions at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art; Tate Britain; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Hirshhorn Museum, DC; NYC’s P.S.1, and more. He is the winner of the 2000 Turner Prize, and lives and works in London and Berlin.

Wolfgang Tillmans, “monument” (2006), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Oriental Pearl” (2009), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Yunxiu Nunnery” (2009), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans, “Everlast II” (2009), at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

- R. Fogel

Related links:
Developing: Jerry Saltz on Wolfgang Tillmans [NY Magazine]
Wolfgang Tillmans [Artnet]
Andrea Rosen [Gallery Homepage]

SEKU: Here at the Center of Pain is Radiance

Currently on view at Sadie Coles in London are new drawings by Matthew Barney in correlation with his project “Ancient Evenings,” a performance work in partnership with composer Jonathan Bepler. Intimate and delicate, Barney’s drawings allude to each of the seven acts emphasizing in particular the themes of mythology, death, rebirth, and reincarnation. The works are based on Norman Mailer’s erotic and allegorical novel Ancient Evenings (1983) which re-envisages ancient Egyptian mythology and the seven passages of the soul after death: Ren, Khu, Sekhem, Ba, Ka, Khaibit, and Sekhu.

Djed: The Case for Saving Detroit (2010), by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

More images, text and related links after the jump…

KA: The River of No Return (2010) by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

Many of the works are mythical and ritualistic in nature incorporating various alchemical materials such as gold plate, copper leaf and lapis lazuli pigment.  Barney has also used textual elements in these works as if signaling a way to bring about the story behind each. One for example, is a five-pointed polygon labeled “Five Points Make a Man,” a title which recalls the late performance artist James Lee Byars in his reference to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

KHU: Sunken Trunk (2010) by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

Storyboards for the Ancient Evenings project are also installed throughout the exhibition in seven freestanding cabinets. They feature photography, clipart, drawing and collage. Such a display technique alludes to the conceptual idea of a performance; the works appear to move while narrating a tale throughout the exhibition. At the same time the work within each cabinet reveals its own motif apart from the other works hence only hinting at the possibility of an overarching interrelationship. Barney recombines and then isolates particular objects in order to emphasize their physicality, connectedness and differences.

KA: Galena Summit (2009) by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

An exhibition which prompts meditate and contemplative thought, Barney’s new works link the past with the present.

Matthew Barney (b. 1967) studied art at Yale University. He has received several distinguished awards including the Aperto Prize at the 1993 Venice Biennale and the 1993 Hugo Boss award. His work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in major international galleries and museums.

Exhibition Page [Sadie Coles]
Matthew Barney at Sadie Coles, London [Saatchi Gallery]
Matthew Barney at Sadie Coles-HQ [Slamhype]
Matthew Barney at Sadie Coles from January 27th [Fadwebsite]

-R.A.P

Currently showing at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, 32 East 69 St., New York, NY is “MONALISA”, an exhibition of works by an American artist  Ida Applebroog. The present exhibition is a debut of the entirely new body of work, with a centerpiece of a rudimentary wooden structure that the artist’s calls “MONALISA’s House”. The structure’s walls are covered by one hundred drawings of the artist’s genitals that she produced in the seclusion of her bathroom, while living in California in 1969. The artist speaks about her work: “It was a certain period of my life and before I got into the tub I’d sit with a full-length mirror on the floor. It was before my own radicalization.”

Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View

More images and text after the jump..

Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View

Group 13, Ida Applebroog, 1969

Upon returning to New York, Applebroog stored the drawings in the basement of her Manhattan residence, where they remained until 2009, when a studio assistant discovered them. The artist then decided to incorporate them into her new project titled MONALISA. Applebroog scanned the original images into hand-made Gampi paper, enlarged and digitally manipulated and enhanced with additions of grey, yellow and pink. These drawings cover the bare walls of Monalisa House that contains two large-format paintings (“MONALISA” and “Brian”).

“Brian“, 2009 Ida Applebroog

“MONALISA”, 2009 Ida Applebroog

Fragment of MONALISA exhibited next to the original 1969 version of the artist’s highly detailed vulva drawings

An extensive catalog featuring an illustrated essay by art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson and a photographic study of the MONALISA House by Abby Robinson. The exhibition is on view until march 6, 2010.

Installation View

Group 13, Ida Applebroog, 1969

Born in Bronx, New York, Ida Applebroog attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a doctorate from Parsons School of Design. A creator of instantly recognizable comic “everyman” and “everywoman” figures, often incorporating exaggerated zoo-morph elements, Applebroog makes gender and sexual identity one of central subject-matters of her oeuvre. The artist’s works are prominently featured in the collection of Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Applebroog’s work is included in the collections of many venerated artistic institutions in the United States, among them The Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Corcoran Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Relevant Links:
Ida Applebroog’s web-page [Ida Applebroog]
Exhibition’s web-page at Hauser and Wirth [ Hauser and Wirth]
Artist’s Page at Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum
Artist’s Interview for PBS1 [Power, Feminism & Art]
Europe on the Upper East Side [NY Times]
Ida Applebroog and the State of Feminist Art [L Magazine]
Ida Applebroog [BOMB Magazine]

This week the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York opened its doors for the 75th edition if its defining exhibition: The Biennial. Simply titled, 2010, the show rejects an organizational theme and instead uses time as its marker in a matter-of-fact cross-section of American art today. The show is one of the smallest in the Biennial’s history – works by only 55 artists and collaborative teams are displayed on four floors of the museum’s ‘Breur Building’ in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. This year the entire third floor of the building has been taken dedicated video installation – first exhibited at the Biennial in 1975 – a sure sign that video work has now reached maturity, worthy of recognition as an independent art form. In addition, the museum’s fifth floor is devoted to artists in the Whitney’s permanent collection who have shown in past Biennials.

Francesco Bonami, Curator of Whitney Biennial 2010

Whitney Biennial 2010 – Interview with curator Francesco Bonami via VernissageTV

More text, images and related links after the jump….

Gary Carrion-Murayari, Curator of Whitney Biennial 2010

Since its inception in 1930, The Whitney Museum of American Art has devoted itself to nurturing and celebrating American art, and its dedication to defining the nature of the ‘American’ aesthetic is what distinguishes the Whitney’s biennial from other contemporary art surveys around the world. However, as the nature of art has become increasingly globalized over the past few years a clear sense of what is American in American art has been lost.
Over the past three decades, curators of the Biennial have grouped artists under the umbrella of an overriding theme that they believe defines American art at that moment – a method that has earned the Biennial the reputation as ‘the show the critics love to hate.’ This year, the curators – the seasoned Italian Francesco Bonami, 53, and Gary Carrion-Murayari, 28 – have not taken a conscious stance on the answer to this puzzle, and instead present the viewer with a presentation of a moment in time – the single element that truly separates each biennial from the next. The result is mixed bag of individual works in a plethora of mediums that draw few connections – itself emphasizing the diversity inherent in the nature of American culture. This heterogeneous element of American culture is underlined by the inclusion of works by 12 non-American citizens who have, as put by the Italian-born curator, “digested the culture in a particular American way.”

We Like America and America Likes Us, Bruce High Quality Foundation

We Like America and America Likes Us, Bruce High Quality Foundation

It is important not to confuse ‘American-ness’ with anything nationalistic, however in a survey that illustrates feelings amassed in America during a period of great adjustment, patriotic elements creep into a number of works. While perhaps not as overt as in previous war-era Biennials, many works exhibit a sense of devotion that no longer has the energy to throw punches but promises to stand by their side, waiting for the clouds to part.
Nowhere is this more true than in one of the most provocative and absorbing pieces in the show, We Like America and America Likes Us – the brainchild of the elusive art collective, the Bruce High Quality Foundation. The group have been described as “anti-market, anti-art school pranksters” and while their behavior may be naughty or reckless, their artwork is just as serious and poignant as any other in the show. The piece features a hearse come ambulance – painted white and embellished with a flashing light. The symbolism is interesting, the fact it is a hearse hints at the death of America, meanwhile its similarity to an ambulance suggests a glimmer of hope – a rescue. Projected on the windshield of the vehicle is a film composed of photographs, youtube videos and film clips that reference America’s recent political and cultural history. The viewer, backed-up against a wall, is caught in the beam of the headlights while a woman’s voice plays to them through the dark room: “We like America and America likes us, but something keeps us from getting it together.” Generally it is quite a dismal outlook on the state of American today.

Still from Parole, Sharon Hayes. In this video installation, Hayes examines theories of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure that set out to distinguish individual acts of speech (parole) from a larger system of language (langue).

A performance of Strange Attractors by Aki Sasmoto. In her work Sasamoto attempts to understand the mathematical concept of ’strange attractors’ in dynamical systems – she jumbles her recent obsession for doughnuts, fortunetellers, hemorrhoids, and things detected in the world. Performances are scheduled to take place at 4 pm on select dates that include the numerals 6 and 9.

Though certainly not the principle of the show, what is intriguing about the pool of artists this year is the majority won by women, however slim. This is a trend that has been increasing in the most recent history of Whitney biennials; in 2000 women artists made up 36% and then 2008 46%, this year it has reached 52%. Are we ticking the boxes of political correctness here or does this reflect a happy equality finally realized in the art world? Bonami in several interviews firmly dispels fears of a fix. In an interview with Frieze Magazine’s Dan Fox he assures “We didn’t do it on purpose,” and, to New York Magazine’s Jerry Saltz, “[we] didn’t look for women artists. They were just in front of our eyes. It wasn’t conscious at all.”
Jerry Saltz, himself, has been a regular campaigner for the lack of representation women artists receive even in the 21st Century. In 2006 he published an article entitled: “Where the girls aren’t,” and even more scathingly subtitled: “Art and apartheid: The prime real estate is still a men’s club”; in 2007 he persisted with his article for the New York magazine questioning: “Where are all the Women?” In both articles MoMA bore the brunt of Saltz’s anger, but the Whitney was equally criticized for its 2006 re-hanging of the permanent collection, ‘Full House’. Only 19% of participants were women, and at the time only 24% of its entire collection were women. Ostensibly Bonami and Carrion-Murayari’s curatorial efforts have remedied this worrying reality, at least temporarily, as well as tempering Saltz, who dubbed it a ‘triumph’. The fifth floor of the exhibition, however, tells the familiar story: out of 68 art works 8 are by women, just under 12%.

Patron, Marianne Vitale – Staring directly into the camera, Vitale orders her audience to stand up, open their mouths wide, recite tongue-twisting rhymes, and “spit at the ceiling.”

But perhaps it would be more optimistic to view the fifth floor in contrast to the rest of the biennial as a marker of how far the art world has come. There is certainly consensus between Bonami and Saltz that gender should not be an issue in the selection and display of artworks. We must avoid quota filling yet equally we must avoid neglect, or worse “apartheid” [Jerry Saltz]. The tension between these polarities in selection means that only when the numbers are in relative equilibrium can we forget the gender issue. As Saltz aptly asserts, the inclusion of more women than men “does not mean that the upcoming Biennial will be much better or worse than usual,” however it will at least be right.

Josephine Meckseper, Mall of America, 2009. Video

Annotated Plans for Evacuation, Alex Hubbard

Untitled (Red Dwarf), Piotr Uklanski

2010 is sparse and frugal, a non-gratuitous and unpretentious biennial, born of the bust. Everything has been pared down, from the number of artists included to the exhibition name, simply: 2010. Part of the justification for this is functionality. Bonami explained that some artists were omitted, not because they were weaker, but that they were “not functional” in what they were trying to say. Equally, this sense of functionality was also applicable to the title; Bonami stated in Interview Magazine that what defines a biennial is Time and he has taken this literally in the choice of title. There is nothing superfluous about the 2010 Biennial: unlike previous exhibitions no off-site projects have been called for, the exhibition is contained entirely within the walls of the museum’s hub – The Breur Building. Bonami, again from Interview magazine, explained that the museum building itself was a point of departure for thinking about the content of the biennial, “the starting point maybe was the museum itself, the building, and then the collection.”

Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY), James Casebere

Series by Robert Williams

Dual, Hannah Greely

For most September, 2008 will be remembered for the crash of the US markets that eventually spread into a global economic shock. For the art world, September 2008 was marked by Damien Hirst’s blowout auction, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” at Sotheby’s, London. It is therefore fitting that 2010, already dubbed ‘The Recession Biennial,” includes none of the audacious commercialism of pop art. Instead, the curators chose to be more appropriately sober in their selection process. Bonami believes that what is apparent in art at the end of the first decade of this century is a return to a more introverted and intimate practice, and a more experimental one. This is ostensibly the antithesis of the pop phenomenon – the artist’s presence is more keenly felt.

Consequently the atmosphere in some parts is alternately somber and eerie – Bonami, himself described the second floor as “creepy” in the press conference. James Casebere’s mildly haunting photographs of a model, people-less, American suburbia open this floor and the mood reverberates right around the galleries, not least in Maureen Gallace’s Hopperesque portraits of New England houses. Moving through the second floor, the sense of desolation and isolation mounts. Hannah Greely’s Dual, a surreal, yet hypereal re-construction of a bar bench and table, rips and all, again seems unnaturally empty of human presence. Behind, Dawn Clements’ elaborate and lengthy drawing of an interior scene, pieced together from film stills, is populated by a single figure that is seemingly being swallowed up by the room itself.

Series by Nina Berman

One of the most acutely political moments in the show is Nina Berman’s series of photographs documenting the daily existence of a severely wounded ex-Marine Sgt., Ty Ziegel. Despite choosing an unavoidably politicized subject matter, Berman’s objective is not solely to be damning or critical about war, instead Ziegel, as a human being, is very much the focus. Viewing such photographs is an intensely intimate experience; we are literally transported another life, experiencing it as Berman did. Berman’s portrait of his life is extremely sensitive and warm, yet imbued with a deep filtrated melancholy. The sense of something lost permeates every image and is compounded by her purposeful use of the gaze; all eyes are averted, apart from the camera and a little girl unused to social rules about staring. Not even his bride and childhood sweetheart can bear to look upon his physical disfigurement. Consequently, these images, like many others on the second floor, are very lonely.

Aurel Schmidt, Master of the Universe/FlexMaster 3000 , 2010

Aurel Schmidt convincingly combines the dirty and gritty litter of life with beauty in her piece Master of the Universe: FlexMaster 3000. Her wonderfully intricate depiction of trash comes together to depict a mythical figure of masculinity – half bull, half man. The objects are thoughtfully chosen and are accurate macho masculine signifiers, or prostheses: cigarettes, Budweiser cans, blackberry attached at the hip as a second male appendage, similarly to the bunch of bananas. An abundance of condoms obviously imply a keen interest in sexual activity is amongst the traits of the macho-male. The only non-metaphorical, realistically rendered body part is the penis itself, arresting in its detailed, veined, and pink, flaccid state.

Woven in amongst the grimier elements of his body are starkly contrasting flowers, which form the majority of his body-surface. The delicate appearance of the petals patently suggests vulnerability – this image of masculinity is in fact very fragile. The feebleness of macho posturing seems to radiate in every detail down to the incredibly fine and subtle draughtsmanship.

Series view of Self-Immolation in Afghanistan, Stephanie Sinclair

Self-Immolation in Afghanistan, Stephanie Sinclair

Another of the documentary style photo-journalist, Stephanie Sinclair’s photographic series portraying Afghani women being treated for extensive self-inflicted burns is one of the more shocking pieces in the show. What is so disturbing is the knowledge that these women set themselves alight in utter desperation of the circumstances of their lives, many of them suffering torturous abuse at the hands of their husbands or families. Aside from the clear journalistic nature of these photographs there is also equally valuable aesthetically – she exploits the visual tension between bodies revealed and concealed, flesh uncorrupted and disfigured, and between tenderness and horror. Equally, there exists a balance between the sheer vulnerability of these women and their exceptional bravery in allowing Sinclair to photograph them in this extreme low. Finally, these photographs are functional as promotional tools for atrocities that went previously unseen. In partial response to the photographs’ widespread media attention new burn unit was created in Herat.

Still from Untitled (New Way), Rashaad Newsome – for this video installation the artist invited performers into his studio to demonstrate various styles of the dance form known as vogue on camera.

Pagans, Verne Dawson

Integrated Forms (Birnam Wood), George Condo

Untitled, Robert Grosvenor

Ship Song, Martin Kersels – this work will live a double life as a stage for performance throughout the exhibition. Full List of Performances via The Whitney.

Ari Marcopoulos, Detroit, 2009. Video.

Related Links:
The Whitney Museum of Modern Art
At The Whitney – Busting out quietly [NY Times]
At a Biennial on a Budget – Tweaking and Provoking [NY Times]
Whitney Biennial 2010 [Interview Magazine] – Lisa Phillips interviews Francesco Bonami
Interview with Francesco Bonami [Frieze Magazine]
Artist Charles Ray on his Whitney Biennial Showing [Los Angeles Times]
The Whitney Biennial Lightens Up [Wall Street Journal]
But what does it mean? [NewsWeek]
Women’s Work [NY Times]
New York’s Whitney art show mixes creepy, optimistic [Reuters]
A Room of One’s Own [ArtNet]
Change We Can Believe In [NY Magazine]
A Sneak Peak at the Whitney Biennial [Vanity Fair]
Art Olympics: Ranking the Whitney Biennial [Flavorwire]
Whitney Biennial Mishmash Serves Up Michael Jackson, Macrame [Bloomberg]

The David Zwirner Gallery is currently showing Thomas Ruff’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. On view are two new series by the artist, whose photography has explored landscape, the nude, portraiture and even architecture through appropriated, computer-generated, and traditional images. “zycles” and “cassini,” at David Zwirner through March 13, draw in patrons as they notice the details that yield a snowballing structural complexity.

Thomas Ruff, “cassini 26″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

More images and story after the jump…

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 6024″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

“zycles” is a set of screen grabs of curve models based on cycloids, obtained by rolling a second curve along an initial, fixed one. These are translated algebraically by Ruff into the pieces that make up “zycles,” in an exploration of math and aesthetic toward the end of a new minimalism. “cassini” infuses NASA’s grayscale photographs of Saturn with color, emphasizing the tension between concrete form and abstract composition, the subject and minimalist artist. At David Zwirner, the two series are not presented separately; instead, they are mixed in with each other. A gallerist tells me that this decision is simply in response to their chronological simultaneity; the effect, however, is a contrast between the ways that computer and subject impose themselves on the artist, and vice versa.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 28″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 3090″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 24″ (2009) at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 4070″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 27″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 3080″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 25″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Born in Harmersbach, Germany, Thomas Ruff studied at the National Academy of the Arts in Düsseldorf, where he lives and works. He has had solo exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography; Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Guggenheim Bilbao; White Cube, London; and more. The 2006 recipient of the Infinity Award for Art, Ruff has work in the collections of major museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and more.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 3085″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 29″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 3095″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 30″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 3078″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 31″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 4020″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 32″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “zycles 4078″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

Thomas Ruff’s “cassini 33″ (2009), at David Zwirner.

- R. Fogel

Related links:
David Zwirner [Gallery Page]
Thomas Ruff Debuts New York in Sixth Solo Exhibition [Artdaily]

Currently on view at the Royal Academy of Art is a major exhibition of the work of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1893) and his incredible written correspondence. The show exhibits 35 original letters which have rarely been exhibited to the public due alongside 65 paintings and 30 drawings. The grouping of such works in different artistic disciplines reveals how closely the artist’s writing was interlocked with his painting.

Still-Life with a Plate of Onions (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Art

More images, text and related links after the jump…

The Yellow House (The Street) (1888), by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Art

The exhibition uses the artist’s letters as a starting point. He often used his letters as “written sketches” in order to signal a work in progress or a completed work. The majority of the artist’s letters were written to his brother Theo, an art dealer who supported Van Gogh through his artistic career. He also wrote letters to family members and other artists such as Anton van Rappard, Emile Bernard, and Paul Gauguin.

Vincent Van Gogh, Letter 783 from Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh, Cypresses, 25 June 1889, via The Royal Academy of Art

The exhibition also incorporates the latest edition of the artist’s correspondence: Vincent Van Gogh-The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition. This new edition is the result of years of scholarship by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker of the Van Gogh Museum.

Cypresses (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Art

Vincent Van Gogh was born in the South of the Netherlands in 1853 and was the second of six children by a Protestant pastor. During his early years, the artist worked for a firm of art dealers in the Hague and in London before he became a missionary worker. His artistic career began when he was 27 years old and spanned only ten years until his suicide in 1890. Mostly self-taught, he produced more than 800 paintings and 1,200 drawings during his short career. He compulsively wrote eloquent letters expressing his hard-working and exceptionally sensitive and intellectual nature.

The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters [Royal Academy of Arts]
Van Gogh at the Royal Academy: Illuminating and Shocking [The Guardian]
The Real Van Gogh at the Royal Academy [Times Online]
Royal Academy’s Van Gogh show is a real record-breaker [London Evening Standard]
Vincent Van Gogh’s Letter’s Go Digital [LA Times]
Van Gogh’s letters shed light on his work [Financial Times]
Royal Academy to Showcase Van Gogh’s Private Side [The Independent]

-R.A.P

Currently showing at Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue  is an exhibition of work by Elisa Sighicelli entitled ‘The Party is Over.’  The show encompasses nine photographic works and two video installations that explore themes of stillness and motion – specifically, of places ’suspended in time.’ Sighicelli’s images capture a variety of structures, from billboards and a planetarium to tangles of bamboo scaffolding against a building. Different qualities of light are used in each piece to convey the information of an infrastructure in all it’s mood and glare – materials of metal and concrete begin to take on emotional qualities. ”I always think of my photos as shot by an alien somehow– you have a feeling of displacement, but at the same time you think you recognize something…”

Sighicelli, Untitled (Empty Square) 2009 Via Gagosian

More text, images and related links after the jump…

An installation view of Sighicelli’s ‘The Party is Over’ Via Gagosian

In her work, Sighicelli focuses on what would normally be perceived as ‘ordinary’ architectural detail. Capturing the intrinsic properties of structures through the use of light, her work functions as a kind of revelation on the complex and intricate geometries of our everyday surroundings. The artist uses an intriguing technique to achieve strong contrast in her work – her photographic works consist of partially backlit prints on light boxes. Large portions of the prints are masked out on the back, allowing only specific areas to show through. The technique produces a stark contrast between the darker areas of the work and the brighter areas, which emanate with a kind of pulsating, vibrant light.

Sighicelli, Untitled (Prop) 2009 Via Gagosian

In Sighicelli’s work, the back of a billboard transforms from mere infrastructure into wondrous abstraction. In a recent interview, Sighicelli explains, “I was interested in the billboards, the bamboo and the planetarium as geometric objects. A theme that runs through all the works in the show is a search for geometry in the details of everyday life…”  ”I always try not to give too many references to a real space in order to distance myself  from documentary material. I try to subtract the characteristics that make an object or a space immediately recognizable; I try to de-familiarize what we see in our everyday life.”

Sighicelli, Untitled (Triangle) 2009 Via Gagosian

Sighicelli, Untitled, (Video Projection) 2009 Via Gagosian “My works are mute and time is suspended, but light indicates a wish to communicate. It keeps a moment belonging to the past continually alive and present,” Sighicelli has stated.

Born in Turin, Italy in 1968, Sighicelli studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She currently lives and works in Turin, and has exhibited her work  in numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York, Milan, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Turin. ‘The Party is Over’ marks Sighicelli’s fourth show with Gagosian Gallery.

Sighicelli, Untitled, (Sphere) 2009 Via Gagosian

Sighicelli, Untitled, (Objectless Composition no.3) 2009 Via Gagosian

Related Links:
Elisa Sighicelli with John Yau [The Brooklyn Rail]
Elisa Sighicelli ‘The Party is Over‘ [Gagosian]

-G.Suter

“Kepler was Wrong”, the exhibition of the new works by the renowned Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is on view at Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid from January 19 through March 6, 2010. “Kepler was Wrong” features works created especially for this particular exhibition, the first solo show for Eliasson in this gallery.  The artist takes on a humorous argument with Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, whose theories provided the foundation for Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation.  Eight works on display at Galeria Elvira Gonzales treat different aspects and elements related to the universe, outer space and extraterrestrial traveling, such as the dark side of the moon, gravitation, meteorites etc.  For this particular exhibition, Eliasson creates his own variant the universe that includes seven installations and a large panel of black – and –white photography Jokla Series(2004).
More text, images and related text after the jump….

How long does it take (an astronaut) to get out of a black hole, Olafur Eliasson 2010

Installation View

Jokingly debunking Kepler’s first law of undisturbed planetary motion, according to which the orbit of each planet is an ellipse and the Sun is at one focus, the artist appoints his viewer, whom he calls “The Fourth Dimension”, the center of this mini-universe.

Olafur Elisson, a recipient of prestigious Miro Prize of 2007, is no stranger to depiction of universally relevant issues of massive scale: in 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, a laboratory for spatial research. From 1998 to 2000, Eliasson realized a so- called “Green River” project aimed at turning people’s attention to environmental issues: the artist chose four rivers in different cities — Bremen, Germany; Moss, Norway; Los Angeles; and Stockholm — and, by pouring nontoxic dye into them, temporarily turned them green.

His flirtations with extra-terrestrial theme began in with his 2002 “Lava Floor” project in at the Musee d’art moderne de la ville in Paris.  The attendees of the exhibition had to walk over a large patch of lava-covered floor to reach the exhibition hall. Perhaps his most renowned project of 2003 “The Weather Project” was on display at Turbine Hall at Tate Modern as a part of Unilever Series. The artist used monofrequency lights, which make colors other than yellow and black invisible, to create a giant semi-circular sun, which was rounded out by a giant ceiling mirror, in which viewers could gaze at their reflections.  Haze machines created mist that permeated the space and added to the impression that natural phenomena were at work.

Relevant Links: Artist’s Homepage
Galeria Elvira Gonzalez Homepage
Thinking Glacially, Acting Artfully [NY Times]

On February 11th ArtObserved was on-site at the media preview of Kiki Smith’s latest lofty installation based on her thoughts on the passage of one’s life and artistic development. ‘Kiki Smith: Sojourn’ is on view at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, The Brooklyn Museum, through September 12, 2010, marking the fourth site-specific installation as part of a grand, long-term project. Other venues included Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany (March 16–August 24, 2008) and traveled to Kunsthalle Nürnberg (September 18–November 16, 2008) and Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (February 19–May 24, 2009).

ArtObserved in conversation with Kiki Smith at the opening of “Kiki Smith: Sojourn”, The Brooklyn Museum

more images, text and links after the jump…

Kiki Smith. Photograph by Chris Sanders

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Major Henry Trippe House Chamber Room. All artwork: © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. Photo Courtesy the Brooklyn Museum

The genesis of this exploration was a chance encounter with a highly unique eighteenth-century New England needlework, Prudence Punderson’s The First, Second and Last Scenes of Mortality (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford). This work is exceptional in its portrayal of a woman’s creative life; instead of the acknowledged rites of passage for women, including marriage and childbearing, Punderson has depicted a woman in the act of creating. Kiki Smith, taking this piece as a starting point, has extended her focus across a variety of universally applicable experiences, stretching from the obvious: birth and death, to the minutia of daily life: domestic chores. Within this context she conflates an artist’s creative journey with stages of one’s life. Birth becomes a creative awakening; youth represents an artistic exploration, maturity is the creative acme, which is followed by old age and finally death.

Prudence Punderson, Scenes of Mortality, Preston, CT ca. 1783. Silk needlework on linen. Courtesy of The Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, CT

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Gallery 1A. This Image features (from right to left): Annunciation, 2008, Cast aluminum, Chair: Messenger II, 2008, Cast aluminum, white gold and gold leaf. Visitation III, 2007, Ink, graphite, colored pencil, mica and collage on Nepal paper. Visitation I, 2007, Ink, graphite, colored pencil, mica, glitter, and collage on Nepal paper.

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Gallery 7. This image includes:
Closed Coffin (on table), 2008. Ink on Nepal paper with graphite and lithographic crayon, 93 1/2 x 99 in. (237.5 x 251.5 cm). Heute (Now), 2008. Wood, lamp glass, coffin, drop-leaf table, 10 dandelion puffs made of glass. Mortal, 2007, Suite of woodblock prints on Tanbo paper.

This large exhibition extends over several segmented galleries and two of the museum’s eighteenth-century period rooms in the nearby Decorative Arts galleries. The period rooms, which visitors are encouraged to view first as a kind of visual prologue, are possibly the most successful in the entire exhibition as the transportation into another person’s life is total. The enclosed, interior space and dim lighting create an intense viewing experience. Catherine J. Morris, organizer of the exhibition and curator at the museum, said of the use of space: “The notion of space has a particular resonance for women artist’s throughout history. Their artistic impulses have long been constrained… In the British author Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay “A Room of One’s Own,” she asserts that privacy and personal liberty are vital to the success of creative pursuits. Space, therefore, is the key to artistic inspiration.” Thus we are encouraged to understand the private domestic interiors as an important space for women artists to negotiate as part of their creative pursuits.

The moment of creative inspiration, rendered as the annunciation (a key passage in the Virgin Mary’s life cycle), in the main gallery is an attempt to link, as Morris describes it, “artistic vision and spiritual experience”. Yet, in actuality it is a grand allusion, not just to spirituality but also to religion, which potentially sits uncomfortably with our contemporary conception of the artist. Prominent twentieth-century artists, most prolifically Duchamp and Warhol, actively sought to destroy romantic (or Romantic) notions of the artist; and now the authority and autonomy of the artist is generally diminished. What is more, the conflation between the moment of inspiration and the annunciation within the specific context of a woman’s life also feels problematic. The annunciation strikes one as a religious experience that is enforced and out of the woman’s control. Morris explains, “Ultimately, Sojourn, suggests the creative potential of women limited by obligations and propriety as it explores Smith’s own ideas of how inspiration reveals itself in women’s literal and metaphorical space.”

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Major Henry Trippe House Hall. This Image features: Sybills, 2005, Oil paint, clear antique glass, gold leaf. Mrs. and Mrs., 2010, Papier-mâché with muslin. So and so and so and so, 2010, Papier-mâché with muslin and graphite. Embroidery, 2010, Wood, metal, linen, cotton. In your eyes, 2010

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Gallery 2. This Image features (from left to right): Chair, 2008, Papier-mâché with glass glitter, Dimensions Unknown. Untitled (Flower Blanket), 1992, Nepal paper, Dimensions Unknown. Coming Forth, 2008, Collage and ink on Nepal paper,. Tethered, 2009, Ink on Nepal Paper, Dimensions Unknown

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Gallery 3. This Image features: Her Bouquet, 2007-2008, Ink on Nepal paper with glass glitter, lithographic crayon and silk tissue; oil paint on mouth-blown clear antique glass with white and yellow gold leaf, Work on Nepal 1: Work on Nepal 2: Glass panels Light Bulbs, 2008, Papier-mâché, tooth picks, gold leaf, silver leaf, mica and glass glitter, Bulbs.

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Gallery 4. This Image features: Search, 2008, Cast aluminum, white gold and gold leaf. Mirror Blossoms, 2008, Mouth blown clear antique glass, black paint, yellow and white gold-coated, Five Panels, approximately each. Silver Bird, 2006, Ink on Nepal paper with silver gouache, mica, glitter and graphite

Kiki Smith Sojourn Installation Image- Gallery 6A. This Image features (from left to right not including the Open Coffin artwork): Surrounding, 2009, Ink on Nepal paper, Approximate: Singer, 2008, Cast aluminum. Animals in the World, 2007, Collage, ink, graphite and colored pencil on Nepal paper.

Kiki Smith, Annunciation, 2008. Cast aluminum. Photo by: Joerg Lohse/ Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

Kiki Smith, Messenger III (detail), 2008. Cast aluminum, white gold and gold leaf. Photo detail by: Joerg Lohse/ Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

Kiki Smith,  Singer (detail), 2008. Cast aluminum, 65″ x 27″ x 24″ (165.1 cm x 68.6 cm x 61 cm). Photo detail by: Volker Dohne/ Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

Considering that the context for this exhibition is within the Elizabeth A. Sackler Centre for Feminist Art, do you believe that the creative process, or journey, is gender specific?

Well I think that 99.9 per cent of your life is not gender specific. However, it is still true that women have much less creative representation than men. America is better than elsewhere in the world but it is nonetheless true.

In my work I am interested in the experience of women, and the works are also convolutedly self-reflective; thus the works tend to feature the experience of middle class, white women. But in terms of practicing art, no, I do not think that is dictated by one’s gender. People, regardless of gender, choose to be dedicated to their practice.

On the other hand, I am compelled by stereotypically gendered art forms, for instance handicrafts like tapestry or other art forms that historically spring from domestic life, needlework, etc. Nevertheless, those decorative bulbs hanging behind you [part of the installation as a whole] are made using techniques I learnt in nursery school – just pasting and covering in glitter. I like the majority of my works to be accessible in terms of how they are made. I do not believe in inherent [artistic] ability.

Going back to you talking about the poor representation of women creatively, would you say this installation is making amends historically or canonically. I feel like there is a historical resonance to the exhibit – that it is a comment on women’s creative identity within history.

Well I always like to return to my old joke that historically most women represented in art are reclining, naked and eating fruit. Because of that I think there is an enormous space in art that has not been covered. All materials and subjects should be equal in art, therefore we should investigate women’s experiences or craft-based materials – there shouldn’t be a hierarchy in art. This is what I think we learned from the 1960s and 70s.

I also, almost more than historically referencing, like to make cross-cultural references. For instance, with the annunciation that was partly borne of my own experiences being brought up as a Catholic; I really like the related cultural symbolism, as well as, the decorative quality of the resultant artworks. At the same time I looked at androgyny in Chinese art – so I made my figures quite androgynous.

So finally what is the significance of the title ‘Sojourn’, which seems comparatively short compared to the length of a lifetime?

I’ve always liked Sojourner Truth’s name not only because it’s a terrific name, but because she chose it, she made it. For a woman to choose her own name seems to me an incredible thing. It’s a radical and a spiritual name. And I like the fact she’s complex – I like complicated people. It is certainly one of the most beautiful names I’ve ever heard. I have titled a lot of things Sojourn after her.

Also we are, after all, just visitors in life. A sojourn can refer to all or any aspect of that, for instance walking a gallery or movement through a landscape.

ArtObserved in conversation with Kiki Smith at the opening of “Kiki Smith: Sojourn”, The Brooklyn Museum

RELATED LINKS:

Interview with Kiki Smith [New York Magazine]
Artist’s profile at Pace Wildenstein Gallery
On Being a Woman, From Cradle to Grave [New York Times]
Kiki Smith’s Sojourn in Brooklyn [The L Magazine]
The Scene: Kiki Smith, Sojourn [Art in America]
A Woman in Full [The Daily Beast]
Kiki Smith [Journal of Contemporary Art]
Kiki Smith: Interviews and Videos[Art21:PBS]

Bread or Alive

Currently showing at the Kunstalle Dusseldorf is “Eating the Universe. Food in Art.” The exhibit reflects on the term “Eat Art” coined by Swiss Artist Daniel Spoerri after he opened his restaurant in Burgplatz in Dusseldorf proceeded to found the Eat Art Gallery in 1970. The gallery inspired artists to produce works out of edible materials and food wastes. The exhibition’s title “Eating the Universe” was first used by Peter Kulbelka, former professor for film and cooking at the Studeschule in Frankfurt, for his 1970’s TV show on cooking as an art form. “Eating the Universe. Food in Art” reveals the continual link between food and art and their joint impact on life.

A Visitor looks at Thomas Rentmeister’s Untitled (2007) made of sugar and a shopping cart, via Artdaily

more images, text and links after the jump…

Tableau-Piege 19 (1972) by Daniel Spoerri, via the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf

The exhibition is divided into two sections concentrating largely on works by Daniel Spoerri as well as those made for the Eat Art Gallery. The historical part of the exhibition concentrates on the origins of the Eat Art and showcases a replica of the Spoerri’s gallery. The main part of the exhibition features more recent work using edible materials.

Emsrausch (2008) by Sonia Alhauser, via Kunstalle Dusseldorf

More recent works present the impact of the “art of food” on our present society. For example, revealing the aesthetic materiality of edible goods, the obsessive complexity of eating disorders and corporeal ideals of beauty, and the kitchen as a creative and socially productive place.

Untitled (2007) by Damien Thomas Rentmeister, via Kunstalle Dusseldorf

The exhibition features important international loans and performances developed specifically for the exhibition by selected artists. Artists featured include Paul McCarthy, Joseph Beuys, Lili Fisher, Gordon Matta-Clark, Dieter Roth, Rikrit Tiravanija, and Philip Ross.

Exhibition Page [Kunstalle Dusseldorf]
Kunstalle Dusseldorf Eats the Universe with Exhibition of Art Made with and Involving Food [Artdaily]

-R.A.P.

Through March 6, New York’s Marian Goodman Gallery is showing two films by Steve McQueen.  This is the American debut of “Giardini,” the 30-minute, two-projection film which premiered at the 2009 Venice Biennale and is set on its grounds. “Static” (2009) is showing for the first time, made specifically for the exhibition and centered around the Statue of Liberty. Perspective and national monument are satirized and subverted, recreated in this new exhibition.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery, along with “Giardini,” through March 6.

More images and story after the jump…

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.

The curator, Leslie Nolen, tells me that “Giardini” works to make the “familiar” seem “unrecognizable.” As the stills below demonstrate, the viewer is shown barren buildings, overrun by barbarism. These are the Biennale grounds between celebrations, in the wake of spectacle — made, of course, spectacle by the film. The film lets its audience see the Biennale after the art has gone, and the over-determination over, leaving just the possibilities for next year’s festival and the histories of the last festivals behind. In opening up perspective, McQueen gives visitors a dwelling of possibility (as Dickinson would put it).

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.

“Static” recalls, in title, fixed perspective, temporally and spatially. Accordingly, the film displays different pieces of New York and New Jersey skylines by working around the monument which marks them, the Statue of Liberty. That is, a static monument meant to define a melting pot is used as the pivot for changing perspective. To borrow T.J. Demos’s notes on “Giardini,” “The film’s suspension of its images in a field of multiple possibilities defines its power: to release life from belonging to any certain code, clear narrative, or restrictive regiment.” By the same token, the national and international monuments on which these films capitalize are broken into their parts, these “static” centers shifting by the fact of their filming.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.

Born in 1969, the British artist Steve McQueen studied at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts; the Chelsea School of Art, London; and Goldsmith College in London. He has had solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; Tate Britain; MoMA in New York; Vienna Kunsthalle; Prada Foundation, Milan; and more. He is the 1999 recipient of the Turner Prize.

- R. Fogel

Related links:
Marian Goodman Gallery
Steve McQueen [Artnet]
Steve McQueen, Intense Seeker of Powerful Elegance [NYT]