Art in America - Most Recent News Posts

Deutsche Guggenheim Will Close This Year, Cites Changing Art World

Stephanie Cash — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0100

The ever-expanding Guggenheim Foundation is, for a change, pruning one of its outposts. The Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin will close at the end of this year.

Ben Kaufmann Closes Berlin Gallery, Plans Career in Football

Nana Asfour — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0100

The spring art season in Berlin lacks an important component: Galerie Ben Kaufmann. The gallery represented international artists Matthias Dornfeld, Bernd Ribbeck and Florian Morlat, among others. Reached by e-mail, the 39-year-old Kaufmann told A.i.A. that keeping up with the gallery's demands had become too daunting. "Nearly one year ago, I was in Mexico City for business reasons; after that I was installing a show in Paris and was due for an appointment in L.A. It was too much, I needed a change," he said. "Our time at the gallery was great, but I always knew that I would need to get out of the art business one day."

'Turf,' A Super Bowl Pre-Game Art Show

Sarah Cascone — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:15:00 +0100

With the spotlight on Indianapolis in the lead-up to Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, the city's art community is encouraging football fans to consider art viewing as a pre-game activity in addition to the traditional tailgate parties.

Dorothea Tanning Dies, Age 101

Stephanie Cash — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0100

Dorothea Tanning, artist and poet, died on Jan. 31 at the age of 101. Erudite and prolific for seven decades, Tanning often said she learned how to paint by gazing at paintings on her frequent visits to the Art Institute of Chicago. Her Surrealist figurative work in oil on canvas or watercolor on paper gave way in the 1950s to more atmospheric abstractions. Beginning in the late '50s, she also made biomorphic soft sculptures out of materials like wool, tweed, felt and fur.

VIP Online Fair Re-Boots

Brian Boucher — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0100

Making a bold bid after a troubled first outing, VIP launches its second annual online-only art fair today. The fair will be online through Wednesday Feb 8.

Walker Hires Curator of Public Practice

Sarah Cascone — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:30:00 +0100

Sarah Schultz, of Minneapolis's Walker Art Center, has a new title: director of education and curator of public practice. Formerly the director of education, a position she has held since 2000, Schultz has recently helped run several initiatives designed to facilitate the museum's efforts to engage the city's public.

Steven Leiber, 1957-2012

Stephanie Cash — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0100

Steven Leiber, 54, art dealer and collector, died Jan. 28 in San Francisco after a year-long battle with cancer. Leiber occupied a niche, specializing in contemporary artist's books, reference material and ephemera-announcements, flyers, posters-as well as multiples and works on paper.

Artist Mike Kelley Dead at 57

Stephanie Cash — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:30:00 +0100

Artist Mike Kelley has died, age 57. The cause of death has not been announced. The news was reported by the New York Observer's Gallerist blog (which indicated that the cause was said to be suicide), and confirmed by A.i.A.

Massimiliano Gioni Will Curate the 2013 Venice Biennale

Stephanie Cash — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Italian Massimiliano Gioni has been appointed director of the 2013 Venice Biennale. The seemingly omnipresent 39-year-old is associate director of the New Museum in New York and artistic director of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan. He will maintain these responsibilities.

Conceptual Pioneer David Lamelas Works All the Angles

Aimee Walleston — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100

When they enter "New York Exists in 8.5 Billion Sq. Ft.," David Lamelas's exhibition at New York's Maccarone gallery, visitors are confronted with a violent stream of white light. Two back-to-back 16-mm projectors without film, which the artist has placed in the gallery foyer, produce the light. One projector shines right at the door onto the street; the other casts a small square of white light onto the gallery's front wall. "I made this piece up in my mind when I was a little child," the 66-year-old Lamelas told A.i.A. at the gallery. "When I was young I loved the cinema, and what impressed me the most was to look back and see this abstract stream of light that would become an image on screen."

Rauschenberg Foundation Announces Inaugural Grant Winners

Brian Boucher — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation today announced the inaugural recipients of its new Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant Program. The Foundation will award grants of between $50,000 and $150,000. From a pool of 65 arts organizations nationwide that were invited to apply in 2011, nine grants, totaling $800,000, are being awarded.

Hip Dealer Spengemann Named Marlborough Chelsea Director

Sarah Cascone — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:45:00 +0100

As part of Marlborough Chelsea's ongoing efforts to shed its staid reputation, the gallery has named Pascal Spengemann as its new director. His previous position was at the downtown gallery Taxter & Spengemann, which he co-founded in 2003 and closed at the end of last year.

Mega-Gallery Hauser & Wirth Will Open in Former Chelsea Club

Leigh Anne Miller — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0100

Three years after opening its first New York gallery, in an Upper East Side townhouse that previously housed the firm's private American office, Hauser & Wirth is extending its domain southward. Scheduled to open this fall, their massive new Chelsea space, on 18th Street near the West Side Highway, will be the gallery's seventh venue (joining three in London, two in Zurich--where it opened in 1992 in a former brewery--and the townhouse uptown).

Trippy PST Performance at Broad Center

Paul David Young — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:15:00 +0100

Regardless whether there was something in the water at the Broad Art Center at UCLA: watching Single Wing Turquoise Bird Experimental Digital Art's "Light Show," on Jan. 26, was a trip. The "Light Show," an oozing, swirling bottomless fall into layers of transforming colored forms and images, also boasted a top-notch band, which would have been well worth listening to on its own, as it comfortably shifted between acid rock, jazz and R&B in tandem with the projections. The "Light Show" is one of the performance offerings sponsored by the Getty Museum in connection with the immense Pacific Standard Time exhibitions in Los Angeles.

Christie's Old Master Sale Cashes in on Liz Taylor, Otherwise Disappoints

Eric Russ — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0100

The first of a four-part sale of old masters at Christie's in New York yesterday brought tepid results, fetching $34.3 million, well below a pre-sale estimate of $38–56 million. Despite property from the estate of Elizabeth Taylor, and marquee names including Rubens, van Dyck, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Hans Memling, Frans Hals and Giambattista Tiepolo, several pricey offerings fell short of expectations.

Istanbul Curator Pulls Work From Auction, Sparking Censorship Debate

Sheela Raman — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100

The chief curator at the Istanbul Modern banned an artwork from a charity auction last month, sparking debate about the rise of censorship in Turkey.

Upper East Side Master Drawings Range From Pontormo to Sandback

Andrew Raftery — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0100

Now in its fifth year, Master Drawings New York [through Jan. 28] has evolved from a showcase primarily for drawings made between the Renaissance and the First World War into an event that includes material stretching to the 20th century and contemporary art. The format remains the same: private dealers from the United States and Europe colonize galleries on the Upper East Side while resident galleries bring out their best drawings for week-long exhibitions that coincide with the Old Master Auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's.

Abu Dhabi Says Saadiyat Island Will Move Forward

Stephanie Cash — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:30:00 +0100

The sprawling multibillion-dollar cultural development on Saadiyat Island is moving forward, according to a statement that appeared today on the website of Abu Dhabi's executive council. Two of the projects slated for the island-outposts of the Guggenheim and the Louvre-were put on hold last October as Abu Dhabi's economy foundered. Saadiyat Island is being developed by the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), of the United Arab Emirates.

National Arts Club Suffers Continued Irregularities

Brian Boucher — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

It's a big week at New York's National Arts Club, with internal hearings taking place that will determine whether a longtime president will be ousted from the club's membership. The august East Side institution, which hosts art exhibitions, film screenings and other events, has boasted members from Cecilia Beaux to Martin Scorsese. Under investigation by the state attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney for financial irregularities, the club is at the center of a series of suits and countersuits, as reported this weekend in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

India Art Fair Gains Major Dealers, Courts Collectors

Shoba Narayan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

"Once you exceed 100,000 people, it's not a numbers game anymore. It's about bringing high quality collectors in," says Neha Kirpal, 31, founder of the India Art Fair, explaining to A.i.A. her strategy for the fair's fourth edition, which takes place at the NSIC Grounds in New Delhi, Jan. 25–29. Last year, some 128,000 people visited the fair—that's London's Frieze and Art Basel Miami Beach combined, by some estimates.