Art in America articles from January 2009

Art in America archives from January 2009

L.A. MOCA in dire straits; broad soldiers on.(FRONT PAGE)(Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art)
January 1, 2009... Though most nonprofits are bracing for tough economic times, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art's disclosure in November of the severity of its financial crisis came as something of a surprise to many art world observers. The museum,...

Fall auctions: what goes up ...(FRONT PAGE)
January 1, 2009... ART PRICES PLUMMETED this fall at New York's three major auction houses as once-profligate spenders sat out the season. Following several years of overheated bidding, ballooning sales totals and wildly inflated pre-sale estimates, the dramatic...

Selling the other Asia.(FRONT PAGE)(2008 Asian Contemporary Art Fair)
January 1, 2009... Countering the usual dominance of China, Japan and Korea, the 2008 Asian Contemporary Art Fair (ACAF), which took place Nov. 6-10 on Manhattan's Pier 92, also highlighted works from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia. Among the...

The Times they are a-changin'.(FRONT PAGE)(New York Times )(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Iraq War ended on Nov. 12, if you went by a "special edition" of the New York Times that was handed out by volunteers nationwide that morning. Dated July 4, 2009, the 14-page spoof was created by...

After losses, auction houses rethink guarantees.(FRONT PAGE)
January 1, 2009... AS IF THE DISAPPOINTING sales at the November evening auctions in New York weren't bad enough [see p. 25]--after all, how could a prize Bacon along with Richter paintings and a slew of Warhols fail to sell?--the major auction houses racked up...

Instant gratification.(Polaroids: Mapplethorpe)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, by Sylvia Wolf, Munich, Prestel, 2007; 254 pages, $60. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Robert Mapplethorpe's Polaroids--taken 1970-75, when the artist was 23 to 29 years old--document his emerging identity, both...

Hoarding history.(Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage, by James Cuno, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008; 228 pages, $24.95 hardcover. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] James Cuno's passionate, finely reasoned new book,...

Shifting centers, multiple margins.(ARCHITECTURE)(Architecture Biennale)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ACCORDING TO conventional wisdom, the Venice Architecture Biennale is a snapshot of the field at a point in time. But since the show's inception a generation ago, the swings between editions have been wide,...

NY galleries.(Calendar)
January 1, 2009... CHELSEA Aperture Gallery 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001 Tel: 212.505.5555 Fax: 212.505.7527 Email: publicity@aperture.org Website: www.aperture.org Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00-6:00 November...

On the verge: the author surveys the nascent but rich contemporary art scene in a country currently more associated with internal political strife and the international war on terror than with progressive culture.(PAKISTAN REPORT)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GIVEN THE FASCINATION with India's modish and expensive new art, it was only a matter of time before the market and media fervor spread to its neighbor and historical rival, Pakistan. Or that is what I was thinking...

The pitiless eye: Maria Lassnig: the first U.S. museum survey of Lassnig's paintings and films exposes an artist adept at outrage and self-laceration.
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MARIA LASSNIG HAS SPENT the past 60 years making paintings that show us exactly how she feels in her own skin. In what she calls her "Korperbilder" or "body awareness paintings," Lassnig depicts only the parts of her...

Disappearing acts: Robin Rhode: leaning toward abstraction but with a keen eye for cultural currents, the South African-born, Bet in-based artist is as quick-handed as the illusionists he depicts.(Cover story)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AS ONE IMAGE DISSOLVES to the next in Robin Rhode's hypnotic black-and-white digital projection Promenade (2008), a silent performer in a business suit and white gloves, a black stocking obscuring his face, slowly...

A French alternative: Martin Barre: celebrated in Europe but little known in the U.S., the painter created abstract works that challenge received histories of modern art.
January 1, 2009... MARTIN BARRE, ARGUABLY ONE of the most important French painters of the second half of the 20th century, had only one U.S. solo show in his lifetime, but he exhibited widely during his years of professional production from 1955 until his death...

Alfred Leslie: an interview by Judith E. Stein.(Interview)
January 1, 2009... AN ARTIST OF DIVERSE TALENTS and prodigious energy, Alfred Leslie (b. Bronx, N.Y., 1927) was still a teenager when he began making paintings, sculptures and films, as weft as taking photographs and writing music and short stories. To this day,...

Charles Avery: back to the island: with a sprawling exhibition and a companion book that is at once an ethnographers journal, day-tripper's guide and metaphysical treatise the Scottish artist takes us away.(The Islanders: An Introduction')
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE VISITOR TO Charles Avery's exhibition "The Islanders: An Introduction'" assumes the role of an outsider--curiosity seeker, tourist, anthropologist--entering an intricately conceived fictional world. Comprising...

David Tremlett: Gering & Lopez.(In Space)
January 1, 2009... NEW YORK DAVID TREMLETT GERING & LOPEZ [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With nearly four decades of work behind him, the British artist David Tremlett is still little known in the U.S., despite having exhibited widely in Europe and as...

Nathan Carter: Casey Kaplan.(Radio Transmission Contraptions)
January 1, 2009... NATHAN CARTER CASEY KAPLAN [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the most formally buoyant gallery exhibitions of this season's opening round, Nathan Carter's "Radio Transmission Contraptions" had wit to spare and energy to burn....

Pipilotti Rist: MOMA.(Pour Your Body Out)
January 1, 2009... PIPILOTTI RIST MOMA [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE VIDEO-AND-SOUND environments of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist are easy on the eyes and ears--making them an excellent balm for today's world-weary culture travelers. And if the same can...

Dzine: Deitch Studios.(The Beautiful Struggle)
January 1, 2009... DZINE DEITCH STUDIOS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For "The Beautiful Struggle," Dzine transformed the industrial space of Deitch Studios into a showroom for customized vehicles, complete with the voluptuous shapes and glitzy trimmings...

Michael Krebber: Greene Naftali.
January 1, 2009... MICHAEL KREBBER GREENE NAFTALI [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Michael Krebber's recent exhibition opened one day after the much-ballyhooed Damien Hirst sale at Sotheby's in September--mere happenstance, though it seems to have conditioned...

Stan Vanderbeek: Guild & Greyshkul.
January 1, 2009... STAN VANDERBEEK GUILD & GREYSHKUL [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984) is usually remembered as an experimental filmmaker, but this summary label is ultimately too confining for his wide-ranging creativity. An...

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Drawing Center.
January 1, 2009... RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA DRAWING CENTER [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 200-odd pencil drawings depicting moments of contemporary political protest around the globe that made up this exhibition are based on photos selected by Rirkrit...

Yevgeniy Fiks: Winkleman.
January 1, 2009... YEVGENIY FIKS WINKLEMAN [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From time to time, the process of showing and selling art becomes the subject of the art itself. This reflexivity was often central to the debates that informed early Conceptual art,...

Jason Karolak: Massimo Audiello.(Rivers of the Same Mountain)
January 1, 2009... JASON KAROLAK MASSIMO AUDIELLO [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This was Chicago-based Jason Karolak's debut show in New York, and it was a beautiful one. The title of the exhibition was "Rivers of the Same Mountain," which paraphrases a...

Alexander Ross: Marianne Boesky and David Nolan.
January 1, 2009... ALEXANDER ROSS MARIANNE BOESKY AND DAVID NOLAN [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As seen in an exhibition of paintings and collages at Marianne Boesky, and of drawings at David Nolan, Alexander Ross's depictions of mysterious forms create a...

Stephen Talasnik: Marlborough.
January 1, 2009... STEPHEN TALASNIK MARLBOROUGH [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Crisply detailed crypto-architectural forms, vigorously erased and abraded and otherwise obscured only to be succeeded by others, fade in and out of focus in Stephen Talasnik's...

Sati Zech: Howard Scott.
January 1, 2009... SATI ZECH HOWARD SCOTT [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Berlin-based Sati Zech discards the stretcher bar entirely in a direct address of the support. She assembles horizontal strips of raveling canvas, one overlapping the next, joined by...

Patricia Iglesias: Fake Estate.
January 1, 2009... PATRICIA IGLESIAS FAKE ESTATE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the grand New York tradition, Patricia Iglesias found the source for her new work in a Dumpster--a sheaf of old architectural plans, not blueprints, but original drawings on...

Isabel Bigelow: Sears Peyton.
January 1, 2009... ISABEL BIGELOW SEARS PEYTON [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the eight new oils on panel in this exhibition, Isabel Bigelow reduced natural forms to iconic silhouetted shapes in compositions strongly influenced by Japanese prints....

Whiting Tennis: Derek Eller.
January 1, 2009... WHITING TENNIS DEREK ELLER [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his third solo exhibition at Derek Eller, Seattle's Whiting Tennis winningly conjured a nostalgically tinged, derelict rural America. The 22 works shown (all 2005-08) ranged...

Leif Kath: Elizabeth Harris.(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... LEIF KATH ELIZABETH HARRIS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If Myron Stout were to come back as a midcareer Danish artist, his work might look like that of Leif Kath, whose show was among the first in a spate of New York exhibitions last...

Robert Bauer: Forum.
January 1, 2009... ROBERT BAUER FORUM [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the absence of discernible personality and direct eye contact, these solemn faces, 21 portraits by Robert Bauer, offered a resounding presence of spirit, almost sacred. Forum Gallery...

Rachel Whiteread: Museum of Fine Arts.
January 1, 2009... BOSTON RACHEL WHITEREAD MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ON VIEW THROUGH JAN. 25 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Rachel Whiteread's sculptures of interior spaces, the works for which she is best known, are defined by their formal power and...

Raja Ram Sharma: Victoria Munroe.
January 1, 2009... BOSTON RAJA RAM SHARMA VICTORIA, MUNROE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Raja Ram Sharma is a contemporary painter in the Indian miniature tradition. He is also a master temple painter who oversees the painting of pichwai (cloth...

Alison Luoma: Fe.
January 1, 2009... PITTSBURGH ALISON LUOMA FE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Investigating themes of domesticity and femininity is a daunting task: given the legacy of artworks that broach these subjects, it is difficult to avoid seeming trite or...

Robert Wilhite: Barry Whistler.
January 1, 2009... DALLAS ROBERT WILHITE BARRY WHISTLER [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Southern California sculptor and furniture maker Robert Wilhite is known for his flawless, deft craftsmanship. He has been showing since the mid-'70s, and this...

Nathan Redwood: Carl Berg.(Constant Speed)
January 1, 2009... LOS ANGELES NATHAN REDWOOD CARL BERG [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For his second Los Angeles gallery exhibition, painter Nathan Redwood refined what is quickly becoming a signature style. His thick, meaty brushstrokes of diluted...

Sandeep Mukherjee: Cottage Home and Sister.
January 1, 2009... LOS ANGELES SANDEEP MUKHERJEE COTTAGE HOME AND SISTER [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In this two-venue exhibition, L.A. artist Sandeep Mukherjee--one of the city's most underrated midcareer artists--revealed the full blossoming of...

Salomon Huerta: Patrick Painter.
January 1, 2009... SANTA MONICA SALOMON HUERTA PATRICK PAINTER [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As with much of his work to date, the eight oil paintings and two painted bronze sculptures in Salomon Huerta's recent solo show investigated how social...

Ray Beldner: Catharine Clark.
January 1, 2009... SAN FRANCISCO RAY BELDNER CATHARINE CLARK [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "The Word," Ray Beldner's third show at Catharine Clark, took me back to art of the 1980s by Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger, and particularly sculptures by...

Isaac Layman: Lawrimore Project.
January 1, 2009... SEATTLE ISAAC LAYMAN LAWRIMORE PROJECT [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his ambitious second solo exhibition at Lawrimore, Isaac Layman managed to strip away the "problem" of photographic artifice with surprising rigor and...

Roger Hiorns: Artangel and Corvi-Mora.
January 1, 2009... LONDON ROGER HIORNS ARTANGEL AND CORVI-MORA [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Before entering Roger Hiorns's Seizure, an Artangel-sponsored installation in a South London flat scheduled for demolition, viewers were issued rubber boots,...

Harold Cohen: Bernard Jacobson.(Color Rules)
January 1, 2009... LONDON HAROLD COHEN BERNARD JACOBSON [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The digital prints exhibited in "Color Rules" were produced by a computer program called AARON, which was created by the English-born artist Harold Cohen to...

Photography in Dusseldorf: Musee D'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
January 1, 2009... PARIS PHOTOGRAPHY IN DUSSELDORF MUSEE D'ART MODERNE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS ON VIEW THROUGH JAN. 4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Objectivites: La photographie a Dusseldorf" is a wide-ranging overview of photography in the...

Mariana Castillo Deball: Barbara Wien.(Nobody was Tomorrow)
January 1, 2009... BERLIN MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL Barbara Wien [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Blank sheets of paper, lightly creased to elicit the basic lines of faces, impassively received visitors to Mariana Castillo Debalrs exhibition at Barbara...

Katsura Funakoshi Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.
January 1, 2009... TOKYO KATSURA FUNAKOSHI TOKYO METROPOLITAN TEIEN ART MUSEUM [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Katsura Funakoshi's carved camphorwood sculptures maintain an eerie tension between realism and artifice. The figures he began creating in the...

Art schools.(Directory)
January 1, 2009... NEW ENGLAND The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University Office of Admission, 700 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215 617-585-6710 or 800-773-0494 x6710 www.aiboston.edu/info/art * admissions@aiboston.edu Professional...

Grace Hartigan: 1922-2008.(ARTWORLD)(Obituary)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Grace Hartigan, 86, died Nov. 16 in Baltimore. A painter of great exuberance associated early in her career with Abstract Expressionism and later with Pop, Hartigan was described by Life magazine in 1957 as "the most...

Walter Gabrielson: 1935-2008.(ARTWORLD)(Obituary)
January 1, 2009... "Why Suck the Mainstream if You Don't Live in New York?" asked the title of a 1974 essay in this magazine. Its author, California artist Walter Gabrielson, offered a resounding answer: You shouldn't. Art should arise, he said, not from concerns...

Obituaries.(ARTWORLD)(Obituary)
January 1, 2009... Albert Boime, 75, art historian, died Oct. 18 in Los Angeles. Author of nearly 20 books and hundreds of articles, Boime considered art in the context of social, political and economic factors. As he wrote in the preface to his most recent book,...

Stedelijk on the move.(ARTWORLD)(Stedelijk Museum)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, having run out the clock at its temporary location while a major remodeling and expansion proceeds at its historic site on the city's Museumplein, will sponsor a floating program at various locations until December...

Bucking the trend.(ARTWORLD)(Sperone Westwater announced plans for an eight story gallery building )(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Amid widespread gallery layoffs and rampant rumors of closures due to the economic crisis, Sperone Westwater announced plans for an ambitious eight story gallery building at 257 Bowery, a stone's throw from the New...

The Hugo Boss Prize for 2008 has been given to Palestinian-American artist Emily Jacir by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.(AWARDS & GRANTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The Hugo Boss Prize for 2008 has been given to Palestinian-American artist Emily Jacir by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. She receives $100,000 and a show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which will be on view Feb. 6-Apr. 15.

Mark Leckey has won the Turner Prize, worth $37,320, from the Tate Britain.(AWARDS & GRANTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Mark Leckey has won the Turner Prize, worth $37,320, from the Tate Britain. This year's prize does not have a corporate sponsor. Shortlisted artists Runa Islam, Goshka Macuga and Cathy Wilkes each receive about $7,500.

The second round of fellows for the Center for Curatorial Leadership has been announced.(AWARDS & GRANTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The second round of fellows for the Center for Curatorial Leadership has been announced. Co-founded by Agnes Gund and Elizabeth Easton, the program is intended to provide curators with the business skills needed for leadership positions. The...

The Nancy Graves Foundation recently presented its grants, worth $25,000 each, to Willoughby Sharp, David Shaw and Arne Svenson.(AWARDS & GRANTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The Nancy Graves Foundation recently presented its grants, worth $25,000 each, to Willoughby Sharp, David Shaw and Arne Svenson. The grants are given to artists exploring mediums different from the ones for which they are primarily recognized.

Hungarian artist Attila Csorg has won the Nam June Paik Award for 2008.(AWARDS & GRANTS)
January 1, 2009... Hungarian artist Attila Csorg has won the Nam June Paik Award for 2008. Worth about $32,400, the prize is given by the Dusseldorf-based Kunststiftung NRW.

The French Order of Arts and Letters was recently conferred on Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt.(AWARDS & GRANTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The French Order of Arts and Letters was recently conferred on Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt, noted Renaissance scholar and professor at New York University who, in 1996-97, identified as a Michelangelo the marble Cupid statue in the French...

Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose first U.S. project is the planned new building for the Berkeley Art Museum, received the approximately $74,000.(AWARDS & GRANTS)(Toyo Ito received the approximately $74,000 Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts by the city of Vienna)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose first U.S. project is the planned new building for the Berkeley Art Museum, received the approximately $74,000 Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts by the city of Vienna.

Miami Art Museum.(PEOPLE)(Roger M. Buergel was recently named the first chief curator and deputy director for programs at the Miami Art Museum)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Roger M. Buergel, German-born artistic director of Documenta 12 in 2007, was recently named the first chief curator and deputy director for programs at the Miami Art Museum. MAM is set to break ground on a Herzog & de Meuron building, to open...

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum .(PEOPLE)(Paul Warwick Thompson has announced his resignation as director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York )(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Paul Warwick Thompson, director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York since 2001, has announced his resignation, effective in August. He is leaving to become president of the Royal College of Art in London. The Cooper-Hewitt...

Neuberger Museum of Art.(PEOPLE)(Helaine Posner is the new chief curator and deputy director of curatorial affairs at the Neuberger Museum of Art)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Helaine Posner, independent curator and adjunct curator at the American Federation of Arts in New York, is the new chief curator and deputy director of curatorial affairs at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, N.Y. In 1999, she was...

National Gallery of Art.(PEOPLE)(Mary Levkoff has been appointed curator of National Gallery of Art in Washington)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Mary Levkoff has been appointed curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She had been curator of European sculpture and classical antiquities at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

Plains Art Museum.(PEOPLE)(Colleen J. Sheehy is the new director and CEO of the Plains Art Museum in Fargo)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Colleen J. Sheehy is the new director and CEO of the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, N.D. Since 1993, she had been director of education at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Art Institute of Chicago.(PEOPLE)(Matthew Witkovsky has been named chair of the photography department at the Art Institute of Chicago)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Matthew Witkovsky, since 2003 associate curator of photography at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has been named chair of the photography department at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art.(PEOPLE)(Steven Matijcio is the new curator at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Steven Matijcio is the new curator at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C. Most recently he was curator at the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba.