Saturday, July 30, 2011

Glen Hayward takes up McCahon House residency



Glen Hayward has started his three-month residency at the McCahon House. Designed by Pete Bossley, the award-winning house and studio sits alongside the old McCahon House in French Bay, Titirangi. You can find out more about the McCahon House residency programme here.
Images: McCahon House, Titirangi, designed by Pete Bossley

Friday, July 29, 2011

Auckland Art Fair opens next week in the city's new Viaduct Event Centre


The Auckland Art Fair returns to the city's harbour front next week as the inaugural event in the new Viaduct Event Centre. Knight Landesman is the keynote speaker at this year's edition, taking artworld success factors as his subject. "Each year tens of thousands of artists, all over the world, graduate from art schools, but only a very few ever rise to prominence", he says. "How does an artist get known?"
Image: Hector Zamora, White Noise (2011), pigment inks on Ilford paper, 1200 mm x 800 mm, Starkwhite booth 11, Auckland Art Fair.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tea Party in the House


This link takes you to a Joanne Bamberger post on the US debt ceiling crisis and the Tea Party conservatives who are calling the Republican shots. Bamberger is the author of Mothers of Invention: How Women & Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America.

New art fair launched in Istanbul


Timed to coincide with the 12th Istanbul Biennale in September, the first edition of a new Turkish art fair, artbeat Istanbul will take place from 14 - 19 September 2011. Istanbul already has a fair devoted to Turkish participants, but artbeat is the first fair to work with international galleries.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

de Appel and The Fair Gallery launch The Gallerist Programme


de Appel and The Fair Gallery have launched The Gallerist Programme, a professional development programme designed to offer aspiring gallerists a year of reflection to develop ideas, and gain skills and experiences before starting their own galleries. Read more...

Para/Site announces new director


Hong Kong's Para/Site Art Space, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to contemporary art, has named Cosmin Costinas as its new executive director and curator. Prior to his new appointment Costinas was the curator at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst. He was also an editor of the magazines project of documenta 12 from 2005 to 2007.
Image: Cosmin Costinas

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Art market crisis round two?


In September 2008 Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the global insurance giant AIG was taken over by the United States Government and a failing Wall Street icon Merrill Lynch was absorbed by the Bank of America in a deal brokered and financed by the US Government. Panic set in, credit stopped circulating and the world plunged into recession.

Three years on, global markets are once again bracing for the worst as US president Barack Obama and a bitterly divided Congress struggle to negotiate an end to the debt ceiling crisis. With the 2 August deadline just days away, House Republicans and Senate Democrats are formulating debt-limit emergency fall back plans in hopes of reassuring world financial markets.

Many economists believe a default could push the US economy back into recession and cause chaos in the global economy. Others in the art world will also be wondering whether the international art market is about to be caught up in a new economic storm prompting another round of boom to bust.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Google Goggles at work at the Getty Museum


At the J Paul Getty Museum you can use the Google Goggles app on your android phone to take a photo of any of the paintings in the Getty's permanent collection and instantly access information about the work from both the Getty's mobile-optimised webpage about the painting and from around the web. Instead of being limited to the amount of information that fits on a wall text next to the painting, Getty museum staff can now share a fuller story that all visitors can enjoy on line. Read more...

Sunday, July 24, 2011

White Cube to open an outpost in Hong Kong


White Cube will be the latest major western gallery to open a branch in China according to the Financial Times. Scheduled to open in Hong Kong early next year, it will follow Gagosian's gallery launch there in January. A few years ago Hong Kong wasn't on the international art map, but recently it has emerged as a powerful new Asian art hub fueled by the rise of ART HK and a younger generation of Chinese tastemakers interested in buying Western art.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Simon Lamuniere's last Art Unlimited show

Simon Lamuniere talks about his final outing as a curator for Art Basel's Art Unlimited, which provides a platform for large-scale installations and specially commissioned projects. Link to the video

Sound artist Richard Francis responds to Dane Mitchell's The Smell of an Empty Space


Sound artist Richard Francis will respond to Dane Mitchell's The Smell of an Empty Space at Artspace today, starting at 3pm. The performance will be a 60 minute set where people are able to move freely around the space. Read more...
Image: Richard Francis, '0037 (Porters Ave)' 2010, digital image

Friday, July 22, 2011

40 years on, Robert Smithson's unfinished film of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill is to be completed as a video


Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971) is the only earthwork produced by Robert Smithson still in existence outside the United States. Captured while the artwork was under construction, Smithson's footage reveals its spatial and environmental context, but as a result of a tragic accident during a reconnaissance flight in 1973 the planned film remained unfinished.

Forty years later a video incorporating the original film footage is to be completed on behalf of Land Art Contemporary in a collaboration between artist Nancy Holt and curator Theo Tegelaers of SKOR/Foundation for Art and Public Domain. Breaking Ground: Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971-2011) will be presented in a Land Art Contemporary program being developed in honor of the of the 40th anniversary of the creation of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. A full program for the event, which runs from 17 September - 27 November 2011, will be published at www.landartcontemporary.nl
Image: still from Breaking Ground/Spiral Hill (1971-2011)

Gavin Hipkins' first short film screens in the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival


Gavin Hipkins' first short film, The Master, is included in the Homegrown: Flights of Fancy programme of the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival. It screens at Auckland's Academy Cinema on Saturday 23 July and Thursday 28 July at 1.45pm.

This poetic experimental film negotiates the phenomenon of a Christ Trip and associated youthful quest for martyrdom by referencing a transcendental film style. Reflecting on the director's art school experiences, a student's delusional musings are improvised and adapted from Oscar Wilde's poem in prose of the same title from 1894.
Image: still from Gavin Hipkins' short film The Master

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Clinton Watkins and Trenton Garratt performance at Starkwhite


At the opening of Trenton Garratt's exhibition What's the Sun, Clinton Watkins (with Garratt) performed a response to one of the works in the show. This link takes you to a video of the performance.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Six curators appointed as co-artistic directors of the 2012 Gwangju Biennale


Six curators, all women, have been appointed as co-artistic directors of the 2012 Gwangju Biennale - Nancy Adajania (India), Mami Kataoka (Japan), Wassan al-Kudhairi (Qatar), Sun Jung Kim (Korea) and Carol Yinghua Lu (China). As usual the Gwangju Biennale will coincide with the Busan Biennale.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Artistic director of 2012 Busan Biennale appointed


The Busan Biennale Organising Committee has appointed Roger M Buergel (artistic director of Documental XII) as the artistic director of Busan Biennale 2012.

eflux reports that Buergel suggested the concept of the "Garden of Learning" for the 2012 Biennale, in which councils consisting of 10 to 15 citizens and one or two artists will be formed. The members of these councils would collaborate with one another to produce artworks to be presented at the Biennale. He emphasised that the production of artworks through collaboration not only would provide the council members with a deep knowledge and strong sense of belonging to the artworks, but also could be reproduced as a variety of programmes in which the council members educate the wider audience about the artworks by explaining or debating the concept of the works. Furthermore in the process of collaboration, artists will also gain a valuable opportunity to debate their proposals with the public and produce artworks that would have a long and lasting effect on the community.
Image: Roger M Buergel, artistic director of the 2012 Busan Biennale

Monday, July 18, 2011

Peter Zumthor's Serpentine pavilion



Peter Zumthor, the Swiss architect behind this year's Serpentine pavilion, talks to Jonathan Glancey about creating a secluded sanctuary garden in a black-clad building in London's Kensington Gardens. Link to the video

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Museum of Tolerance to be build on contested ground


The Israeli government has approved a plan to build a museum dedicated to tolerance and co-existence over a centuries-old Muslim graveyard in Jerusalem. The project, which has been delayed for years by Muslim opposition, is being sponsored by the US-based Jewish Group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The irony of a Jewish-sponsored Museum of Tolerance going up in part on a Muslim cemetery has made the project a target for critics since it was announced in 2003. The building will be designed by Israeli firm Chyutkin Architects following Frank Gehry's decision to withdraw from the project. Read more
Image: The fenced off construction site for Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance

Friday, July 15, 2011

Florien Habicht's Love Story screens at the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival


Filmmaker Florien Habicht (maker of the critically acclaimed Kaikohe Demolition) was the inaugural recipient of the $80,000 Harriet Friedlander New York Residency Award. He spent 10 months in NY in 2010 where he was told by a fortune teller that he should never step in front of a camera. He did just that with Love Story, working with advice on what happens next from New Yorkers he met on the street. He says the resulting film, which is is screening in this year's New Zealand International Film Festival, is "like a pick-a-path book from the 80s."

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Seven Asian artists at The Dowse


Jin Jiangbo and Hye Rim Lee are represented in Crystal City, an exhibition of works by seven Asian artists that opens at The Dowse in Lower Hutt tomorrow night. Curated by Emma Bugden, the exhibition runs from 16 July - 16 October 2011. Read more
Image: Jin Jiangbo, Milford Sound (2011), pigment inks on Ilford paper

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Video artist wins Praemium Imperiale Award for painting


Video artist Bill Viola, whose works have been referred to as "moving paintings", has won the 15 million yen award for painting in the 2011 Praemium Imperiale Art Awards. The other winner in fine arts was Anish Kapoor who won the award for sculpture.
Image: still from Bill Viola's Quintet of Remembrance.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Michio Ihara's Wind Tree finds a new home on Auckland's waterfront



After being removed from its original site in downtown Auckland in 2002 to make way for the Britomart Rail Station redevelopment and Square upgrade, Japanese artist Michio Ihara's Wind Tree has been re-installed at the Jellicoe Plaza in the Wynyard Quarter on Auckland's waterfront. Made from stainless steel, the artwork features trusses that are designed to swing in the wind.

Ihara says he is "thrilled to see the art work raised from the dead" after languishing in storage for many years. Now in his 80s, his is grateful for the efforts of those who championed his cause for so long.

Wind Tree is one of three pieces of public art that are being installed in the Wynyard Quarter as part of the revitalisation of the waterfront due to be completed by the time of the Rugby World Cup in September. The three art works will be officially revealed on 6 August 2011.
Image: Michio Ihara's Wind Tree, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland. Photos by Terry Urbahn

Trenton Garratt's exhibition What's the Sun opens tonight at Starkwhite


Trenton Garratt's first solo show at Starkwhite opens tonight at 6.00pm. At around 7.00pm artist and musician Clinton Watkins will perform a response to one of the works in the exhibition.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Clinton Watkins presents an interactive video and sound artwork at The Edge


Clinton Watkins' Test Tone is an interactive video and sound artwork that invites participants to freely generate sequences of sonically affected broadcast test tone colours through physical movement. Employing both unique custom made analogue video technologies and sophisticated computer programming, Test Tone is based on the premise of technological feedback and improvisation.

Test Tone runs at the Digital Art Live/Interactive Space, Owens Foyer, The Edge to 14 August 2011.

Tomorrow evening at the opening of Trenton Garrat's What's the Sun, Watkins will perform a response to a work in the exhibition, Our House, using a long magnetic audio tape loop and electronics. Watkins will present his first solo show at Starkwhite in 2012.
Image: Clinton Watkins, Test Tone (2011), video still

Sunday, July 10, 2011

A quake-proofing gift to the Christchurch Art Gallery


The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu remains closed until further notice so that it can continue to be a base for the planning and coordination of the city's rebuild. Life is not easy for gallery staff in the quake-ravaged city, but recently they received some good news in the form of a gift from Japan - a gift valued not in dollars, but rather generosity of spirit.

After researching ways to upgrade picture hanging systems to offer greater protection for artworks during earthquakes, the Gallery settled on double-ended, spring-locked hooks. When they approached Japanese manufacturer Takiya to buy the hooks they were told they would be supplied free of charge. The president of Takiya, Nobuo Nakamura, donated around $10,000 worth of product to the gallery - an especially touching gesture because the donation came after Japan's own horrific earthquake and tsunami.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Upstairs at Starkwhite


Upstairs we are showing works by a number of represented artists, including Glen Hayward's Closed Circuit. Hayward is at the end of a three-month residency at Altes Spital in Solothurn, Switzerland and will return to Auckland later this month to take up a McCahon House residency in August.
Image: Glen Hayward, Closed Circuit (2011), acrylic on wood

Friday, July 8, 2011

Seung Yul Oh in Social Animals at Space 15th, Seoul


Seung Yul Oh is represented in Social Animals, which opens today at Space 15h, Seoul. After a short trip back to Auckland he heads to New York as the recipient of the 2011 Harriet Friedlander Award, which allows him to stay for as long as the $80,000 award lasts.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Promised Gift at the Auckland Art Gallery


When the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki opens again on 3 September 2011, visitors will have an eight-week opportunity to see for the first time the complete Robertson Promised Gift to the Gallery. The 15 works represent a number of major European artists of the modern era, including paintings by Matisse, Picasso and Dali.
Image: new gallery spaces at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Coming up at Starkwhite


Trenton Garratt's first solo show at Starkwhite, What's the Sun, opens at 6.00m on Tuesday 12 July 2011 with a performance component by Clinton Watkins.
Image: Trenton Garratt, Sun Catcher, crystal and chain, 2011, detail

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Cost of the 'Angel of the South' balloons to £12m

When Mark Wallinger won the competition to design a sculpture in Ebbsfleet, Kent his giant white horse was hailed as a tonic to the nation in the form of the biggest piece of art ever created in the country and the perfect fillip to a people about to head into a collective recession. Established in the public mind as the 'Angel of the South', it seemed destined to do for the south of England and specifically the desolate Ebbsfleet area, what Antony Gormley's Angel of the North did for Gateshead.

However, the tonic to the nation is proving to be more expensive than anticipated. Originally estimated at 2 million pounds, the cost of the work has soared to 12 million. The organisers of the project - Eurostar, London and Continental Railways, and Land Securities - have provided seed funding, but will not make any further contributions. Spokesperson for the project Ben Ruse says the project can't last in fundraising mode forever and that organisers will have to take a view of where they are when planning permission for the work expires in April 2013.

Phil Dadson at the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival


Phil Dadson's new video work Between Worlds features in the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival which runs in Auckland from 14 July - 3 August. The work is a development of the Deep Water installation shown at Starkwhite earlier this year that morphs content into an unexpected realm of experience.

Between Worlds screens at the Academy Theatre in the Artist Cinema project curated by Mark Williams and as a short to the feature length documentary My Reincarnation.
Image: video still from Phil Dadson's Between Worlds screening in the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Art of the Steal (Epilogue)




After nearly a decade of lawsuits and bitter debate, the $20 billion art collection of French impressionist, post-impressionist and modern art amassed by a Philadelphia physician Dr Alfred C Barnes is on the move. When he died in in 1951 his will stipulated that the collection never be broken up or leave the two-story villa that houses it in suburban Merion. However, for 60 years the city's power brokers have manoeuvered to assert their vision to relocate it downtown to be positioned as a major tourist destination. The power struggle between the parties is recorded in the documentary The Art of the Steal, released in 2010.

The plan to relocate the collection to a new $150m gallery in downtown Philadelphia has won the day. The Merlion gallery closes today and while one more court hearing is scheduled for August at which a group called The Friends of the Barnes Collection will ask the court, once again, to order the collection to remain in Merlion forever, Barnes watchers believe the odds are against the group because the judge who will rule on the suit has previously decided it could move.
Images: Barnes Foundation, Lower Merion Township, Philadelphia; and a rendering of the Foundation's future home in downtown Philadelphia, due to open in 2012

Gallery closed for renovations


Starkwhite will be closed this week from Monday to Thursday for renovations. During this time access to the gallery will be by appointment.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Dane Mitchell's Radiant Matter III opens today at Artspace


Dane Mitchell presents part three of Radiant Matter at Auckland's Artspace, continuing his exploration into perfume and the 'vaporous', the state of suspension or in-between poetic potential of liquids, gases and solids. The exhibition opens today from 1 - 6pm and the artist will talk about his work on Sunday at 3pm.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Less is more: public art projects on Auckland's waterfront


Unlike Seoul (see yesterday's post), Auckland is taking a less-is-more approach with its public art programme. A handful of major works have been commissioned with the first suite due to be completed by the time of the Rugby World Cup, which kicks off in September. They include Billy Apple's Waipero Swamp Walk and Corner Post (completed) and three projects on Auckland's waterfront - the relocation of Michio Ihara's Wind Tree, a collaborative work by Aamu Song and Johan Olin titled Sounds of Sea, and an installation in and on a cement silo by Anthony McCall. We'll post updates on these projects next week.
Image: Anthony McCall, installation view of Breath (The Vertical Works) at Hanger Bicocca, Milan (2009), image from the Adam Art Gallery website