Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Time out


We are taking a break over the Christmas/New Year period and will resume our posts on 20 January. Happy holidays!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Starkwhite summer hours


Starkwhite is closing for Christmas and New Year reopening on Monday 20 January with a continuation of Glen Hayward’s exhibition I don’t want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People.  We start our 2014 season in February with Lovers, a late-summer group show organized by gallery artist Martin Basher. Featuring work by a number of Basher’s New Zealand and American contemporaries, the show will hone in on the visceral and tactile facets of the work of a varied and intergenerational group. Picking up on the semantic slippage of the show’s title, Lovers will be an earnest paean to beauty for the romantic, and a furtive dalliance with visual pleasure for the serious conceptualist.
Glen Hayward: I don’t want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People, 2013 Installation view. Photograph Hamish McLaren

Friday, December 20, 2013

US acknowledges failure to protect cultural property during invasion of Iraq


A decade after secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld dismissed looting of the Iraq's National Museum with the comment "stuff happens", US officials have acknowledged mistakes over the protection of cultural property after the US-led invasion. Read more...
Image: a minaret damaged during fighting in in Iraq in 2005.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

All-star lineup of selectors for global curating competition


An all-star jury has been assembled to select the best of new curators from across the globe. The Curate competition is an initiative of the the Qatar Museums Authority and Fondazione Prada.

The jurors are: Sheika Al Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority; Miucca Prada, president of the Fondazione Prada; Rem Koolhas, architect and urban theorist; Nadine Labaki, Lebanese actress and filmmaker, Nawal El Moutawakel, the vice president of the International Olympic Committee and first woman from a Muslim country to win an Olympic gold medal; and Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery.

Applications to Curate can be submitted here. (The closing date is 31 December)
Image: Muccia Prada

Monday, December 16, 2013

Monday: This week at Starkwhite


Glen Hayward's I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People continues at Starkwhite this week.
Image: Glen Hayward, I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People, installation view (detail). Photo Hamish McLaren

Saturday, December 14, 2013

A Cai Guo Qiang show with no gunpowder


Known for his signature gunpowder works, Cai Guo Qiang's current exhibition at Brisbane's QAG|GOMA reveals the artist's more reflective side, which has been attributed to his increasing focus on the world we live in. Recently ArtAsiaPacific exchanged emails with him about his vision for Falling back to earth. Read more...
Image: Cai Guo Qiang with Heritage 13 a new work commissioned for  the exhibition Falling back to earth at QAG|GOMA

Friday, December 13, 2013

Shanghai has a new art fair


ShContemporary's sabbatical has paved the way for a new art fair in Shanghai. ART021 was launched at the end of November and, although modestly scaled, it attracted some prominent galleries from China and further afield including: Beijing Commune, Vitamin Creative Space, Long March Space, Chambers Fine Art, James Cohen, White Cube and Galerie Perrotin. All eyes are now on ShContemporary to see whether it can stage a come-back in 2014.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Rubells reveal a new strand in their collection


Best known for supporting the work of young American artists, Don and Mera Rubell have revealed another strand in their collection. Over the past decade they have been visiting China seeking out artists and galleries in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities. A new exhibition at their Miami museum (staged to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach) displays for the first time their acquisitions from six trips to China. Read more...
Image: He Xiangyu's My Fantasy (detail)

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Roberta Smith and Jerry Saltz talk about a marriage of art and criticism


Each week the art world waits for two of New York's most influential critics to publish their reviews - Roberta Smith in the New York Times and Jerry Saltz in New York magazine. Through their respective writings, both have become bellwethers in appraising and transmitting the prevailing winds of contemporary art. Christopher Bollen, editor at large of Interview Magazine, talked to them about how they manage a marriage of art and criticism. Read more...
Image: Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith

Monday, December 9, 2013

Okwui Enwezor on the Venice Biennale


In this interview Okwui Enwezor talks about his career and vision for the 2015 Venice Biennale.
Image: Okwui Enwezor

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Glen Hayward opens today at Starkwhite


Glen Hayward's I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People opens at Starkwhite tonight at 5pm
Image: Glen Hayward, I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People, installation view (detail). Photo Hamish McLaren

Friday, December 6, 2013

Artistic director of 2015 Venice Biennale announced


Okwui Enwezor has been named as the artistic director of the 2015 Venice Biennale. Currently director of Haus der Kunst in Munich, Enwezor has also been artistic director of Documenta 11 (2002), Triennale d'Art Contemporain of Paris at the Palais de Tokyo (2006) and the Gwuangju Biennale (2008). Read more...
Image: Okwui Enwezor

From Sydney Contemporary to M100 Santiago


Artspace's Mark Feary has curated a show from his Video Contemporary exhibition at Sydney Contemporary for Santiago's Centro Cultural Matucana 100 (M100). The exhibition, which runs from 6 December 2013 - 26 January 2014, includes Clinton Watkins' Continuous Ship #1 and Continuous Ship #3. Watkins' work also features this month in another Feary video project at Seoul's ONE AND J Gallery.
Image: Clinton Watkins' Continuous Ship #1, video still

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Art Basel director sends a hands-off Miami message to auction houses


Art Basel director Marc Spiegler has sent a hands-off Miami message to auction houses following actions that some gallerists have deemed "counterproductive to their gallery business" at art fairs. Read more...
Image: Marc Spiegler

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Ai Weiwei takes on Alcatraz


Artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei is one of the most famous prisoners in recent history. The New York Times reports he is now taking on one of the most infamous prisons, using Alcatraz as the inspiration and site for a new series of works. Read more...
Image: the operating room at Alcatraz

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Winner of Turner Prize announced


London-based French artist Laure Prouvost has been awarded this year's Turner Prize for her video installation Wantee, which weaves together art history and fiction in video form. She was the unexpected winner beating out strong competition, including the hot favourite Tino Sehgal.
Image: Laure Prouvostt

Coming up at Starkwhite


Glen Hayward's I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People runs at Starkwhite from 7 - 21 December 2013 and 13 - 30 January 2014, with a preview on Saturday 7 December from 5 to 7pm.

Hayward produced his sculptural double of Mr Anderson's cubicle from The Matrix in 2012 under a Rita Angus Fellowship and the Starkwhite show follows presentations of the work in 2013 at the City Gallery, Wellington and the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. A publication with an essay by Aaron Lister is available from the City Gallery, Wellington.
Image: Glen Hayward, I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some beautiful People, installation view (detail). Photo by Hamish McLaren 

Monday, December 2, 2013

This week at Starkwhite


Matt Henry's exhibition High Fidelity continues at Starkwhite (upstairs) to 21 December.
Image: Matt Henry, Untitled (Cadmium Red), 2013, Acrylic on sized and linen, tray frame, acrylic lacquer,  327  x 242 x 45 mm

A giant symbol of mammon in Red Square


A gigantic Louis Vuitton suitcase set up in Moscow's Red Square to house an exhibit on travel and possessions of the rich and famous has caused outrage in Russia. Communists have denounced the suitcase-shaped pavilion placed near the Kremlin and mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin as a symbol of the conspicuous consumption that has enveloped Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Members of the Russian intelligensia have seen something more profound, describing it as an unintended art installation that depicts, with cutting precision, the essence of modern Russia. One commentator has even suggested that it is worthy of the Kandinsky Prize, Russia's largest and most prestigious contemporary art award.
Image: the Louis Vuitton pavilion in Moscow's Red Square