Artists mark the anniversary of Fukushima nuclear disaster with radioactive installation

Sydney -based artists Ken and Juliana Yonetani will show a glowing green set of chandeliers made from uranium at the NKV in Weisbaden, Germany in the group exhibition Keeping Up Appearances.The work is timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan. Read more...

Shanghai Biennale announces curators for 2012 edition

The Shanghai Biennale has announced the curators for the 2012 edition. The chief curator, Qiu Zhijie, is a professor at the School of Intermedia Art at the China Art Academy as well as director of Total Art Studio and a member of the supervising team in the Arts and Social Thought Institute. As an artist he as represented China at the 53rd Venice Biennale and 25th Sao Paulo Biennial.

Qiu Zhijie is working with two co-curators: art critic, media theorist and philosopher Boris Groys and Jens Hoffman, currently director at the Watts Institute for Contemporary Arts at the California College of Arts, San Francisco.
Image Qiu Zhijie, chief curator of the 2012 Shanghai Biennale

Fate of New Zealand's fabled Pink and White Terraces revelaed this weekend

Billy Apple and Mary Morrison spent the weekend working with GNS scientist Dr Cornel de Rondo and his team as he continued his search for the lost eighth wonder of the world on New Zealand's Lake Rotomahana. The fate of the fabled Pink and White Terraces will be revealed this weekend in Sunday, 7.30pm, TV One, 18 March.

Plans announced for the third extension of New York's celebrated High Line Park

We have run several posts on New York's celebrated High Line Park, the old railway lines on stilts to New York's meatpacking district that was converted to a park and opened to the public in June 2009, followed by a second extension in June 2011 that doubled its length to a mile.

New York City's Department of Parks has unveiled plans for the last phase of the Park. Like the previous phases, the final extension will be designed by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Refro. Current proposed concepts include an amphitheatre-like seating, or an open gathering space bordered by beds of wild flowers, a new irregularly spiraling staircase and a children's play area where support beams will be stripped and coated with bright yellow safety rubber, perfect to climb around on.
Images: The Hight Line Park and concept for an amphitheatre at High Line's 10th Avenue spur

Coming up at Starkwhite

From Wednesday 21 March we are presenting a group show of new works by represented artists.
Image: Jae Hoon Lee, Space Tree #4 (2012)

A mid-career moment for Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst has gone from YBA to a global brand over the past 25 years - and become the richest living artist on the planet. He talks to the Guardian about money, mortality and his first retrospective in Britain. Read more...

Nordic section a hit at The Armory Show

The Nordic section of this year's Armory Show is making a big impact. Jacob Fabricus, director of Malmo Kunsthalle, has organised the section combining artist-run spaces with commercial galleries. "It's a fair, but I don't work in the commercial world and wanted to do something different, therefore I brought smaller non-commercial spaces," he told The Art Newspaper. Read more...
Image: items from the range of posters, souvenirs and other stuff curated by Jacob Fabricus promoted under the banner FREE STUFF at the Nordic section

The Armory Show's makeover paying off as the fair kicks off with brisk business

ARTINFO reports The Armory Show has kicked off with good vibes and brisk business.
Read more...
Image: The Armory Show vernissage

How Gilbert & George stole the headlines to make art

The Guardian reports Gilbert and George have pilfered 3,712 newspaper bills from outside London news agents to create new works for shows at White Cube. While one of the immaculately dressed pair distracted the agent by buying chewing gum, the other removed the newspaper bill from is stand. Read more...

Starkwhite at The Armory Show

This year we are presenting a solo show by New York-based artist Martin Basher at The Armory Show, and Gavin Hipkins' film This Fine Island will be screened in the inaugrual edition of Armory Film. You can read our press releases here.
Images: Martin Basher press image and still from Gavin Hipkins' This Fine Island, 2011

Tate buys 10 tonnes of Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds

The Tate has acquired 10 tonnes of Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds - around one tenth of the 100 million seeds individually crafted by Chinese craft workers for his 2010 Tate Modern Turbine Hall installation. The artist has suggested that the seeds can be arranged either laid out as a square or a cone 5m in diameter and 1.5m high.
Image: Ai Weiwei in Sunflower Seeds (2010) at the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall,

New York's art fair season gets underway

New York's art fair season kicks off tomorrow with The Armory Show vernissage. This year the stakes are higher with Frieze waiting in the wings ready to launch in New York in May. But The Armory Show is rising to the challenge, upping its game with a suite of new moves: a less-is-more approach (the number of participating galleries has been reduced by 25%); encouraging galleries to focus on solo or selective group shows; collaborating with Moving Image, NY to stage the inaugural edition of Armory Film; and partnering up with Paddle8, adding web-based exhibitor presentations and transactions to the mix, along with early access for plugged in collectors. The Armory Show is also also aiming to be a user-friendlier fair with wider isles, improved public and VIP spaces and architecturally-enhanced access between Pier 92 (The Armory Show - Modern) and Pier 94 (The Armory Show - Contemporary).

Artprice figures highlight huge growth of Chinese art market

The latest Artprice report updates China's growing strength in the global art market. China's share of art auction sales is 41.4% of sales ahead of the US (26%) and the UK (19.4%). Of the ten top-selling artists at auction, six are Chinese, says the report. In 2011 Chinese artist Zhang Daqian ousted Picasso to take the No.1 position on the world auction market, generating $506m in auction sales, followed by compatriot Qi Baishi on $445.1m.
Image: Lotus and Mandarin ducks by Zhang Daqian which fetched HK191m ($24.5m) at Sotheby's in Hong Kong in May 2011

Is Qatar's ambition to be an international art hub good for the local art scene?

Qatar's royal family is making Doha into an international art hub, hitting the headlines with news of the world's biggest art buying spree that includes a world record $250m paid for Cezanne's The Card Players, and exhibitions by renowned artists like Louise Bourgeois, Takashi Murakami and Cai Guo Qiang. However, the New York Times reports critics of the royal family say it is behaving as a facilitator of the international art scene while at the same time using it for self-promotion, leaving the local art scene out in the cold. Read more...
Image: Head of the Qatar Museums Authority Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani at the opening of Takashi Murakami's exhibition at Versailles in 2010

John Reynolds' Big Wave Territory at New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway

Commissioned by the New Plymouth District Art in Public Places Trust, John Reynolds' Big Wave Territory was installed recently at the Port gateway to New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway. The work celebrates Taranaki's rich cultural landscape, directing passing pedestrians and port car park traffic to various local and regional destinations - the Mountain, Paritutu Rock and Sugar Loaf Island, SPOT X and The Forgotten World Highway. Using Transit New Zealand's road design format and materials, the high reflection sign also provides cultural points of departure, including artistic legacies, such as the writing of celebrated author Ronald Hugh Morrieson and Len Lye's kinetic sculpture.
Image: John Reynolds, Big Wave Territory (detail), Coastal Walkway, New Plymouth

Roberta Smith on the Whitney Biennial

Robert Smith says the 2012 Whitney Biennial is one of the best in recent memory. Read more...
Image: Whitney Biennial, a dancer in Sarah Michelson's Devotion Study #1 - The American Dancer

The Obstinate Object

Last Friday, Trenton Garratt and Clinton Watkins staged their performance Transcode across two sites connected by a live video feed as part of the exhibition The Obstinate Object at the City Gallery Wellington. At Massey University's Engine Room gallery, Garratt pulled apart a porcelain version of his sculpture, Our House, from which the resulting sound was directed live via telephone to the City Gallery where Watkins captured the sound onto magnetic tape.

The remnants of the porcelain sculpture will remain at the Engine Room for three more weeks after which the sculpture's only presence art the City Gallery will be the charged magnetic tape hanging from the foyer gallery wall. A video recording of the performance will start playing today on monitors located at the entrance to the City Gallery.

You can view the performance online here.
Image: Trenton Garratt & Clinton Watkins, Transcode, (video Still), City Gallery Wellington (2012). image Shaun Waugh

Early access to The Armory Show for plugged-in collectors

Traditionally a lot of business is done at fairs like The Armory Show before they officially open. In addition to the vernissage there is usually an early access session for VIP collectors. However, this year, access to The Armory Show can be gained by plugged-in collectors a week before the vernissage. A new partnership between the fair and Paddle8 allows the site's members to purchase works from 1 March with less plugged-in collectors waiting for the event to open its doors next week.

New director of the National Gallery of Victoria announced

Tony Ellwood will move on from the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art to take up the directorship of the National Gallery of Victoria. Victoria's gain is Queensland's loss as during his time at QAG/GoMA his achievements put Melbourne on notice as the self-proclaimed arts capital. Now the search begins for his replacement.

Pritzker architecture prize winner demonstrates the proper relation of present to past

Chinese architect Wang Shu has been awarded the prestigious Pritzker prize. The decision acknowledges "the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals", said Thomas Pritzker, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the $100,000 award.

Wang's work typically mixes modern design with traditional material. He tries to recover what he has called the "handicraft aspect" of building design, in contrast to "professionalised, soulless architecture, as practised today". The jury praised his work as "exemplary in its strong sense of cultural continuity and reinvigorated tradition". China's rapid urbanisation makes the issue of "the proper relation of present to past...particularly timely," said jury chairman Lord Palumbo.
Image: Wang Shu, winner of the 2012 Pritzker architecture prize and the Ningbo History Museum, China