Hirst critic denied entry to the Tate show

The Independent reports days after it published his condemnation of Hirst as a "con artist" whose art is "worthless" financially and artistically, Julian Spalding (author of the book Con Art - Why You Ought To Sell Your Damien Hirsts While You Can) was denied entry to the Tate's Hirst exhibition. Spalding had turned up at the request of the BBC and two German TV stations only to be informed that the Tate would not allow the interviews. "The Tate's job is to encourage debate about art," he said. The fact that I'm not allowed to talk about the work in front of it is extraordinary."
Image: Damien Hirst at the opening of his Tate show

Sotheby's manouver in Hong Kong to keep pace with Christies

Sotheby's is launching a gallery in Hong Kong to expand its sales at a time when China's appetite for art is booming. The new $7.2 million, 15,000 square-foot space in the Admiralty business district will enable the company to hold more auctions and events, including exhibitions.

Sotheby's is also maneuvering to keep up with rival Christies International PLC, which opened its own 15,000 square-foot gallery and salesroom space in May 2010. Both houses have also recently created Asian advisory boards to nurture ties to major collectors in Asia. Hong Kong supply-chain magnate William Fung and Hong Kong private-equity chief Mary Ma both serve on Christies advisory board and Pansy Ho, the daughter of Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, serves on Sotheby's international advisory board.
Image: architectural rendering of Sotheby's Hong Kong gallery

Keith Haring's journal entries go online

The Brooklyn Museum is showing Keith Haring: 1978-1982, an exhibition exploring the early career of one of the best known American artists of the 20th century. The exhibition is accompanied by a tumblr hosting online pages from Haring's journals which go back to 1971 when he was 12 years old. The site will post one new entry per day ranging across the artist's diary entries, doodles and hand-coloured memorabilia stuck on pages. You can follow the daily posts here.
Image: an untitled journal drawing (1977) by Keith Haring

MTV to run art breaks between commercials and programmes

MTV has announced it will be reviving Art Breaks, its 80s series of short video interludes created by emerging art stars of the day. The art breaks will run between commercials and programmes, but this time they will be curated by MoMA PS1 and Creative Time.

You can check out what's in store at Art Break's Tumblir site.
Image: from Jean Michel Basquiat's 1985 Art Break

This week at Starkwhite

Our Starkwhite Group Show continues this week and through to 14 April.
Image: Billy Apple, FROM THE LAI SOO COLLECTION, 2011

Whitney's new pop-up studio made of shipping containers

The Whitney has commissioned the New York-based architecture firm LOT-EK to design a pop-up studio for the museum's education programme. Made entirely of shipping containers, the material of choice for LOT-EK (a play on low technology), the designers stacked two layers of containers and partially cut the interior to create a 472-square-foot minimalist cube with a mezzanine floor and diagonals of neon yellow glass.

Dedicated to sustainable architecture, LOT-EK principals Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla have been using these overproduced containers for over 20 years, making use of what they refer to as a "marginal aspect of our civilisation".
Image: the Whitney Studio under construction

Qatar's art impresario talks to The Economist about her blueprint for the future

In her first major interview, Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani talks to the Economist about the Qatar Museum Authority's mission to be a cultural instigator and catalyst of projects world wide, which is turning Qatar into a cultural destination. Read more...
Image: Head of the Qatar Museums Authority Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani

Artspace launches Volume 2 tonight

Tonight Auckland's Artspace launches Volume 2, a collection of essays and page art relating to the programme during Emma Bugden's directorship (2009-2011). Alicia Frankovich's A Plane for Behavers (2009) is documented in the publication and the writing includes Ellen Blumenstein interviewing Frankovich.

Jeff Koons train for the High Line?

The Los Angeles Times reports LACMA's plans to build a massive Jeff Koons sculpture of a train outside the museum seem to be running out of steam. However, the Friends of the High Line have announced their desire to build the sculpture in the celebrated park on the elevated railway line built to carry carcasses into New York's meatpacking district. Read more...
Image: design rendering of Jeff Koons' Train for the High Line, NY

MCA curator talks about Marking Time and why some visitors will be disrobing for museum tours

The Wall Street Journal talks to Rachel Kent about her exhibition Marking Time at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, which includes 24 hour marathon viewings of Christian Marclay's The Clock and Stuart Ringholt's after hours nude gallery tours. Read more...

Image: A still from Christian Marclay's The Clock, 2010

Sydney's MCA reopens this week with a $53m extension

Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art reopens this week with a Sam Marshall-designed extension that adds more than 48,000 square feet of space, including three new galleries - one dedicated to Australian art collected since the museum's inception - and a rooftop sculpture terrace overlooking Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House.

Must-click artist web sites

This link takes you to ARTINFO's selection of 20 artists with must-click web sites from Tauba Auerbach to Andrea Zittel.
Image: Wim Delvoye's web site

John Kaldor presents a Thomas Demand project in Sydney

While Thomas Demand was in Sydney looking at spaces for a project initiated by John Kaldor, he spotted a spaceship-like structure that is part of the MCL Centre. Designed by the late Australian architect Harry Seidler, the building is a hotel occupied by the Commercial Travellers Association Club. "I snuck inside and saw a beautiful circular staircase and small rooms," he said. It felt like a time capsule from the 70s. They haven't changed anything."

Kaldor has rented a floor of the building to stage Demand's project. Visitors can walk around a circular corridor along which 15 rooms can be found, each subtly altered by Demand and featuring a photograph from his Dailies series. Read more...
Image: Commercial Travellers Association Club building designed by Harry Seidler and venue for a Thomas Demand exhibition presented by Kaldor Projects

Gold and its use in art at the Belvedere Palace, Vienna

Billy Apple's 2 Minutes 33 Seconds (gold), 1962 is showing in an exhibition devoted to the precious metal gold and its use in art. Curated by Thomas Zaunschirn, Gold runs at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna from 15 March - 17 June 2012.
Image: Billy Apple, 2 Minutes 33 Seconds (gold), 1962, gold plated bronze, painted bronze base, 120 x 356 x 152mm, image courtesy of the artist and the Jennifer Gibbs Trust

Guggenheim's urban lab project runs into strong opposition in Berlin

Designed by Tokyo-based architects Atelier Bow-Wow, the BMW Guggenheim Lab is a mobile lab traveling around the world to inspire innovative, forward-thinking ideas for urban life. It had its inaugural run in New York in 2011 where it hosted 56,000 visitors over 10 weeks and is currently in transit to Berlin. However plans to set up the lab in the famously alternative Kreuzberg district have been scrapped in response to strong opposition to the project and after the police and local authorities concluded there was a high risk of property damage. Read more...

Getty Museum initiative to preserve modern architectural masterpieces

The Getty Museum is launching a new international program, the Conserving Modern Architecture Program, in the hopes of giving preservation architects new and more sophisticated strategies to preserve 20th century buildings. Its first project will be funding research at the Charles and Ray Eames house in Los Angeles.

Tim Whalen, the director of the Getty Conservation Institute, said the program was not designed as an advocacy organisation, like the Los Angeles Conservancy's Modern Committee to keep landmarks from the wrecking ball. The point is to forge partnerships with architects and organisations already doing research on how to preserve modern masterpieces. Read more...
Image: the living room of the Eames house in Los Angeles

Members split from Voina to form Pussy Riot

Members of the radical Russian art collective Voina have broken away from the group to form an all-female, anti-Putin punk group known as Pussy Riot. Recently they performed an unsanctioned punk prayer service at Christ the Saviour Cathedral, entreating the Virgin Mary to liberate Russia from Vladimir Putin, stirring up a storm about the role of the church, art and women in Russian society. Read more...
Image: Pussy Riot performing at Red Square in Moscow

Seung Yul Oh is looking for volunteers to participate in a performance at the Auckland Art Gallery

Seung Yul Oh is looking for volunteers to participate in a performance for Made Active: The Chartwell Show at the Auckland Art Gallery. The performance takes place at the Gallery on Saturday 14 April at 3pm.

Titled The Ability to Blow Themselves Up (performance version), it requires 50 people to stand at a location around the gallery and blow up balloons over a 30-minute period.

He is looking for people of different ages and nationalities to make up this group. If you are interested please contact him by 23 March at seungyul@gmail.com
Image: press image supplied by Seung Yul Oh

Art HK founders launch a new contemporary art fair in London

The founders of Art HK, Tim Etchells and Sandy Angus, have launched a new contemporary art fair in London. Scheduled for March 2013, Art 13 will be headed by former Frieze fair manager Stephanie Dieckvoss who also assisted with the launch of ART HK in 2007. She has most recently spent two years curating exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery.
Image: Olympia Grand Hall, venue for Art 13

Art critics association announces awards for best shows of 2011

The American chapter of the the International Association of Art Critics has announced the winners of its annual AICA Awards honoring artists, curators and critics for excellence in art exhibitions in 2011. They include an installation by Sarah Sze on the High Line (Best Project in Public Space); the exhibition Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art at the Japan Society (Best show in a Non-Profit Gallery or Space); the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (Best Architecture or Design Show); and Paula Cooper Gallery's presentation of Christian Marclay's The Clock (Best Show in a Commercial Gallery in New York).
Image: Sarah Sze, Still Life With Landscape (Model for a Habitat) at the High Line, NY. Image from the the High Line web site