Posts tagged as:

Frieze Art Fair

Thursday Links: Everyone Loves Frieze, Hates Henry David Thoreau

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on October 15, 2015

Still from Toshio Matsumoto’s “For the Damaged Right Eye,” 1968, now on view at the Japan Society.

For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979 is on view at the Japan Society through January 10th. This looks like it will be a good show. [Blouin Artinfo]

Frieze week is being described as a test for the art market following a record-breaking spring but a tumultuous summer. The verdict? Sales seem to be off to a pretty good start. [Bloomberg]

In related news, Phillips’s auction sold out on the first day of London’s art-buying week, signifying that the art market is still strong and that the auction house might be a challenger to the supremacy of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. [Art Market Monitor]

But the best part of Frieze week is probably Misako & Rosen’s booth, where Ken Kagami is drawing personalized caricatures of fair attendees’ penises and breasts. [artnet News]

Flux Factory’s Fall Benefit Banquet has arrived. It’s a five course vegetarian meal and open bar for $85 on November 6th. Pick your tickets up. [Eventbrite]

Submissions close on Saturday for Platform Gallery’s second annual juried exhibition. I (Michael) am on the jury along with Alex Ebstein and Wickerham & Lomax. You should apply! Prizes! [Platform]

Wow. Here’s 5,000 words on how American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister,development critic, surveyor, and historian Henry David Thoreau was the biggest dick ever. [The New Yorker]

Galleria Continua, the Italian gallery that represents Anish Kapoor, is opening a location in Havana, Cuba with an exhibition by Kapoor. I wonder if other galleries are going to follow as the country’s relationship with the global community improves. [The Art Newspaper]

Today, the Detroit Institute of Arts is hosting an event to unveil a new government website that catalogs all of the art in the federal U.S. General Services Administration’s Fine Arts Collection. [ABC News]

Read the full article →

The Art F City Insider’s Guide to the Art Fairs

by Paddy Johnson on May 12, 2015

Let’s recap last year’s Frieze Week: It sucked. There was almost no remarkable art at Frieze, leaving NADA as the main fair. NADA was good, but still—one fair worth talking in a field just shy of dozen is nothing to write home about.

This year, we have reason to believe the week will be much better.

Read the full article →

Thursday Links: Two-Time Sinking Boat Takes Art Passengers on a Ride

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on May 8, 2014

Marie Lorenz’s Tide and Current Taxi Project (Image courtesy of Frieze)

Artist Marie Lorenz is rowing around Randall’s Island in a rowboat for Frieze projects. She will be a “punctuation mark” within the fair, making it more of a “cultural adventure,” according to Amanda Sharp. [Wall Street Journal]
Actually, this boat ride may be an adventure. The Wall Street Journal neglects to mention that Lorenz’s first Frieze boat sank in the middle of the East River, and her rider had to swim to Randall’s Island. Another sank back in 2009, which resulted in a show at Jack Hanley. Passengers beware. [City Room]
Art critic Ben Davis is back at Artnet after the magazine folded and relaunched as Artnet News! His first column is about the crisis in art and comes with a giant picture of his head. He says money is drowning out thought, and art is bad. [Artnet ]
A new documentary about Llyn Foulkes is showing at Film Forum through next Tuesday, but we’re not sure how much more we could learn about the man beyond what’s in the trailer. He was forgotten for a while, he makes weird shit, and he’s obsessive. “He’s actually making the most ambitious paintings at age 73,” though, says one voiceover. [Film Forum]
Artist Sean Carney is only 35 votes away from securing a wrestling match with MoMA’s Poet Laureate Kenneth Goldsmith. Go vote—because why not? [Change.org]
The New York Public Library is abandoning their terrible renovation plan that would turn part of their flagship fifth avenue and 42nd street location into a circulating library. Three factors contributed to this decision: A study showing that the renovation costs would exceed the original estimate of 300 million, a change in city government, and input from the public. Woo hoo! [The New York Times]
In related New York mayoral news, Bill de Blasio unveiled his 41.1 billion dollar affordable housing plan on Tuesday, and managed to give the Teachers Union a contract with modest raises, after 7 years of Bloomberg dragging his feet on giving them a contract at all. John Cassidy takes a closer look at these policies and describes him as a moderate. [The New Yorker]
“The scale of conspiratorial thinking in Russia is now comparable to that of the US after 9/11.” E-flux journal’s May issue takes on Russia. [e-flux]
Following “tepid” sales at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern auction on Tuesday night, Sotheby’s Imp-Mod sale failed to sell a whopping third of their lots. Okay, Sotheby’s just cannot keep up with Christie’s tepid pace. [Reuters]
$$$! Creative Time raised $1.3 million at their annual fundraiser gala. It was held in the Domino Sugar Factory, which currently houses Kara Walker’s Creative Time project, but will eventually be turned into condos. [Art in America]

Read the full article →

This Week’s Must See Events: A Room Full of Petroleum Gel

by Paddy Johnson and Whitney Kimball on April 14, 2014

Thank god we’re (mostly) giving ourselves a break from political coverage this week with an art bingefest: art which is concerned primarily with cat food art, food’lberities, a room full of petroleum gel, and dicks. Back to the good ol’ classic dick blogging.

Read the full article →

Tuesday Links: Art for the Rich

by Paddy Johnson on October 22, 2013

Ellsworth Kelly, Saint Martin Landscape, 1979, 16 x 22 inches

Terrible news. The art at Frieze is for rich people. Oh, how art has been corrupted. [The Guardian]
Greg Allen posts a collection of Ellsworth Kelly postcards and they’re gorgeous. “Their intimate scale, non-preciousness, and exchange function remind me of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Polaroids and Gerhard Richter’s overpainted photographs. The absolute least gesture and material required to convey the artist’s observation.” [Greg.org]
Possibly the best artist statement I’ve ever read. It’s by Felix Gonzales-Torres. [Greg.org]
An informal survey on fairuse will be the material for an interactive installation that allows people to remix their responses, defend work removed on the grounds of copyright infringement, etc. [Culture Pirate]
A map of where you can find (and steal) all the Banksy graffiti in the city. [Steal Banksy]
New York Magazine has a way of making Baltimore seem a lot more posh than I’ve ever experienced it. [New York Magazine]

Read the full article →

What Discussion At Frieze Actually Looks Like

by Paddy Johnson on May 6, 2012

How many different people do you have to shake to get art institutions and businesses to wake up? Our actions as employers affect the quality of life of others. We know this—in general, the art community votes for socially responsible policies—and yet our own labor practices are amongst the very worst across all professions.

Read the full article →

The AFC Frieze Fair Slideshow: Warhol Where Art Thou?

by Paddy Johnson on May 4, 2012

If you've already seen enough of Jennifer Rubell's vagina nutcracker at Frieze you're in luck. We left that out of our slide show in favor of plastering the background of my twitter feed with that mannequin’s legs. We're all class here.

As for the trends; ceramics and horses are in, photography, Warhol and uteruses are waaay out. Look forward to Will Brand's analysis on whatever this means later this weekend. I'm guessing it'll have something to do with cats.

Read the full article →

Monday Links!

by Paddy Johnson on November 21, 2011

“The playing field is not level, which is why I like doing third-party deals with Christie's.” An unnamed collector quoted in Sarah Thornton’s must-read “Financial machinations at auctions”. [The Economist]
The Chinese government has blocked searches of Ai Weiwei’s name on the social media site Sina Weibo, so users have been posting images to show their support. [Hyperallergic]
Frieze Art Fair won’t compete in the already saturated New York art fair week in March. Instead it launches during Gallery Week, May 4th-7th. [Paddy Johnson]
“It was a crisp fall day here….” Make the writing cliches stop! Carol Kino reports on the new Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. This museum, in case you’re wondering, is probably why press and collectors suddenly care about Still’s work. Normally, this is the Ab Ex artist who gets slagged more than any of the others for making corporate-friendly work. [NYTimes]
The Latin American auctions had their best year since 2008. Also, Botero is selling well. Dear God. [Reuters]
Pepper spray cop makes his way through art history. [Hyperallergic labs] [Washington Post]

Read the full article →

Monday Links!

by Paddy Johnson on October 3, 2011

Apparently post-modernism is defined, at least in part, by unusable ironic teapots. [V&A Review – The Guardian]
Marina Abramovic’s 3.5 mil. Soho apartment now for sale. Nice place, but, um, sterile. [Curbed]
Today at 5:30 Occupy Wall Street Rallies for the locked out art handlers at Sotheby’s. [Occupy Wall Street Agenda]
Music critic Christopher Weingarten had the best weekend ever Public Enemy pulled him onstage and proclaimed their love for his twitter feed, 1000timesyes. Naturally, the whole account is available over twitter. [@1000timesyes]
How to kick Diet Coke: Start drinking selzer. [eatocracy]
Expect to hear more about Kate Middleton. She likes art and apparently is talking to a few London museums about throwing some support their way. [Telegraph]
Frieze Art Fair launches next week. What to do. [ArtInfo]
Paul Slocum got into working with technology in elementary school when he took a summer class for kids to learn Logo graphics programming on the Texas Instruments 99/4a computer. He also reads a lot of religious philosophy [Rhizome.]
Looking for a new bank? CUlookup.com helps you find local credit unions. [Steve Lambert]
A ginormous profile of New York dealer Paula Cooper [The Observer]

Read the full article →

Frieze Art Fair

This Week’s Must See Events: A Room Full of Petroleum Gel

What Discussion At Frieze Actually Looks Like

The AFC Frieze Fair Slideshow: Warhol Where Art Thou?

Monday Links!

Get Our Newsletter!

Like Us On Facebook!

Follow Art F City

What is Art F City?