2010 auction records set by mainland Chinese collectors

In 2010 mainland Chinese collectors really began to make their presence felt at auction houses around the world, showing what a game-changer the relatively new pool of buyers has become. Recently ARTINFO China looked back on the year and selected their picks for the top key lots of the year. Read more...

Image Xu Beihong's Ba People Fetching Water (detail), 1937, which sold for $25.8m, a record price for Chinese painting at auction

Bust to boom?

Christie's International has announced worldwide sales for 2010 of USD5 billion, up by 53% on the previous year. The highest sales total in the 245 year history of the firm, the figure is also the highest sales total ever recorded in the industry. 

What does this mean for the art market? That it has moved from bust to boom in a sluggish global economy? Or is it a timely reminder that the day Damien Hirst abandoned the traditional method of selling art, going straight to Sothebys instead where the auction smashed top estimates to reach a record total of USD125m, was also the day Lehman's declared itself insolvent, triggering the credit crisis that left the global economy teetering on the brink of calamity and sent the art market into freefall?

Image Roy Lichtenstein's Ohhh... Alright... which sold at Christies for USD42.6 million to an anonymous buyer on the phone.

Leigh Davis Flag Poems in Time, Text & Echoes

Images (top to bottom): Leigh Davis, Un Guerrier and St Joy of Compassion, flag poems presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010-2011), a sequence of ten-day hoists over 300 days, New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland, NZ

Seung Yul Oh in residence at Choi Jeong Hwa's ggooll space

Seung Yul Oh is currently undertaking a residency in Seoul where he will produce a solo show at ggooll, an artist-run space founded and managed by artist Choi Jeong Hwa. Oh is also represented in the exhibition Top Ten: New Acquisitions of the University of Auckland at the Gus Fisher Gallery which runs to 15 March 2011.

Image: Choi Jeong Hwa's space ggooll in April 2010

Hans Ulrich Obrist on India's rising art scene

Hans Ulrich Obrist was recently in New Delhi to begin the Indian chapter of his marathon interview series. Sahar Zaman sounded him out about his views on the contemporary Indian art scene, it's growing international impact, and its place in his interview series. Read more...

Image: curator Hans Ulrich Obrist in India

Billy Apple at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris

Billy Apple continues his run of international shows at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris. He is represented in the second chapter of an exhibition dedicated to artists prefiguring the conceptual phenomenon. You can read the exhibition release here.

Image: Billy Apple, For Sale (1961), letterpress on canvas at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris

Czech culture minister backs jury's Venice selection following national gallery director's decision to exercise his right of veto

The selection process for the Czech Republic's participation in this year's Venice Biennale hit the headlines after Milan Knizak, the director of the country's National Gallery, refused to accept the decision of the selection committee to run with installation artist Dominik Lang. As director of the country's leading gallery, Knizak has the right of veto over the Biennale entry. However, the minister of culture, Jiri Besser, stepped in to overrule Knizak, declaring that the selection committee's choice would stand. 

After rejecting the jury's decision, Knizak (who is also an artist and is associated with the Fluxus movement) had proposed an alternative project by three young Czech artists for the Czech pavilion. The artists, however, rejected his offer and called for Lang to be reinstated as the country's official selection.  

Image: Dominik Lang's Walking Blackboard, 2006

Venice Biennale to grant space for new pavilions at the Arsenale

The Guardian reports that the Venice Biennale is in talks to offer new permanent pavilion sites to Argentina, Chile, Mexico, the UAE and Bahrain. The newcomers will set up their pavilions in the 16th century barracks building at the Arsenale, the sprawling complex of docks and warehouses adjacent to the Giardini. 

The President of the Biennale, Paolo Baratta, says for a 20 year concession the newcomers could be asked to pay between €1.5m and €1.7m towards the renovation works in the buildings, which are estimated at €20m. 

When Australia snapped up one of the last pavilion spaces at the Giardini, New Zealand appeared to have missed the boat. However, the move to grant new permanent space for pavilions at the Arsenale may offer a new window of opportunity.

Lorenzo Ruldolf likens his experience of Art Stage Singapore to his early days at Art Basel

The inaugural edition of Art Stage Singapore drew 32,000 visitors and favourable press and seems set to take its place alongside ART HK and ShContemporary as one of the region's leading art fairs. You can read more on Art Stage Singapore here and here.

The continued presence of Lorenzo Rudolf is likely to be a critical factor in Art Stage Singapore's attempts to grow its reputation in the years to come. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, given the fair is backed by four prominent Singaporean government agencies, including the Singapore Tourism Board and the Economic Development Board - deeming it the "flagship" effort to turn the city-state into a contemporary arts hub - it's likely that Rudolf has been offered strong incentives to stick around.

Image: Lorenzo Rudolf at Art Stage Singapore, 2011

VIP Art Fair opens today

The VIP Art Fair opened today at 8.00 a.m. EST and closes on 30 January at 7.59 a.m. EST. You can browse the fair for free, but to access the interactive capabilities visitors must have a VIP ticket which on 22 & 23 January costs $100 and thereafter $20. You can register here to browse or purchase a VIP ticket.

Limited edition prints by contemporary recording artists in ART/MUSIC/ALCHEMY

Our current exhibition ART/MUSIC/ALCHEMY includes limited edition prints by contemporary recording artists represented in the show - Devendra Banhart, Tomory Dodge {Capacitor}, Julian Gross {Liars}, Harrison Haynes {Les Savy Fav}, Raffi Kalenderian {Wounded Lion}, David Lovering {The Pixies}, Pat Mahoney {LCD Soundsystem}, Tim Presley {Darker My Love}, Sarah Rara & Luke Fischbeck {Lucky Dragons}, Rob Reynolds {Dungbeetle} and Nancy Whang {LCD Soundsystem}. 

You can purchase prints online here.

Image: Devendra Banhart poster (2010), archival inkjet on paper, edition of 25 plus 5 ap; website design by inhouse

On the rise of right-wing populism and what it means for contemporary art

Issue #22 of e-flux journal takes as its topic the rise of right-wing populism in the US and Europe and what it means for contemporary art. Titled Idiot Wind, the issue begins with an introduction by guest editors Paul Chan and Sven Lutticken.

  

"The global financial crisis that began in 2008 continues to impoverish countries by exposing them to punishing economic forces that seem neither controllable nor accountable to the sociality from which they spring. And like clockwork, right-wing populist movements in the US and Europe step onto the social stage to reassert the will of 'The People' in these great times." Read more...

Clough defends removal of A Fire in My Belly

Wayne Clough has defended his decision to remove A Fire in My Belly from Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, a major show on sexual identity in portraits at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Speaking for the Smithsonian, he said: "We are not here to cause controversy. We are here help people understand these issues that are important to our growth as a society."

Clough has decided to hold a public forum in April to discuss all the issues that have been raised. "I know we have to continue a dialogue," he sad. "Some of the issues to be discussed are the difference between publicly funded and private museums, their approaches to exhibitions and the role of the Smithsonian as a national leader."

Image: National Portrait Gallery

MoMA acquires controversial Wojnarowicz video

The Museum of Modern Art has acquired the David Wojnarowicz video that was removed from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington after the Smithsonian's top executive G. Wayne Clough bowed to pressure from the New York-based Catholic League and congressional Republicans who objected to the work because it was "anti-Christian".

Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992, made A Fire in My Belly in the late 1980s in response to the AIDS crisis. It was included in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (a Smithsonian museum) examining gay themes in American portraiture.

  

Last week artist AA Bronson joined the fray asking for his piece to be removed from the show in protest. His lawyer has sent a letter to Clough and the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Martin E. Sullivan, threatening legal action if the museum does not comply. 

Meanwhile A Fire in My Belly is being shown at MoMA in a collection show that runs to 9 May 2011 and it will feature in an event at the Tate Modern on 22 January to reconsider Wojnarowicz's work in the light of efforts to distort its intentions and legacy.

Image: David Wojnarowicz, A Fire in My Belly (1987), video still

Fourth Plinth commissions announced

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has announced the 2012/2013 Fourth Plinth winners. Powerless Structures, Fig.101 by Elmgreen & Dragset has been commissioned for 2012 to be followed by Katharina Fritsch's Hahn / Cock in 2013.

Images: Powerless structures, Fig. 101 by Elmgreen & Dragset and Hahn / Cock by Katharina Fritsch

ART/MUSIC/ALCHEMY curated by Whitney Bedford

Curated by Whitney Bedford, ART/MUSIC/ALCHEMY runs at Starkwhite from 21 January to 20 February 2011. You can read our exhibition release here.

Image: Tomory Dodge, Beaucoup Fantastic (2009), watercolor on paper, 16 x 12 inches, courtesy of the artist and ACME, Los Angeles, California

From here to there draws to an end

We are having an end-of-show function for Whitney Bedford on Wednesday 19 January from 5.30pm, Please join us at Starkwhite if you would like to meet the artist and catch From here to there before it closes.

Image: Whitney Bedford, Untitled shipwreck (rocked), 2010, ink and oil on panel

Stella Brennan project goes online at SCREENS

Stella Brennan's first online work has been launched on SCREENS. Instant Pictures is a series of networked pages taking the viewer into their tiniest details, gateways and to the next enveloping image-scape lodged amongst the hairs, scratches and dust particles.

Founded and curated by Luke Munn and Jeff Nusz, SCREENS is series of commissioned online works by artists seeking to redefine the artgame/interactive field with pieces that create new relationships, deal with untouched themes, and utilise on and offline media.

Image; Stella Brennan, Instant Pictures (still), 2011, SCREENS

Leigh Davis Flag Poems in Time, Text & Echoes

Images (top to bottom): Leigh Davis, GMI and Last Waves, flag poems presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010-2011), a sequence of ten-day hoists over 300 days, New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland, NZ

Upstairs at Starkwhite

Image: Gavin Hipkins, New Age (Falls), 2009, archival pigment print, 80 x 80 cm

A sign of things to come for Auckland's public art programme

Situated at Gustav Adolfs torg in Helingsborg, Sammasrala/Shine Together is a new work by by David Svensson. The artist has collected nine lampposts from different eras and parts of the world and relocated them around an existing post the Helingsborg Square. Svensson is one of the international artists commissioned to make a new public sculpture for Auckland city under its Public Art Programme.

Image: David Svensson, Sammasrala/Shine Together (2010), installation view, Gustav Adolfs torg in Helingsborg, Sweden

Billy Apple's corner post

Recently we posted images of Billy Apple's Waipero Swamp Walk, which opened to the public in December 2010. The images above are of The Corner Post, a related component of the work at a nearby corner site. You can read a review of the work here.

Image: Billy Apple's The Corner Post (2010), commissioned under Auckland City's Public Art Programme

Upstairs at Starkwhite

Image: Grant Stevens, Misty (2009), lenticular print, 40 x 50 cm

VIEWING IN PRIVATE Art Fair

This link takes you to a video update on VIEWING IN PRIVATE (VIP) the new international art fair being conducted exclusively online. 

The design of VIP allows art collectors to view artwork online in relation to other works and in relative scale to the human figure. Visitors can zoom in to examine details of a painting's surface, get multiple views of a three -dimensional work, and watch videos of a multi-media piece. Another feature is the interactivity between dealer and collector. Each dealer has the ability to hold conversations with collectors via instant messaging and Skype. Dealers can also provide access to their back room inventory, sharing works in real time with clients in specially created private rooms on the client's computer screen.

The fair opens on Saturday 22 January 2011 at 8.00 a.m. EST and closes on Sunday 30 January at 7.59 a.m. EST. Browsing the Fair is free of charge but visitors must have a VIP ticket to access interactive capabilities.

Jae Hoon Lee's Annapurna at the Christchurch Art Gallery

Commissioned by the Christchurch City Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu for its Springboard series, Jae Hoon Lee's digitally collaged image, Annapurna, is the latest installation in the Gallery's Outer Space programme.

Image: Jae Hoon Lee, Annapurna (2010), installation view, Christchurch Art Gallery, Annapurna image courtesy of the artist. The work to the left of Jae Hoon Lee's billboard is Jim Speers' DIDN'T GET TO SLEEP LAST NIGHT, commissioned by the Gallery in 2004

Whitney Bedford: From here to there continues at Starkwhite

Our current exhibition, Whitney Bedford: From here to there, runs to 19 January 2011. You can read our exhibition release here.
Image: Whitney Bedford, Untitled shipwreck (the not/knot), 2010, ink and oil on panel 22" x 26"