This video shows an excerpt of the performance Strange Attractors by Aki Sasamoto at the Whitney Museum of American Art on the 26th February 2010. Aki Sasamoto’s contribution to the Whitney Biennial 2010 consists of the “careful arrangement of sculpturally altered found objects and insistent repetitions of performance that change and add to the feelings of the installation; the objects themselves provide guidance for the artist’ structured improvisation. Sasamoto demonstrates and develops a kaleidoscopic worldview out of deeply personal episodes and a hypothetical mapping of the universe. In an attempt to understand and feel the mathematical concept of strange attractors in dynamical systems, she jumbles her recent obsession for doughnuts, fortune-tellers, hemorrhoids, and things detected in the world”. (Excerpt from the press release).

A full-length version is available on our HD page.

Aki Sasamoto is a New York-based, Japanese artist, who works in performance, sculpture, dance, and other media. Sasamoto completed an MFA degree in visual arts at Columbia University, and is a recipient of Visual Art Grant from Rema Hort Mann Foundation, the Toby Fund Award from the Toby Fund, and many US and Japanese scholarships. She has worked with lower lights collective, Jeffrey Schiff, Eiko & Koma, Koosil-ja Hwang, Hari Krishnan, and Yvonne Meier.

In her own work, Sasamoto is interested in everyday gestures on nothing and everything. Today’s performance/installation builds on and shifts out of yesterday’s, remembering, modifying, developing. Her works are shown both in dance and visual arts venues in New York, San Francisco, Germany, New Zealand, and Japan.

Aki Sasamoto: Strange Attractors, Whitney Biennial 2010. Performance (Excerpt), February 26, 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

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Until April 3, 2010, Mike Weiss Gallery in New York presents Remote Control, a multimedia installation including sculpture, photography and drawing by artist Sofi Zezmer. It’s the artist’s third solo exhibition at Mike Weiss Gallery. Work her work, she uses fragments of manmade, mostly synthetic materials.

Sofi Zezmer constructs her works by a gradual additive process dependent on intuitive responses to the materials and objects she uses forming color-saturated assemblages. Among the elements she incorporates are objects such as drinking straws, IV drip tubing, construction netting, film, foil, packing materials, bicycle helmets, cable ties and funnels. “In fusing the elements and breaking them down, Zezmer disrupts the common meaning assigned to the items and calls into question our own familiarity with them. Zezmer’s sculptures suggest irrational Duchampian hybrids of mechanical and biological systems. They are embodiments of the complexity of life in the modern age, ruminations on the omnipresence of mass-production, space travel and biotechnology.” (Excerpt from the press release).

Sofi Zezmer lives and works in Germany. Her work has been exhibited in numerous international gallery and museum exhibitions, such as her solo exhibitions at Museum Wiesbaden, at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan and her forty two foot long hanging sculpture, Es Darf Kein Mangel Herrschen, commissioned by the NASPA Bank, Wiesbaden, Germany.

Sofi Zezmer: Remote Control / Mike Weiss Gallery, New York. Opening reception, February 27, 2010.

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Ivorypress Art + Books and PaceWildenstein currently present an exhibition that represents a decision by Claes Oldenburg to re-explore a work that he and his wife Coosje van Bruggen had made together in 1990. The show The European Desktop is comprised of a number of sculptures – a shattered desk pad, a quill, an ink pot, a blotter, and postal scales. The European Desktop is the third and final work in a series of theatrical installations that grew out of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s performance with architect Frank Gehry for the 1995 Venice Biennale, Il Corso del Coltello (The Course of the Knife). The first two works in this series were The Haunted House and From the Entropic Library.

Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen: The European Desktop / Ivorypress Art + Books, Madrid / Spain. Press Preview, February 16, 2010.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

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Zurcher Studio New York presents Bbbrrriiiaaannn Bbbeeellloootttttt: The Joy of File. The centerpiece of Brian Belott’s solo show at the gallery is a huge installation containing images of all sorts: pictures cut out of children’s books and old science textbooks, found photos and paper painted by Brian Belott himself. Part of the installation are also sound (talking, music and ambient noises collected from found cassette tapes and records and some sampled off of YouTube), glass paintings and mixed media books.

Brian Belott: The Joy of File / Zürcher Studio, New York. Opening reception, February 26, 2010.

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From February 19th to May 16th 2010, La Maison Rouge in Paris, France presents Vinyl, an exhibition of records and covers compiled by the British collector, publisher and curator Guy Schraenen. For more than 30 years, Guy Schraenen’s fascination with artists’ multiples (objects, catalogues, books, magazines) has led him to amass a unique and highly specialised collection on the theme of sound. Vinyl shows LPs from an acoustic and visual angle to illustrate how artists from the 1920s and throughout the twentieth century have experimented with language and sound. The exhibition presents close to 800 albums alongside tapes, CDs, specialist magazines, reference books, catalogues and artworks.

In this video by Christophe Ecoffet, Guy Schraenen talks about his interest in the relationship between visual art and sound, and the concept of the exhibition.

Vinyl, Records and Covers by Artists / La Maison Rouge, Paris. Interview with Guy Schraenen, February 18, 2010.

More information after the jump.

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Independent is a new addition to the bunch of art fairs running concurrently to The Armory Show. It’s characterized by the organizers as part consortium, part collective, a contemporary art fair that lies somewhere between a collective exhibition and a reexamination of the art fair model, “reflecting the changing attitudes and growing challenges for artists, galleries, curators and collectors.”

The gallery list includes Ancient & Modern (London), Isabella Bortolozzi (Berlin), Rodeo (Istanbul) Boltelang (Zürich), Winkleman Gallery (New York), Zero (Milan), to name a few. There are no art fair typical booths, but custom spaces that are curated in relation to one another. Apart from the galleries’ presentations there are artist projects by The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Aaron Young, and others, and public programs such as a book signing with Ida Applebroog, performances and discussions.

Independent New York, Opening, March 4, 2010.

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This is a first look at The Armory Show 2010. This year’s edition introduces Armory Focus, a new section that features an important art community every year. The new section is premiering with Berlin, presenting 21 galleries from Germany’s capital. In total, The Armory Show features 267 galleries from 31 countries.

The Armory Show 2010, Vernissage, March 3, 2010.

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Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection at New Museum in New York is the title of the first U.S. exhibition of the Dakis Joannou Collection from Athens, Greece. It’s also the first show curated by Jeff Koons. Skin Fruit includes over 100 works by 50 international artists spanning several generations.

With Skin Fruit, the New Museum launches The Imaginary Museum, a new exhibition series that will periodically showcase leading private collections of contemporary art from around the world. The New Museum invited artist Jeff Koons to curate the first in this series. Jeff Koons had his first museum exhibition at the New Museum in 1981. Jeff Koons and Dakis Joannou are close friends for nearly three decades. Dakis Joannou is a philanthropist, arts partron, and New Museum Trustee based in Athens, Greece. In 1983, Joannou established the DESTE Foundation of Contemporary Art. Ever since, DESTE has been organizing exhibitions and supporting projects and publications internationally.

Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection / New Museum, New York. Press preview, March 2, 2010.

PS: Photo gallery after the jump.

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Thomas Schütte: Hindsight at the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid is the most comprehensive retrospective of the German artist’s work ever organized in Europe. It offers visitors a detailed insight into his work. The works on display span from Thomas Schütte’s early works in the late 1970s to his latest creations. The show features little-known works as well as well-known ones such as the series of sculptures entitled Frauen (Women). The exhibition has been curated by Lynne Cooke and presents installations, sculptures, watercolors, etchings, photographs, and architectural models.

Thomas Schütte: Hindsight at Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid / Spain. Opening reception, February 16, 2010.

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LIVESupport is Nari Ward’s first solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York. The new body of work on display consists of sculptures, works on paper, and video. Subject-matter is the idea of support – physical, spiritual, social and judicial. The centerpiece of LIVESupport is “Sick Smoke”, a smoke-filled ambulance covered in opaque and transparent white vinyl, allowing only traces of its signage to be visible.

On Saturday, 6 March, 2010 at 1:30 PM Lehmann Maupin Gallery will present a discussion and Q+A session with Nari Ward. Ward’s work will also be on view at Lehmann Maupin’s Armory Show Stand (Pier 94, 911), 4-7 March, 2010.

Ward’s work is currently on view through 14 March, 2010 at the Studio Museum in Harlem as part of the exhibit 30 Seconds Off an Inch. Ward’s work has been included in the 2008 Prospect.1 New Orleans biennial, 2006 Whitney Biennial in New York and in Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany in 2003.

Nari Ward: LIVESupport / Lehmann Maupin, 540 West 26th Street, New York. Opening Reception, February 25, 2010.

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With the exhibition Miquel Barceló: 1983-2009. La Solitude Organisative, CaixaForum Madrid reviews the career of the Spanish artist in a major show. Organized by “La Caixa” Social and Cultural Outreach Projects, the exhibition presents more than 180 pieces, from the huge canvasses created from 1983 onwards to his most recent works. One of the latest, the monumental cast bronze elephant sculpture Gran Elefandret (2009), welcomes the visitors on the place in front of the building.

Miquel Barceló: 1983–2009. La Solitude Organisative / CaixaForum Madrid, Spain.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

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Fifty-five artists were selected by curator Francesco Bonami and associate curator Gary Carrion-Murayari for the 2010 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. It’s the 75th in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932, two years after the Museum was founded.

The Whitney Biennial aims to provide a panoramic survey of the latest in American art. It includes well established artists as well as emerging artists from all of the country. The works range from film and video to photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, performance and architecture. Among the artists are Huma Bhabha, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, George Condo, Thomas Houseago, Aki Sasamoto, and Piotr Uklański.

As a prelude, counterpoint, and coda to the Whitney Biennial 2010, the Museum’s fifth floor is devoted to artists in the Whitney’s collection whose works were shown in previous Biennials.

In this interview with curator Francesco Bonami, the curator talks about the title and concept of the exhibition, what is special about curating for the Whitney Biennial, and a group of work that exemplifies the Whitney Biennial 2010.

The Whitney Biennial 2010 runs until may 30, 2010, Collecting Biennials until November 28, 2010.

Whitney Biennial 2010 / Interview with Curator Francesco Bonami. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 23, 2010.

Update (Feb. 26, 2010): Review by Holland Cotter, New York Times.

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This is a short interview with David Bowen, who won the third prize in the VIDA 12.0 Fundación Telefónica Art and Artificial Life competition. VIDA rewards electronic works of art produced with artificial life technologies. The other laureates of the 12th edition of the award are Guy Ben-Ary, Philip Gamblen, Peter Gee, Nathan Scott, Brett Murry, and Dr. Steve Potter and his team (first prize with Silent Barrage), and Andreas Muxel (second prize with Connect).

Growth Modeling Device is a kinetic installation based on the rate of growth and structure of a onion plant. In this video, David Bowen explains how his Growth Modeling Device works.

David Bowen’s Growth Modeling Device has also won grand prize in the art division at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival. His Wind Drawing Device is currently featured in Data + Art at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

David Bowen: Growth Modeling Device / VIDA 12.0 International Awards / ARCO 2010. February 18, 2010.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

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Related Articles:

• Michael D. Linares: Oasis / ATM Contemporary | Altamira / ARCO 2010
• Interview with ARCO Director Lourdes Fernández at ARCO 2010
• ARCO Madrid 2010

The Rubell Family Collection (RFC) was started in New York in 1964 when Don and Mera Rubell were first married. Since 1993 it has been displayed in Miami at its current, 45′000 square-foot location, and it first opened to the public in 1994. Since then, the Rubell Family Collection has been recognized as the pioneer of what is often referred to as the “Miami model,” whereby private collectors create a new, independent form of public institution.

In 1998 the non-profit Contemporary Arts Foundation (CAF) was created to expand the Collection’s public mission inside the paradigm of a contemporary art museum. Each year CAF presents thematic exhibitions drawn from the collection with accompanying catalogs. The current exhibition bears the title “Beg Borrow and Steal” and deals with the question of artistic influence, revolving around the quote attributed to Picasso: “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” (see also VernissageTV’s video about the opening of the exhibition).

In this video, art historian and art expert Bettina Krogemann and Don and Mera Rubell sit down in Cady Noland’s installation “This Piece Has No Title Yet” (1989) to talk about the history of the collection and the various aspects of collecting art (Excerpt. Full-length version on VernissageTV’s HD page).

Interview with Don and Mera Rubell at the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Miami / Florida, February 4, 2010. A transcript of the interview is going to be published in the German art magazine Weltkunst.

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Related Articles:

• Beg Borrow and Steal / Rubell Family Collection, Miami

The Solo Projects are an essential part of ARCO Madrid. The Solo Projects section aims to compliment the general program of the fair with one man show proposals presented by an international group of curators appointed by ARCO.

One of this year’s solo presentations is Michael D. Linares‘ installation Oasis (Inclusive Structure) at ATM Contemporary | Altamira. It’s a pyramid of cooling boxes with beer cans inside. In this video, Michael D. Linares gives us a short introduction to his installation.

The work has been proposed by the independent Spanish curator Juan de Nieves.

Michael D. Linares: Oasis at ATM Contemporary | Altamira / ARCO Madrid 2010. February 18, 2010.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

ARCOmadrid_2010, 29th International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid / Spain. Professional Day, February 17, 2009.

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Related Articles:

• David Bowen: Growth Modeling Device / VIDA 12.0 International Awards / ARCO 2010
• Interview with ARCO Director Lourdes Fernández at ARCO 2010
• ARCO Madrid 2010

ARCO Director Lourdes Fernández in conversation with Stefan Kobel at ARCO 2010. This is an excerpt of the interview. The full-length version is available on our HD page. A transcript of the interview in German language is available on Artnet Magazine.

ARCOmadrid_2010, 29th International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid / Spain. Professional Day, February 17, 2009.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

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Related Articles:

• David Bowen: Growth Modeling Device / VIDA 12.0 International Awards / ARCO 2010
• Michael D. Linares: Oasis / ATM Contemporary | Altamira / ARCO 2010
• ARCO Madrid 2010

This year’s ARCOmadrid_2010, the international art fair in Madrid, Spain, presents 238 galleries from 32 different countries. It’s the 29th issue of the international fair for contemporary art in Madrid, Spain. This video provides a walkthrough of ARCOmadrid_2010 on the first of the two days for professionals. This year’s guest city is Los Angeles.

Coming soon: Interview with the director of ARCO, Lourdes Fernandez.

This segment has been realized with the kind support of Turespaña.

ARCOmadrid_2010, 29th International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid / Spain. Professional Day, February 17, 2009.

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Related Articles:

• David Bowen: Growth Modeling Device / VIDA 12.0 International Awards / ARCO 2010
• Michael D. Linares: Oasis / ATM Contemporary | Altamira / ARCO 2010
• Interview with ARCO Director Lourdes Fernández at ARCO 2010

Neon Monster is an art and design collective based in San Francisco that curates and creates limited edition experiences: handpicked selections of art, limited edition multiples, designer toys, current and back-issue comics, and new and vintage vinyl records. Neon Monster was founded in October 2007 by four collectors. John Crowe, Kristy Klinck, and brothers Jacob and Isaac Pritzker wanted to share their love for limited edition collectibles. Neon Monster also curates and hosts art shows featuring works by local and national artists. In this video, filmed at their temporary show in Miami’s Design District during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009, partners Kristy Klinck and John Crowe introduce us into the world of Neon Monster.

Neon Monster at Limited Edition Experiences at The F Factory Moore Building, Design District Miami. November 30, 2009.

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French artist Pierre Molinier (1900 – 1976) began his career by painting landscapes, but his work turned towards a fetishistic eroticism early on. Pierre Molinier started his erotic production around 1950. His work has influenced European and North American artists since the 1970s, including Jürgen Klauke, Cindy Sherman and Ron Athey. Pierre Molinier’s work continues to engage artists, critics, and collectors today.*

The current exhibition Pierre Molinier: Oeuvres Inédites at the gallery Kamel Mennour in Paris, France, accompanies Jean-Luc Mercié’s monograph, who provides us with an introduction to Molinier’s work in this video. The work analyses the procedures and retraces the genesis of the photomontages and sets out a new biography drawing on unpublished correspondence. In 2000, galerie Kamel Mennour held a Pierre Molinier retrospective and published a catalogue in conjunction with it. In 2005, a second, more intimate exhibition was organised to coincide with the publication of the artist’s essays, Je suis né homme-putain.

The exhibition Pierre Molinier: Œuvres inédites. Collages & Photomontages focuses on an unknown section of his work, more extemsive and varied than had been thought, and in particular on the collages, kept secret until now, and which formed the “matrix” for the photomontages of Le Chaman et ses créatures. We also discover sketches, negative prints and one-off proofs enlivened with pencil, as well as photographs published for the first time. The installation evokes Pierre Molinier’s universe. It consists of a collection of furniture, paintings, drawings and objects taken from his apartment in Bordeaux. (Excerpt from the press release).

Video by Christophe Ecoffet. Pierre Molinier: Oeuvres Inédites at Kamel Mennour, Paris. Interview with Jean-Luc Mercié, February 11, 2010.

* Wikipedia, keyword “Pierre Molinier“, revision 23 January 2010, 02:02.

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Especially for the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Tyrolean-born artist Rudolf Stingel designed an installation which transforms the character of the iconic Mies van der Rohe building. Rudolf Stingel installed a giant carpet on the floor in the gallery’s large glass hall. The pattern of the carpet dates back to an original 19th century Indian Agra rug, and has been transposed into tones of black, white and gray. Over the carpet, a huge crystal chandelier hovers in the air. In addition to the installation, four new paintings are on view on the lower floor of the New National Gallery.

Rudolf Stingel. LIVE is part of the Dornbracht Installation Projects series of events and an exhibition by the Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin), made possible by the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie.

Rudolf Stingel. LIVE / Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Press Preview and Opening, February 9, 2010.

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From the press release: “The powerful, graphic pattern and sensual opulence of the carpet stands in direct contrast with the austerity and formal reduction of the architecture. Much has been made of the sacredness of van der Rohes construction, something now seen in an entirely new light with the addition of the Indian-Persian influence in dcor, with the result that the modern temple loses something of its abstract severity. It continues to be a sacred site however – one with marked oriental overtones. 

A magnificent crystal chandelier hovers in the air above the carpet, reminiscent of places of great pomp and ceremony, and simultaneously serves to anchor the installation in an inextricably European context. After all, far from being entirely foreign, Indian and Persian carpets are a part of European cultural history, found among various other kinds of orientalia in the lounges and salons of the upper middle-classes, where, in the words of Rudolf Stingel himself, they can be seen as the expression of a tempered yearning for the other.”