Berkeley Art Museum Explores the Logic of the Ghost in Exhibition

BERKELEY, CA.- Hauntology, essentially the logic of the ghost, is a concept as ephemeral and abstract as the term implies. Since it was first used by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in a 1993 lecture delivered at UC Riverside concerning the state of Marxist thought in the post-Communist era, the term hauntology has been widely discussed in philosophical and political circles, as well as becoming a major influence in the development of various sub-genres of electronic music. This exhibition focuses [...]

Art Bargain Hunters Alert: Simon Hasan Offers Works for £3

LONDON.- British designer Simon Hasan, recently highlighted by Wallpaper Magazine in their 2010 UK Fab 40, is to offer the public artworks at the amazing price of £3. Hasan’s work usually sells for thousands. Industrial Makeshift is an unpretentious antidote to the art market. Hasan has used the medieval leather-working technique of Cuir Bouilli to mass-produce over 400 handcrafted objects, which can be purchased in the usual coin-operated way from a conventional vending machine. Selling for only £3, the pieces [...]

Picture Industry (Goodbye to All That) at Regen Projects

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Twentieth Century debates over the “politics of representation,” the autonomy of art, or art’s capacity for “critique” still linger like disgruntled spirits on the hunt for living bodies to inhabit. At first, contemporary art looks vaguely amenable to such interpretations: appropriated/pop imagery, collage, the monochrome, automaticism, the aleatory etc. are no less common now than they were when such ideas were a breath of fresh air. But seen through a contemporary lens, the meanings of these strategies [...]

Museum Veteran Invites Artists to Reinvent the Master of Fine Arts

NEW YORK, NY.- Beginning in the summer of 2011, the School of Visual Arts (SVA) will offer a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Art Practice, a low-residency, interdisciplinary program of study that offers experienced artists an opportunity to deepen their studio practice and to develop an advanced body of work under the guidance of some of the world’s foremost artists and critics. The program will be chaired by educator and art museum professional David A. Ross. Ross has assembled [...]

Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the 20th Century on Display

NEW ORLEANS, LA.- A little known American Indian archive was unveiled at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) from July 24 until October 24, 2010. Ancestors and Descendants: Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century is the first comprehensive exhibition of nineteenth century photography, southwestern artifacts and archival research from the George Hubbard Pepper Native American Archive at Tulane University. Sumner W. Matteson, Antelope Priests Shaking Rattles, 1901, hand-colored glass lantern slide, US.01.099.0026. Courtesy of Tulane [...]

Largest Juried Display of African Canadian Art Presented at the ROM

TORONTO.- The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) joins in the excitement of the Scotiabank Caribana Festival and presents From the Soul: Caribana Art Exhibit, July 23 to August 13, 2010, Canada’s largest ever single juried display of works of art by African Canadian artists. Curated by renowned African Canadian artist and activist, Joan Butterfield, the exhibition is produced by the Association of African Canadian Artists, in conjunction with Scotiabank Caribana and the ROM. From the Soul will be on display in [...]

Moore Sculpture Returns to Historic New England’s Gropius House

BOSTON, MA.- To further add to its collection of material related to its historic properties, Historic New England is acquiring a bronze reclining figure by sculptor and artist Henry Moore (1898-1986) that was a gift from Moore to Walter and Ise Gropius and, during their lifetime, was displayed on a shelf in the living room of Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Moore, one of the most celebrated sculptors of his time, visited the Gropiuses at their home in 1946, signed [...]

Steven Holl Architects Wins Two International Architecture Awards

NEW YORK, NY.- Steven Holl Architects has received International Architecture Awards for the Knut Hamsun Center in Hamarøy, Norway and the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning, Denmark. The awards, administered annually by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies honor “new and cutting-edge design” and aim to promote “excellence in architecture and urbanism from a global point-of-view.” The Knut Hamsun Center, completed August 2009, is dedicated [...]

Art Institute of Chicago Opens Henri Cartier-Bresson Retrospective

CHICAGO, IL.- Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is one of the most original, accomplished, and influential figures in the history of photography. His celebrated work of the early 1930s helped to define the artistic potential of modern photography; a decade later, after surviving three years as a prisoner of war, Cartier-Bresson emerged from World War II determined to document a world in the midst of profound change. He did so in 1947 when he joined Robert Capa and others to found the [...]

Drive End: Martin Beauregard’s First Exhibition in a Museum

MONTREAL.- Through September 19, 2010, in the Contemporary Art Square on Level S2 of the Jean‐Noël Desmarais Pavilion, the The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents Drive End, a remarkable photographic project by Martin Beauregard. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in a museum. Admission to the exhibition is free at all times. A drive‐in has been converted into an automobile graveyard. An old man with a dramatically lined face, wearing a cowboy hat, watches time go by. An [...]

New Contemporary Works in Collection on View at Reynolda House

WINSTON-SALEM, NC.- Three new works are on view at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Anni Albers’s “Red Meander” (1969) and Lee Krasner’s “Free Space I” and “Free Space II” (1975) can be seen in the historic house alongside a work already in the museum’s collection, “I-S, J” (1973) by Albers’s husband, Josef Albers. They will remain on view through August 15, 2010. This small, unified grouping allows visitors to consider how abstract form and color theory continued to shape [...]

New Mixed Media Installation by Jorge Pardo at Gagosian

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Gagosian Gallery presents “Bulgogi,” a new mixed media installation by Jorge Pardo. Pardo merges art, design, and architecture, drawing on the historical intersections of these disciplines from the Bauhaus to Robert Smithson while interrogating the conventional uses of public and private space. His diverse production range from hand-crafted furniture evoking Modernist designers such as Alvar Aalto and Charles Eames to large-scale, site-specific projects such as the house he designed in 1998 for an exhibition at the Museum [...]

New Exhibition to Return Artist to Proper Place in Australian History

CANBERRA.- The first retrospective of Australia’s first major colonial trained professional artist, Robert Dowling (1827–1886), opens today at the National Gallery of Australia. “This exhibition, organised by the National Gallery of Australia, aims to place Robert Dowling in his proper place in Australian cultural history. When he first advertised himself as an artist in Launceston in 1850, he became the first locally trained Australian artist and went on to be the first to achieve success overseas. He was Australia’s most [...]

Israel Museum Inaugurates its Renewed Campus and Reinstalled Collection Wings

JERUSALEM.- The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, inaugurates its renewed 20-acre campus, featuring new galleries, orientation facilities, and public spaces, on July 26, 2010. The three-year expansion and renewal project was designed to enhance visitor experience of the Museum’s art, architecture, and surrounding landscape, in complement to the original architecture and design of the campus. Led by James Carpenter Design Associates of New York and Efrat-Kowalsky Architects of Tel Aviv, the $100-million project also includes the comprehensive renovation and reconfiguration of the [...]

New Personnel and New Positions at the Gibbes Museum of Art

CHARLESTON, SC.- For fiscal year 2010/2011, the Gibbes Museum of Art is pleased to announce two new hires and several staff promotions. On June 29, Lasley Poe Steever joined the museum in the newly created position of Program and Events Manager. Meredith Siemens joins the Gibbes today as Rental Events Coordinator. The new fiscal year brought the promotion of several staff members including Sara Arnold, former Associate Curator of Collections and now Curator of Collections, Marla Loftus, former Director of [...]