Images of Helen Frankenthaler and Clement Greenberg hanging out at the Cedar Bar or upstate visiting David Smith are burned into our cultural memory.  It was at the turn of the beat generation where artists, poets and writers co-mingled in what would be the the tail end of a thriving American bohemia.  These icons of […]

Claire Hooper is the winner of the 2010 Baloise Art Prize. At mumok she is presenting her prize-winning video Video Nyx (2010), as part of a trilogy which also includes two works from 2011, Aoide and Eris. In her films, the British artist (born 1978) interweaves narratives from the present with characters and concepts from […]

The artist Rene Rietmeyer (*1957, Netherlands) creates abstract, three-dimensional wall objects, which he calls “Boxes”. These Boxes address his own, personal existence within time and space. His work is about expressing his existence, about living out the consequences of his thoughts, about living a conscious life and creating an awareness about this in others. In […]

When he heard that I was about to move to Miami, the French artist Joël Hubaut put me in contact with collectors Ruth and Marvin Sackner, who generously opened their doors to me. The discovery of many French artists in their collection and the collectors’ francophilia was the starting point of the concept of this […]

New York-based artist Josiah McElheny is a sculptor, performance artist, writer and filmmaker, best known for his use of glass with other materials. For his Bloomberg Commission he uses light and mirrors to transform the Whitechapel Gallery into a hall of mirrors. Josiah McElheny is the latest artist invited to create a new work of […]

The New Museum has announced its list of participating artists in the 2012 Triennial, the only recurring exhibition in the United States devoted to presenting young artists from around the globe. Opening to the public on February 15, the Triennial will feature thirty-four artists, artist groups, and temporary collectives, totaling over fifty participants, born between […]

I believe that bringing diverse groups of people together to listen to each other’s stories is an end in itself.  Life stories have the power to dispel fear, challenge one’s values and inspire compassion.  There is urgency in the impulse to tell these particular stories, considering that one out of every 30 Santa Monicans is […]

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will display the first major public sculpture by Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, titled Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads. The installation will comprise twelve monumental bronze animal heads that are re-creations of the famous traditional zodiac sculptures that once adorned the fountain clock of Yuan Ming Yuan, the […]

Peter Weiss: You have a very energetic personality; you seem very confident and secure. Am I reading it right and to what do you attribute that security? Erica Simone: Yes, I like to think of myself as being confident and secure (most of the time). We do only have one life, one body, and one […]

This week I uncovered a number of reasons to count my blessings. Foremost amongst them is the fact that I don’t live in Paul McCarthy’s head. Paul McCarthy is currently the lucky recipient of the first transatlantic show to be presented by Hauser & Wirth, his work simultaneously filling their New York gallery space and […]