Collecting Contemporary Art

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands – Michelangelo An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have – Andy Warhol Art is anything you can get away with – Marshall McLuhan A collector has one of three motives for collecting: a genuine love of art, the investment possibilities, or its […]

Richard Serra’s 10 Most Expensive Artworks at Auction

Iconoclastic American artist Richard Serra launched an exhibition of his latest steel behemoths at Gagosian Gallery in New York this past Saturday, featuring four new works: Above Below Betwixt Between,Every Which Way, Silence (for John Cage), and Through. It’s the thirtieth big show at the gallery for the artist, who splits his time between New York and Nova Scotia. Suffice it to say, the […]

Art Galleries Face Pressure to Fund Museum Shows

Galleries have always provided scholarly support for museums exhibiting their artists’ work.  Now they’re expected to provide money, too. In today’s exploding art market, amid diminishing corporate donations and mounting exhibition costs, nonprofit museums have been leaning more heavily on commercial galleries for larger amounts of money — anywhere from $5,000 to $200,000 each time […]

Forget the Loft: The Newest Trend in Luxury Real Estate is Walls

For Wendy Maitland, Town Residential’s president of sales, an Oscar-winning director client of hers was a typical real estate shopper with typical requests. He had a seven-figure budget and was keen to buy into one of the many new luxury condo complexes sprouting around Manhattan. The client was downsizing from a huge country house in Connecticut since his […]

BAC in the Globe & Mail

Second careers are a chance to nurture primary passions Laing Brown decided to “retire” from his 30-plus-year career as a lawyer and partner at two of Canada’s largest law firms.  But instead of carrying on as a consultant or spending his days playing golf, Mr. Brown and his wife, Kathleen Brown, also a lawyer, decided […]

Top 9 Takeaways from Knoedler Forgery Trial

Never has the phrase “Hindsight is 20/20″ held as much weight for anyone as it has for collectors and other art world observers in the  wake of the recent high-profile Knoedler forgery trial. The case was settled a few days ago (February 10), but not without the art world experiencing a mountain of frequently cringe-worthy evidence and an earful […]

Philippe Parreno: “Hypothesis” at Hangar Bicocca, Milan

Philippe Parreno is one of the most significant French artists of the past two decades. Throughout his work, which includes film, video, sound and writing and drawing, the artist has always explored the borders between reality and its representation utilizing the vocabulary and means typically associated with a variety of media such as radio, television, […]

8 New Classics of 21st-Century Photography You Need to Know Now

Since its inception in the early 1800s, photography has been the site of immense change as it evolved from a scientific challenge to a world-shaking mass medium over the past 200 years. The digital revolution of the new millennium has brought on both never-before-seen capabilities and a new ubiquity of the photographed image, developments artists […]

Nothing Remains: David Bowie’s Vision of Love

On the title track of “Blackstar,” the David Bowie record released just a couple of days before his death on January 10th, Bowie sings, “I’m not a pop star.” True, he was an attractive celebrity with hit records, great hair and a vaguely gender-bending past. But for me, and for his millions of fans, he […]

David Bowie Allowed His Art to Deliver a Final Message

In the video for David Bowie’s “Lazarus,” released last week, the mythic singer and rock ’n’ roll shape-shifter, ever thin but bordering on gaunt, is blindfolded and writhing in a hospital bed. “Look up here, I’m in heaven,” he sings. “I’ve got scars that can’t be seen.” In the end, a shaking Mr. Bowie retreats […]

7 Video Art Masterpieces You Need to Know Now

Video art has been with us for nearly half a century, a fertile ground for artists to experiment with new modes of aesthetic experience. As media culture expanded to nearly every corner of our society over the course of the 20th century, artists in turn refined and emboldened their approaches to the medium. The following […]

Clyfford Still’s Radical Repetitions

DENVER — The current exhibition at the Clyfford Still Museum (CSM), Repeat/Recreate, has been on the institution’s wish list for nearly 10 years, since well before it even opened. The museum controls 94% of Clyfford Still’s life’s work, yet the show required 12 lenders to gather pairs and triplicates for their first public display together. The result […]

The 18 Most Appalling International Art World Scandals of 2015

It seems as if there’s never a quiet moment in the art world, especially during boom times. There are record-breaking auctions,controversial exhibitions, and even violent episodes by artists, as well as trolling by the general public. Here’s a quick guide to some of the more scandalous news reports that have happened over the course of this year.

Gerhard Richter Says He’s Shocked by the State of the Art Market

The most expensive living artist in Europe, Gerhard Richter, criticized the art market and denounced the hype surrounding contemporary artists, including himself, as a “cult of personality.” Speaking to the German weekly Die Zeit, the 83-year-old painter said the exorbitant prices his artworks achieve at auction were proof of how “insanely the art market has developed,” […]

Crowds are Going Crazy Over Martin Creed’s Balloon Installation

British artist Martin Creed’s short-lived but much loved installation titled Work No. 2592 at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise on New York’s Lower East Side is open until Saturday, and people cannot seem to get enough of the bright-red balloons that half-fill the space at 291 Grand Street. The playful installation by the 2001 Turner Prize winner has been delighting adults and kids alike and has […]

French retrospective celebrates work of German artist Anselm Kiefer

Paris – France’s Centre Pompidou opened a retrospective of the works of German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer on Tuesday with more than 150 works documenting his career from the late 1960’s to the present. Visitors to the exhibition, the first of its kind in France for more than three decades, can stroll through 10 […]

Martin Creed, Work No. 2592 at Gavin Brown, NYC

Don’t be fooled—this balloon-filled room is not a tribute to Nena’s classic hit, “99 Red Balloons”.  It is, however, an interactive art installation, “Work No. 2592” by Martin Creed, a British artist and Turner prize-winner, which is open for some child-like revelry, for adults and children alike. Yep, it’s a ball pit for adults, but it […]

Rodney Graham | Studio Visit | TateShots

Rodney Graham works across various disciplines including photography, film, performance and sculpture and is often associated with the Vancouver School. The diversity of the mediums he uses is also reflected in the multiple cultural, historical, literary and philosophic references he layers within his work. Watch the TateShots Video.

Off to the races: Miami Basel Begins, with Buoyant Sales Reports, a Bevy of Stella, and a Grab Bag of Celebrities

Art Basel Miami Beach opened its doors this morning to Earth’s primo art collectors, who perused the offerings from 267 galleries en route to snapping up works by blue-chip artists such as Picasso and Frank Stella, who continues his hot streak by having a dozen works spread among four different booths. Even more eye-catching are the text-based neon […]

Everything You Need to Know About All 20 Art Fairs at Art Basel in Miami Beach

1. Art Basel in Miami Beach (see last year’s report) As the main event, Art Basel in Miami Beach is the country’s largest art fair, with 267 galleries from around the world showing in a massive hall featuring more than 500,000 square feet of exhibition space. Now under the leadership of new director Noah Horowitz, the fair will showcase work by […]