Oct. 10, 2006 

HUNTER THOMPSON, PHOTOGRAPHER
The famed gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) took photographs? Who knew? M+B gallery in Los Angeles and Ammo Books present "Gonzo," Dec. 2, 2006-Jan. 6, 2007, an exhibition and book of photographs, writing and memorabilia that chronicle Thompson’s varied life, including his early time as a foreign correspondent in Puerto Rico, his days in Big Sur in the 1960s and his time on the road with the Hell’s Angels. "Gonzo" began as a personal collaboration with Thompson prior to his death, and has since come to completion with the support of his family and estate. For details, see www.mbfala.com

FOSTER, ROSEN, IN BID FOR NEW MAD AVE SKYSCRAPER
The five-story limestone-clad building at 980 Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets -- former home to the Parke-Bernet auction house (Sotheby’s predecessor) and now called the Carlyle Galleries Building -- is the site for a proposed 30-story elliptical glass tower designed by Norman Foster and developed by RFR Holdings, supercollector Aby Rosen’s real estate firm. The design received a favorable review in the New York Times by architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff, though he thinks the proposed building is too large and should be scaled back a bit. He also notes that the plan calls for demolition of the structure’s sixth floor, which was added in 1987 -- and which is also the current home of Gagosian Gallery’s uptown digs. The plan faces review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The 980 Madison building was constructed in 1950 and purchased by RFR for about $120 million in 2004, according to published reports. It is across the avenue from the Carlyle Hotel and a few blocks north of the Whitney Museum.

CARSTEN HÖLLER SLIDES AT TURBINE HALL
Belgian artist Carsten Holler, 45, has installed a series of five-story-tall, tubular steel and plastic slides in the Tate’s soaring Turbine Hall in London, Oct. 10, 2006-Apr. 9, 2007, as the seventh artist to participate in the museum’s "Unilever Series." Dubbed Test Site, the five slides provide a ride that is "extraordinary, if dizzying," according to Louise Jury in the Independent.

CANARY ISLANDS BIENNIAL
The Canary Islands vice-ministry of culture has announced the 1st Architecture, Art & Landscape Biennial of the Canaries, Nov. 27, 2006-Feb. 10, 2007, a show of 70 "artistic actions" spread across the seven-island archipelago off the coast of North Africa. The overall director is Rosina Gómez-Baeza, former head of the ARCO art fair; Antonio Zaya is in charge of the art section. Participating artists include Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Allora and Calzadilla, Kader Attia, Olaf Breuning, Regina Galindo, Kendell Geers, Ori Gersht, Alfredo Jaar, Kcho, Shirin Neshat, Ester Partegás, Javier Tellez, Anton Vidokle / Julieta Aranda and many others. For further details, see http://www.bienaldecanarias.org

SCHOLL COLLECTION IN NEW ORLEANS
Tulane University’s Newcomb Art Gallery is presenting 37 works from the holdings of Miami photo and art collectors Debra and Dennis Scholl. Entitled "Breathing Time," Sept. 21-Dec. 17, 2006, the exhibition is organized by Gary Sangster, director of the Headlands Center for the Arts in California, and is intended as a contribution to the storm-tossed city’s continuing cultural rebirth. The show includes works by artists ranging from John Baldessari, Matthew Barney and Hernan Bas to Paul Pfeiffer, Laurie Simmons and Thomas Struth.

BRYAN HUNT SCULPTURE AT COENTIES SLIP
Lower Manhattan has a new artwork (to add to the 1,300 monuments, including over 300 scultpures, in New York City parks). Local resident Bryan Hunt has installed his stainless steel Coenties Ship in the Coenties Slip triangle in Lower Manhattan, a $1-million project funded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Goldman Sachs. The renovated triangle includes a granite and bluestone sitting area, plantings and a formal central plaza. Hunt’s bifurcated steel form sits atop a bell-shaped glass base that is illuminated at night. Coenties Slip was used in the 18th century as a boat dock -- it is mentioned on the first page of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick -- and was the site of a celebrated 1950s art community as well.

BOOK ON VEGAS FROM GREYBULL PRESS
However cool the avant-garde art world might be, it secretly yearns for the hot lights and hot sights of Las Vegas. Thus, Greybull Press is bringing out The Book on Vegas, a 300-page tome of 226 "luminous, loud and spectacular" photographs by top artists and photographers, ranging from Doug Aitken, Peter Beard and Guy Bourdin to Bruce Weber, Jane and Louise Wilson and Garry Winograd. Marking Greybull’s centennial, the book also features an introduction by Vegas native Dave Hickey and is due in stores in November 2006. The price: $125.

VEGAS ART PROJECT FROM CREATIVE TIME
Did someone say Las Vegas? Creative Time, the New York City-based public art promoter, ventures to Sin City for a new project by Turkish-born artist Haluk Akakçe. Titled Sky Is the Limit, the five-minute-long digital video "stages a confrontation between artificial and organic life" on the "Viva Vision" canopy suspended 90 feet above Fremont Street and stretching four city blocks, a total of 1,500 feet -- the world’s largest video screen. The work plays every evening at 8 pm, Nov. 3-30, 2006. Produced in collaboration with Glassworks, the London-based computer animation and effects firm, and featuring sound by Dan Donovan, Sky Is the Limit is presented in partnership with the City of Las Vegas Arts Commission and the Fremont Street Experience.

AMI BARAK CURATOR FOR 2007 ART FORUM BERLIN
The Paris-based curator and art critic Ami Barak has been named as the curator of the special exhibition, a show titled "Housetrip," focusing on the edge between art and design, for the next installment of Art Forum Berlin in 2007. The 11th Art Forum Berlin art fair, Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2006, boasted a new record attendance of 41,000 visitors.

DEB KASS TO KASMIN
New York artist Deborah Kass, known for her series of paintings that give a gay feminist spin to Andy Warhol’s oeuvre, is now represented by Paul Kasmin Gallery and Vincent Fremont, the Andy Warhol Foundation’s agent for the sale and exhibition of Warhol paintings (who also works independently with other artists). Kasmin is exhibiting new works by Kass at the Frieze Art Fair in London, Oct. 12-16, 2006, and plans a show at his Manhattan gallery in September 2007.

"CARDBOARD" IN L.A.
We all understand the importance of "cardboard" as a metaphor in contemporary culture, despite the increasing obsolescence of the stuff in an age of petroleum products. Thus, its determined entry into the avant-garde art world, ca. 1970, as demonstrated by "Cardboard," Oct. 12-Nov. 22, 2006, at Bobbie Greenfield Gallery in Santa Monica, Ca. The exhibition features works from Guy Dill’s 1971 "Last Supper Series," large, tension-based sculptures made from UPS boxes; Robert Rauschenberg’s 1971 "Cardbirds," a series of collages and prints made from what the Pop maestro called "a material of waste and softness"; and the "Easy Edges Furniture" line produced 1971-73 by Frank Gehry, Jack Brogan and Robert Irwin.

NANCY ARLEN, 1942-2006
Nancy Arlen, 64, sculptor who showed her cast-polyester abstractions at Robert Steffanotti Gallery and the New Museum in the 1970s, died following heart surgery on Sept. 17, 2006. Arlen made a series of glass works in 1983 and then more-or-less retired as an artist. She was also the drummer for Mars, one of the "No Wave" bands featured on the 1978 No New York record album produced by Brian Eno. Mitchell Algus Gallery exhibited some of her works in 1998, and is working with the estate. 

JOHN BOSKOVICH, 1956-2006
John Boskovich, 49, artist known for wry conceptual works that often began with reproductions of everyday objects, whether a coffee cup printed with a girly figure (The Queen of Cups, 1987) or the cover of October magazine (Signifiers for Being Smart, 1999), died at his home in Los Angeles some time over the weekend of Sept. 23-24. He exhibited at Rosamund Felsen Gallery during the 1990s, and taught at Otis College of Art and Design. He co-authored the 1990 movie Without You I’m Nothing with actress Sandra Bernhard.

ZANDER VAUBEL, 1984-2006
Zander Vaubel, 21, artist who worked in sound, performance, conceptual art and painting, died on Oct. 8, 2006, in an accident -- he fell off a roof at a party in Brooklyn. A graduate of Cooper Union’s BFA program, Vaubel was in the Bard MFA program; he was a student of Amy Silman and studio assistant of Tom McGrath. A memorial is planned for Oct. 15 at Cooper Union.

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