Oct. 28, 2010

AUSSIE ART CENTER KILLS PRINTER PROJECT
Melbourne’s Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and Hewlett-Packard are smarting from an interactive art installation/product showcase gone wrong. The piece, dubbed myworkisintheaustraliancentrefor contemporaryart, was intended to run Oct. 25-Nov. 7, 2010, and was essentially a promotion for HP’s "ePrinter" technology, allowing anyone to email an artwork to a printer located in ACCA’s foyer. Less than a week into the run, however, the printer was taken offline, according to The Age, amid a hubbub from artists condemning the piece for copyright provisions giving the HP ownership of all the works submitted. Artists Damon Kowarsky and Deborah Kelly had even encouraged submitting protest works.

ACCA made the decision to kill the project, and now seems to be furiously disassociating itself from the whole thing, claiming that it was "a venue-hire arrangement." When the project launched, the institution’s artistic director Juliana Engberg was quoted as promoting it with the tagline, "Art in the age of mechanical reproduction just went cosmic."

NEW ART FAIR FOR MOSCOW
Pioneering Berlin art dealer Volker Diehl -- who has moved his gallery to Moscow -- is launching a new art fair in the Russian capital. Dubbed Cosmoscow, Dec. 18-19, 2010, the short-but-sweet undertaking brings 40 galleries -- 30 of them from outside Russia -- to the Red October exhibition space, which in the last two years has become the go-to site for international exhibitions. Participation is by invitation only, and all the booths are the same size, with position to be determined by drawing lots. But aren’t the dates a little close to Christmas? Not for Russians, who celebrate Orthodox Christmas in January, and don’t go on holiday until Dec. 31. The Cosmoscow vernissage is set for Dec. 17, with further details to be announced soon. As for Diehl’s Berlin operation, he’s closing his current space on Lindenstrasse and reopening in his former quarters in Charlottenburg next spring.

FORMALIST JEWELRY FROM CARO
Which modern art movement translates best into jewelry designs? Hard to say, but the esthetic of the 86-year-old British formalist Sir Anthony Caro makes the transition quite well. Next month, the New Art Centre in Salisbury, about 90 miles west of London, presents a show of Caro’s jewelry, Nov. 27, 2010-Jan. 30, 2011. The Caro collection includes 15 pendants, rings, earrings and brooches, 12 in gold and three in silver, priced from £10,000 to £60,000. The artist, we are told, "is not a modeler of jewelry but rather a sculptor of pieces in gold." The result of a collaboration with Joyerias Grassy in Madrid that began in 2006, each item is unique, and reflects Caro’s sculptural concerns.

HIGH LINE TRAILER PARK
What’s that Sullivan County trailer home doing parked on Gansevoort Plaza under the High Line, cheek by jowl with the fancy Standard Hotel and other cosmopolitan boîtes? It’s an art project by artist Francis Cape, who is perhaps best known for his Minimalist articulations of interior carpentry, done in collaboration with Friends of the High Line. Dubbed The Other End of the Line, Oct. 22-Nov. 21, 2010, the mobile home was actually wretched from its upstate moorings, cleaned out and toted down to the city to serve as a temporary gallery space. On view there now are works by Michael Ashkin, Gina Occhiogrosso, Nancy Shaver and others selected by Ian Berry, curator at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College.

GOLD DUST AS ARTWORK
Gold dust is part of the myth of the Old West, and now it’s part of an art project called Pocket by the Italian artist Domenico Olivero. In collaboration with P.H2O Arte in Turin, Olivero is leaving a tiny transparent plastic pocket containing gold dust in public places, allowing the gold to blow away and "contaminate the space behind." The first installment of this self-described "poetic art that encourages thinking about urban places and evolving time" is scheduled for Turin on Nov. 6, 2010, with subsequent actions planned for other cities. For more info, see the blog for the project, "Pocket."

AGRIGENTO YOUTH AT THE GETTY
See what happens when you get out from under those nasty "art plunder" disputes? The Getty Villa in Malibu has just put on view the kouros known as the Agrigento Youth (ca. 480 BC), on loan from the Museo Archeologico Regionale di Agrigento in Sicily. Only 40 inches tall, the white marble sculpture was discovered in pieces in cisterns in the late 1800s. It remains on display for six months, Oct. 27, 2010-Apr. 19, 2011.

MOTORCYCLE JACKETS FOR ANDY
The Andy Warhol Foundation is the one with all the money, the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has to raise funds like any other art institution. Thus, the current benefit sale of a collection of motorcycle jackets with hand-painted decorations by a range of artists, Warholian and not: Rita Ackermann, Dan Colen, Ronnie Cutrone, Jane Dickson, Duncan Hannah, Robert Hawkins, Nate Lowman, Brad Kahlhamer, Kenny Scharf, Ouattara Watts and several others. The jackets begin with an estimated price of $5,000, and are available on Charity Buzz, with a selection to be auctioned at Christie’s on Nov. 8, 2010. The event is organized by writer and Kostabi Show star Glenn O’Brien in collaboration with the fashion brand Sisley.

FITZROY GALLERY OPENS IN SOHO
The newest contemporary art establishment to open in Manhattan’s SoHo art district is Fitzroy Gallery, which debuts at 77 Mercer Street on Dec. 9, 2010. Proprietor Cheryl Hayeem is wife to Gilad Hayeem, the London based former CEO of Marble Asset Management. The gallery slate of artists is international, and the opening show features the work of London artist Gerry Judah, reports Fitzroy director Maureen Sarro, former director of Friedrich Petzel Gallery. Sarro has also served as curatorial consultant for the Ronald S. Lauder Collection and the Mrs. Estee Lauder Collection.

AARON OUT, DEYDIER IN
The French art-world’s version of musical chairs continues to play out at France’s Syndicat National des Antiquaires, which produces the important biennial Paris show. Asian-art dealer Christian Deydier has been newly elected president of the powerful group, succeeding Hervé Aaron, who heads up Didier Aaron. This is the second time Deydier has taken away the presidency from the highly admired Aaron, who has galleries in Paris, London and New York. 

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