Artdaily - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Fontaine's auction to offer important fine decorative arts May 18-19
PITTSFIELD, MASS.- Fontaine’s will present an important two-day fine and decorative arts auction May 18-19 that includes over 750 lots of 19th/20th century lighting, Tiffany Studios lamps, art glass, leaded glass windows, fine silver, porcelain, marble and bronze statuary, Asian items, paintings, American and European furniture, clocks, watches and jewelry. This auction will feature longtime collections from Long Island and upstate New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Highlighting the sale will be over 130 Tiffany Studios items, including windows commissioned by St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Good lighting designs never go out of style and there are arguably no more desirable and attractive examples than what the pioneering Tiffany Studios put out in the early 1900s. Tiffany’s nature-inspired lighting continues to bring robust prices ... More

In a Portland library, activists fortify for a standoff
PORTLAND, ORE.- At Portland State University’s crescent-shaped library, students can normally peer through floor-to-ceiling windows at the leafy green spaces below. But the library, under occupation since Monday by pro-Palestinian protesters, now has been turned into a makeshift fortress. Chairs are piled around the windows. Wood pallets are stacked next to the doors as fortifications. Next to what is normally a circulation desk, students have established a medic center, preparing for what might happen if police officers try to force their way in. “We’ll stop occupying this building when Israel stops occupying Palestine,” reads one of many messages scrawled on the walls in red paint. Portland State, founded as a campus to educate World War II veterans, has a long history of protest. In 1970, students and other anti-Vietnam War protesters battled ... More

Artist Osman Yousefzada creates new work for Bradford, in his exhibition 'Where It Began'
BRADFORD.- Osman Yousefzada takes a deeply personal look at migration, identity and community in Where It Began, a special exhibition that forms part of this year’s countdown to Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. In this solo exhibition, Where it Began, artist Osman Yousefzada invites viewers to contemplate themes of labour, social class, immigration and the impact of colonialism on human bodies. The title itself serves as a metaphor that spans different timelines: from historical relationships between the British Empire and South Asia regarding textiles to Yousefzada's father arriving in Bradford during the wave of Commonwealth migration in the 1960s to labour at Crofts Engineering foundry to concepts of belonging, identity and homemaking. Where It Began presents work both inside and outside Bradford Council’s Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. The ... More

Inspiring set designs from 'Around the World' on view in summer exhibition
SAN ANTONIO, TX.- Embark on an international journey with “Around the World in 80 Designs,” on view May 2-Aug. 4 at McNay Art Museum. Forty artworks from the McNay’s Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts along with 40 companion images invite visitors to explore various destinations, from the Nile River in Egypt to an airport tarmac in Beijing. Using scene and costume designs and maquettes (small-scale models), the McNay presents the theatre arts through productions like “Aida,” “Death in Venice” and “Nixon in China.” Alongside the artworks are images that consider what the locations for these productions might look like in real life. “We hope ‘Around the World in 80 Designs’ ignites imaginations and visually transports visitors from the McNay to exciting new places without leaving San Antonio,” said Matthew McLendon, Ph.D., the McNay’s director and CEO. “The Tobin Collection of The ... More

Nahmad Contemporary opens a long overdue exhibition of works by Jean Dubuffet and Alberto Giacometti
NEW YORK, NY.- Nahmad Contemporary is presenting Dubuffet x Giacometti, a long overdue tête-à-tête between two of the most significant artists of the 20th century, on view from May 1 through June 8, 2024. Despite moving in the same Parisian circles, sharing a gallerist and concurrently introducing their unique postwar European sensibilities to New York, Jean Dubuffet (1901–85) and Alberto Giacometti (1901–66) have only once been presented together in a dedicated pairing: at Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, in 1968. After more than half a century and countless solo and group exhibitions across the globe, Dubuffet x Giacometti juxtaposes a careful selection of more than 20 works by these iconic artists, including paintings and sculptures. With special consideration given to the reception of the artists’ work in New York between 1947 and 1968, the ... More

Forum Gallery presents a special exhibition celebrating twenty-five years of Brian Rutenberg's art
NEW YORK, NY.- Opening today and continuing through June 14, 2024, Forum Gallery, New York, presents a special exhibition celebrating twenty-five years of Brian Rutenberg’s (b. 1965) art in association with the gallery. Brian Rutenberg: Celebrating 25 Years showcases Brian Rutenberg’s vibrant, colorful abstract paintings inspired by the landscape of his birthplace, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in twenty-one works dating from 1998 to the present. Each painting is a highlight of his artistic evolution, while together the works in the exhibition illuminate the magnetic, enduring appeal of his art that has made Brian Rutenberg one of this country’s most popular painters. Brian Rutenberg joined Forum Gallery shortly after his return from a year in Ireland on a Fulbright Scholarship. The formative experience cemented for the artist that while the landscape ... More

Boston Public Art Triennial announces city-wide outdoor public art event and artist lineup for 2025
BOSTON, MASS.- Boston Public Art Triennial announced the lineup of participating artists for its first edition, opening to the public on May 22, 2025 until October 31, 2025. In partnership with the City of Boston, the Triennial 2025 presents 15 new outdoor public art commissions across the city, created by visionary local, national, and international artists. Boston Public Art Triennial, the recasting of Now + There, Boston’s leading non-profit public art organization, joins other ‘ennials and North American cities committed to a recurring celebration of contemporary art as a driver of greater connectivity, well-being, and economic vitality. Curated by Artistic Director Pedro Alonzo and Curator Tess Lukey, the theme and title of the 2025 Triennial is The Exchange, an artist-driven platform that brings experts and artists into cross-disciplinary collaboration ... More

Stephen Friedman Gallery opens a solo exhibition by Anne Rothenstein
NEW YORK, NY.- Stephen Friedman Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Anne Rothenstein, marking the artist’s New York debut. The presentation features Rothenstein’s largest works to date and focuses on her enigmatic approach to portraiture, interior spaces, and landscapes. Rothenstein’s dreamlike paintings depict expansive landscapes and intimate interiors drawn from memory, personal experiences, and found material from newspapers and magazines. Whether depicting androgynous figures or melancholic landscapes, Rothenstein's works blur the lines of identity and narrative, inviting observers to immerse themselves in the ambiguity of her creations. Curator and writer Simon Grant aptly describes the experience of viewing Rothenstein's paintings, "Looking at these paintings can feel as if we have joined a drama that has been ... More

MOA reopens to the public following successful completion of seismic upgrades of iconic Great Hall
VANCOUVER.- The Museum of Anthropology at UBC will reopen its doors to the public on June 13, 2024 at 5pm, following an 18-month closure that saw the successful completion of cutting-edge seismic upgrades to its Great Hall, coupled with the revitalization and reinterpretation of displays of Northwest Coast Indigenous carvings, poles, weavings and other works from the past and present. Along with the Museum’s reopening, MOA will present two exhibitions sharing Indigenous perspectives on colonial history: To be seen, to be heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965 (world premiere), and in Pursuit of Venus [infected] (Western Canada premiere) by famed Māori artist, Lisa Reihana. MOA’s reopening this summer coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Museum’s opening to the public. “We’ve waited so long to welcome back visitors ... More

Alicia Keys on 'Hell's Kitchen' nods: I'm in 'a deep state of freaking out'
NEW YORK, NY.- Alicia Keys has been working on “Hell’s Kitchen” for 13 years, so she found it serendipitous — in addition to thrilling — that on Tuesday morning her musical picked up 13 Tony nominations. In an interview shortly after the nominations were announced, Keys was clearly heartened by the news. The show, featuring her songs and a book by Kristoffer Diaz, is personal for Keys. The show is about a 17-year-old girl whose life circumstances have enormous echoes of Keys’ own upbringing — the single mother, the hunger for independence, the passion for piano, even the same subsidized housing development. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Q: Congratulations! What do you make of this? A: Whoa! I’m definitely in a deep state of freaking out in a really great, awesome, grateful way. I don’t know what’s ... More

Paul Auster's best books: A guide
NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Auster, who died on April 30 at age 77, was an atmospheric author whose scalpel-sharp prose examined the fluidity of identity and the absurdity of the writer’s life. An occasional memoirist, essayist, translator, poet and screenwriter, Auster was best known for his metafiction — books that were characterized by their elusive narrators, chance encounters and labyrinthine narratives. Consuming Auster’s genre-defying books is not unlike the experience of reading he describes in “The Brooklyn Follies”: “When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear,” he wrote. “For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.” Thankfully, Auster left us with many worlds and stories and realities to lose ourselves in. These are the books that best represent his work. ... More