Bruce Nauman. “Untitled (Helman Gallery Parallelogram),” 1971. © 2012 Bruce Nauman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS London.

In this week’s roundup, Roni Horn wins the Joan Miro International Prize, Alfredo Jaar focuses on human rights, James Turrell and Jenny Holzer explore the nature of light, and more.

• Roni Horn has been named winner of the fourth Joan Miro International Prize 2013, one of the most prestigious art awards in the world. Horn will receive the award in a ceremony to be held January 30 in Barcelona, according to the Miro Foundation. In addition to receiving the award, Horn will be featured at an exposition to be held in the summer of 2014 at the Miro Foundation in Barcelona and, later, at the CaixaForum Madrid.

• Rashid Johnson is included a group show at Galerie Guido W. Baudach (Berlin). Heinzmann Johnson Zipp juxtaposes Johnson’s and two other artists’ paintings that represent the continuation of various impulses drawn from modernism. The gallery highlights each artist as a solitary figure with his own unique, autonomous and incisive voice. The exhibition closes March 2.

• Josiah McElheny: Towards a Light Club is on view at the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH). The exhibition features works by Josiah McElheny that explore the history of modernist utopias in a series of kaleidoscopic projections, narrative films, stunning illuminated sculptures, and humorous performances. The show runs until April 7.

• Alfredo Jaar:The Politics of Images is on view at the Ryerson Image Center (Toronto). In his works Alfredo Jaar displays covers of news magazines to analyze the lack of visibility and the visual clichés about Africa disseminated in Western culture. The artist’s most recent project on the genocide in Rwanda acts as an epilogue to The Rwanda Project, 1994-2000, a series of twenty-five artworks developed to critique the world’s indifference and inaction to this mass murder. The show closes April 14.

• James Turrell and Jenny Holzer will present their work at the Hayward Gallery (London). Light Show explores the nature of light, bringing together sculptures and installations that use light in a variety of ways. The exhibition runs January 30–April 28.

• Bruce Nauman‘s latest show will soon be at Hauser & Wirth London. Bruce Nauman / mindfuck features a rigorous selection of works from throughout Nauman’s career, with a particular emphasis on his iconic neon sculptures and installations. The work is on view from January 30–March 9.

• Hiroshi Sugimoto‘s Revolution is at the Museum Brandhorst (Munich). The exhibition presents nocturnal seascapes in large format, which captured the cycle of the moon during a longer period of time. This large-sized and extensive group of fifteen works, with which the artist has been working for a long time, will be shown to the public in Munich for the first time. This work is on view through February 10.

• Robert Adams‘ retrospective is on view at the Reina Sofia (Madrid). Robert Adams: The Place We Live, a Retrospective Selection of Photographs features nearly 300 black and white photos taken between 1964 and 2008 that depict empty highways, solitary buildings, tree stumps, half-built suburban developments, and telephone polls. The show closes May 20.

• William Kentridge‘s upcoming show, Poems I Used to Know, will be on view at the Volte Gallery (Mumbai). The show comprises large drawings done in Indian ink on pieced-together book pages, a film installation, a series of flip book films, sculptures, etchings, photogravures, and a large tapestry. The exhibition will run from February 6–March 20.

A scene from My Name is Asher Lev with Ari Brand and Mark Nelson. Image: broadway.com

One of the biggest problems facing teachers today (besides the fanatics who want us to walk around schools with guns) is the fact that many kids just don’t like to read. As excited as I may get about certain books, articles and interviews, it’s the rare occasion when a student goes the distance and actually reads, never mind purchases, a work that is recommended unless it’s assigned and part of a graded project.

Contemporary artists and performers offer pathways into literature for the hard-to-inspire. Artists such as Glenn Ligon, Jenny Holzer, and even performances like the off-Broadway production of My Name is Asher Lev offer students ways to get inspired and involved with literature from different starting points.

Glenn Ligon at work. Image: Art21 production still.

Glenn Ligon’s appropriated text-based works ask students to look through (and into) quotes by Walt Whitman, Zora Neal Hurston, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin and even Richard Pryor in order to examine the connections between what the quotes say, how the artist frames it, and what the sum of these parts produce.

Jenny Holzer’s Truisms, created by distilling an extensive reading list featuring both Eastern and Western literature and philosophy, allow students to visualize and make sense of the larger meaning behind so many of her “summaries”.

Next week, I am fortunate enough to be attending a performance of Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev at the Westside Theater in New York City with one of my classes. It’s before, during and after this play that I am looking forward to sharing the story about Asher in order to inspire great work and great works of art with them. We will soon be working with quotes from both the book and performance in order to instigate not just works of art, but also debates and discussions around what it means to be an artist today.

When works of literature make the leap to places like canvas, articles of clothing, electronic signs, billboards, subway cards and stages, options for teaching with (not necessarily instead of) the printed page become more attractive.

For more information about teaching with works by Glenn Ligon, download our season 6 educator guide here. Jenny Holzer and artists from the season 4 educator guide can be found here. And for information about current performances of My Name is Asher Lev, please visit asherlevtheplay.com.

Alfredo Jaar. “The Geometry of Conscience,” (2010). Courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

In this week’s roundup, Alfredo Jaar reconnects the dots of a collective memory, Cindy Sherman presents early work, El Anatsui showcases his pot of wisdom, and more.

• Alfredo Jaar created a memorial for the victims of the 17 years long Pinochet military rule and dictatorship. The Geometry of Conscience is installed in a plaza next to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (Santiago, Chile). The installation offers an intimate opportunity for Chileans to unearth history and reconnect the dots of a still half-buried collective memory. Located underground, the exhibit is a silent three minute experience that can only be shared by ten people at once.

• Cindy Sherman: Early Works will be unveiled at the Gucci Museo (Florence, Italy). Following her graduation in 1976 Cindy Sherman, together with a group of artists, created works and organized numerous exhibitions. The show includes three bodies of work, Murder Mystery (1976), Bus Riders (1976) and Doll Clothes (1975), from these early years. The exhibition runs from January 10 until June 9, 2013.

• El Anatsui‘s third solo exhibition in a NYC gallery is on view at the Jack Shainman Gallery. Pot of Wisdom showcases the artist’s continued use of found metals and copper wire. This body of work explores new formal approaches to color, composition and line. The show closes January 19, 2013.

• El Anatsui‘s first solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum will feature over 30 works in metal and wood that transform appropriated objects into site-specific sculptures. Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui includes twelve recent monumental wall and floor sculptures, widely considered to represent the apex of the artist’s career. The exhibition will run February 8 – August 4, 2013.

• Bruce Nauman, Mark Bradford, and Jenny Holzer present works as part of the Tenth Anniversary Acquisitions exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas). Kingdom Day (2010) by Bradford consists of four 10-by-10-foot canvases, as an homage to the Kingdom Day Parade in Los Angeles. Studio Mix (2010), a new video and sound installation by Nauman, is inspired by a set of finger exercises that the composer Béla Bartók wrote for children learning the piano. Holzer’s signature, kinesthetic light-emitting diode (LED) signs deliver texts in ‘Ando blue.’ These works are on view through August 18, 2013.

Jeff Koons. “Coloring Book 1997–2005,” 2012. Photo by Kenzo. Courtesy the artist.

In this week’s roundup Jeff Koons presents colorful sculpture, New York Close Up is at the SoHo Apple Store, William Kentridge creates a new flipbook, Gabriel Orozco is inspired by games, several artists are honored, and more.

• Wesley Miller and Nick Ravich – co-creators and co-producers of New York Close Up, Art21′s web-original documentary series – will be participating in events at the Apple Store SoHo (NYC) this Tuesday, December 11 at 7:00 pm. Creating the Portrait of an Artist: New York Close Up includes a screening from New York Close Up and a discussion to be followed by an audience Q&A. The event is free and open to the public.

• Jeff Koons opened a new exhibition at Gagosian Beverly Hills. Coloring Book 1997–2005 is a sculpture that consists of highly reflective stainless steel with a surface decoration of brightly colored swirls. This work is on view through February 14, 2013.

• Carrie Mae Weems, Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Shahzia Sikander, and Kiki Smith received the U.S. State Department’s Medal of Arts from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for their outstanding commitment to the Art in Embassies program and to international cultural exchange. The Secretary’s remarks for the luncheon are available here.

• Allora & Calzadilla screens video that celebrates the end of missile testings run by the U.S. Army in the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico, at the Oudeis museum (Le Vigan, France). Included in the Green Silence roundtable exhibition is Returning a Sound (2004), which features a trumpet attached to the pipe of a motorcycle, producing  sounds that change with the accelerations. The video plays Monday to Friday, 3:00pm – 7:00pm until December 15.

• Josiah McElheny unveiled a site-specific conceptual art project at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in time for Art Basel Miami. The Light Club of Vizcaya: A Woman’s Picture  is a thirty-minute film that references a little-known short-story by German writer Paul Scheerbart, The Light Club of Batavia, written in 1912. McElheny combines footage of historical and archival documents along with current images of Vizcaya. The film is on view through March 18, 2013.

• William Kentridge presents an exhibition of recent work at Goodman Gallery Cape Town (South Africa). NO, IT IS sets elements from various projects together with new work made especially for the exhibition – allowing the gallery to be the space where different bodies of work collide and make new connections. The flipbook, NO, IT IS, was the start of a new project of making flipbooks and flipbook films. The show runs December 18 – February 2, 2013.

• Jenny Holzer will unveil her latest site-specific work at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas). Kind of Blue will feature seven channels of lighted text running through the central gallery looking out onto the pond.

• Judy Pfaff presents her work as part of a group show at Robischon Gallery (Denver). Judy Pfaff, Katy Stone, Ana Maria Hernando includes eleven sculptures and thirteen framed assemblages by Pfaff that are predominantly inspired by the unique culture of place – reflecting the artist’s travels to India, China, and Japan. The exhibition closes December 22.

• El Anatsui has an exhibition at the Denver Museum of Art (Colorado). When I Last Wrote to You about Africa is the first retrospective of the artist’s work, including sculptures in wood, ceramic, and mixed media.  The 61 works cover all phases of the artist’s career, from his early work in Ghana utilizing traditional symbols, to found driftwood works made in Denmark, to sculptures made using the chainsaw as a carving tool. The show closes January 6, 2013.

• Gabriel Orozco is among several artists whose works are inspired by the structure and aesthetics of games. Game Room on view at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) and presents work that explores human interaction as a central aspect of game play. The exhibition runs through February 17, 2013.

• Alfredo Jaar will represent Chile with a major new site-specific installation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. This work will be on view at the Giardini in the Arsenale June 1 – November 24, 2013.

Ed Ruscha, “The Act of Letting a Person Into Your Home”, 1983. Image: whitney.org

Students came to class yesterday with works in progress that were inspired by our recent visit to see Visual Conversations at the Fisher Landau Center for Art. In my previous post two weeks ago I said that I was interested in encouraging students to draw relationships between works of art and to think about how context affects what we see. Can works of art “speak” to the viewer or have “conversations” with other works? If so, how? Today was the day, after a long Thanksgiving weekend, for the group to share works in progress and get some feedback from one another.

What initially impressed me as we took a look at the works was that students were inspired by a variety of pieces in the show, rather than choosing a popular few, and many began with both ideas and techniques featured in the exhibition. Mark Tansey’s monochromatic works inspired a very different approach to rendering forms with one student while Andy Warhol’s self portraits gave way to new considerations around what can be a “portrait”. I saw students who chose Ed Ruscha’s billboard-like paintings and created works of delicate beauty in response to the large, imposing pieces featured in Visual Conversations.

As students spoke about their work and got feedback from each other, I began to realize that the “conversation” was not so much about what they created after seeing the show, it was about the kind of conversation these works inspired within the students themselves. For example, one student was enamored with a portrait of Emily Fisher Landau and spent almost a full hour with the work sketching and making notes. As she reflected on the painting, she was able to begin articulating an interest in both beauty and power, which may or may not become her focus for a series of works this year.

One of the biggest reasons to get students to see Visual Conversations with me was simply to see works of art in person. Teaching about particular forms and approaches to art making without the actual experience of seeing the work firsthand is extremely difficult and it’s why, whenever I can, that I encourage colleagues to take students OUT of the building to engage directly with works of art. You don’t always need a big museum, either. Sometimes the best works to teach with are within our own communities. It’s amazing, really, that we spend so much time with our students making things and not nearly enough time looking at and discussing art in order to create work that is more meaningful, informed, driven by big ideas, and of course, well designed.

Kerry James Marshall. "If They Come," 2012. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

In this week’s roundup Bruce Nauman explores the phenomenon of the face in video art, Laylah Ali questions society’s conventions in her notes, Rashid Johnson examines black identity, Andrea Zittel addresses visual and functional objects, and more.

• Bruce Nauman‘s work is on view in Faces: The Phenomenon of Face in Videoart at Galerie Rudolfinum (Prague). The exhibition presents 18 works, which are split approximately fifty-fifty between those featuring the creator and ones that turn the camera on others. The show traces video’s development from early experiments by the medium’s pioneers to performance and installation. This show runs through September 19.

• Laylah Ali: Note Drawings is on view at the Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott College (Beverly, MA). In this exhibition Laylah Ali uses text and images, i.e. her notes that include random thoughts, overheard conversations, and snippets from newspapers and radio. Ambiguous characters dressed in masks, wigs, and costumes confuse rather than clarify sexual and racial identities. This exhibition closes October 12.

• Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks is on view at the Miami Art Museum. Rashid Johnson explores the complexities and contradictions of black identity in a practice that is rooted in his individual experience. Incorporating commonplace objects from his childhood in a process he describes as “hijacking the domestic,” the artist transforms everyday materials such as wood into conceptually loaded and visually compelling works. The exhibition closes November 4.

• Vija Celmins, Elizabeth Murray and several others are featured in Contemporary Prints by American Women: A Selection from the Gift of Martha and Jim Sweeny at the Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, FL). The show includes more than 60 prints by American women artists, made after 1950, which have recently become part of the Museum’s collection. The exhibition closes February 2, 2013.

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Kara Walker. "Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta," 2005. Courtesy of Kara Walker and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

In this week’s roundup Kara Walker sources work from Harper’s, Cindy Sherman arrives in San Francisco, several artists address political and aesthetic urgency in Minneapolis, and more.

• Kara Walker‘s series Works from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) is featured in the July 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine. The series, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art last spring, consists of fifteen lithographs and prints created using enlargements of woodcut prints from the book. Four images, all named after their source images’ captions, are featured: Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, Cotton Hoards in Southern Swamp, Occupation of Alexandria, and Pack-Mules in the Mountains.

• Robert Adams and An-My Lê are on the shortlist for Prix Pictet. This international photography competition seeks to promote sustainability, and this year’s theme is power. Portfolios tackle subjects such as Lê’s training maneuvers at a Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. This work will be part of an exhibition set to open at Saatchi Gallery (London) following the award announcement on October 9.

• Cindy Sherman opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In the exhibition Cindy Sherman draws from many sources and she has produced series of works – consistently untitled – known by nicknames such as “head shots,” “clowns,” “centerfolds” and “society pictures.” In the process, she has taken the artifice of photography to new levels of scale, complexity and intensity. The show closes October 8.

Jessica Stockholder. "Color Jam" at State & Adams (2012). Image courtesy avoision.com.

In this week’s roundup, Jessica Stockholder’s new Chicago installation buzz, several artists’ works at SFMOMA, Pepón Osorio’s science fiction exploration, Richard Tuttle’s residency at the Getty, Laurie Anderson’s SVA commencement speech, and more.

• Jessica Stockholder‘s Color Jam will soon be completed at the intersection of State & Adams (Chicago). This outdoor installation features splashes of colored vinyl that will flood the streets and sidewalks, resolving in tight formation across the lower facades of neighboring buildings. The official opening is Tuesday June 5th, but if you live in Chicago, you can glimpse the installation action any evening over the next week. Or check out the streaming video feed.

• Richard Tuttle will be the artist in residence at  the Getty Research Institute from September 2012 through June 2013. While pursuing his own research projects, the artist will have opportunities to collaborate with curatorial and conservation staff, give presentations, and participate in seminars at the Getty. The GRI will organize related public events as well a variety of lectures and conferences that will include the local academic community. The research theme for this round is color.

• Jenny Holzer has a new solo exhibition at Sprüth Magers (London). Sophisticated Devices explores ways in which Holzer makes narrative a part of visual objects, employing an innovative range of materials and presentations to confront emotions and experiences, politics and conflict. This work includes spray paint canvases, granite benches, LED works, painted signs, and cast plaques. The show is on view through July 28.

• John Baldessari, Vija Celmins, Mary Heilmann, Kerry James Marshall, Robert Ryman, Julie Mehretu and Lari Pittman are featured in Contemporary Painting, 1960 to the Present: Selections from the SFMOMA Collection. In the context of media-based works in contemporary culture, the exhibition at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art showcases the variety of styles and strategies artists have engaged to breathe new life into painting and to explore the medium’s expansive possibilities. The exhibition runs through August 12.

• Pepón Osorio‘s work is in Who More Sci-Fi Than Us, contemporary art from the Caribbean at Kunsthal KAdE (Netherlands). This exhibition features work by a representative selection of contemporary artists from all over the Caribbean. The show focuses on a shared identity, shared history and shared socio-economic conditions: a combination of factors that has produced a certain surreal way of communicating, both in words and images. This work is on view through August 26.

• Louise Bourgeois‘s work is on view for the first time in Korea, at Kukje Gallery (Seoul). Personages showcases fourteen pieces created between the 1940s and the early 1950s that established Bourgeois as one of the most prominent sculptors after World War II. The exhibition closes June 29.

• Mark Bradford‘s With That Ass, They Won’t Look at Your Eyes is on view at the UTEP Rubin Center in El Paso, TX. The show displays Bradford’s largest painting to date, a 40 feet wide mural about the Bill of Rights. The video installation Niagara (2005) will also be on display. This exhibition runs through August 31.

• Laurie Anderson recently addressed faculty, students and their families at the School of Visual Arts 2012 Commencement Exercises. Anderson explained, “The reason I’m an artist is that it’s one of the few things that you can do in this world in which you are totally free – absolutely no one tells you what you can do and what you can’t do.”

• Bruce Nauman’s seminal work Days is coming to the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London). This is a sound installation which presents a continuous stream of voices reciting the days of the week in random order. Fourteen flat panel speakers will be installed in the lower gallery, one voice emanating from each pair of speakers as the visitor passes between them. The exhibition will run June 19 – September 16.

Maya Lin. "Dew Point 18 (detail)," 2007. Blown glass. © Maya Lin Studio, Inc., courtesy The Pace Gallery. Photo courtesy The Pace Gallery.

In this week’s roundup Maya Lin invites and challenges viewers, Alfredo Jaar makes history, Mike Kelley, Pepón Osorio, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jessica Stockholder explore everyday things, and more.

• Maya Lin recently launched What Is Missing?, as part of the fifth, and last, of her memorial projects, which began with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1982. The web-based, multimedia memorial coincides with her exhibition in the Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art. The show closes May 13.

• Mike Kelley, Pepón Osorio, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jessica Stockholder have work in Everyday Things: Contemporary Works from the Collection at the Rhode Island School of Design. This show features artworks that depict commonplace objects and imagery, utilize everyday elements in their construction, or serve as functional artist-made objects, including benches, chairs, and light fixtures. This work is on view through  February 24, 2013.

• Richard Serra‘s, Kiki Smith‘s and Martin Puryear‘s works are currently on view in Inside|Out at the Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY). The exhibition illustrates how art and nature connect at the “New” Speed when the Museum reopened after its renovation and expansion project. Inside|Out looks at sculptures and prints made by these artists, among others. The exhibition closes September 23.

• Jeff Koons lent his entire body of work to designer Lisa Perry’s latest collection of apparel and accessories. Perry’s art-inspired collection featuring Koons’s work is available at her boutique and on her website. Some of the proceeds will go to the Koons Family Institute, an initiative of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

• Alfredo Jaar is featured in Making History at Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt, Germany). The exhibition addresses how photographs shape our view of history as well as the images that are withheld from us. Jaar’s photographs investigate the potential effect and ideological power of published photographic icons in his work, as well as in a large-scale installation. This show runs through July 8.

• Barry McGee‘s stickers are featured in Stuck Up: A Selected History of Alternative and Popular Culture told through Stickers at the UGLYgallery and New Bedford Art Museum (Massachusetts). Contemporary artists not necessarily known for stickers, such as Jenny Holzer, are shown side by side with anonymous stickers peeled from the streets of New York City. This exhibition will run concurrently at the New Bedford Art Museum and UGLYgallery through May 4.

Computer rendering for Mystery Circle: Explosion Event for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2012. Courtesy Cai Studio.

In this week’s roundup, Cai Guo-Qiang plans a close encounter, several artists’ works are best in show at AICA, Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith are in Fashion Moda, Glenn Ligon’s work is reviewed, and much more.

• Cai Guo-Qiang is planning to have a close encounter of the third kind at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. For the site-specific Mystery Circle: Explosion Event for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles the artist will set off three stages of explosions to kick-off a show that will continue on a theme he’s been long exploring: the possibility of life in outer space. This event will take place on April 7.

• Sarah Sze, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Lari Pittman, and Ai Weiwei and Glenn Ligon (upcoming Season 6 artists) will receive awards from the Art Critics’ Association (AICA). Sze’s Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat) and Ai’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads won Best Project in a Public Space. Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture 1991-2009 won Best Show in a Non-Profit Gallery or Space. Lari Pittman: New Paintings and Orangerie won Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Nationally. Glenn Ligon: AMERICA won Best Monographic Museum Show in New York. Awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Asia Society in NYC on April 2.

• Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith among several other artists have work on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College (NY). The Fashion Moda Stores, 1982, Selections from Documenta 7 is an exhibition of approximately thirty small sculptures, wearable art, and ephemera that were made in multiples and sold in the Fashion Moda “stores” at Documenta 7, the modern and contemporary art exhibition held periodically in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition will be on view through May 6, 2012.

• William Kentridge: Five Themes explores the key themes of William Kentridge’s career from the 80s until today and is on view at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). The show includes the artist’s direction of The Magic Flute and the animated films he developed for a 2010 production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. There are 60 works on display ranging from animations, drawings and prints to theatre models, sculptures and books. This exhibition closes May 27. Continue reading »