Seung Yul Oh's Soom installation opened last night at the Auckland Art Gallery toi o Tamaki. Commisioned by the Gallery with support from the Chartwell Trust, the work will be on the North Sculpture Court through to 11 October 2015.
Image: Seung Yul Oh's Soom at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

On Sunday Rob and Sue Gardiner gave a floor talk about selected works in the exhibition A World Undone: Works from the Chartwell Collection, curated by Stephen Cleland. In the past Chartwell has focused on works by New Zealand and Australian artists, but the current show at the Auckland Art Gallery reveals a new international strand, featuring works by John Baldessari, Martin Creed, Gunther Forg, Christian Marclay, Robert Rauschenberg, Jessica Stockholder and Richard Tuttle. Aside from the Stockholder, the international artists are presented in a multiples section alongside local artists such as Gavin Hipkins and Jim Speers.
Image: Jim Speers' VeilSide in A World Undone: Works from the Chartwell Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Wystan Curnow's book The Critic's Part was launched at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki last night. Edited by Christina Barton and Robert Leonard, the book brings together a selection of Curnow's art writings from 1971 to 2013 to provide the first comprehensive overview of his practice. It features long form essays that investigate the stakes for 'high culture' in a 'small province' like New Zealand; major essays on key artists including Billy Apple, Len Lye and Colin McCahon; reports on the contemporary art scene; catalogue essays and short reviews offering insightful readings of their work. Both a map of contemporary theory and practice and cogent agenda for thinking through the implications and challenges of making art here, it is a must-read book for anyone interested in New Zealand art as it has unfolded since 1970. The book is available from Victoria University Press.

Using painting as a departure point to explore relationships between art, architecture and design, Matt Henry has installed an arrangement of stretched white canvases on a white wall at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts. Some of the canvases have been inset into the wall itself, while others are hung conventionally on its surface. Both rely on the play of light to define the internal and external forms and call into question the presence of a painting in a room, not as an image or surface, but as something that might become part of the architecture in which it is placed. The project opens at Te Tuhi tomorrow and runs to 15 February 2015. 
Image: Installation view of Matt Henry's Structural Relief at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts

Rick Ellis has been appointed chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.  The former chief executive of TVNZ will provide “inspirational leadership,” says Te Papa Chairman Evan Williams, foreshadowing “a shift in the culture of the organisation.” Read more…
Image; Rick Ellis, the new chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Seung Yul Oh's memmem (downstairs) and Gavin Hipkins Erewhon: The Book of the Machines (upstairs) continue this week, throught to 29 November.

Later this month the inaugural edition of the Outsider Art Fair launches in Auckland. It will feature work by several of New Zealand's prominent outsider artists and include an exhibition of the work of the late Jim Dornan and others curated by Stuart Shepherd. Well-known collector John Perry will also showcase a small selection of folk art from early last century in the fair's curated section. The Outsider Art Fair runs at the Nathan Club, 51 Galaway Street, Brittomart from 23 – 25 November.
Image: Jim Dornan's I love One Sleepin'

Last night the Albert-Eden Local Board launched the BILLY APP, which uses mobile phone GPS settings to guide users to three of Apple’s public art works in the Albert-Eden area – Corner Post, Waipero Swamp Walk and Monkey Hill Steps – and allows them to access information on the artist and the artworks. You can download the app at www.billyappcompass.co.nz

ART+OBJECT has launched the second issue of CONTENT, a magazine published “to celebrate the vital contribution New Zealand's visual artists make to our cultural identity and increasingly to the global discourse.”

The current issue traces the journey of whare Hinemihi from the desolation of the Mt Tarawera eruption to the grounds of a Palladian manor house in an English country. It also includes interviews with Justin Paton, head of international art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Simon Denny who will represent New Zealand at the 56th Venice Biennale. Tobias Berger discusses the Asia Pacific focus of Hong Kong's M+, Brian Butler and Isha Welsh comment on the US West Coast art scene and Richard Maloy and Roberta Thornley talk about a seminal photograph that has influenced their practices.

The lineup of exhibiting galleries for Art Basel Hong Kong 2015 has been announced. It includes Hopkinson Mossman, Michael Lett and Starkwhite from New Zealand and Andrew Jensen (AUS/NZ), Darren Knight, Murray White Rooms, Roslyn Oxley9, Anna Schwartz, Sullivan+Strumpf and Tolarno from Australia. You can see the full list of galleries here.

Last night the Arts Foundation of New Zealand announced the recipients of the 2014 Laureate awards. The recipients include Lisa Reihana (visual arts) and Cliff Curtis (film). You can see the full list of awardees here.
Image: Lisa Reihana

Ice Watch is Olaffur Eliasson's latest environmental project. In a square in Copenhagen he arranged 12 chunks of ice weighing in at 100 tons to resemble an ominous clock. The melting ice represents the amount of ice that disappears every 100th of a second due to global warming. Read more…
Image: Olafur Eliasson's Ice Watch, City Hall Square, Copenhagen

On a recent trip to Shanghai we saw Ugo Rondinone's Breathe, Walk, Die at the Rockbund Art Museum. Featuring 40 impassive clowns spread over a five-floor installation that was both beautiful and unsettling, it was a reminder that Coulrophobia, or fear of clowns, is still relatively common. Now a new development is unfolding in France where police are reported to be on hight alert after fake clowns caused panic in a spreading phenomenon that has led to violence and a response by vigilantes. Read more…
Image: Pennywise the clown from Stephen King's It

Seung Yul Oh's memmem (downstairs) and Gavin Hipkins Erewhon: The Book of the Machines (upstairs) continue this week, throught to 29 November.
Gavin Hipkins Erewhon (Planet) and Erewhon (Forest) 2014, archival pigment prints, 600 x 337mm  

Sydney-based curator William (Bill) Wright passed away on Friday night after a battle with cancer. Formerly the Assistant Director (Professional) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales where he headed the curatorial programmes, he was also curator of the 4th Biennale of Sydney, Vision in Disbelief, which included New Zealand artists Billy Apple, Christine Hellyar, Richard Killeen, Peter Peryer and Boyd Webb. Wright also curated a number of memorable shows such as The British Show (with Anthony Bond), Systems End: Contemporary Art in Australia, The Rose Crossing and New Zealand X1. He was later curatorial director at Sherman Galleries and most recently director of William Wright Artists Projects.

Wright's connection with New Zealand dates back to research trips for the Biennale of Sydney and the New Zealand XI exhibition, which was shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Auckland Art Gallery. He will be missed by his friends and colleagues here, as well as in Australia.

After two years of construction, and many more years planning, Auckland's Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery opens today with a programme of exhibitions, events and activities including a tour of the gallery by director Andrew Clifford. Read more…

Art patron Jenny Gibbs has clarified her position on the Venice Biennale following reports that she has withdrawn her support after hearing Creative New Zealand is providing Dirty Politics author Nicky Hagar with airfares to and accommodation in Venice where he will join the team supporting Simon Denny, the artist selected to represent New Zealand at the 2015 Biennale. Gibbs is making a statement about Hagar's involvement, but hasn't bailed out of the project. Rather she has redirected her support to the newly created position of assistant curator for the Venice project, a move that has been welcomed by Creative New Zealand. According to the earlier reports, Michael Friedlander has also withdrawn his support, but he was unwilling to make a statement when contacted by the press following up on the announcement by Jenny Gibbs.

On Friday we open an exhibition upstairs of new work by Gavin Hipkins. Realized in conjunction with the artist’s recently completed feature length essay film Erewhon, the exhibition features a new suite of photographs presented alongside a key chapter from the film, and Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel, The Book of the Machines.   
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Erewhon (Mountains)

Lara Strongman is the new senior curator at the Christchurch Art Gallery, replacing Justin Paton who moved on to take up the position of Head of International Art  at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In the latest issue of the Bulletin, Strongman talks about her approach to writing and curating in post-quake Christchurch. Read more…

In this frieze blog post, Carol Yinghua Lu comments on the origin and development of participatory practices and social intervention in the field of contemporary art in China, and a more recent drift away from the political and social realm towards the market where new auction records get more WeChat time than the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Read more…
Image: pro-democracy protester in Hong Kong

While in Shanghai we saw another new addition to the city's expanding art infrastucture. Devised by Massimo Torrigiani (former director of ShContemporary), Davide Quadrio (founder and director of the not-for-profit space BizArt and ArtHub Asia), and Donna Chan (also ex-ShContemporary), Art in the City combines an exhibition platform with a series of events to be held throughout the year where Art in the City maintains contact with galleries, bringing prospective clients to their spaces for tours and talks. It is also supported by a mobile app and website, which are constantly updated with the latest information on galleries and institutions in Shanghai.

Seung Yul Oh's new exhibition memmem opens at Starkwhite on Friday 31 October. Elizabeth Caldwell and Cam McCracken, the directors of the co-organising galleries of Oh's survey exhibition MOAMOA, will also be at the opening to launch their new publication on Oh, which includes an interview with Korean curator Sunjung Kim.
Image: two new paintings from Seung Yul Oh's Periphery series

Near Shanghai's fabled Bund, you can find Thomas Ou's Rockbund Art Museum housed in a beautifully restored 1933 Art Deco building that was at one time home to the Royal Asiatic Society. The Rockbund is a comparatively small, but innovative space with a impressive record of shows with artists and curators such as Cai Guo-Qiang, Zheng Fanshi, Paola Pivi, Hou Hanru and Fumio Nanjo among others.

The Rockbund is currently showing Ugo Rondinone's Breathe, Walk, Die, an installation staged over five of the gallery's floors. The walls are painted floor to ceiling with colours that move from cool to warm in tandem with the coloured filters on the windows. Each floor has circular canvases of blurred concentric colours, all combining to form a backdrop for 40 impassive clowns doing nothing. It's a beautiful, but disturbing piece –  the best show in town, in the smallest museum space, and proof (in a ciiy known for its massive museums) that bigger isn't always better.
Images: Ugo Rondinone's Breathe, Walk, Die at Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum

The Power Station of Art is another must-see art museum in Shanghai – an old coal-fired plant converted into a 41,000 square metre contemporary art museum at a cost of US64 million. Unlike the city's raft of new privately-funded museums, the Power Station of Art is China's first state-funded art museum, allowing it to take on a wider brief, including hosting the Shanghai Biennale, which opens on 22 November.

China is going through a museum boom, which some observers say is outstripping the country's museum practice. Positioned as flagship stores of culture, the new museums are often criticised for their poorly presented exhibits, aimless curating and ineffectual public outreach. But China also has a growing number of world-class museums and galleries – nowhere more so than in Shanghai, a city of 25 million people and one clearly set on becoming China's cultural centre.

We visited some of Shanghai's museums (old and new) during a recent visit and we'll post short pieces on them over the next few days.

La Biennale de Montreal L'avenir (looking forward) opens next week and runs to 4 January 2015. In a recent interview with Art Review, co-curator Gregory Burke (a former director of New Zealand's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery) talks about the theme of the biennale and how it will be articulated. Read more…
Image: Emmanuelle Leonard, Postcard from Bexhill-on-Sea (video still), 2014

One of the world's richest art prizes, the USD300,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, is being awarded to artist Maya Lin. Now in its 21st year, the Prize is given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life.”

Best known for her Vietnam War Memorial, Lin has gone on to make work about the environment. She says the award will help her continue with her ongoing project What is Missing?, which combines art and science to increase awareness about the loss of biodiversity and natural habitats.
Image: Maya Lin's A Fold in the Field at The Farm, Kaipara, New Zealand

After a long and distinguished career as a curator, historian and teacher, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki passed away on friday.

Mane-Wheoki is best known in visual arts circles as a powerful advocate for contemporary Maori art, at various times holding positions as Dean of Music and Fine Art at Canterbury University, Head of the School of Fine Arts and the University of Auckland and head of Visual Culture at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. But he was also a highly respected architectural and cultural historian, valued for his ability to contribute to the work of arts organisations with a wider brief, such as the Arts Foundation of New Zealand where he served as a member of the Foundation's College of Governors. He made a difference and will be sorely missed.

A Requiem Mass will be held for Jonathan at Auckland's Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on Saturday from 10:30 am to 12:30pm, after which he will be taken to his marae in the Hokiangia for burial.
Image; Jonathan Mane-Wheoki with Colin McCahon's Parihaka Triptych

Upstairs we showing a sampler of Billy Apple's work which includes Billy Apple Bleaching with Lady Clairol Instant Crème Whip November 1962 and a suite of his transaction works.
Image: Billy Apple, IOU 

Rebecca Baumann's Once more with feeling continues at Starkwhite this week through to 25 October. You can read an exhibition review here.
Image: Rebecca Baumann's Once more with feeling (2014), installation view, Starkwhite

If last night's opening is anything to go by, the Auckland Art Gallery has a must-see exhibition to end the year with. The gallery's reception space was jammed with people poised to flow into the Light Show after the speeches were over.

Organised by the Hayward Gallery, the exhibition features light-based art by leading international artists including Olafur Eliasson, Dan Flavin, Jenny Holzer, Ann Veronica Janssens and James Turrell and runs at the Gallery to 8 February 2015.
Image: Carlos Cruz-Diez's Chromosaturation

After attracting more than half a million people at the Tate Modern, Henri Matisse: The Cut Outs is about to open at MoMA, where the museum will require Matisse fans to buy tickets allowing them to enter the museum only at a certain time. This policy aimed at regulating huge crowds has only been enacted for two shows in recent years –  the retrospective of filmmaker Tim Burton and Van Gogh and Colours of the Night.
Image: Henri Matisse cut out

Wystan Curnow is New Zealand's longest serving and most important art critic. The Critic's Part brings together a selection of his art writings from 1971 to 2013 and features his long form essays that investigate the stakes for 'high culture' in a 'small province' like New Zealand; major essays on key artists including Len Lye, Colin McCahon and Billy Apple; reports on the contemporary art scene; and catalogue essays and short reviews offering insightful readings of art and artists in all their material and conceptual specificity. Edited by Christina Barton and Robert Leonard, the book is “a map of contemporary theory and practice and a cogent agenda for thinking through the implications and challenges of making art here.”

Maggie Barry is New Zealand's new Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, replacing Chris Findlayson who takes on responsibility for New Zealand's spy agencies. Barry is a former news and current affairs reporter, television and radio broadcaster, magazine feature writer for the NZ Listener, and co-producer and presenter of Maggie's Garden Show. She lives with partner Grant Kerr, an art patron/collector of contemporary New Zealand photographer and member of the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand.
Image: Maggie Barry