Despite earlier reports that South Korea would present a group show at this year's Venice Biennale, Kim Sooja will be the country's sole representative. Best known for her installation, video and performance work, the artist is a seasoned biennale performer – this is the fifth time she has participated in the Venice Biennale. Read more…
Image: from Kimsooja's Bottari Truck Migrateurs

We opened our 2013 programme on Tuesday evening with an exhibition by New-York based artist Martin Basher, which runs to 2 March. This link takes you to our press release and installation views.
Image: Installation view of Martin Basher's current exhibition at Starkwhite

The auction house Christie's, which has owned Haunch of Venison since 200,7 has decided to close the gallery and stop resresenting artists. The gallery's headquarters in London will operate as a space for the auction house's private sales and the gallery in Fitzrovia, along with the New York branch in Chelsea, will close down at the end of their current exhibitions.”Private sales at Christies' have been growing exponentially and that's where the focus should be,” the gallery's international director told Bloomberg.

The news comes as no surpise to those in the art world who felt the marriage of an auction house and dealer gallery was an unholy alliance. Read more…

John Kaldor, the art patron/collector renowned for bringing art superstars to Australia, believes his latest exhibition, 13 Rooms, will be “the most exciting exhibition of the decade.” Described by Hans Ulrich Obrist as an exhibition like a sculpture gallery where all the sculptures go home at night, Kaldor Public Art Project #27 brings together 13 international artists and over 70 performers to present a group exhibition of living sculpture within 13 purpose-built room in Sydney's historic Pier 2/3. The exhibition builds on two prior iterations and continues the project of curators Hans Ulrich Obrist (co-director of London's Serpentine Gallery) and Klaus Biesenbach (director of MoMA PS1 in New York). You can see some of the works in the show in a Guardian review of 11 Rooms in Manchester. View video
Image: performance/installation by Xu Zhen, one of the artists in 13 Rooms which runs from 11-13 April 2013

Participating galleries from Australia rate the 2013 edition of Art Stage Singapore as a great success. Ursula Sullivan of Sydney's Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art says: Art Stage Singapore was brilliant this year. After 2012, we almost did not come back as it was a bit of a tragedy, but thankfully we did.” Read more…
Image: Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art at Art Stage Singapore

The Sovereign Art Foundation has announced the thirty finalists for this year's Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Jae Hoon Lee is in the lineup of contenders for the US$30,000 prize to be judged by David Elliott, director of the 17 Biennale of Sydney; Emi Eu, director of Singapore Tyler Print Institute; Lars Nittve, director of M+, Hong Kong; Tim Marlow, director of White Cube and Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing.
Image: Jae Hoon Lee, Becoming, (2002)

The world's first online biennale, an exclusively internet-sited art exhibition, will be launched in April under the directorship of Jan Hoet. He is working with a team of international curators including: Daniel Birnbaum, director of Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Fulya Erdmci, curator Istanbul Biennale; Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and curator of the Sharjah Biennial; Adriano Pedrosa, independent curator, Sao Paulo; and Nancy Spector, Guggenheim Museum NY. Read more…
Image: Jan Hoet

ARTINFO reports that Art Los Angeles Contemporary has finally hit its stride. “With a strong mix of international exhibitors alongside local galleries, the fair served to showcase L.A.'s growing presence as an international hub.” Read more…
Image: John Pylypchuk's installation at Art Los Angeles Contemporary, 2013

We open our 2013 programme with an exhibition by Martin Basher, which runs from 4 February to 2 March. You can read our press release here.

The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki is highlighting the role of patronage in collection-based exhibitions drawing on works gifted by its patrons group and the Chartwell Collection, which is on long term loan to the gallery. The shows include works by a number of Starkwhite artists: Grant Stevens features in Whiz Bang Pop; Phil Dadson, Gavin Hipkins and John Reynolds are in Partner Dance: Gifts from the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, both curated by Natasha Conland; and the evolving downstairs show Toi Aoteroa includes a new section, also curated by Conland, with works by Martin Basher, David Hatcher, Gavin Hipkins and Jae Hoon Lee.
Image: David Hatcher, The Simplest Surrealist Act (Andre Breton), 2002, silkscreen on plexiglass, 2000 x 1430 mm, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki; Gavin Hipkins, Dunedin (Landscape), from The Homely series, 1997-2000, C-type colour photograph,  600 x 400 mm collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki; Phil Dadson, Echo-Logo, 2003, DVD, 7 mins, collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

Lorenzo Rudolf's move to corner the southeast asian segment of the art market seems to be paying off with reports of deep-pocket collectors from the region turning up for Art Stage Singapore. But one of his new moves has drawn flak. Rudolf's decision to set up an Indonesian pavilion and to represent many of the artists has upset galleries representing Indonesian artists. They believe the fair is competing with them for sales, but Rudolf remains convinced the pavilion is necessary because of the lack of a proper Indonesian art infrastructure, including a well-established network of commercial galleries.

Rudolf is also staying on song about Art Stage Singapore having its own identity and not going head-to-head with Art Basel in Hong Kong. “Southeast asia will be the next big trend,” he said. “It is important that both are close to each other but not copy each other; that both have their own identities. This will mean that if Hong Kong is successful, we profit; and it we are successful, Hong Kong profits.”

Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee will curate the presentation by Berlinde De Bruyckere at the Belgian pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale. The artist recently worked with Coetzee on a book with text by the author and photos by the artist and when asked for more on his appointment said: “I thought why shouldn't I ask him to be the curator and he agreed.” Read more…
Image: JM Coetzee

2013 promises to be a big year for art fairs in the Asia/Pacific-Rim region. Art Los Angeles Contemporary and Art Stage Singapore both opened last night and run from 24 – 27 January. Next up is the India Art Fair  (1 – 3 February), followed by Art Basel in Hong Kong Art (23 – 26 May), Auckland Art Fair (7 -11 August), Korea International Art Fair (12 – 16  September), Shanghai Contemporary (13 – 15 September), Sydney Contemporary (20 – 22 September) and Art Platform – Los Angeles (27 – 29 September).

So where will the power plays come from in 2013?

After buying a majority interest in ARTHK, the Art Basel Group will roll out its debut edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong, putting an end to speculation over the past five years about which fair would become the Art Basel of the Asia/Pacific region. With more than half of the exhibitors coming from the region, the new owners have also eased fears that the revamped fair would lose its Asian identity under Art Basel management. Art Basel in Hong Kong is set to continue where ARTHK left off as the region's pre-eminent fair.

Directed by Lorenzo Rudolf, Art Stage Singapore is capitalising on Singapore's position as a hub between East and West, blending art from the region with international superstars. Rudolf is also making some new moves that will give Art Stage Singapore a point of difference from others in the region. He says international art fairs should not just be spaces for selling art, they also have a role to play in developing an eco-system between artists, galleries and collectors, and where galleries are failing, an art fair should step in. The current edition of his fair includes dedicated space for Indonesian galleries and an exhibition of about 30 Indonesian artists, but in an unusual move for an art fair, Art Stage Singapore is representing about two thirds of them. “We only want to show the best, but many Indonesian artists don't work with galleries,” he said. “The infrastructure is not there.” It's a bold new move, but raises questions about how participating galleries will feel about Art Stage Singapore competing with them for sales.

Olafur Eliasson's is heading to the World Economic forum in Davios where he will discuss Little Sun, an inexpensive solar-powered lamp that he and his engineer partner Frederik Ottesen have designed to be widely distributed in the developing world to people with no access to an electrical grid. The lamp gives 10 times more light than using a kerosene lamp, and at a 10th of the cost.

Daria Kirsanova reports on the emerging contemporary art scene in Iran, including a growing gallery system. Read more…

The curator of the 2013 Istanbul Biennial, Fulya Erdemci, has outlined her vision for the event, which will be staged across the city. Entitled Mom am I barbarian? the biennial will explore the notion of the public domain as a political forum, touching on notions of democracy, civilisation, barbarity and social engagement.

With Andrea Phillips, a reader in fine art at Goldsmiths College Gallery, Erdemci is also running a public programme called Public Alchemy in the lead up to the biennial. The first session, Making the City Public, runs from 8-10 February, to be followed by others including Public Address (22-23 March), Becoming Public Subjects (14-15 September) and Future Publics/New Collectives (1-2 November).

Starchitect Rem Koolhaas will curate the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennnale. Koolhaas heads the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), known for iconic structures such as the CCTV building in Beijing. He received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Biennale in 2010 and was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2000.

In a statement issued by the Biennale, Koolhaas said he would like “to take a fresh look at the fundamental elements of architecture — used by any architect, anywhere, any time — to see if we can discover anything new about architecture.”
Image: Koolhaas receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale 

The Art Basel Group has announced the exhibitor list for the debut edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong, which will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 23 – 26 May. More than half of the exhibitors hail from the region, putting to rest fears that the revamped fair would lose its Asia/Pacific focus under Art Basel management. Exhibitors from Australia and New Zealand are included in the lineup: Jensen Gallery (Sydney) Murray White Room (Melbourne), Roslyn Oxley9 (Sydney) and Starkwhite (Auckland) in the Galleries section; Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Projects (Melbourne), Neon Parc (Melbourne), Ryan Renshaw Gallery (Brisbane) and Sullivan + Strumpf (Sydney) in the Insights section; and Utopian Slumps (Melbourne) in the Discoveries section. View exhibitor list.
Image: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, venue for the inaugural edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong

Long-haul Air New Zealand passengers could soon be soothed to sleep by a new artwork on the airline's inflight entertainment programme. Clinton Watkins, who specialises in investigating the effects that combinations of sound and vision can have on the viewer/listener, has produced a video featuring a continuous slow shot along a New Zealand east coast road and a gentle soundtrack that incorporates delta waves. These inaudible low frequency sound waves are present during sleep and the intention of the work is to lull passengers into a sleepy state. View video excerpt.
Image: Clinton Watkins' Delta, video still

We open our 2013 programme with an exhibition by Martin Basher, which runs from 4 February to 2 March.
Image: Martin Basher at Saatchi & Saatchi NY

Starkwhite is closed over the Christmas/New Year period, reopening Tuesday 15 January. In the meantime, we wish our readers a Happy New Year.

We are taking a break over the Christmas/New Year period, resuming regular posts on 14 January 2013.
Image: The flower of New Zealand's Pohutukawa also known as the Christmas tree

The Rubells show of their famous art collection via ARTINFO. View video

Ross Manning's Field Emissions closes today at 3pm. This link takes you to a review of the show.
Image: Ross Manning, Field Emissions (2012), installation view, Starkwhite, December 2012

The Guardian is offering artists' screensavers to its readers, including this one by Urs Fischer who declined to give an explanation for his work. You can download the screensavers here.
Image: Urs Fischer's Christmas screen saver, available courtesy of The Guardian

This month India launched its first biennale in Kochi, one of the oldest ports in the state of Kerala. It got off to a slightly shaky start, but Newsweek's Annie Paul says there was much to celebrate. Read more…
Image: M.I.A and Bollywood star John Abraham at the launch of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 

Paris' Centre Pompidu has joined the international lineup of institutions sending collection-based exhibitions to Shanghai's new art museums. The exhibition, Electric Fields: Surrealism and Beyond – La Collection du Centre Pompidou, opened recently at the Power Station of Art as part of the Shanghai Biennale. It follows presentations at the China Museum of Art including: contemporary works from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; American masters from the Whitney Museum; Vermneer masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum; works from the collections of Maison de Victor Hugo in Paris, the Museo National de San Carlos in Mexico city and the British Museum; and the exhibition Naturalism in France.from the Musee d'Orsay.
Image: visitors at Electric Fields: Surrealism and Beyond, Power Station of Art, Shanghai

Jeff Koons has created the label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild's 2010 Pauillac first growth, working over a Pompeii fresco of the Birth of Venus with a silver line drawing of a ship sailing under a bright sun. Previous artists engaged to produce a label include Warhol, Picasso and Dali.

Nepal has just launched the second edition of its triennial Kathmandu International Art Festival, with climate change and its human impact as its curatorial agenda. Kurchi Dasgupta was there to cover it for frieze. Read more…
Image: Jyoti Duwadi's Shades of Seeds

Andy Warhol's images of Chairman Mao won't be part of a traveling exhibition of his work when it goes to China. According to Bloomberg, the Mao works have been rejected by the Ministry of Culture. If mainland fans of Warhol want to see silkscreens of the great helmsman they will have to catch the Hong Kong leg of Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal. Read more…
Image: Andy Warhol's Mao

Faced with the groundswell of huge new building projects in China, this year's Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu has proposed an alternative view saying they are not the only architectural products his country has to offer. The practice he runs with his wife Lu Wenyu, is concerned with such things as memory, location, craft and identity, for “real feeling between people and construction” and the ways in which they can be recognised in the extraordinary time through which China is now passing. Read more…
Image: Ningbo History Museum designed by Weng Shu

According to GalleristNY, art publisher Louise Blouin has finalised plans to buy The Armory Show from Merchandise Mart Property Inc. Ms Blouin is CEO and president of Louise Blouin Media, which owns Art + Auction and Modern Painters and founder of ARTINFO.
Image: Louise Blouin

Each year Peter Peryer releases a small, low-cost photograph just before Christmas – this time in association with Starkwhite.

After 15 years at the helm of the Auckland Art Gallery, Chris Saines has been appointed director of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, in Brisbane. He takes up his new position in March 2013
Image: Chris Saines, outgoing director of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki