Artistic collaborations often sail on an uneven keel; the best known member of the crew tends to get all the limelight while the rest are left toiling in obscurity. Anish Kapoor's tower sculpture for the London Olympics is a case in point – the role of the structural designer has received little coverage. However, ARTINFO talked to Cecil Balmond recently about his part in the project. Read more…
Image: Balmond and Kapoor's ArcelorMittal Orbit, Olympic Park, London

PORT / STARBOARD, a project by Billy Apple and Inhouse, continues in our downstairs gallery this week alongside The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (stage 2). The exhibitions close on Thursday 24 May.
Image: Billy Apple/Inhouse, Solo Fixie (2012), edition of 4

Earlier this year it was announced that the next Serpentine Pavilion would be designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. They plan to build a floating platform barely five feet off the ground supported by 11 columns representing previous pavilions. They also planned to unearth and incorporate the foundations of past pavilions into their design.

“The old foundations form a jumble of convoluted lines, like a sewing pattern,” the architects said in a statement. “A distinctive landscape emerges out of the reconstructed foundations which is quite unlike anything we could have invented; its form and shape is actually a serendipitous gift.”

But when the excavations began, the traces of past pavilions by the likes of Rem Koolhaas, Oscar Niemeyer, Zaha Hadid and SANAA were nowhere to be found. Undeterred by the discovery, Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron have instructed the team on the job to overlay the plans of the past 11 pavilions and “find a new shape”.

Tim Etchells, the founder of ART HK and most recently A13 London, is launching Sydney Contemporary next April with a view to making it a biennial event. The inaugural edition of the fair will take place at the Horden Pavilion and Royal Hall of Industries at Moore Park on 12 – 14 April 2013.

The establishment of the new fair is likely to ensure that the Melbourne Art Fair's plans to move to an annual event will stay on the backburner. Melbourne's plans to become annual were announced in 2008, in part to stave off the need for a Sydney event in its off year. However they were were shelved in the light of the global economic crisis and concerns that Australia could not sustain a high-end art fair every year.
Image: Sydney's Horden Pavilion and Royal Hall of Industries

David Shrigley's billboard project How do you feel? at New York's High Line park is the third in a series beginning with John Baldessari's The First $100,000 I Ever Made. Shrigley's billboard runs concurrently with his retrospective Brain Activity at London's Hayward Gallery
Image: David Shrigley's How do you feel? billboard at the High Line, NY

This year's edition of ART HK will include The Private Museum Forum, in which influential private museum owners and directors from across the world will come together to discuss shared goals and concerns, including how they might develop shared programmes in the same way that public museums frequently do. The Private Museum Forum debuted last year, but this time the fair has revealed that the VIP event will be complemented by a public session, in the hope of bringing the importance of the private museum to a wider audience.
Image: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue for ART HK 2012

ART HK 2012 takes place next week in the city's convention and exhibition centre. This year we will present a solo show by Shanghai-based artist Jin Jiangbo. The show will include Rules of Nature, a landscape in the manner of traditional Chinese ink-and-wash painting, but staged as an interactive projection, and in an adjacent space we will present a suite of digital photographs from his recent Dialogue with Nature series. You can read our press release here.
Image: from Jin Jiangbo's Dialogue with Nature series, Starkwhite at ART HK, Booth 3C17, 17-20 May 2012

PORT / STARBOARD, a project by Billy Apple and Inhouse, continues in our downstairs gallery this week alongside The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (stage 2).
Image: Billy Apple/Inhouse, Solo Fixie (2012), edition of 4

Expected to fetch in excess of $80 million, Edvard Munch's The Scream went under the hammer for a record $119,922,500 at Sotheby's, becoming the most expensive art work ever sold at auction and the first to break the $100 million mark.
Image: Edvard Munch's The Scream, 1985 pastel on board

In a move that will draw comparisons with the Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidu is looking to expand with a chain of galleries carrying the institution's brand. The Guggenheim model of expansion was based on replicating the New York original around the world: flagship architecture, cutting-edge temporary exhibitions and utilising the appeal of the brand. President of the Pompidu, Alain Seban, says: “We are taking a more modest approach, with temporary projects in existing venues like museums and universities, but why not historical monuments, former industrial facilities or shopping malls? We will draw on the scope of our collection which is the best in Europe, and the strength of our own brand.” Read more…
Image: Alain Seban at the Pompidu

The latest issue of frieze includes a review by Emily Cormack of Alicia Frankovich's Bodies & Situations exhibition at Starkwhite earlier this year.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Bodies & Situations (2012), installation view, Starkwhite

Artists Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble and Elizabeth Price have been shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize.The artists will now prepare work for the Turner Prize exhibition which opens at the Tate Britain in London on 2 October and the winner of the

£25,000 prize will be announced on 3 December. Read more…
Image: a photograph from Spartacus Chetwynd's perfomance Odd Man Out, 2011

Starkwhite is presenting a suite of projects by Billy Apple from 19 April to 24 May 2012, beginning with The immortalisation of Billy Apple® (stage 2). After a one-week showing it has been relocated to a smaller space in the gallery, making way for Port/Starboard, a project by Billy Apple and Inhouse, which runs from Wednesday 2 May. All projects in this series will run to 24 May 2012.
Image: a work from the Port/Starboard series by Billy Apple and Inhouse

Dane Mitchell is currently showing in BSSM, a group show at The Company in LA's Chinatown.
Image: Dane Mitchell Good Fortune Spell 2008, Enlightenment Spell 2008, Cleansing Spell 2008, Summoning the Dead/Ancients Spell 2008, Curse 2008, Positive Self Reflection Spell, 2008, Warding Spell, 2008. Glass and spoken word, dimensions variable

Time Inc has unveiled its second list of the 10 NYC startups to watch for in 2012. The list, which includes art.sy, spotlights New York City-based startups with the most potential to reshape areas from social media and entertainment to commerce and art. Touted as a new way to discover art from leading galleries, museums and private collections around the world, art.sy is powered by a genome project run by a team of art historians that distinguishes and connects artworks across 800+ characteristics (they call them genes) to create a new search experience. Read more…

Since opening in 2009, the New York's High Line has become one of America's favourite urban parks. But a recent survey by Travel & Leisure shows that its popularity as gone global, ranking it #10 on a list of the world's most popular landmarks. You can read our earlier posts on the High Line here.

Berlin Gallery Weekend, the city's annual celebration of contemporary art, kicks off today with 51 galleries and 51 openings over three days. Moeller New York + Berlin is in the lineup presenting Howard Wise Gallery: Exploring the New, a tribute exhibition with works by artists supported by the American gallerist, including a piece by Billy Apple.
Image: Billy Apple, Unidentified Fluorescent Object, 1967, neon (129.5 x 71.1 x 50.8 cm)

Takashi Murakami has opened a new space in Berlin, his first one outside Japan. The launch of Hidari Zingaro Berlin coincides with the Berlin Gallery Weekend and will feature a live painting event by Kaikai Kiki artist Mahomi Kunkata.
Image: Takashi Murakami

We have extended The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (Stage 2), by a few days and it will now close on Saturday 28 April.
Image: The Billy Apple® cell line with the artist, 22 December 2009. Photograph by Mary Morrison

Preserving modern architecture is an uphill battle, as the Getty Museum recognised with its recent launch of a new international program, the Conserving Modern Architecture Programm, in the hopes of giving preservation architects new and more sophisticated strategies to preserve 20th century buildings. So it comes as a pleasant surprise to find the beginnings of a good news story in war-torn Baghdad where an attempt is being made to restore Le Corbusier's Baghdad Gymnasium. Read more…
Image: the main entrance to Baghdad's Le Corbusier building

The Tate Modern's oil tanks will be dedicated permanently to live art installation and performance. The giant subterranean spaces will host the live art and film programmes, which were previously presented in diverse spaces around Tate Modern.

“We will see many more works which involve the spectator, said Tate Modern director Chris Dercon. “There is an incredible appetite for participation.” Catherine Wood, curator of contemporary art and performance, adds: “We're excited about the opportunity to create events that are part installation, part discussion, part performance, which is very much in the spirit of the way artists are working now.”

The Tanks are the first phase of a

£215 million extension that will increase Tate Modern's size by 60%, adding 21,000 square meters of new space. Nicholas Serota says 75% of funding has been raised and he hopes the building work will be complete before December 2016.

The Tanks will open on 18 July, ten days before the Olympics, and be filled with a 15 week festival of art. Afterwards the Tanks will be closed during some periods to enable building works on the new galleries above.
Image: Tate Modern Tank

Alica Frankovich has been shortlisted for New Zealand's most prestigious art award.Each of the four artists shortlisted for the 2012 Walters Prize receives $5000 and the opportunity to present their jury-selected project in the Walters Prize exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, which runs for three months from 4 August.

An international judge will be will be named later this year to select the winner who will receive $50,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to New York, including the opportunity to exhibit at Saatchi & Saatchi's world headquarters.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Floor Resistance, shown at Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU 3, Berlin (25 June 2011). Photograph courtesy of Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU 3

It was billed as an unprecedented cluster of glory that would transform Abu Dhabi into the Paris of the Middle East: three museums including the world's largest Guggenheim, a branch of the Louvre and a national museum designed by starchitects Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Norman Foster. However six years after the project was unveiled the only visible signs of the complex are an illuminated model in an exhibition centre near the construction site.

During this time the United Arab Emirates' art scene has grown, with Dubai now host to a world art fair and thriving gallery scene, while Sharjah has a respected contemporary biennale, prompting calls to replace the Guggenheim with a smaller homegrown art museum that would stimulate cultural development as well as the local economy. The Guggenheim effect is sexy when you are not on the radar,” says art patron Ramin Salsali. “But Abu Dhabi today – I'm sorry to say, but the Guggenheim should pay Abu Dhabi to be there not vice versa.” Read more…
Image: rendering of the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim

The Italian fashion house Marni is making a foray into furniture design. The label will present a collection of 100 colourful chairs at this year's Salon del Mobile in Milan as part of a charitable initiative. The chairs, made of bright strands of woven PVC threads on metal frames, were crafted by Columbian ex-prisoners as part of a social rehabilitation programme. The chairs are selling for between €200-450 with the proceeds going to ICAM, a support group for the children of imprisoned mothers.

Image: Marni's range of chairs made by ex-prisoners

The Art Newspaper outlines the story behind Glasgow's rising profile as an artistic centre and the city's prolific ability to produce exceptional artists. In winning the Turner Prize last December, The Galswegian Martin Boyce became the third artist in a row who was either born in the city or studied at its art school and nine Glasgow artists have been on the Turner Prize shortlist in the past six years. Read more…
Image: The Glasgow School of Art

More than 30 years after creating the Vietnam Memorial, architect and artist Maya Lin has launched a new online project memorialising a different kind of loss. Her What is Missing? project is designed to raise awareness about endangered species and habitats. It's my last memorial,” she says, but I'll be contributing to it for the rest of my life.” Read more…

A museum in Italy has started burning its artworks in protest at budget cuts which it says have left cultural institutions out of pocket. Antonio Manfredi, director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum on Naples, set fire to the first painting on Tuesday and plans to burn three paintings a week from now on. Read more…
Image: Museum director Antonio Manfredi with a burning painting from the collection of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples

The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (Stage 2), opens tonight at 6pm.
Image: The Billy Apple® cell line with the artist, 22 December 2009. Photograph by Mary Morrison

A cardboard cathedral designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban will be built in Christchurch on the site of St John's church which was badly damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes. Ban's A-frame sanctuary will seat 700 worshippers providing a home for Anglicans while their quake-damaged cathedral is largely demolished and replaced.

Topping the 9700-square-feet structure will be a massive pitched roof made of cardboard tubes and covered with polycarbonate sheets to keep it watertight and allow daylight into the building. Shipping containers filled with earthquake rubble will form the base of the building.

Image: model of Shigeru Ban's temporary cathedral to be built in the city of Christchurch

The VIP art fair has announced a new initiative to launch graduating artists in the art market. A panel of six internationally recognised jurors will select 200 artists from a pool of nominations and open call applications from renowned MFA and equivalent progammes. Selected artists will present 5-10 works online at VIP (MFA) from 1-8 June.

The jurors are artist Diana Al-Hadid and O Zhang, Kate Fowles (ICI), Matthew Higgs (White Columns), Jens Hoffman (Wattis Institute) and Joachim Pissaro (Hunter College). They will also award three prizes to outstanding students – $15,000 for first place, $10,000 for second place and $5000 for third place.

Our next exhibition, The Immortalisation of Billy Apple® (Stage 2), opens on Thursday 19 April. You can read the exhibition release here.

Image: The Billy Apple® cell line with the artist, 22 December 2009. Photograph by Mary Morrison

Our Starkwhite Group Show closes today at 3pm.
Image: Matt Henry, TPS-L2 (Grey), 2012, acrylic and lacquer on linen, 35 x 90 x 32mm

Seung Yul Oh stages his performance version of The Ability to Blow Themselves Up at the Auckland Art Gallery today at 3pm. The performance is part of the exhibition Made Active: The Chartwell Show.
Image: press image supplied by the artist

Plans for the world's first underground park moved a step closer to reality with a Kickstarter funding drive that attracted donations of more than $150,000, surpassing the $100,000 target. The pledges – most between $10 and $50 – will enable concept leaders Dan Barasch and James Ramsay to conduct a scale model of the subterranean park.

Dubbed the Low Line, the idea for the park came after Barasch heard about New York's underground spaces from an MTA employee. “There are 13 acres of these kind of spaces that are unused,” he said.

The park will be developed in a 1.5 acre terminal built in 1903 for trolley trains to shuttle passengers between Brooklyn and Manhattan. When the trolley service ended in 1948, the terminal closed and has lain dormant ever since.

With no natural light, the underground terminal isn't an ideal location for what the designers hope will become a public space supporting farmers markets, concerts and art installations, but the Low Line will rely on fibre optic cables to transfer sunlight below ground. The designers say the light will carry the necessary wave lengths to support photosynthesis, allowing plant life to flourish underground.

How long will it take to create? New York's celebrated High Line took ten years to gain public and official support, but Barasch is hoping to build the Low Line within 5 years.
Image: MTA underground space targeted for development

Nintendo has donated 5000 3DS consoles to the Louvre featuring 3D images, animations and audio that can be tailored to individual interests. There are currently two individual tours offered in the software including the masterpieces tour focusing on pieces such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

A spokesperson for the Louvre said: “Through this partnership we wanted to bring together heritage and the innovative world of game entertainment through a system people are already familiar with.”
Image: Visitors using the Nintendo 3DS consoles at the Louvre

Seung Yul Oh is looking for volunteers to participate in a performance for Made Active: The Chartwell Show at the Auckland Art Gallery. The performance takes place at the Gallery on Saturday 14 April at 3pm.

Titled The Ability to Blow Themselves Up (performance version), it requires 50 people to stand at a location around the gallery and blow up balloons over a 30-minute period. Oh needs a few more people to make up the desired number so if you'd like to participate please contact him at: seungyul@gmail.com
Image: press image supplied by the artist

Our Starkwhite Group Show continues this week, closing Saturday 14 April.
Image: Dane Mitchell, The Visible Spectrum (2012), shredder, paper, acrylic

The Sydney Morning Herald talks to Michael Brand, incoming director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, about his his background and how it has shaped his international orientation, and his plans for the AGNSW. Read more…
Michael Brand at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

The New York Times reports US prosecutors have filed suit demanding Sotheby's forfeit a 10th century statue the government says was looted from a Cambodian temple. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said: “The Duryodhana was looted from the country during a period of upheaval and unrest. With this action, we are taking an important step towards reuniting this ancient artifact with its rightful owners.” Read more…
Image: the 1000 year old Duryodhana statue brought into the United States by Sotheby's

The final room in the Damien Hirst show at the Tate is a gift shop where visitors can find a range of items at eye-watering prices including a £36,800 skull, a set of china plates for £10,500, a deck chair for £310, an umbrella for £195, butterfly-print wallpaper at £700 a roll and for those on a budget, a set of coloured circular spot magnets at £14.95.
Image: Damien Hirst cup and saucer at £12.50 each or £60 for a set of 6