Timed to coincide with the Copenhagen conference, this exhibition looks at climate change through the work of artists such as Sophie Calle, Tacita Dean, Tracey Emin, Spencer Finch, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum and Mariele Neudecker. EARTH: Art of a Changing World  runs at the Royal Academy of Arts until 31 January 2010.  You can read more on the exhibition here. 

M/C Journal was founded in 1998 as “a place of public intellectualism analysing and critiquing the meeting of media and culture”. This link will take you to an earlier issue of the journal and Su Ballard's artcle Information, Noise and et al. where she discusses the relationship of information to noise and some particular processes or manifestations of noise in et al. maintenance of social solidarity – instance 5 (2006) exhibited at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu as in the 4th SCAPE Biennale of Art in Public Space. You can visit the et al. website here.

This link takes you to the Guardian's climate change conference editorial calling on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen to take decisive action. In an unprecedented step of speaking with one voice, the editorial appeared in 56 newspapers in 45 countries.

“Crowds are smaller at this year's fair, parties more intimate. Discounts are rumoured to be larger. The larger scene surrounding the fair, however, remains daunting, with upwards of fifteen satellite fairs and the usual calendar of parties and talks. From the evidence here, the art fair, as a species, is not endangered: collectors are too attached to its convenience and competitive vibe.” Karen Rosenberg in The New York Times.

This is Martin Basher's work in HEAVIER THAN A DEATH IN THE FAMILY at 25CPW (NY), with work by Jacob Dyrenforth in the background.

Art Basel Miami Beach opened on 2 December amidst further reports that the market for contemporary art is in recovery. However, it remains to be seen whether collectors match the confidence of dealers and those in the art fair business – many collectors who have gone to fairs during the recession were there to look, not to buy. When the results of Art Basel Miami Beach are known, art market analysts will have a clearer view of the current state of the market for contemporary art and the outlook for art fairs.

Hye Rim Lee's Crystal City Spun will feature in the Indomitable Women video programme curated by Macu Moran for the audiovisual section of the Barcelona Art Contemporari Festival. The two sections of the programme – The Historic Cut and Festival Selections – will be presented at Fundacio Joan Miro and the Centre de Culture Contemporania de Barcelona from 4 December 2009 – 7 January 2010.

In its series of artist-curated shows, Temporare Kunsthalle Berlin is presenting Zeigen. An Audio Tour Through Berlin by Karin Sander, a project featuring works by more than 400 Berlin-based artists, including Dane Mitchell.

In our second posting on arts patronage at work in the New Zealand art world we look at the Arts Foundation of New Zealand's Laureate Award. Each year the Arts Foundation hands out five $50,000 awards across art forms, including the visual arts.

As the debate on the alleged conflict of interest between the New Museum and billionaire super-collector Dakis Joannou continues to polarise opinion (some see the Museum's Koons-curated exhibition as a breech of museum ethics, while others see it as the Museum doing whatever it takes to get more great contemporary art on view) it seems timely to look at the relationship between art and money, patronage and public art galleries, and public good v. private gain in New Zealand. Over the next week or so we'll look at a few examples of patronage in play in our art world starting with the Walters Prize.

Gain Hipkins' exhibition The Island opens at the Institute of Contemporary Art Newton (ICAN) on Friday 27 November and runs to 13 December 09.

We'll be hosting a preview of Jim Speers' exhibition Crystal Spirit tomorrow from 4.00 to 7.00pm. You can read the exhibition release here.

Each issue of Auckland's BLACK magazine includes Gallery, an arts section featuring pages by New Zealand-based, and occasionally international artists, selected for the magazine by Starkwhite. The current issue features pages by Robert Hood, Peter Robinson and Clinton Watkins.
Image: Robert Hood, Joseph Goebbels Teleplasmic Mass, 2009, Album Cover & Plastic Shopping Bag

Jim Speers' exhibition crystal spirit runs in our downstairs space from 23 November to 24 December 09. We'll post the preview date and link to the exhibition release later next week.

A review of Derrick Cherrie's exhibition is published here. The show runs in our project space until 28 November 09.

In the latest issue of artnews Sue Gardiner looks at the Art for a Cure auction held in Auckland arranged by the Breast Cancer Cure Trust. While it was successful, she says: “It was one, however, in an increasingly packed calendar of charity art auctions being held in Auckland, prompting discussions that, with so many options, perhaps the charity art dollar is being spread too thinly. Is there charity art auction fatigue out there?”

Derrick Cherrie's exhibition of collaged works on paper is showing in our Project Space to 28 November 09. You can read the exhibition release here.

Jerry Saltz reports on the rise of a “don't-settle-for-business-as-usual dynamic” in New York Magazine. His piece was prompted by a series of events that included listening to Explaining Pictures to a Dead Bull, a send up of art history by a loose collective of young artists known as the Bruce High Quality Foundation. He says: “These human bullshit detectors aim to provide an alternative to everything—their mission is to call out an art world mired in irrelevance.” You can read Saltz's article here.

Stella Brennan’s video projection South Pacific (2007) is showing in the exhibition FEEDFORWARD, The Angel of History curated by Steve Dietz and Christiane Paul. The exhibition runs at the LABoral Centre for Art and Industrial Creation, Gijon, Spain from 22 October 2009 to 5 April 2010.  

Derrick Cherrie's exhibition of recent collaged works on paper runs in our Project Space from 2 to 28 November 2009. You can read the exhibition release here.