Reviews of Frieze 09 are published here and here.

After looking at some of the best examples of public art in the country we decided to present a a few works commissioned by private and corporate collectors. First up is Billy Apple’s Credit Held, a wall work in the reception foyer of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts’ Auckland offices. With this transaction work (art for legal services to the value of $100,000) Billy Apple re-brands the MERW brand, adding value to it by making it over as an artwork, creating a space where the art of business meets the business of art.

Art Review's 2009 Power 100 is published here.

For the past few years Grant Stevens has explored the languages of popular culture through his text, images and sound videos. His works appropriate and de-contextualise a range of cultural cliches and conventions that seem to surround us every day. Whether it's through the over abundance of mixed metaphors or the incessant onslaught of predictable plotlines, his works seem to disrupt and challenge the way we read mainstream culture.

Gavin Hipkins' Bible Studies (New Testament) series is one of five exhibitions forming Source Material: 5 conversations with the past at the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington. Bible Studies (New Testament) runs from 17 October to 19 December 09 / 8 January – 4 February 2010 . For further information on this new body of work please contact us at starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz 

Following our group show at Art Los Angeles Contemporary in January 2010, we'll be presenting 1001 Nights by John Reynolds at The Armory Show, NY. The fair runs from 3 – 7 March 2010.  

The Bieringa's portrait of Peter McLeavey, THE MAN IN THE HAT, screens at Auckland's Academy Cinemas from 15 October 09.

Phil Dadson's video Breath of Air is showing in Modern Physics at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts to 29 November 09. Curated by Stephen Cleland, the exhibition also includes work by Bas Jan Ader, Shaun Gladwell, Alex Monteith, Hanna Shwartz and John Ward-Knox. You can read more on the exhibition here.

The White House has released a list of 45 artworks that the Obamas have selected for the mansion. They include: Ed Ruscha's I think I'll … Against a glowing sky the painter has superimposed words that epitomise the agony of indecision: “I think I'll …” “Wait a minute … I … I …”, On second thought, maybe” “Maybe … No …” You can read an article here on the White House choices.

In a recent article published in The New York Times Carol Vogel says: “Between the sagging economy and the proliferation of competitors, the organisers of art fairs have to shake things up continually to make sure collectors keep coming back.”

Our recent post on Pontus Kyander's end-of-year move to an art museum in Norway left us wondering about the future of public art in Auckland. (Kyander currently manages the city's public art programme.) So we decided to put the spotlight on some of the best examples of public art located in cities around the country. Over the next week we'll post some high points, beginning today with Len Lye's Wind Wand located on New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway.

frieze has announced the winner of this year's frieze Writer's Prize, which was judged by critic and art historian James Elkins, novelist and critic Ali Smith and co-editor of frieze magazine Jennifer Higgie. You can read the prize winning entry by Jessica Lotts here.

Sydney-based artist Grant Stevens picked up the Blake's Emerging Artists Prize for his In the Beyond video. You can see images of his most recent exhibition at Starkwhite here. Stevens is also one of the artists we will be presenting at Art Los Angeles Contemporary (the new art fair replacing ART LA) in January 2010.  

This week we are installing a new project by Richard Orjis, which opens on Monday 12 October, but our upstairs spaces will be open for viewing. On display are works by Stella Brennan, Glen Hayward, Matt Henry, Gavin Hipkins, Layla Rudneva-Mackay, James Speers, Grant Stevens, and Peter Stichbury. 

AW Asia recently announced the publication of the Chinese-language version of Chinese Contemporary Art:7 Things You Should Know, by Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum, NY. The book is tailored to the emergent Chinese collectors we hear so much about. As the demand for luxury and lifestyle goods among wealthy Chinese continues to rise, crystal ball gazers are predicting a parallel rise in collecting.

Richard Orjis will present a new project in our downstairs space from 12 October to 7 November 09.

ShContemporary closed on Sunday 13 September 09 and like many in the region we're waiting for reports to emerge on how it fared. While there is talk of the global recession bottoming out and 'green shoots' appearing, it's still a tough time to be in the art fair business.

At an auction in Auckland last week Peter Stichbury's painting Lily Donaldson went under the hammer for a record price of $45,625 (including buyer's premium), against a reserve of $28,000. However, the prices for works by other 'blue-chip' artists varied – some held their ground while others dipped. Clearly it's too soon to be looking for a significant art market rally, which is just fine with many in the art world. We remain on the side of those who believe a recession-driven correction will be good for the art market in the long term.

Layla Rudneva-Mackay is one of the artists featured in Artspace's annual new artists show. This year's version has been selected by three artist-led initiatives – Newcall, a gallery and studio programme run by a collective of recent Elam graduates; Fresh Gallery, a Manukau City Council initiative for contemporary Pacific art; and Dunedin's long running but difficult to pigeon-hole performance space, None. Recently appointed Artspace director Emma Bugden says the new approach aims “to disrupt the curatorial auteurship of previous years and render more visible the grass-roots organisations that build the contemporary art communities of tomorrow”. You can read more about the exhibition and related Artspace programmes here.

In B.158, the Bulletin of the Christchurch Art Gallery, senior curator Justin Paton maps out the Gallery's new approach to collection displays, which will ignore the usual hard-and-fast separation of historical and contemporary. He says: Though works of art legally 'belong' to the collectors who collect them, in an imaginative sense no one can own them or hold them in place. That's because what characterises the best art is its extreme imaginative volatility – the way meanings change and expand across time. That's what we hope you'll find in the new collection galleries: a place where, each time you visit, fresh meanings come to light.” Brought to Light opens at the Christchurch Art Gallery in late November 09.

You can read a review of et al. that's obvious! that's right! that's true! here and visit the artists' website here. The exhibition runs at the Christchurch Art Gallery to 22 November 09. 

I was reading an economics paper the other day discussing the merits of a 'cash back' offer over a 'discount' of the same value.