Moshi Moshi, Medici! Completely Biased Adventures in Contemporary Art Collecting…

I love to read about artists who collect. Most, of course, don’t have much money to collect, between paying the rent of their studios and hustling, but when they do, they tend towards art works of old and modern masters, such as Schnabel’s penchant for Picasso and Koons’ for 16th century German sculpture, as the […]

Anyone who has seen mere images of the new expansion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will agree: millions of dollars just went down the drain. Not only does the entrance to LACMA and the Broad Contemporary building, both designed by star architect Renzo Piano, look like an outlet mall in Arizona, but […]

Is this guy for real???
Unfortunately, he is!
I’m sure you have too!
How many famous people does he name drop in a three page article? Count and see the douche inside!
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The Art and the Deal
With friends like Jeff Koons, properties like Lever House and 40 Bond, and a giant collection of Warhols and others, Aby Rosen has […]

Charles Saatchi destroys my fantasy once again! I love the Chapman’s “Chapman Family Collection,” a series of wood carvings mixing traditional aboriginal figures with global brands as Ronald McDonald and the Cheeseburgler. The story goes that they actually spent several months learning how to carve wood sculptures from artisans, spending several months on the sculptures […]

I’ve never been a big fan of Roberta Smith. She’s a bit of a blue-chip old school fan to me.
I do though think she is a bit right with the choice of Cai as the first Chinese contemporary artist to stage a solo show at the Guggenheim. I could think of at least two, Ai […]

Damm!
To be honest, I’ve only had very good interactions with Monsieur Huber, though interaction is more appropriate as I only met him once, in Shanghai, at a dinner where I thought he was rather ironic in his dirty white sneakers and Gap khakis. I also appreciate the often forgotten long history of his commitment to […]

I’m very excited about the openings this Friday and Saturday of Rashid Johnson, Tim Lee and Sudarshan Shetty. While Johnson is pretty new to the scene, Lee and Shetty have had solo shows in New York before and Shetty in particular is bit of a superstar in India.
All three have a deep connection to engaging […]

As many of your faithful readers know, one of my artist “crushes” is Cao Fei, the brilliant multi-media artist whose early work, “CosPlayers” set animation addicts dressed as their favorite superheroes in everyday settings, created China Tracey for the recent Venice Biennial and currently is selling “gallery space” for RMB City. I was fortunate enough […]

I shouldn’t be so bitter but I am. So I loved the whole concept of the Red/Auction at Sotheby’s last night. You can’t go wrong with the Global Fund. Neither can you with some of the hot works up for bid. Below are the ones I raised my paddle for but of course did not […]

I don’t know if I should be more bothered by all these stories of the supposed “downturn” of the art market or the sadly uncreative use of analogies.
As I said before, what comes up should come down and what we will see is sorting through of contemporary art where the good works will rise and […]