Excuse me for a moment while I wax patriotically

It’s that time of every second year again: time to hop in a water taxi and check out the pavilions at the Venice Biennale.  The vernissage was held on the 6 June and it makes me very proud as an American to say that the Golden Lion for Best National Participation went to the United States for Bruce Nauman’s Topological Gardens.  Nauman’s exhibition is broken into three differing but corresponding themes that are on show at three different sites in Venice.  For more information on Topological Gardens, visit the official website here.

For a complete list of winners of Lions for 2009, visit the official Biennale di Venezia site.

Kinetica Fair – Win tickets

There’s a new art fair in London this year called Kinetica.  It focuses (obviously) on Kinetic art.  If you’re in London and interested in seeing the fair, there is currently a competition hosted by Spoonfed to give away 5 tickets.  Head on over to their site to check it out.  They also have more information on the fair.

GEISAI Update

Exciting news from GEISAI #11! The Jury has been announced! A very international mix made up of

Jack Bankowsky, editor-at-large of Artforum;

Alison Gingeras, chief curator the François Pinault Collection;

Carol Yinghua Lu, art writer and private curator;

Philippe Ségalot, art advisor of Giraud.Pissarro.Ségalot fame; and

Marc-Olivier Wahler, director of the Palais de Tokyo.

This is an incredibly impressive list of names from all around the art world. Museums, private collections, writers, advisors – very nicely put together. Really bringing an international viewpoint to GEISAI this year, and thereby validating the art at the festival as art ‘worthy’ of the international scene. I’m looking forward to seeing who the jurors pick out of the crowd on 14 September.

Also, GEISAI has launched its own youtube channel. So head on over there to check out clips from previous GEISAI, as well as videos of meetings about the upcoming festival and interviews with Murakami and Ken Chu, who will be performing this year. Sadly, there are no English translations or subtitles up yet.

Emerging Japanese Artists and the Art Market

Well, after another long day of writing about the Japanese art market, I can really think of nothing other than Murakami’s business ingenuity and bijutsu clubs (notoriously closed dealers’ clubs).  So, I bring you something I threw together a while ago and feel is informative for those who know very little about the Japanese contemporary art scene.  Hope it informs.  Expect more on the Japanese market soon.

Right now is a truly exciting time for the Japanese art market – especially for up and coming artists who are looking for a big break at home or abroad. Thanks to more established artists, the whole world is finally taking note of contemporary Japanese art, thereby giving unknown artists a better platform for their work.

Most of this newfound publicity is really down to Takashi Murakami. His ingenuity and business savvy have allowed him to completely revamp the Japanese market in Japan and across the globe. Murakami has said that there no reliable contemporary art market in Japan when he first started out and he has sought to change that so that artists aren’t forced to leave Japan in order to make a name for themselves as he and many others had to do.

Luckily things have changed. Galleries have cropped up all over Tokyo, many looking for cutting edge and new artists. There has also been a recent proliferation of auction houses which host open auctions in Japan. Auctions that are open to the public are essential to the growth of an art market as they help make the market more transparent, meaning buyers will be more willing to invest in the market. More buyers means more chances for new artists to sell their works. And, as Murakami and Yoshimoto Nara’s works command millions of dollars abroad, foreign collectors are also looking for new talent in Japanese art. At the moment, Rei Sato has a solo show in the Lehmann Maupin gallery in New York – her show opened right after a solo show for the more established artist Mr. closed – and Chiho Aoshima is having articles written about her and her work in English-language magazines. Plus, the focus of the Paris Photo fair this year is Japan, with Japanese artists and galleries taking center stage.

And, this year Murakami has brought back not only GEISAI, his one-day massive art fair, but also Museum GEISAI, two great ways for unrepresented artists to show and sell their work (check out the website to find out how to apply for a booth for GEISAI #11 in September: http://www.geisai11.us/). This year also marked the inaugural year for the 101 Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, which featured quite a few young, local dealers – always a great thing to see at art fairs. Like open auctions, art fairs encourage buyers in a market and the recent spate of art fairs in Tokyo will only grow as the market grows.

It definitely is an exciting time for Japanese artists both at home and abroad. There are so many opportunities opening up for them as the Japanese art market takes on an international aspect. Soon enough, these avant-garde artists will be established both in Japan and around the world.

Art Basel 39: Wrap Up

Once again, I apologize for not having updated over the weekend. There are some places in this world where internet does not exist, the house I stayed at for the weekend being one of them.

So, a summary of the eventful week in Basel:

• American buyers were not prevalent thanks to the weak dollar. However, dealers commented on the number of Russian buyers. And American dealers reported selling to more Europeans thanks to the lack of Americans.
• Roman Abramovich purchased a Giacometti bronze entitle “Femme de Venise I” (1956) for $14 million from Krugier.
• Dealers brought good quality pieces to show and reported that buyers were interested in blue-chip artists.
• As auction prices soar, many collectors commented on the reasonable prices in the primary market.
• Works did not fly off the walls as soon as the vernissage opened, as has been the trend for the past few years. Instead, sales were paced and carefully considered, though still strong.
• The print galleries reported good sales, especially those who branched out into editioned sculptures.
• Brad Pitt dropped close to $1 million at Design Miami/Basel, with Mr. Abramovich following close behind. The two were seen chatting in the VIP lounge of the fair. In other star news, Sofia Coppola and Owen Wilson were at the vernissage of Art Basel 39.
• Takashi Murakami was spotted all around Basel in the limited time he was there. From Art Unlimited at the main fair to the Volta Fair to a dinner held in his honor. He was particularly interested in adding to his contemporary art collection, mentioning an interest in works by Anselm Reyle and German art of the 1980s.

Art Basel 39: Vernissage

Well, it’s 4 June, meaning I’m another year older and Art Basel 39 is officially open. According to The Art Newspaper, the galleries were all happy to see big-name buyers such as Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Saud Al-Thani at the vernissage last night. Abramovich, who spent $120 million on a Bacon and a Freud at the spring contemporary auctions, is not known to have ever bought outside of auction, so many galleries seemed excited to see him. Brad Pitt was also at the vernissage in a trilby hat, but the galleries were more impressed with the big spenders like Sheikh Saud Al-Thani. The lack of American buyers was obvious last night, with even the very rich grumbling about the weak dollar. However, collectors seem more willing to buy from dealers at the moment as the gap between auction prices and retail prices has widened. PaceWildenstein sold a painting by Zhang Xiaogang for under $1 million last night, a steal when the artist’s $6.1 million record auction price is taken into consideration.

Abramovich at the vernissage.

Photo courtesy of www.theartnewspaper.com