By Andrew Russeth 9/13/11 6:00pm

Art

6 Photos

David Byrne, Bigamist (2011). Pigment print with hand-applied paint, unique, 28½ x 19½ in.

The Whole World, In His Hands: David Byrne Brings His Art to Chelsea

After the Pace Gallery’s Marc Glimcher completed his recent purchase of prime real estate beneath the High Line between West 24th and 25th streets—it abuts one of Pace’s two branches on 25th Street—he faced a dilemma: what to do with the empty space before construction began on the new gallery he plans to open there in fall 2012? “I thought, O.K., we need the old demolition party, or something like that,” Mr. Glimcher, Pace’s president, told The Observer.

But then Mr. Glimcher’s wife, Andrea, the gallery’s communications head, who he said had been the driving force behind the acquisition of the space (“As usual, she got what she wanted”), had another idea. “She thought that this would be the perfect place to do a project with David,” he explained, referring to David Byrne, the former lead singer of the new wave band Talking Heads who has since ventured into the art world.

“I first encountered David’s work in the 1970s,” Mr. Glimcher said. “The fact that I waited at the stage door, trying to get an autograph from Dave back then is not important to the story.” He laughed. “Actually, I just found my pin from the concert they did in Central Park, which was nice. But I digress.” Read More

By Andrew Russeth 9/06/11 7:00pm

Art

"Junction" (2011) by Richard Serra. (Photo by Lorenz Kienzle / Gagosian Gallery)

Welcome to Art Market Boom 2.0

The New York art world may be entering uncharted territory.

Why do we think so? Let’s look at the big picture: In June, dealers at the Art Basel fair reported that business was booming. Art, we were told in report after report, was selling as it had in the heady days of 2006 and 2007, when the housing crash and the worldwide economic crisis were merely theories in the heads of a few sharp-eyed economists and canny hedge fund managers.

Last month, the world’s two leading auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, announced record revenues for the first half of the year, having moved $3.4 billion and $3.2 billion worth of art and other goods, respectively.

Now, for New York: there are, at this moment, more galleries, more artists, more curators and—perhaps most significant—more square footage devoted to art than at any time in the city’s history. The art world has never been wealthier, and that wealth has never been more intensely concentrated. Read More

By The Editors 1/21/11 9:08pm

Galleries

Gallery Video: Keith Tyson @ Pace Gallery

For his latest exhibition at Pace Gallery, conceptual British artist Keith Tyson plucked 52 images from the backs of playing cards—including the Twitter logo and a 1950s pinup girl—and transformed them into paintings. “The back of a card, normally, doesn’t represent anything,” said Tyson, who is also a card collector. “When you put 52 of Read More

By Chloe Malle 9/22/10 3:00am

Shindigger

Pace’s Half Century, Under the Highline

Last Thursday evening, after a flash flood of biblical proportions, Arne Glimcher greeted arriving guests like Noah shepherding animals onto his ark. But unlike the guests on Noah’s Ark, the guests at Mr. Glimcher’s 50th anniversary party did not differ in species and were all of the art-world genus, differentiated only by breed–artist, collector, curator, Read More