Jeff Koons opened up a new body of large scale paintings this weekend at Gagosian’s Los Angeles outpost. The new work has influences from artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombley and Salvador Dali – which are openly referenced as both an homage and as a continuance.  On first inspection the work seems abstract but upon closer viewing – or should we say further viewing – the paintings become more figurative.

With broad brush strokes – which like Lichtenstein are fake – the work becomes almost a game for your eyes to decipher. The more time spent viewing the more the work will grow on the viewer as layers become uncovered.

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Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present a series of paintings by artist Jeff Koons. In his newest body of work the artist draws upon the past, present and future to create pieces that are rooted in the cultural historical landscape, yet also feel fresh and innovative. These works were made with a mixture of techniques. On the one hand Koons employed “fake brush strokes” to create dots a la Roy Lichtenstein. But he also employed large and abstract gestural strokes as well.  Get a look at the pieces up close during the artist’s reception at Gagosian Beverly Hills on November 14 from 3-5 pm.

Gagosian Gallery

Beverly Hills

456 North Camden Drive

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

310.271.9400

So Takashi Murakami’s NY show – in addition to his Paris show at Perotin – are now official. He will be showing at Gagosian NY on September 17th as reported earlier here.

Now news comes out that Mr. Murakami will be adding a show at Versailles. The Versailles museum director Jean-Jacques Aillagon announced to the Associated Free Press that the exhibit would take place in 2010. This is on the heels of Jeff Koons show there which was both extremely successful – and controversial. Prince Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, a French aristocrat filed a lawsuit to attempt to halt the Koons exhibit due to its slightly pornographic nature. Could Murakami’s show raise the same ire?

It remains to be seen, but we will have more coverage of the upcoming shows in NY and Paris.

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Gagosian Gallery in NYC will present “Proud Flesh”, a series of new photographs by Sally Mann on the 15th of September (6 to 8 PM). Her latest photographic study of her husband Larry Mann, taken over six years, has resulted in a series of candid nude studies of a mature male body. It suggests a profoundly trusting relationship between woman and man, artist and model that has produced a full range of impressions – erotic, brutally frank, disarmingly tender, and more.

While the relation of artist and model is, traditionally, a male-dominated field that has yielded countless appraisals of the female body and psyche, Mann interestingly reverses the role by turning the camera on her husband during some of his most vulnerable moments.

Gagosian

980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075

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Branded artist Takashi Murakami is set to open a new show in Paris at Galerie Emmanuel Perotin this month.

The exhibition will be quite large with major and never-before exhibited works by Murakami, in both of the gallery spaces in Paris. The exhibition titled “Takashi Murakami Paints Self-Portraits” will bring together seventeen paintings, including three monumental works, five sculptures and two films.

And in unabashed narcissism, for the first time, a set of self-portraits will be exhibited, featuring the artist accompanied by his favorite creatures, including his alter-ego Mr. DOB, whose ambivalent personality shifts from friendly to fierce under the effects of “magic mushrooms.” In the large scale painting HIROPON, Me, And My Lonesome Cowboy (2009), Murakami is surrounded by his famous subversive characters. He also appears alongside two of his most recognizable characters, Kaikai and Kiki, as they float amidst his famous smiling flower motifs or among multiple images of the artist’s face in the large 3 x 6 meter work entitled Hustle’n’Punch By Kaikai And Kiki (2009), in which he plays on the representation and mystification of contemporary artists.

Takashi Murakami
Galerie Emmanuel Perotin
September 15 to October 17, 2009

On a slightly mysterious note, Gagosian has a large ad in ArtForum touting new work by Murakami in his NY gallery, but no information on the gagosian.com website.

More details after the jump.

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ForYourArt is hosting a Public Art Party in Beverly Hills, this Saturday July 11 from noon to 6:00pm.

Celebrating Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s brightly colored, polka-dotted Hymn of Life: Tulips at the junction of Santa Monica Boulevard and Rodeo Drive. Download a map to take yourself on a self-guided cultural experience of the city with stops at The Paley Center for Media to view three of Kusama’s short films and Gagosian Gallery to see Flowers That Bloom at Midnight, the artist’s first solo show in L.A. since 1998. Swing by Porta Via for a special box lunch and CRUMBS for a special Kusama-inspired cupcake to enjoy in the rooftop garden at The Paley Center or by the public sculpture. Around the sculpture there will be face-painting and digital portraits taken– reading, knitting, hoola hooping and yoga are also encouraged.

A great start to a weekend full of art.

YAYOI KUSAMA
Public Art Party

Saturday, July 11, 2009
12:00pm – 6:00pm

To celebrate Yayoi Kusama’s eightieth year, Gagosian Gallery is presenting her first
exhibition in Los Angeles since the major LACMA/MOMA survey “Love Forever: Yayoi
Kusama,1958-1969” in 1998. This overlaps with a related exhibition of recent works at Gagosian
New York, which opened on April 17 and continues through June.

The centerpiece of the Los Angeles exhibition is Kusama’s new and exuberant sculptural ensemble
Flowers that Bloom at Midnight (2009). These astonishing triffid-like flowers, which measure from
four to sixteen feet in height, are cast in highly durable fiberglass-reinforced plastic, then hand-
painted in urethane to jazzy perfection. Arranged in the gallery like an artificial garden, the flowers
tower and sprawl about in their psychedelic glory, offering the viewer multiple vantages while
reaching outward into the surrounding space in all directions. Kusama’s recent figurative paintings,
in which eyes, amoebae, and other more indeterminate biomorphic forms abound, reflect a
preoccupation with mortality, as well as with enlightenment, solitude, nothingness, and the
mysteries of the physical and metaphysical universe. As do her sublime Infinity Net paintings –
whether in austere achromes or vibrant contrasting hues—which continue to depict the undepictable
in a steady, insistent pulse.

DailyduJour will also be hosting a screening of Yayoi’s documentary film in June at Royal/T – so see the show and stay tuned to watch the film with us.

YAYOI KUSAMA: Flowers That Bloom at Midnight

Saturday, May 30 – Friday, July 17, 2009
Opening reception for the artist: Saturday, May 30th, from 6 to 8 pm
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CHRIS BURDEN

CHRIS BURDEN March – April 4, 2009 Opening date to be determined Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills 456 North Camden Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210 TEL 310.271.9400 FAX 310.271.9420 EMAIL losangeles@gagosian.com HOURS Tue-Sat 10-5:30

We regret to inform you that the opening reception on Saturday, March 7 must be cancelled.

100 kilos of gold bricks bought by Gagosian Gallery for CHRIS BURDEN: One Ton One Kilo was purchased from Stanford Coins and Bullion, a subsidiary of Stanford Financial Group, which as widely reported in the press, is now in receivership. Unfortunately, the gallery’s gold has been frozen while the SEC investigates Stanford.

CHRIS BURDEN: One Ton One Kilo cannot be mounted until the gold bullion is released. Please continue to check their website for a new opening date.

http://www.gagosian.com/

Burden juxtaposes an historical work with a new one in an ongoing exploration of the duality that underlies much of his art. Here duality resides in both the literal and figurative aspects of weights and measures, as well as in the layers of meaning embedded in the known hierarchy of materials.

Following his early controversial performance work, throughout the late seventies and eighties Burden’s interests shifted to broader themes relating to science, ecology, technology, and politics. He produced objects and installations that evoked the rationalism of scientific and technological discourse while undermining their claims to functionality. Memorable examples include Flying Steamroller (1996), where the massive heft of a steamroller was balanced by cement blocks to defy the forces of gravity; and Fist of Light (1992-93), his “visual metaphor for nuclear fission,” hermetically sealed inside its own room-sized structure.

Chris Burden was born in Boston, MA in 1946. He received his BFA from Pomona College at Claremont, CA and then went onto receive an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Burden’s solo shows include the South London Gallery (2006), the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2002), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (2002), Orange Country Museum of Art, Newport Beach (2000), the Tate Gallery, London (1999), MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (1996), and the Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles (1992). In 2008, Burden presented both a permanent installation outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, entitled Urban Light and comprised of 202 antique streetlights, to inaugurate the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum, as well as a sixty-five foot skyscraper made entirely of Erector set parts, entitled What My Dad Gave Me, that was exhibited by the Public Art Fund at Rockefeller Center in New York. Burden lives and works in Topanga, CA.