Greenfield Sacks Gallery presents an exhibition of works by celebrated New York artist Alex Katz. The exhibition will include oil paintings and prints from 1992 – 2008 in the genre of landscape and seascape. Unlike Katz’s large-scale paintings, the paintings exhibited are small and intimate in scale, each are 9 x 12 inches. The prints range in size from 29 x 23 1/4 inches to 28 3/4 x 67 3/4 inches. On view through 24 April, 2010.

Alex Katz, “Forest”, 2008 (detail). Woodcut and linocut, 28 3/4 x 67 3/4 inches. Edition of 45. Signed and numbered in pencil. ©Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo: Greenfield Sacks Gallery

While Alex Katz is best known as a portrait artist, his landscapes and seascapes are a significant part of his work. In 1949 Katz studied at Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in Maine where he learned to paint directly from life in the plein air tradition developed by the French Impressionists. In the paintings on exhibition Katz uses this technique, creating images of the land and sea around him during his summers in Maine.

In Sunset 2, 2006 Katz paints the Maine light falling below the horizon at twilight, capturing a brief moment in nature. Alex Katz once said, “From photography I can’t get any colors and I can’t get the light I’m interested in, I want to go into areas where no one’s been in terms of time: at twilight, you get ten or fifteen minutes”

The prints included in our exhibition utilize a variety of techniques and formats, including woodcut, linocut, etching, and aquatint. In Forest, 2008, the woodcut medium highlights the natural grains in the wood. In Daytona Beach, 2006 Alex Katz uses five separate images in a series to capture the movement of the crashing waves of the Atlantic.

Alex Katz’s works are well represented in over 100 public collections worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Greenfield Sacks Gallery (formerly Bobbie Greenfield Gallery, est. 1975) is located in Santa Monica at Bergamot Station, the largest gallery enclave on the Westside of the greater Los Angeles area. Greenfield Sacks was established through the long-standing cooperative business relationship between Bobbie Greenfield Gallery and Leslie Sacks Fine Art, Brentwood (est. 1992).

Greenfield Sacks Gallery is a member of the International Fine Print Dealer’s Association (IFPDA), the Fine Art Dealers Association (FADA),and participates in major art fairs including the Los Angeles Art Show organized by FADA and the IFPDA Print Fair in New York.

www.greenfieldsacks.com

777 Studio Gallery in Coral Gables is pleased to announce the upcoming public exhibition of artwork by two Miami-based talents, Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares.

The exhibition is centered on the exploration of the human experience in the built and natural worlds; our relationship to our surroundings and to each other. Wright will present a series of photographs, On the Other Hand, video, and installation and Millares will present a multisensory installation of mobile sculptures and ink drawings for the exhibition which premieres with an opening reception with the artists on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

In the series On the Other Hand, Antonia Wright repeats the same neutral gesture, a hand reaching, and places it in different contexts. The expression becomes a communication to the viewer, a metaphor begging for a reading into the deeper meaning of the act. The hand reaches out of the ocean on a rainy day, a pile of garbage, a field of ducks. Is the hand an invitation? A threatening gesture? Does the figure in the photo need help? Do we? Or both? These photos, mini poems on humanity, aim to highlight the ‘bizarre’ within the everyday façade of normal situations. This series, like all of Wright’s work, looks into our interpersonal connections to our surroundings, both to the natural and to each other, and explores our relationship to both.

Ruben Millares’ work speaks to the balance between man and nature. This series of mobiles physically focuses on the idea of equilibrium. Millares says, by using personal metal hangers, consumed shell fish and leftover construction materials that would otherwise be discarded, I bring human excess back to productive means. The mobiles move in concentric circular patterns at the mercy of the wind or water creating new and recycled energy from waste. Millares approaches ink drawings from an emotional stand point, letting the ink and water guide his internal feelings onto the paper. By using different tools, he is able to create ever changing textures within a traditional medium. The drawings, like the mobiles are impermanent even though they are fixed on a piece of paper. In this exhibit the artist presents mobiles and drawings together in a multisensory environment that is foreign yet known.

By presenting man-made materials in harmony with natural ones, we begin to see how man tries to create the beauty inherent in the natural world. Can it be done? Can we surpass the natural? Or is it the balance that is ultimately more important?

About the Artists:
Antonia Wright is a Miami born Cuban-America artist, whose work employs photography, poetry, performance, installation, video art and the interaction between both forms. She received an M.F.A. in poetry from the New School University in New York City and is a graduate from the International Center of Photography’s General Studies Program. She has been reviewed in numerous publications such as The Daily News, The Miami Herald, The New Times, and was recently featured in New York Magazine’s article, “The New Talent Show: Pot-Luck Culture”, on upcoming artists. She has shown in museums and galleries in New York, Miami, and exhibited in Amnesty International’s exposé on Cuban-American artists in Los Angeles. She is also the curator of The Keys Project, an ongoing multi-city venture whose aim is to document and collect keys and portraits of their possessors. Antonia is currently the assistant to the curator at The Margulies Collection.

Ruben Millares is a 1st generation Cuban American musician, composer, visual artist and entrepreneur born in Miami, Florida. He began playing drums at the age of 3 ½ and soon moved on to guitar which has remained his passion ever since. With his band Smiling Gums, he has been performing around the country for the past 10 years incorporating afro Cuban rhythms and improvisation into rock n roll. As a visual artist he creates abstract landscape Sumi Ink drawings and metal, wire and shell mobile sculpture, both of which can be seen at his self designed office space in Coral Gables. His office design for the family’s CPA and Asset Management firm was awarded the2008 Outstanding Interior Office Space Award by the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce. Ruben is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) as well as a Certified Financial Planner and is also involved with extensive charity work for the Daily Bread Food Bank of South Florida as well as other organizations such as Lotus House.

777 Studio Gallery: 166 Alhambra Circle, Coral Gables, FL EXHIBITION: Antonia Wright & Ruben Millares / “A Great Disorder is An Order”
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, March 20th, 7-10pm
For more information please call 305.444.0333

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The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) has announced the appointment of Nora Burnett Abrams as Associate Curator. Abrams comes to MCA Denver from New York City, where she was working on her Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts. Since August 2009, Abrams has been assisting with exhibitions at MCA Denver as an adjunct curator, working from her home in New York until her move to Denver at the beginning of this year.

“Nora brings both impeccable academic credentials and an outstanding ability to make contemporary art accessible to wide audiences,” said director Adam Lerner. “Working with her on two exhibitions, I quickly saw that Nora was unique among her peers nationally. Her hire is a major step in realizing MCA Denver’s vision of building our national stature while providing our local community with engaging exhibitions and educational programs.”

In addition to her work with MCA Denver, Abrams has experience working on exhibitions at major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Grey Art Gallery, at New York University. She has assisted with significant exhibitions such as Matisse Picasso at MOMA and Robert Rauschenberg: Combines at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She taught art history at New York University and has lectured widely on modern and contemporary art. She has an M.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Stanford University. “Nora Abrams is a major young scholar who promises to raise curatorial practice and discourse around contemporary art to a new level,” said Harry Cooper, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, at the National Gallery of Art. “We can expect great things from MCA Denver.”

www.mcadenver.org

New York City’s Asia Week auctions kick off on Sunday, March 21, with a two-session sale at Hong Kong Auctions International. The morning session will see a collection of 63 Fine Chinese Paintings go under the hammer. Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, including a $6 million Qing Dynasty vase, will be offered in the afternoon.

The sale will be conducted at Hong Kong Auctions’ Madison Avenue gallery and, for the first time, simulcast on Artfact Live.
Hong Kong Auctions International is known for the consistently fine collections of traditional Chinese scroll paintings it brings to market. The March 21 auction is no exception.

The marquee item of the morning session is Lot 32, a Southern Song Dynasty painted scroll by Su Hanchen. Entitled “Children Playing with Water Reflection,” it captures the self-engrossed innocence of three children pondering their reflections in a bowl of still water. Nearby, another child observes the action from beside a large painted screen. All in all, this unusual slice-of-life says much about status and lifestyle.

Nearly forty-nine inches long, the Su Hanchen ink-and-color on paper bears both the artist’s sign and seal. It also carries two Palace collectors’ seals. The descending provenance can be read in seven additional collectors seals. Works by Su Hanchen are in the permanent collections of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Cleveland Art Museum. The estimate on the painting is by request.

Tang Yin, a Ming Dynasty scholar, poet, painter and calligrapher, is represented by Lot 46, “The Four Literati from Song Dynasty.” Three of the scholars are depicted out of doors, in suitable landscapes that encourage inspiration. The fourth is depicted in contemplation indoors, seated in an armchair set before a screen.

An artist who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Yin was known for including elements of the past in his works. “The Four Literati from Song Dynasty” is entitled and inscribed with four artist seals and twelve collector seals. Its catalog high estimate is $150,000.

Lot 49, “The Imperial Hawk,” is an interesting painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, the Italian Jesuit who became a Qing Dynasty court painter. The hanging scroll portrays the hawk perched atop a screen of carved wood with a painted panel. In the upper right portion, there is a poem. Complete with artist’s seals and eight palace collectors’ seals, the ink-and-color on paper will see interest at $120,000.

Among the Fine Chinese Ceramics, Lot 232, an exquisite Famille-Rose Reticulated Hexagonal Vase has few equals. The Qing Dynasty vase is a transitional masterwork, decorated both inside and out. The interior has an overall blue and white floral design that is viewed through open work panels decorated with peaches, peonies, lilies, pomegranates, finger citrus, berries and lingzhi (mushrooms of immortality). The chestnut hued body carries an overall lotus design done in the European manner.

Clearly a transitional piece of great artistic and technical merit, the Qianlong Famille-Rose vase bears the six-golden-character seal mark and is of the period (1736 – 1795.) A Museum Appraisal Certificate authenticates this. The vase’s provenance is clear as well. It is from the Shi Yang Tang Collection, New York.

In 2000 Sotheby’s Hong Kong sold a similar Qianlong hexagonal vase for HK$ 20,944,750. (About $2.7 million at today’s conversion rate.) Bidding on the vase begins at $6,000,000 USD, and is expected to go much higher.

Another outstanding porcelain highlight is Lot 228, a Xuande period blue and white bowl. Both charming and complex, the lobed bowl depicts 22 children at play in a garden. The lobes are painted with Lingzhi and plantain. Broad (9 inches in diameter) and deep (5.6 inches tall), it bears a six-character seal and carries a catalog high estimate of $800,000.

Lot 233 is a Qing Dynasty Doucai vase with 12 lobes of interlocking floral sprays. Divided by narrow ridged vertical bands, the 16 ¼ inch tall vase carries the six-character seal mark and is of the period. With Shi Yang Tang Collections provenance, the vase is well valued at $300,000 to $400,000.

A rare Tang Dynasty parcel gilt bronze Chariot Group, Lot 236, speaks for the breadth of interesting objects in the sale.

The robustly molded figures depict a charioteer under a domed umbrella driving a team of four horses. The steeds wear elaborate repoussé trappings and are joined by a bowed yoke. Merely 8 ½” tall and just 10 inches long, the highly desirable scene carries a catalog estimate of $100,000.

Under the hammer in the final hour of the sale is a fine collection of antique figural and vessel form bronzes inlaid with silver and gold, from a New York Family collection. Lots 282 – 286 include a large rhinoceros, a pair of dragon-head mythical beasts, massive dragons, a pair of phoenix censers and a ritual vessel with lose ring handles.
The March 21 sale will be conducted Hong Kong Auctions’ chairman, Mr. Kwong Lum (Lin Ji-guang). Mr. Lum is also Director of the International Society of Chinese Art Collectors.

For complete details on the 338 properties in Hong Kong Auctions International ‘s March 21 sale, please visit www.hongkongauctongallery.com. Full color bi-lingual catalogs can be purchased by calling 212 867-7288. Viewing begins March 12 and continues through March 20, 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m.

hongkongauctiongallery.com

Saffronart, the world’s largest online fine-art auction house, concluded its Spring Online Auction 2010 on an impressive note with 75% of the lots selling for a total of USD 4.6 million. A majority of the lots saw competitive bidding with 60% of the sold lots exceeding their high estimates.

Several lots were sold well past their high estimates, including Akbar Padamsee’s 1953 portrait, Prophet (with a winning bid of USD 278,875, more than triple its higher estimate USD 80,000), M.F. Husain’s 1970s Untitled (whose winning bid crossed the USD 400,000 mark, with a high estimate of USD 266,670), Subodh Gupta’s Doot (which sold for USD 391,000, against a high estimate of USD 240,000) and F.N. Souza’s Decomposing Head (which sold for USD 350,750, exceeding its high estimate of USD 250,000). Works by S.H. Raza, Manjit Bawa, Ram Kumar, Laxma Goud and Jagdish Swaminathan also attracted lively bidding. There was also keen interest from collectors in works of several contemporary artists including Shibu Natesan, Sudarshan Shetty and Rajesh Ram.

Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and Co-founder of Saffronart said, “The strong results of our Spring Online Auction 2010 are an affirmation of the renewed confidence of the growing collector base for Indian art. The results from the auction indicate a consistent demand from collectors for top quality and rare works with important provenance.”

About Saffronart

A global company with deep Indian roots, Saffronart was founded in 2000 on the strength of a private passion. Remaining committed to this passion and personal values, today Saffronart is a strong and successful international business that both embraces and drives change.

A pioneer of online fine art auctions, Saffronart has set global pricing benchmarks and transformed the landscape of modern and contemporary Indian art, making it accessible to connoisseurs and collectors around the world. Its robust online auction platform and secure technology offers a personal, intuitive and effortless bidding and buying experience for clients.