Every day Saatchi Online Magazine publishes the latest news, exhibition previews and reviews, party pictures, diaries, essays from internationally respected writers, tips on how to build your own art collection, the best new art and photography books, talks and events not to miss, photographs of artists' studios, plus regular blogs from key figures in the art world.
Every Monday we feature an artist from Saatchi Online. We publish a regular round-up of news every Friday, and each week we feature 10 exhibitions opening around the world and a critic's choice of 10 favourite artists from Saatchi Online.
If you are searching for information about a particular artist, exhibition, event, book, gallery or museum, scroll down to the Search box at the bottom of the Contents menu and enter the relevant key word(s), or click on the relevant city or country in the Contents menu where you’ll find reports on exhibitions and events.
If you would like to contribute reports on art events taking place where you live or send in news stories and press releases please email the editor Rebecca Wilson.
Editor: Rebecca Wilson
Contributors (click to read):
News editor: Anthony Haden-Guest
New York: Jerry Saltz Doug McClemont Morgan Falconer
London: Matthew Collings Ana Finel Honigman Rebecca Geldard
Los Angeles: Catherine Taft
Berlin: Alix Rule April Elizabeth Lamm
Beijing: Stacey Duff
Paris: Steve Pulimood
More records broken for artists this week at the London contemporary sales; Tracey Emin's sparrow goes missing; a new art fair is set to open in Venice next March; a lawsuit is filed over Murakami-Louis Vuitton prints sold at the artist's LA MOCA show; and the contemporary art curator at the Tretyakov is fired over controversial artworks. 
Human organization, and the force humans apply to nature to create man-made order, obsess Michael Sailstorfer. With his small retrospective laid out over two rooms adjacent to Terence Koh's megalomaniacal installation - a blindingly white, nuclear fallout of cuddly effigies which includes a Peter Rabbit doll being sodomized by an umbrella frame - Sailstorfer is a comparably quiet wallflower. His works strike a soft, unfamiliar tone of art from a different era. From Land art to Fluxus, the line of inquiry of his current show '10,000 Stones' grips reality in a calmly assertive way. 
For his first solo, UK exhibition, Bose Krishnamachari explores the psyche of the 'average Mumbaikar' and the society in which he/she exists in a series of new, multi-disciplinary works made for Aicon London. Among them is 'Ghost / Transmemoir' (below), a giddying installation of 108 used tiffins, serving to frame video loops showing interviews with a multitude of Mumbai residents from all levels of society. 
A major touring exhibition of Hiroshi Sugimoto's photographs hits Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie this week, while a show of Richard Serra's film works opens at the city's KW Institute for Contemporary Art. In London, there are solo shows for Ernesto Caivano and Victoria Morton, while two surveys of contemporary painting open on either side of the Atlantic: 'Painting Now and Forever, Part II' at Matthew Marks Gallery and Greene Naftali Gallery in New York; and 'Altered States of Paint' at Dundee Contemporary Arts. Toronto's Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art gets a sonic makeover, and there are solo exhibitions for painters Juan Bolivar and Helene Appel in Southampton and Norwich, respectively.)
Ten of Bill Roberts' favourite artists registered on Saatchi Online.
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Although Hito Steyerl had works at Manifesta 5 in 2004, at Documenta last year and other major exhibitions, her work remains better known in the field of film than in contemporary art. Her work is informed by film history, and she teaches film courses, but she uses the platform of art to put the structure of film-making itself under a magnifying lens.
To watch an interview with Hito Steyerl on Saatchi Online TV click here. 
For its summer show, the Arnolfini has been transformed from an arts venue into a 'concept store', capitalising on the consumer and cultural relationships produced by the shifting of the economic centre of the world towards the East. The store includes an ambitious programme of participation projects, off-site presentations, discussion forums, live art and film. A selection of specially branded and exclusive products designed by artists such as Liu Ding and Surasi Kusolwong are available for purchase. 
A new performance piece by Martin Creed launched this week at Tate Britain with a rota of runners speeding through the museum's dramatic neo-classical sculpture galleries. Entitled 'Work No. 850', Creed's tightly choreographed live performance has been specially devised by the artist for the Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2008, sponsored by Sotheby's, and will take place throughout the day every day for the next four months. As Creed commented on the new work: 'I like running. I like seeing people run and I like running myself... running is the opposite of being still. If you think about death as being completely still and movement as a sign of life, then the fastest movement possible is the biggest sign of life. So then running fast is like the exact opposite of death: it's an example of aliveness.' If you would like to take part in this work of art visit www.running-project.co.uk. 
Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare win the next two Fourth Plinth commissions in London's Trafalgar Square; contemporary Indian artists headline Sotheby's July sales; Steve McQueen chosen to represent the UK at the 2009 Venice Biennale, while Francis Upritchard and Judy Millar will represent New Zealand; and Martin Parr has won the PHotoEspaña Baume & Mercier Award 2008 in recognition of his work (below) and his influence on contemporary photography. 
Liliane Lijn's current exhibition at Riflemaker (until 5 July) induces that rarest of art reactions: Wonder. The works are made from Aerogel which she discovered at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley, where she had a residency in 2005. The material was first used as insulation to protect instruments in space. It's now used to collect cometary particles and interstellar dust from beyond Mars. Yes, stardust. 
With her trademark heady mix of bright light, lush colours and zany feminine energy, Pipilotti Rist challenges viewers to look at art differently: whether lying on the floor, peering into a small dark crack in the floor or perched on oversized furniture, she creates in her work an "Alice in Wonderland" sense of wonder.
As if in a march past, Tobias Rehberger presents 40 works spread along 70 metres. Casting chronology to the wind, he has simply placed works from 15 years of creative production next to one another: chairs reminiscent of designer classics, his 'vase portraits', artificial limbs mounted on plinths, paper flowers with a Japanese ring to them, lamps made of Velcro tape, objects made of Perspex, video racks. The old works are bathed in a new glory, while simultaneously a new work comes into being: a mural made of light, shadows and colour. "I like the idea that something elaborate and solid could be the starting point for something vague and sketchy", Rehberger says. 
The common but somehow unexpected Black Squirrels is a dirty pest to some, furry and appealing to others. Their dark "outsider" status is frequently seen as a Darwinian form of nobility. Several cities in this country claim to be the "Official Home of the Black Squirrel," among them, Santa Cruz, California. Kent State University has held a Black Squirrel Festival to celebrate the rodent. For L.A. artist Mario Ybarra, Jr. a black squirrel functions as logo, surrogate and muse. His fictional society anthropomorphizes the squirrels and elucidates a detailed history of their rituals, from courtship to war.
The first Folkestone Triennial has kicked off the summer art festival season and all the papers are full of Mark Wallinger's pebbles and Tracey Emin's tiny bronze baby clothes. Following in its wake is the Whitstable Biennale, which, although it cannot boast the big names, does have imagined versions of Peter Cushing's films, a staging of the credits of the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and guerrilla knitting. London's Transition Gallery returns the favour by bringing a bucket load of seaside pleasures home to Hackney.
Paparazzi photography is an aggressive form of photojournalism, particularly today when the famous names in show business are hunted down and pushed into dangerous situations for the sake of getting the most interesting picture possible. In the 1960's and 1970's, the "classic" era of the paparazzi, the combination of voyeurism and exhibitionism, whereby photographers lie in wait for the stars to make their public appearance, was less strident and loud. Inventiveness, speed and persistence, along with a touch of cheekiness--put to use at the Cannes Film Festival, or on the Via Veneto in Rome--was usually enough to guarantee good results. 
Shen Shaomin, famous for simulacra skeletons of monstrous animals, has recently demonstrated a commanding facility with other media. In two exhibitions in Hong Kong and Shanghai we see him branching out into bonsai, model-building and film. His rigorous and provocative thinking continues unabated. 
Timothy Hutchings' sculptural practice presents a novel intersection of pastiche Minimalist geometry with an interest in social and formal aspects of play and gaming, but warfare provides a sustained undercurrent to each of these concerns. To see more of Timothy Hutchings work registered on Saatchi Online click here. 
Congratulations to the winner of the eighth round of the SHOWDOWN competition, Nadine Orejola. Her artwork will compete with other SHOWDOWN finalists to find an overall winner after the 12 rounds of SHOWDOWN have been completed. Voting is now open for the next round of SHOWDOWN and artists can also now load up their work for the next round as well.
Canadian iconoclast Guy Maddin is a spirited conductor of sublimely heart-thumping concertos of movie mayhem. Cinema Scope editor Mark Peranson introduces Maddin's faux-autobiographical cabinet of wonders, an ever-evolving evocation of cinema history. Guy Maddin will be at the BFI on 2 July to discuss his work. 
Scott King's work is blunt, in a subtle way. He takes the visual economy of postmodernist consumerism to a tipping point of aggressive clarity, where it starts cannibalizing itself as a paradoxical form of affirmative self-reflection. Proclaiming the Death to the New, King puts an end to the Fordist phantasma of eternal progress and ushers in the confused and confusing Age of the Bastard. 
Entitled 'Chimera', Janaina Tschäpe's first exhibition in Ireland is structured around the genetics of this fabled beast from ancient myth. Tschäpe creates an environment of dream and fantasy, where the everyday world metamorphoses into a mythical place, populated by fabricated creatures and florescent vegetation. 
David Levine (below) takes irony to a new level with a one-off show today which will be open but closed to the public; Richard Serra's films from the 60s go on view in July; Mai-Thu Perret offers a seasonal riff on the bikini; and the Berlin Biennial comes to an end this month with its final exhibition of works by Paulina Olowska and Zofia Stryjenska. 
The winner of the June Your Studio competition is Moti Sagron from Tel Aviv, Israel. The Los Angeles-based critic Catherine Taft writes about the winning work (below): 'This image is intensely abstract yet suggestively figurative in its careful balance between line and form; the basic outline of a body, seen from behind, emerges from fragmented lines and bold streaks of fleshy color. The figure's gender, features and visage remain compelling mysteries.' The Saatchi Gallery will donate £500 in the artist's name to one of the children's hospitals funded by the Israel Cancer Society.
The Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama shot his first picture when he was thirteen years old. Since then he hasn't stopped his frantic investigation and recording of the world through the lens of his 35-mm camera. For this exhibition Moriyama has specially made a series of duo snapshots, once again showing his seemingly nonchalant approach to his environment. 
A 'ballsy' group show featuring the work of six female artists whose work focuses on how the enclosed or decorated interior space may be used as a metaphor for an exploration of materiality and how it relates to the internal thought process. To watch an interview on Saatchi Online TV with Amy Yoes, one of the artists in the exhibition,
click here. 
Five years on from its retrospective exhibition of Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov, the Fotomuseum Winterthur is showing the work of another leading Russian-Ukrainian artist of the next generation, Sergey Bratkov (born 1960). The exhibition includes over 130 works, giving a deep insight into Bratkov's photographic oeuvre since 1990. Socially critical, politically motivated and yet with a lyrical edge, his photographs are a direct and at times unsparing portrayal of everyday life since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 
The work of California-based artist, Bill Owens, has gathered a cult following since the 1960s by exploring the peculiarities behind the everyday rituals of American life, revealing the far-out in the familiar. His widely acclaimed 1970s photo series, 'Suburbia', documented Americans' mass migration to the suburbs, and was followed by other investigations of the day-to-day - focusing on Americans at work and play, their occupations, leisure activities and political leanings. This new exhibition presents a selection from several collections spanning Bill Owens' career from the 1970s to the present. To launch the exhibition, Bill Owens will be discussing his work with writer AM Homes tonight, 26 June, at the gallery. 
Sotheby's set to offer a major work by Basquiat, a maquette of Gormley's Angel of the North (below), as well as hosting a private auction by Damien Hirst; Robert Sainsbury's collection fetches £16.5 million; plans for a Guggenheim in Guadalajara grind to a halt; the artists in the now legendary 'Freeze' exhibition reunite 20 years later; and Robert Polidori wins the first ever Liliane Bettencourt Prix de la Photographie "To Make the Ideal Book", worth €50,000. 
Mixing installation and video-art, Zhang Ding (born 1980) is quickly emerging as one of the most provocative and intriguing of China's new generation of artists. He came to wide attention with his show last year at ShangART gallery in Shanghai, which played on the theme of fragility and violence, using cactuses as his leitmotif. Now his film, 'Great Era' (2007), recently shown at Art Basel, can be seen again at the entrance to the gallery. 
A glimpse of Erica Eyres' work was on show at the recent Volta art fair in Basel, but Haas & Fischer's exhibition offered a more detailed look at two bodies of work by the Canadian artist: ball point pen portraits on paper and video works starring Eyres in every role. 
Petrina Hicks' immaculate large-scale portraiture represents something more than individual likeness. Beneath the highly polished and controlled surface of her images lies an eerie, unsettling psychological distance. Hicks' works probe those dualities that are at the heart of contemporary photography - traversing the fine lines between closeness and distance, between perfection and imperfection and between truth and falseness. 
Do talented critics shape a group of artists working within a time, or do the best critics have a talent for identifying what is already occurring? 'Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art 1940-1976', currently on view at The Jewish Museum, shows that de Kooning and Pollock could in the final analysis make a "painting that has a life of its own," yet clearly Rosenberg and Greenberg positioned the work in a critical conversation that was pivotal.
To watch a film on Saatchi Online TV of Jackson Pollock making work in 1951 click here. 
Cedar Lewisohn, the curator behind the Tate's exhibition 'Street Art' which takes place on the walls of the Tate and neighbouring buildings until 25 August, defines the genre and its roots in graffiti writing. 
Mario Ybarra Jr consistently explores the space between what is the norm and taboo in American culture from a particularly Mexican-American - and absurd - perspective. For his first exhibition in New York at Lehmann Maupin's 201 Chrystie Street gallery, Mario Ybarra Jr is presenting a multi-media installation entitled 'The Black Squirrel Society', a makeshift lodge for an order who's principles, practices and institutions include black squirrels in all sectors of society passing normal rites and passages of everyday life. 
'Who's Afraid of Jasper Johns?" is an early contender for Gallery Group Show of the Year. It has 22 artists--or 25, if you count those on view in reproduction. But really it has no artists at all. The show centers on a collaboration by the two impresario-organizers, gallerist Gavin Brown and artist Urs Fischer. It is all about memory, morals, redemption, tribal loyalty, and railing against cozy cliché. One of its causes can be traced to February 28, 1974, the infamous day when Tony Shafrazi, a 30-year-old Iranian-born artist, entered the Museum of Modern Art, yelled, "Call the curator. I am an artist," and spray-painted KILL LIES ALL in red letters across Picasso's 'Guernica'. 
Congratulations to the two finalists of the eighth round of the SHOWDOWN competition, Friederike Vahlbruch (top) and Nadine Orejola (bottom). They will now go head-to-head until 9am next Monday, during which time you can vote on their two artworks. Click here to vote on these two finalists. Artists also are now able to load up their work for the next round of Showdown. 
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