Mika Rottenberg. “Felicia from Tropical Breeze,” 2004. Courtesy the artist and Magasin 3, Stockholm.
In this week’s roundup, the Empire State travels to Rome with works by LaToya Ruby Frazier and Jeff Koons, Pierre Huyghe wins the Haftmann Prize, Laylah Ali’s Greenheads meet up in Minneapolis, several artists lecture about their work, and more.
- Shahzia Sikander ‘Parallax’ opens this week at Pilar Corrias Gallery (London). This is Sikander‘s second solo show with Pilar. The installation includes a new three-channel animation that will also be shown at the Sharjah Biennial in March 2013. Accompanying the animation are four large scale drawings and four smaller works on paper. On February 20, the gallery will present Writing with Drawing, a public conversation between the artist and Kate Macfarlane. Please RSVP as space is limited. The exhibition runs February 22–March 13.
- Maya Lin will give a talk at the Phoenix Art Museum (Arizona) as part of Contemporary Forum’s monthly lecture program, organized by the museum’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sara Cochran. According to Cochran, it has been a priority of the museum to bring Lin to Phoenix. The event takes place on February 20.
- Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series is now on view at the Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis, MN). This is the first time the Greenheads series, created between 1996 and 2005, is being shown as a comprehensive body of work. Of the more than eighty gouache paintings in Ali‘s series, the exhibition presents forty-three that have been gathered from various collections. The show runs through May 12.
- Arturo Herrera has a new show opening this week at Linda Pace Foundation (San Antonio, TX). Arturo Herrera will feature works from the Foundation’s collection, and more recent works by the artist on loan from Sikkema Jenkins & Co. On February 21 at 6pm, the Foundation will present a conversation between Herrera and Artpace Executive Director Amada Cruz. The exhibition runs February 22–September 6.
- Pierre Huyghe has won this year’s Roswitha Haftmann Prize. Prizewinners are selected solely on the basis of the artistic significance and “outstanding quality” of their work, without regard to their personal circumstances (nationality, age, gender, etc). Huyghe will be fêted at an award ceremony at the Kunsthaus Zurich in May. Cindy Sherman was winner of last year’s Haftmann Prize.
- LaToya Ruby Frazier and Jeff Koons will exhibit work at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome) in the group exhibition Empire State, which explores how artists have reimagined urban life in New York City. Bringing together an intergenerational group of artists from the city’s five boroughs and suburban and exurban regions, some works on view are meditations on the city as a means of distributing power. The show runs April 23–July 21.
- Mika Rottenberg‘s work is on view at Magasin 3 (Stockholm, Sweden) in the solo exhibition Sneeze to Squeeze. Spanning the early 2000s to the present, works on view include video installations that present surreal scenes, where inane objects are produced in protracted processes resembling factory assembly lines. The show continues through June 2.
- Ai Weiwei has created an online promotional video for Elton John’s AIDS foundation (watch the clip below). According to a report in Britain’s Independent, the Valentine’s Day-themed promo is expected to run on screens in Times Square (New York City), Piccadilly Circus (London), and Independence Square (Kiev, Ukraine).
- Mike Kelley has been honored by The Art Gallery at the University of West Florida (Pensacola). Educational Complex Edit: Video from the Students of Mike Kelley, which takes its name from Kelley’s 1995 project Educational Complex, is made up of works by Kelley’s former students. The exhibition runs concurrently with Mike Kelley: Themes and Variations from 35 Years at the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam). The University’s show closes March 8.
- Yinka Shonibare MBE’s next solo exhibition Pop! will be on view at the Stephen Friedman Gallery (London). According to the curator, this exhibition will present new works that focus on the “corruption, excess and debauchery that have in part led to the current economic crisis.” The show opens March 16 and closes April 20.