As they see it: that which is lost can be found

MONTREAL - Mourning, loss, absence and what is hidden – five international artists explore those themes in Chronicles of a Disappearance, a new exhibition at the DHC/ART Foundation in Old Montreal.

Opening: February 19–May 14, 2012

Print/Out will exhibit more than 200 works of printed materials such as artists' books from MOMA's collection, including pieces by Martin Kippenberger, Ai Weiwei, and SUPERFLEX. It's the first such exhibit since 1996.

The museum writes:

Over the last two decades, the art world has broadened its geographic reach and opened itself to new continents, allowing for a significant cross-pollination of post-conceptual strategies and vernacular modes. Printed materials, in both innovative and traditional forms, have played a key role in this exchange of ideas and sources. This exhibition examines the evolution of artistic practices related to the print medium, from the resurgence of ancient printmaking techniques—often used alongside digital technologies—to the worldwide proliferation of self-published artists' books and ephemera.

LA Weekly - Blog - Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including the Longest Film Ever Made
By Catherine Wagley

1. The longest demolition that never happened
The Danish collective SUPERFLEX built a life-size McDonald's replica, then flooded it for the 21-minute film they made in 2009. The collective's new exhibition, right across from LACMA at 1301 PE, has a much subtler feel than the McDonald's flood, with framed posters downstairs and tastefully designed black "safety" lamps hung upstairs. But the quiet, slow-moving film that plays out on an upstairs wall is actually fairly aggressive. Entitled Modern Times, Forever -- at 240 hours long, it's the longest film ever made, the collective claims -- it simulates the demolition of Stora Enso, a massive modernist office building in Helsinki. Originally, the film played for its 10-day duration on the street in front of its subject, so you could see modernism persisting and disintegrating at the same time. 6150 Wilshire Blvd.; through March 3. (323) 938-5822, 1301pe.com.

It Speaks to Me: Diana Thater on Nam June Paik's 'Video Flag Z' at LACMA

Nam June Paik is a wonderful artist. There are some great examples of his work in the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego, but this is the only major Paik I know of in a public collection in L.A. It’s a grid of 84 Quasar TVs laid out like an American flag; one channel feeds all the screens on the top left section with images of stars, and the other channel gives us the stripes. The stars and stripes are constantly changing: images fold, multiply and zip across the screens. Scenes from movies dissolve in and out. It’s an exuberant work full of color and recognizable signs, like hearts and stars, and figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Allen Ginsberg, yet it creates no narrative and, in its comedy, mocks the quaint idea of linear time. For Paik there is no inherent meaning in the progression of history, in the ticking of the clock; there is only meaning in the simultaneous and chaotic flow of life. So the work encourages us to let go of the desire to link moments one after another into a falsely comprehensible story — it opens us up to living completely in the present. It has a kind of living beauty that is best expressed in the moving image.I think the people who restored the work a few years ago--Elvin Whitesides and Eddy Vajarakitipongse--understand that very well. TVs don't last forever, and they had to take them apart and put new tubes in them while keeping the aesthetic. They did an amazing job.
— Diana Thater, as told to Jori Finkel

London Underground | A Room for London

"It's a place where people can stay a night but it isn't really a hotel room. It isn't an exhibition space, it isn't a theatre space, but in a sense it's all of those combined. I suppose that mixture made me want to get involved. Ultimately it's a project that takes a year to realise because the key collaboration is between the visitor and the Room and how their experiences are written into the story. This is very much about the ideas. It's going to be a big year for London next year."
-Fiona Banner

Opened December 21 2011 - March 10 2012

Artist John Reynolds' $80,000 sculpture, Big Wave Territory, was installed at the beginning of the coastal walkway at Port Taranaki on Monday. Take a look below:

The dramatic ship-hotel set to be one of the most imaginative centrepieces of the 2012 celebrations has "docked".

The structure - measuring 14ft by 48ft - was today perched on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre where it will now rest until the end of next year.

Philadelphia Weekly

There's More Than Meets the Eye in Charline von Heyl's Abstract Paintings

Charline von Heyl at Tate Liverpool

Born in Germany in 1960, Charline von Heyl emerged in the mid-1980s when a tangible sense of optimism and impending change permeated the air. It was a period markedly different in tone from the previous muscular, frequently ironic, increasingly cynical generation.

The MAN Podcast: Charline von Heyl

Art review: Pae White's 'Here Today' at 1301PE

Power Toilet / UN wins the Great Indoor Award 2011 against airports and train-stations.

Read what the jury said:

"A nondescript grey box on a beach in Heerhugowaard contains public toilets modelled on those used by members of the United Nations Security Council in New York, as reconstructed from smuggled mobile-phone images. The project's has a dual identity: a contemporary art installation that doubles as a functional toilet."

"I'm not interested in the star system of the film world. I'd like to show this film in the streets. As an artist I don't need to be part of that system."