LONDON.- Romuald Hazoumé was born in 1962 in Porto
Novo, in the Republic of Benin. Hazoumé’s work first came to
prominence in the U.K. with the inclusion of his witty, tongue-in-cheek “masks”
in the Saatchi Gallery’s “Out of Africa” show, in 1992. Since then his
work has been widely shown in many of the major galleries and museums in Europe
and beyond, including the British Museum, the Guggenheim, Bilbao, the Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris, ICP, New York, the V&A Museum, London, etc. The
stellar trajectory of Hazoumé’s rise during these past fifteen years has
catapulted him into the first rank of the international artistic community,
marking him out as unique amongst other African contemporary artists. On
view at The October Gallery from 15 October until 28 November,
2009.

KANSAS CITY, MO.- An installation by the highly
respected German artist Wolfgang Laib comes to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
when Without Place–Without Time–Without Body opens Sept. 26 in the Project Space
of the Bloch Building. It closes Jan. 17, 2010. This installation is
comprised of hundreds of mounds of rice laid out in a grid, with five mounds of
luminous yellow pollen at its center. Leesa Fanning, Associate Curator of Modern
and Contemporary Art at the Nelson-Atkins, views the work as a metaphor for
transcendence that also acknowledges the presence of the spiritual in
contemporary art.

PARIS.- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director Alex
Nyerges, in Paris today for a preview of one of the most significant exhibitions
ever mounted of works by the master of American glass, Louis Comfort Tiffany,
called the show “dazzling.” The exhibition opens to the public at the
Musée du Luxembourg Wednesday, Sept. 16, and continues through Jan. 10. It will
then travel to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for a showing from Feb. 11 to
May 2, 2009. The American première of “Tiffany: Color and Light” will be
at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond May 29. VMFA will be the only
American museum to show the exhibition, which will continue in Richmond through
August. 15th.

HAARLEM, NL - The Knight’s Tour is an
international group exhibition presenting the work of six prominent rising
artists: Jennifer Tee (NL), David Jablonowski (DE), Roger Hiorns (UK), Christina
Mackie (UK), Nina Canell (SE) and Navid Nuur (NL). De Hallen
Haarlem’s monumental ground-floor space – the renaissance Vleeshal – has been
reserved for this sculptural presentation. De Hallen Haarlem, located in the town’s central shopping
district, is housed in the historic Verweyhal and Vleeshal. It presents
contemporary art exhibitions along with a regular selection from the Frans Hals
Museum’s rich collection of old masters and modern art.

VALENCIA.- An exhibition that shows viewers the
most intimate face of Valencian painter Joan Antoni Toledo, one of the founders
in 1964 of the legendary Equipo Crónica, can be contemplated until October 12 in
the municipal hall of the City of Valencia. The exhibition “Joan Antoni
Toledo (1940-1995). Homenatge”, which gathers approximately 100 works of art
made by one of the most important protagonists of Spanish painting in the second
half of the 20th century. Toledo’s artisitic proposals have been a reference to
Spanish artists ever since.

BERLIN.- Through October 31, 2009, Camera Work
Gallery is presenting works by French photographer Jean-Baptiste Huynh.
Jean-Baptiste Huynh’s square photographs always reveal exceptional portraits and
minimalist still lives. Specific details present to the viewer objects
such as shiny knives but also, in addition, antique Chinese mirrors or
expressive portraits of people from different regions of the world. Through the
clarity and strength of the image composition, the photographs exude a pure,
almost magical atmosphere.

Purchase, New York – When
artist Tracey Emin, who represented Great Britain at the 2007 Venice
Biennale, was asked by an interviewer whether she felt British, she replied, “I
am British! My passport’s
British. I was born in London. My dad’s Turkish-Cypriot; my mum’s from
the East End…. I’m definitively multicultural
British!” The interviewer’s question was not so strange considering that in the
last sixty years, Britain has become a multi-cultural
society, transformed by the dissolution of its empire, post-war immigration, and
the new social movements embracing minority cultures. This has had a tremendous
impact on British culture and notions of identity — on what it means to be
British and conceptions of selfhood. Exhibition on view at Neuberger
Museum of Art from 13 September through 13 December,
2009.

LONDON.- For the first time since it was acquired
by the National Gallery, London, and the National Galleries of Scotland,
Titian’s Diana and Actaeon is going on display at Trafalgar Square. ‘Diana and
Actaeon’ will hang in Room 10 of the National Gallery from 12 September
2009, as part of a new display demonstrating Titian’s profound
influence on European art. Paintings from diverse parts of the National
Gallery’s collection will be shown alongside ‘Diana and Actaeon’ and Titian’s
The Death of Actaeon (acquired in 1972), including works by Cézanne, Rubens,
Poussin, Claude and Constable.

PASADENA, CA.- Pacific Asia Museum presents a
multi-cultural exhibition that explores the idea of art as a strategy for
breaking down concepts of painting/writing, legibility/illegibility,
insider/outsider and Asian art/Western art. Guest curated by Collette
Chattopadhyay, Calligraffiti: Writing in Contemporary Chinese and Latino Art
will be on view from September 17, 2009 through January 17, 2010 and
includes works by artists : Apex, Chaz Bojorquez, Vince Cavallo,
Cre8, Desi W.O.M.E., Duce, Fung Ming Chip, Gronk, Gu Wenda, Julianna Hernandez,
Keo, Leo Limon, Man One, Minette Lee Mangahas, Mear, Sano, Scud, Toons, John
Valadez, Vyal, Xu Bing, Yu Kun Yang, Zhang Dali, Zender and Chongbin Zheng. The
exhibition is trilingual and features text and labels in Spanish, Chinese and
English.

WILMINGTON, DE.- The Delaware Art Museum announced
its highest attendance for the month of August since 2005, when the Museum
reopened following a renovation and expansion project. The Museum welcomed 4,164
visitors in August 2009, an increase of 17% over last year and
the best tally since August 2005. This is particularly welcome news
since Museum attendance typically declines during the summer months as many
potential visitors travel. The Museum credits this increase to the success of
the Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport program, the popularity of two new
exhibitions, higher attendance for Free Sundays sponsored by AstraZeneca as well
as Bank of America’s Museums on Us program, and less travel due to the difficult
economy.