Art dealer Larry Gagosian in background left, purple tie, speaking on panel at Abu Dhabi Art in 2009. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Art dealer Larry Gagosian is doing all he can to bond with the Abu Dhabi power brokers. Last year he participated in a panel during the oil-rich country’s new Abu Dhabi Art Fair. (I attended the panel and blogged about it here.)

This year Gagosian is shipping his art collection to Abu Dhabi for a first-time public viewing. The show, RSTW (an acronym for its all male roster — Rauschenberg, Ruscha, Serra, Twombly, Warhol and Wool)  runs Sept. 22 to Jan. 24 and will be curated by Anne Baldassari, president of the Fondation Picasso. The show is being presented under the auspices of the country’s top honcho:  HH Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

The venue is a temporary exhibition space called the Manarat Al Saadiyat which last year displayed a group of Middle Eastern artwork. The building is located on Saadiyat Island, where new Louvre and Guggenheim museums are under construction,  along with thousands of luxury condos.

Works in the show include Rauschenberg’s 1963 Overdrive, Serra’s 1984 Malmo Roll, Warhol’s 1960 Brillo Soap Pads and 1972 Mao.

Stair Galleries auction preview of Salander July 24, 2010 sale. A painting by Lawrence Salander sits to the right of the podium. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

When he wasn’t busy buying, selling and hustling art, dealer Larry Salander loved to paint. Recently sentenced to six to 18 years in prison for fraud and larceny, he may now have time to indulge his hobby.

We wondered if his paintings were any good and phoned up David Cohen who runs Art Critical, a robust online art magazine.

Cohen was kind enough to glance at a few jpegs.

“Well, they don’t make my heart pound faster,” he said.

While not a fan of the work, Cohen believes they reflect someone with serious intentions. “If they give him a window with a view, he would be able to develop his landscape skills, but not with a palette knife,” said Cohen, who guessed those might be off limits behind bars.

The market for Salander’s paintings hasn’t proven to be much more enthusiastic.

A group of Salander’s paintings recently sold at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York, to benefit the dealer’s creditors, who are on the hook for upwards of $120 million.

Suffice it to say, the art proceeds didn’t make much of a dent. Prices…

Photo: Hanny B via Flickr

In a radical twist on the art fair model, the new VIP Art Fair will exist only online, catering to busy collectors weary of the cost and hassle of traveling. It’s Second Life meets Gilt Groupe for the art biz.

Seasoned Chelsea dealer James Cohan has teamed up with Internet entrepreneur Jonas Almgren, to launch the fair, according to art market sources. The event is being billed as the “first ever” virtual art fair.

The first edition is slated for January, usually a quiet time in the gallery sale cycle. The fair is comprised of virtual stands priced $4,000 to $20,000, according to sources. The fair will be timed, and we believe, last for one week, like timed sales mounted by online retailers on member-only sites such as Gilt Groupe and Ru La La. (A VIP Art Fair web page, with a snazzy black and white logo, has been set up, but the site is not yet live. The fair also has a Facebook page with 22 fans).

Cohan already has signed aboard an impressive…

Sara Meltzer on left via New York Social Diary

The latest dealer to announce a change up is Chelsea’s Sara Meltzer who sent out an email last week headed “New directions…” Meltzer, who ran her own gallery for over a decade,  said she plans to continue working with artists, but “more as a producer and agent,” according to her email.

The gallery’s co-directors, Rachel Gugelberger and Jeffrey Walkowiak are departing and Meltzer is moving into a new space at 525-531 West 26th Street, the same building where she had previously operated her gallery. Her artists included Jason Middlebrook, Nina Katchadourian and Peter Rostovsky.

A video of Meltzer discussing her work  found here. Her new venture is called Sara Meltzer Gallery/Projects.

“As times have changed for me both personally and in the marketplace, I am eager to embark on a new, more free-form model that will open up new kinds of opportunities,” Meltzer wrote in her email. She will collaborate with  “curators, collectors, writers and investors to promote artists in a more gratifying and productive way,” she wrote.

She launches Oct. 1 with a site-specific installation by Sarah Cain in conjunction with curator Miki…

John Connelly via SVA Blog

Dealer John Connelly is closing his gallery this Friday after nearly a decade at the helm of a cutting edge emporium associated with artists such as Assume Astrid Vivid Focus, Scott Hug and Mungo Thomson. He will become director of the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation.

John Connelly Presents, located at 625 West 27th Street, closes on Friday with a reception from 6-8 pm. The final exhibit features the somber, historicizing paintings of Jeronimo Elespe. Connelly’s program was known for artists favoring political and social themes. “He was drawn to themes that were not necessarily things built to sell, but emerged outside of the commercial arena,” said art adviser Sheri Pasquarella.

Connelly launched his nomadic curatorial project in 2000, while working as a director at Andrea Rosen Gallery. Rosen represents the Gonzalez-Torres estate.

In 2002, Connelly, a founding member of NADA, opened a small 10th floor space on West 26th Street. In 2006 he teamed up with Pasquarella and others to transform a desolate strip along West 27th Street into an art dealing hub.

In 2003, Roberta Smith tagged Connelly as among the three best young galleries in town.…

Art dealer Lawrence Salander, seated on end of bench, surrounded by his lawyer Charles Ross and three adult children this morning at New York State Supreme Court. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

A pair of burly court officers escorted a tearful, handcuffed Lawrence Salander from a courtroom this afternoon, shortly after a judge doled out his sentence. Salander, the former dealer and Sunday painter who had plead guilty to a $120 million art fraud in March, received six to 18 years in prison.  Judge Michael J. Obus termed the saga “deplorable.”

The hearing, which commenced around 9:30 a.m. this morning, concluded nearly four hours later. Ten victims stood before a podium and described tales of emotional and financial pain.

Salander’s lawyer Charles Ross asked the court for leniency, citing  Salander’s family–seven children– and poor health, noting the dealer had been an alcoholic for over forty years.

Salander, wearing wrinkled khakis,  was accompanied by his three adult children–Ivana, Isaac and Jonah. Salander’s wife Julie, who has split with her husband, also attended.

“Salander is a pathologically self-absorbed con man,” said assistant district attorney Kenn Kern, who pressed for the maximum sentence. Salander “lived the dream,” said Kern, citing a birthday party at the Frick, private jet rides and a 60 acres estate in Millbrook, “financed by a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernard…

Michael Findlay in Abu Dhabi. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

Acquavella Galleries director Michael Findlay says the “art world is no more or less cloistered than the entertainment world, the landscape-gardening world, or the real-estate world,” in a New Yorker letter to the editor published in the Aug. 2 issue.

Findlay responds to David Grann’s otherwise illuminating article in last week’s issue (The Mark of a Masterpiece July 12 & 19) questioning the fingerprinting tactics of Peter Paul Biro. (That story, which I recommend, is here).

Grann wrote that the matter of authentication is complicated by “the public’s distrust of the cloistered art world.”

Findlay begs to differ. He points out that art galleries are free and open to the public, as are pubic auctions. Further, museums endeavor to attract and educate visitors.

The dealer blames any “cloistered” sensibility  on “outlandish claims of authenticity by people motivated by avarice.”

Anne Beresford "All this & More" at Judi Rotenberg Gallery. Image: Judi Rotenberg Gallery

Boston’s Judi Rotenberg Gallery, a Newbury Street fixture since 1971, will close June 19th. The gallery has mounted its final show, pairing works by Anne Beresford with with a survey of gallery artists.

The gallery’s director, Kristen Dodge, and manager, Patton Hindle,  are opening a Dodge Gallery, a new Lower East Side space slated to launch in September. Several Rotenberg artists are expected to join Dodge.

Rotenberg’s owner Abigail Ross Goodman, took over the helm from mother, Judi Rotenberg in 2001.

“There’s no juicy story,” Goodman said about her decision to close. “This wasn’t a dissatisfaction, but an interest in new things. I’m intrigued by non-profit spaces and public art, but I don’t have any clearly defined plans.”

Goodman said the decision was not influenced by the economy. “It was not an economic choice,” she said. “That didn’t impact the decision at all.”

She was upbeat describing recent efforts by area museums who have bolstered their contemporary art programs. “The institutions here are putting a lot of time, effort and money behind contemporary art,” said Goodman. “The artwork I seen being made here is top-notch.

537 West 20th Street sold to David Zwirner for $8 million

Dealer David Zwirner has purchased a three-story commercial building at 537 West 20th Street for $8 million, according to the real estate website Property Shark. “We can confirm the purchase of a great piece of real estate on 20th Street,” said gallery spokeswoman Julia Joern. “We are especially excited since it is so close to our existing location on 19th Street.”

The building, which was leased to the Bermuda Limousine Int’l Inc. since 1988, was originally priced at $14 million. The deed transferred last week.

The 27,000 square foot building was constructed in 1933.

Zwirner runs three galleries on 19th Street at nos. 519, 525 and 533. The new space is likely to house Zwirner’s secondary market business, formerly operated as Zwirner and Wirth and run from a townhouse on East 69th Street. That partnership ceased in June 2009. Hauser  and Wirth now occupies that space.

Zwirner made news earlier this week over a lawsuit filed by Miami developer Craig Robins. The New York Post story here. The gallery opened in 1993 in SoHo. Artists include James Welling, Marlene Dumas and Luc Tuymans.

Left to right: Christina Wildenstein, Arne Glimcher, Guy Wildenstein, Patrick McMullan via NY Mag

The New York Times reports that Pace and Wildenstein are splitting up after a 17 year partnership. Wildenstein had owned 49 percent of the Pace, according to the article.