Irving. (Courtesy Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Allan Kozinn checks in with Tim Griffin, the director of the Kitchen in Chelsea, which was damaged by flooding from Sandy. Mr. Griffin is trying to make the Kitchen a meeting place. “What I’m trying to figure out here is, how do you create a special place where artists will want to come and hang out,” he said. [NYT]

Speaking of the Kitchen, Douglas Crimp writes about the show that Elad Lassry had there last year, and calls him “a Pictures artist—a self-conscious, après-la-lettre Pictures artist.” [Artforum]

Hilarie M. Sheets profiles Ragnar Kjartansson, whose new show opens at Luhring Augustine on Feb. 1. [NYT]

“I would say that Rachel [Harrison] and I have been in the same backyard.” Here’s the text for the show that Haim Steinbach has organized at the Artist’s Institute. It runs through Jan. 26. [TAI]

Mike Vilensky on the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space. [WSJ]

Washington Irving’s Granada pad is on view for the month of January. [The Art Newspaper]

Jerry Saltz on MoMA’s “Inventing Abstraction” show, including a nice little shout-out to contemporary painter Lisa Beck. [NYM]

“Brooklyn Museum May Have to Pay Hundreds of Thousands to Store Fake Art.” [DNAInfo]

Warhol brought in the most at auction last year. [Bloomberg]

Follow Andrew Russeth on Twitter or via RSS. arusseth@observer.com