Do you ever wonder what happened to the Occupy moment? We can’t really call it a movement because it had no coherent program, plan or organization, no well defined or articulated policy (or revolutionary) objectives; and its only concrete target was a somewhat...
Having followed Gabriel Kahane’s songwriting career for some time, I was primed for a terrific show this past Saturday evening at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. Kahane has the dual gift of an innate musical talent and extraordinary musicianship wedded to a peerless gift for...
Every once in a while (on those rare occasions when we’re away from our favorite gun clubs, firing ranges and ammunition shops), I’ll run into one of our ARTILLERY family and friends and s/he’ll ask me what I’ve been up to. It can be awkward—especially if I’ve just...
There’s always a bit of suspense walking into an exhibition of Anish Kapoor’s work. At this point in the artist’s career, we may have certain expectations about what we will see, which are not infrequently satisfied (i.e., brilliantly finished, reflective surfaces,...
There may have been a ‘great thing’ or two (literally) amongst the millions of pages on display at the Geffen; but good luck finding them. I shouldn’t have to be telling this to Printed Matter (a fabulous art book store that’s a must whenever I’m in Chelsea)—but when...
I sometimes wonder what the point of an art fair is anymore. I mean, isn’t that why we ‘let our fingers do the walking’ through Artforum every month? When I expressed this thought on a recent FB post, one of my pals (a well-known artist) rejoined that a “great...
It’s a commonplace of urban life that certain social or cultural venues exert disproportionate influence simply because of their size and leverage in the community. It’s no different in the L.A. art world, where certain galleries and museums compel our attention...
Like many other American citizens, I listened to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening. Full disclosure: I was an early supporter of the President in his first election campaign—but, as I’ve stated on the record, I live in a state of deep...
It’s been said that The Marriage of Figaro (or, more precisely, The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro, as it was originally titled) was one of the first nails in the coffin of the ancien régime. Its author, the playwright, musician, watch-maker (and inventor),...
“I have no choice but to be optimistic,” a friend of mine remarked to me the other day; and I get it. But I ‘m not so sanguine about our prospects on this front, the challenge to free speech and truly unfettered creative expression in an environment hemmed in by many...
Let me first say that I did not expect to be revisiting the issue of free speech so soon after examining the overblown rhetoric and jingoism surrounding Sony’s release of The Interview and the corporate cyber-vandalism immediately preceding it. It’s not as if free...
Let me tell you what I liked about The Interview: the print promotion. Loved the Marx-Engels, classic Communist kitsch-futurist filtered through an ironically pixelated CGI-inflected graphic poster design. The trailer did not look particularly promising; though I...
It was not by accident that the ‘hub’ of the 2014 FotoFocus biennial in Cincinnati was given over to Instagram, augmented by satellite displays throughout the city, including Cincinnati’s Memorial Hall and the hotel where I stayed during my visit there. (The actual...
It has not escaped me that the order of these posts keeps keeps getting juggled as one thing or another interrupts the chronological flow. (Or perhaps it’s the ‘controversial’ flow—as controversy is what frequently drives this conversation forward.) But occasionally...
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Don Vito Corleone to Johnny Fontane, The Godfather (Paramount, 1972) written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, from the novel by Mario Puzo, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. As visitors to this blog are aware,...
In case you didn’t notice, Hello Kitty invaded Los Angeles last month. If you were anywhere near Little Tokyo, you could scarcely escape the impression that not only that neighborhood, but half the population of this side of Los Angeles had been initiated into the...
The center of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Friday evening program was a shimmering pulsation of musical color, both harmonic and timbral, in a field of black and white. Both Susan Graham’s rendering of a suite of Kurt Weill songs and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s own suite...
There was a moment between the late 1960s and early 1970s when mainstream American mass culture seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief. With the first major convulsions of the American civil rights movement and the trauma of recent political assassinations...
Subscribe to our weekly Gallery Rounds Newsletter for new Reviews, Art opps, Art Events, & More every week!
