“I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top”—Claes OldenburgNearly everyone who has ever written about art in Los Angeles has had to face the question I’m facing now: Should I write this by the pool, or stay in bed?This is a...
PRIVATE EYE
When Kai Loebach emigrated to Los Angeles 27 years ago, after a brief vacation during which he was blown away by the friendliness of the people and the “visual orgasm” of a clean-as-new supermarket in the San Fernando Valley, he knew no one, had no place to stay and...
BUNKER VISION
By the late 1960s, whatever fun The Art World had promised with pop art was settling back into something more serious and denim-clad. Glamour was once again a dirty word, and the less there was to see at an art show, the more profound the art was deemed. If one was...
SHOPTALK
Gallery MovesIt’s a Californian Kinda ThingBy Scarlet Cheng It’s hard to keep up with the rash of new and relocated galleries this year—is this because of the economic rebound, or because Los Angeles continues to become more important in American’s cultural...
Field Report: Hong Kong
Once a city on the margins of the art world, Hong Kong now sits center stage, boasting the world’s third-largest art market. A wealth of galleries, museums and art centers can be found on either side of Victoria Harbor, which separates the commercial center, Hong Kong...
Los Angeles Fall Openings 2014
"We were everywhere during the Fall Opening Season of the Los Angeles Art world. The 20th anniversary of ACME gallery, Chinatown, Beverly Hills, Culver City...we were there!" From Los Angeles Fall Openings 2014. Posted by Artillery Magazine on 11/04/2014 (27 items)...
AVANT-GARDE BASH with Kenny Scharf
"OCMA Contemporaries celebrated their one-year anniversary last Friday, September 26, 2014 at the AVANT-GARDE BASH. Artist Kenny Scharf painted several cars live as part of his Karbombz! series (including a silver BMW donated by Shelly BMW, Buena Park). Performances...
Another Thing Coming
Twenty miles outside of Los Angeles there happens to be one of the best shows of the season. "Another Thing Coming," the Torrance Art Museum's group show of new sculpture from 15 Los Angeles-based artists is a remarkably successful and compelling show. At first...
Ronald Ventura at Tyler Rollins Fine Art
Internationally acclaimed artist Ronald Ventura’s third solo exhibition “E.R. (Endless Resurrection)” at Tyler Rollins Fine Art gallery in New York is his strongest yet. Taking on the deep-set rituals of Catholicism in his native Philippines, Ventura’s combination of...
“Sponsored Video”
Caribbean Dreams
Here's a little fun—a whiskey dream starring Jude Law and Giancarlo Gianini, shot for Johnnie Walker Blue Label. It opens aboard an antique yacht in the British Virgin Islands, and follows Jude Law down urban alleyways that reek of another century. He's painting...
Art Nowhere
If you have been in any number of major cities this summer across the U.S., you might have seen a billboard with the hashtag caption #ArtEveryWhere alongside a reproduction of a famous work of art. According to the tagline on the #ArtEveryWhereUS website, this is “A...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers,Lately I’ve been getting wistful for the past. It’s not that I want to go back, never to return. It’s more that I yearn for more simple and innocent times; I’m not sure I prefer wisdom to naiveté.It’s the direction art has been going that has made me...
Some Assembly Required
Upsize, supersize, largesize, megasize—there are most likely a dozen more of these contemporarily fabricated verbs that are necessitated by our want/need to consume at the current unprecedented rates. The commerce-based art world, not unlike the modern fast-food...
The (Charles) Long Road Home
One artist who is returning to his roots after spending the last several years working on massive projects is sculptor Charles Long. For his next major exhibition “Up Land,” at his gallery Tanya Bonakdar in Chelsea, Long is embracing his personal style of hands-on...
Hired Gun: Chas Smith
The residential valley neighborhood wasn’t what I was expecting when I went to Chas Smith’s studio for our interview. Big shade trees lined the wide boulevards of modest houses and neat lawns. Smith has been Paul McCarthy’s main art assistant for over a decade, and...
Christian Tedeschi: Opposites Attract
Up-and-coming Los Angeles-based artist Christian Tedeschi describes his former boss, Nancy Rubins as “a tornado—so much energy.” The 40-year-old assistant professor and head of sculpture at Cal State Northridge recalls his experience as a studio assistant with a...
Rebecca Ripple and Kim Abeles’ Shared Journey
Many young artists, especially those coming right out of school, find working as a studio assistant to be a valuable intermediary step. If they are lucky, they learn practical skills—and perhaps even more importantly—they make significant connections with more...
Nicholas Bowers: Second in Command
Yes, Shepard Fairey is a street art superstar, a highly collectible blue-chip artist, and a household name worthy of museum retrospectives. Fairey’s also a multiple-city muralist, a curator of talent with his own Subliminal Gallery and most recently a co-producer of...