When we think about groundbreakers or early adopters, we think of the first, the biggest, the people that jump up and exemplify a movement. Some will stand the test of time, others will bring shock value in being the protagonists. Whether it be Bowie, Hendrix,...
Beeple and Madonna: Material Girl in a Meta World
Laurie Anderson at the Hirshhorn Museum Unnervingly Prescient
“Laurie Anderson: The Weather” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the largest US exhibition of Anderson’s work to date. At 74, Anderson continues to be immensely creative as multimedia artist, performer, musician and writer—the show includes more than a...
The Activism of Allison Janae Hamilton Land as Witness of History
Land has been a constant throughout history. We bring to land our personal experiences, and land in turn acts as a witness to the people and events that come and go. For artist Allison Janae Hamilton, land is her most enduring subject. She describes land as a...
Leila Weefur’s Hymns for Other Voices Uncomfortable Questions
Explorations of gender identity are central to the work of Oakland-based artist and curator Leila Weefur, how they felt that their identity was suppressed by belonging to the Christian Church is at the crux of their latest project, “Prey†Play.” Presented in two...
Ron Athey at the ICA Los Angeles “Queer Communion”
I’m on the freeway traveling through the San Fernando Valley to see the Ron Athey exhibition of art, documentation and ephemera called “Queer Communion” at the ICA in downtown Los Angeles. All of the LA tropes are in place: It’s a sunny and clear June day, the hills...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Paige Emery Coaxial
Human connection and relationships are at the heart of Paige Emery’s “Ritual Veriditas” at Coaxial. Though small in size, the works create an immersive experience with video, sound and mixed-media visuals created entirely by the artist. The praxis of “Ritual...
Jennifer West
Fragmentary castoffs and debris from the LA River texturize Jennifer West's current show, "Future Forgetting," whose title was inspired by Norman Klein's 1997 book The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory, a treatise on how Los Angeles...
WHAT, MEME WORRY?
On June 19th, 2018, Tumblr user deadbefordeath posted a photograph of a white cat with a confused expression sitting in a chair in front of a plate of vegetables, titling the post "he no like vegetals." According to the Literally Media database, the post gained over...
Vasco Araújo
Vasco Araújo’s “Under the Influence of Psyche” features works of various media that draw on the traditions of art, literature, opera, dance and music to construct new narratives demonstrating the instability of the canon. Happy Days (2006) records the stage directions...
TRADING PLACES
When I drove up to Zackary Drucker’s home off San Fernando Road, the front door was wide open—a startling sight since most of the surrounding houses have metal bars over the windows and doors. The Los Angeles video and performance artist lives in Glassell Park, an...
Petra Cortright
When not sure what to say or write, one might fill space with “x x x,” “blank blank blank” or “. . .” Petra Cortright titles her recent exhibition with all three—“x x x blank blank blank . . . ”—alluding to casual causality and ideas that will be completed...
Dong Hoon Jun
I often feel the need to escape the insincerity of Los Angeles for the non-ironic nature of the desert. Hollywood’s slapstick tradition seems to have similar desires. A rock, maybe a bit browner than his companions, sits at the bottom of a boulder-pile. We watch the...
Doug Aitken’s Mystery Train
The traveling art bash “Station to Station” concluded its nationwide tour in Oakland last week and it just goes to show: There’s nothing like a road trip fueled by a cool million in corporate donations for having a good time.
McCARTHY ROCOCO
It is tempting—though not entirely accurate—to report that this past spring and summer, Paul McCarthy’s new work made a big splash in new york. First we had “Paul McCarthy: Sculpture” at Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea: an exhibition noted for several large, complex,...