The New Objectivity was an art movement in Germany established between the end of World War I and the Nazi rise to power. Artists like Otto Dix, Christian Schad and Aenne Biermann among others recognized the darkness of the times in which they lived and celebrated it...
Dan Hernandez: Genesis 2015
While Dan Hernandez was standing in front of the Leonardo Annunciation a few years ago at the Uffizi, he recognized similarities between the painting and the classic arcade game Street Fighter II. Leonardo has the Archangel Gabriel leaning in toward the Virgin with a...
Whitney Bedford
Whitney Bedford’s newest exhibition “West of Eden” at Susanne Vielmetter, is compulsory viewing for anyone who thinks they know anything about painting. Mind you, Bedford’s elegantly crafted oils on canvas of mostly landscapes, flora and fauna and the like, are...
JAMES HYDE: GROUND
Entering James Hyde's show at Luis De Jesus, one immediately wonders: What sort of pictures are these? At first glance, it is difficult to determine whether the expansive images are manual or mechanical, painterly or photographic.Materially, they are hybrids. Each...
MIAMI VIRGIN DIARIES: DAY 4
I LOVE THIS MUSEUM.I wanted to visit at least one local arts institution before leaving town, and I’ve heard good things about the Perez Art Museum, so that’s where we went Sunday. The new director there—Franklin Sirmans—was the curator for contemporary art at LACMA,...
Carol Es
Carol Es’ first solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery, "Rock and Refuge," is a testament to precision and detail and color and space. Her paintings, largely mixed media materials including meticulously cut bits of fabric on birch panels, are both whimsical and...
MIAMI VIRGIN DIARIES: DAY 3
Yesterday, I highlighted the artworks in the South Tent at Pulse Miami Beach. Right now, I’ll explain my reaction to the North Tent: it’s a little complicated. I never want to denigrate anyone’s taste, so believe me when I say I’m not judging when I describe the...
Miami Virgin Diaries: Day 2
Okay, so I’m really liking Miami Art Week because I’m learning so much about the business of art. Take for instance last night’s yearly party thrown by Jack Shainman Gallery: You could call it a purely shallow affair that effectively markets its gallery and artists as...
Miami Art Virgin Blog
Today we visited the Miami Project/Art on Paper fair. The design and layout of the event was nicely integrated into the existing infrastructure of the Deauville Beach Resort. Whoever did the visual logistics and design did an excellent job—almost like being on the New...
Sean Townley/Brett Reichman
Multiples mostly bore me. That said, there are exceptions and Sean Townley’s second exhibition at Night Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles is one. The show consists largely of one image: three cast aluminum lions sculpted from a 3D scan of an ancient Greek funerary lion....
Trust the Momentum – Karen Finley: Love Field
If there was a central flaw or fracture to Karen Finley’s The Jackie Look, it had mostly to do with a lack of clarity of its dramatic objective and trajectory. Finley seemed to be trying to both deconstruct an icon (or more precisely its refractions and reflections in...
Matt Wedel
Matt Wedel’s is not a “peaceable kingdom” but a kingdom of fruit that happens to be strangely and miraculously at peace, and quite astonishing indeed. Over two dozen wall-mounted and free-standing sculptures comprise this densely imagined tundra, encompassing Wedel’s...
Karen Finley’s “The Jackie Look”
There are probably as many words written about the ‘Jackie look’ by now as there are actual images documenting it. A quick scan of just a few of these images taken over the roughly 40 years of her public life reveals quite a range: the young equestrienne, the...
Junun Premiere at ACE Theatre
Paul Thomas Anderson took the stage at the the Ace Theatre last Sunday before the LA premiere of his new music documentary, Junun, to welcome the audience and apologize in advance for being an “asshole” for not participating in the “mandatory Q&A” that seems to...
Art World War Art
Editor's note:This piece about the current crop of art shows in Paris was submitted to us days before the latest round of carnage in the City of Light. The recent attacks certainly overshadow the offerings at any of these exhibitions, but as you'll see below, some of...
Remains: A Group show
The idea that abstract painting can be a direct conduit to the unknown, or a means by which artists struggle to understand their own mortality and relationship to God, etc., is certainly not a new concept, yet "Remains," a group show at Durden and Ray, attempts to...
Kathy Butterly
To be a truly outstanding ceramicist one must possess a love of nuance and detail. Kathy Butterly’s exhibition titled "The Weight of Color" at Shoshana Wayne Gallery is more than a mere testament to these attributes, but an all-engrossing visual experience not to be...
DECODER
Art does not want us to look at art the way we are asked to look at art. Coming in, worried about making it in time to get to the next gallery and the next, anticipating dinner, standing, not knowing how long the video will go on, not knowing if the next gallery will...