BEST BARS NEAR ART VENUES1. The MandrakeThis laid-back artist-run bar is smack dab in the middle of gallery row in Culver City.2. Molly Malone’sIf you’re spending the day at LACMA make sure to walk a block down Fairfax to this Irish pub.3. The ResidentThis no-frills...
Things to Talk About at Openings:
1. What gallery you’ve recently been picked up by, even if it’s still “in the works”2. Mike Kelley3. Wherever you have recently vacationed. Bonus points if it’s somewhere in the south of France4. Transcending the art market5. Intersectionality6. Which famous (or...
Unconventional Art Spaces
1. KingswellThis skate shop in Los Feliz has had some surprisingly good art shows—most recently by the LA-based illustrator, Bonethrower. 2. The StandardThis downtown hotel is known to host performance and nontraditional art. Recently they held a 24-hour exhibition...
Women Gallerists
1. Shoshana Blank: She and husband Wayne Blank run one of the mainstays of Bergamot Station, Shoshana Wayne Gallery.2. Kimberly Davis/Elizabeth East: Two directors of redoubtable L. A. Louver in Venice, repping a long list of artist-worthies including David Hockney,...
Historic Hot Spots
Yee Mee Loo, Chinatown: Dark, exotic and mysterious, this temple dive bar was the touchstone for all Angeleno art legends. Destroyed by an earthquake. Today, the original iconic matchbooks are a prized collector’s item. Barney’s Beanery, WeHo: Located...
Top 10 Billboard Tags
They loom on the skyline and beckon us to our duty as citizen consumers. Tagging commercial billboards has the bravado of aerial street art and the defiance of subverting corporate indoctrination while reclaiming privatized urban space. Those scrawls are illegal,...
LA Street Artists
1. BeccaBecca Midwood embraces the sometimes lost connection between children drawing on walls and urban artists doing the same. Signed in lower case—becca—her wheat-poster/chalk creations seem the work of a street-art child prodigy.2. NeverResponsible for the Venice...
Artsy Travel Destinations
1. Marfa, TX (because of Judd and Prada)2. Cuba (because Cuba)3. Cologne (Germany because pretentious can be fun)4. Detroit, MI (because every art collective is doing site-specific there)5. Bejing, China (because of hot young artists)6. Tijuana, Mexico (because...
Free Museums in LA
1. Hammer MuseumIf you can tolerate getting to and being in Westwood, this UCLA-affiliated space is an oasis of great curation, a lovely quad with funny chairs to hang out in, a nice bar/restaurant and even free ping-pong. 2. Getty CenterYou have to make it to the...
Best Places To Escape the LA Art World
1. Dancing With Myself [A Club Called Rhonda; CLINIC AT Couture]Los Globos has a massive footprint on Sunset Boulevard, but A Club Called Rhonda makes it feel almost cozy. Couture, on Cahuenga just below Hollywood Boulevard, actually does manage to draw a bit of...
Top 10 Lists
Ten. It’s our number for this issue as we enter our 10th year of publication. So we thought it would be fun to put together a batch of Top Ten Lists for the greater Los Angeles art world. Our contributors came up with categories and compiled lists of what they...
Worst Shows of the Last 10 Years
1. Diane von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress LACMA (Winter 2014)The exhibition version of the “promoted article”—adjacent to LACMA, advertised on the museum’s site, but conceived of, and paid for privately, by the fashion designer herself. 2. Gagosian’s Winter...
Off the Grid Art Venues
1. Obsolete Despite its overall ambience of musty, bizarre creepiness, this synergetic cross between antique shop and contemporary art gallery somehow manages to convey a feeling so welcoming that one is liable to lose any sense of time and forget one is browsing...
Richard Learoyd: In the Studio
Photographer Richard Learoyd has returned to the ancient roots of his craft to grasp the materiality of that moment of our impact upon the world, specifically with the camera obscura in its most literal definition – the image received on a large sheet of...
Art-Opening Fashion Cliches
MEN1. Apple watch2. Bow ties3. Cocaine4. Acne (the label, not the skin condition)5. Tiny designer purebred dogs (extra points for hairless ones)6. Paint splattered boots7. Statement eyeglasses aka face furniture8. Sunglasses indoors9. Ethnic clothing that is not of...
Top 10 Orange County Galleries
Artists Republic Contemporary art with an emphasis on younger, emerging artists, with events including lights, music and independent film nights. Artists include Ben Brough, David Blake and Zio Ziegler.1175 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach 92651As IssuedCombination...
Grayer Los Angeles
Youth is so overrated. Remember The New Museum’s “Younger Than Jesus” show in New York? It’s time to look to artists“Older Than Moses.” Here are some California artists past retirement age, but not retired.Judy Fiskin A 71-year-old LA native, Fiskin has an...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Readers It’s our birthday! We’re 10 years old this September. I’ve been writing this letter for 10 years—it’s almost unbelievable to me. A decade is always something to pay attention to, I think. A relationship of any kind seems like an accomplishment after 10...