The downtown Los Angeles arts district has been evolving, somewhat in tandem with adjacent downtown districts, since at least the 1980s. There was a stabilizing shift at the turn of the century when SCI-Arc took over the old Santa Fe rail depot east of Alameda and...
LABOR OF LOVE: Made in L.A.
With its third installment at the Hammer Museum, “Made in L.A.” has settled into its brand as a well-researched survey of current trends and practices in regional art. But there is never a “settling in” as far as expectations for a biennial, which raises the bar not...
“As a Woman of this Culture”
Like Robert Mapplethorpe, who has had exhibitions at two LA museums this spring—the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—Cindy Sherman is a difficult subject because the work is so well known already. The exhibition at The Broad museum does...
Marnie Weber Interviewed by John Tottenham for Artillery
This coming Sunday, September 11, artist Marnie Weber, known for her video work and musical group The Spirit Girls, debuts her film, The Day of Forevermore. The premiere will be held in downtown Los Angeles at The Theatre at Ace Hotel and hosted by Live Artillery...
The LA River Comes of Age
So much about the Los Angeles River is not immediately obvious. That it’s a river at all, for example, still comes as a surprise to some. Others wonder when it will ever get the help it needs to really look like a river. The natural river was at least 80 percent...
The Battle of Forevermore
The Day of Forevermore, Marnie Weber’s first feature film, is the culmination of the artist’s long career as a weaver of macabre and otherworldly scenarios through art, film and music. Over the last 25 years Weber has created her own distinctive realm of avant-garde...
TOP TEN LISTS By Leanna Robinson
Top Ten Unconventional Art Spaces1. 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....
DECODER
I became a Los Angeles artist about the same time Artillery became a Los Angeles art magazine. This 10-year anniversary issue naturally makes everybody wonder whether there’s anything special about art in Los Angeles as opposed to the art mainstream that’s defined by...
ART BRIEF
The greatest collection of art in the world may not be at the Met or the Louvre any longer. The secret vaults of the wealthiest collectors in the world may hold much more art than the top art museums, with the vast majority of it locked away in so-called freeports in...
UNDER THE RADAR
Fifty years ago—in May 1966—the Velvet Underground played their legendary West Coast debut at Hollywood nightclub The Trip as part of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable. On the first night, the joint was packed with curiosity-seeking hipster celebrities; Cher...
RETROSPECT
Does anyone remember the Paragons and the Jesters? In high falsetto voices they whined about the ache of first love way before I ever felt it. They prepared me for heartbreak in such a visceral way that I couldn’t wait for it to happen. Love? Was it going to come to...
PRIVATE EYE
Native New Yorker Beth Rudin DeWoody may be one of the most energetic collectors in the world, with a collection that includes about 10,000 works, mostly of 20th and 21st century art. Collecting since the 1970s, Rudin DeWoody consistently makes ARTNews’ Top 200...
BUNKER VISION
This is a golden age for people who like to watch movies at home. Films considered obscure or lost are turning up on YouTube, in deluxe boxed sets, and at museum screenings. Digital projection is causing DVD bootlegs of museum screenings to look as crisp as commercial...
ASK BABS
UNDEREXPOSED Dear Babs, I’m a 16-year-old artist currently living in Austin and I was wondering are there any opportunities to showcase my art? I truly love art and drawing but unfortunately have not had much exposure and I want to share my passion and skill. —Alexia...
SHOPTALK
ART BASEL IS BIGThe Big Mama of Art FairsArt Basel is big, very big. The main event is on two levels of a circularly designed building at the Messe Basel complex, with the “Unlimited” section next door in a gigantic convention hall. A series of outdoor installations,...
SIGHTS UNSCENE
Amelia Clipart
RECONNOITER
Thirty-seven years ago Lydia Takeshita and her college students formed what would become the LA Artcore Center, presently located in Japan Town in downtown Los Angeles, and later added the Brewery Annex location in Lincoln Heights. Takeshita is the founder, executive...