Articles
AND THEY TRY TO CONVINCE YOU APPLE TV IS REAL
(Excerpt from an essay). Hugh Jackman makes a brief cameo in the third Night at the Museum movie aptly titled Secret of the Tomb, where he plays himself playing King Arthur in a stage production of Camelot. Jackman as Arthur gets visited by Sir Lancelot, played by Dan...
STAYING SANE(ish) WITH DR. TRAINWRECK — (print exclusive) Ask Dr. Trainwreck
What is the Purpose of All of This? And by This, I Mean Life Dear Dr. Trainwreck, I have recently gone through a life change (a major breakup and move) and am having a hard time finding my footing. The close friends that I thought would be there for me disappeared...
LUDOLOGY
I'm... ...located at an arts fortress that is always free, but you should make a reservation. ...an extremely sexual painting whose description of what the group is doing is written in a non-offensive language that the entire family can read. ...small (about the size...
JOHN WATERS’ BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION: THE NAKED TRUTH The Wallis
Can John Waters offend anyone these days? It hardly seems so. “I’m tired of being respectable,” he quipped at his show, “John Waters’ Birthday Celebration: The Naked Truth,” admitting he might be relatively mainstream today. He listed all his recent awards, and now he...
LOS ANGELES FESTIVAL OF MOVIES Artillery on the Street
DAY ONE Last night, Vidiots at Eagle Rock saw the start of the only weekend of the year where being an indie filmmaker in LA feels like it truly matters as much as it should. As the second edition of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies kicked off, current microbudget...
Desert X
Since 2017, I have been among the 1.7 million people who have participated in the art biennial-cum-treasure hunt to seek out large-scale, site-specific contemporary art installations scattered throughout the Coachella Valley desert, the land of the haves and...
ArtNight Pasadena Goes Ballistic
As fate would have it, the biannual “Spring 2025 ArtNight Pasadena” event is taking place on March 14th—winter’s coldest, dreariest, and rainiest day. Accordingly, you select the handful of venues most likely to feature contemporary work, then set off. An hour and a...
ARTIST TAKEOVER Jon Pylypchuk
FAIR AND SQUARE Post-Fair Brings Equitability to Santa Monica
Last week, during Los Angeles Art Week, I saw James Franco everywhere. I saw James Franco at Felix at the Hollywood Roosevelt, where the David Hockney-painted pool was closed because a man had had a heart attack inside it the day before. I saw James Franco at...
LESS THAN ZERO On Risk and Art in Los Angeles
I’m at a bar in Palmdale and it’s nearly empty. From where I am sitting, I can see two men playing chess. Or, rather, they’re not really playing—they’re afraid to make a move. It’s Pawn to E4, followed by the all-too-familiar analysis paralysis: finger steadies...
FASHION AT FRIEZE
COLLISION ENSURES REACTION Getty PST: Art and Science Collide
This past fall, I saw over twenty PST ART exhibitions offering contrasting visions of how “art’ and “science” might collide or collaborate. The shows addressed topics from surveillance to biotech to space exploration with dives into artificial intelligence, Indigenous...
DUELLING REVIEWS: Doug Aitken at Regen Projects and the Marciano Art Foundation
Gallery Dogs & Cats
STAYING SANE(ish) WITH DR. TRAINWRECK Ask Dr. Trainwreck
Trying to Navigate LA Dear Dr. Trainwreck, Can you talk about chasing fame and how that affects friendship? I’m from the Midwest and came out to California for art school. I’m fresh out of school (one year) and was able to get pretty good gallery representation early...
In Search of a City
“Loa Angeles is 72 Suburbs in Search of a city.” —Dorothy Parker January is always a quiet month for the Los Angeles art world, but it was made even quieter this year by natural disaster—the fires shut down many art institutions while the city grappled with...
ROLL CALL
Where Artists Eat
ART DAMAGED Reverse Hated
STAYING SANE(ish) WITH DR. TRAINWRECK PTSD, Trauma, Fires
What is to give light must endure burning. —Victor Frankl I had this plan, I was going to spend each issue clarifying an overused, misunderstood and generally obnoxious term or diagnosis. Remember last time when I went on a tirade about ‘triggering’. I planned to do...