There’s a picture that photographer Virginia Liberatore took of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat and Madonna in 1983. The two stars, who were dating at the time, had arrived at a party in full regalia—fedoras, big watches, leather jackets. In the image, Madonna resembles...
Any night of openings is success if it begins with free shrimp tacos, and boy did Parrasch Heijnen deliver. The relatively new gallery, tucked away in Boyle Heights near the now-defunct Sears building, surely knows how to win over new fans. Outside the gallery, one of...
Sometimes a drawing is not a drawing. For example, when an artist transcends rendering and goes for something entirely more direct. In the case of Flora Kao and her unique, evocative architectural rubbings, her method of depiction is itself a tactile, durational,...
Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009) is renowned for his landscape architecture; but 28 drawings currently on view at Edward Cella indicate that he might just as adeptly have applied his creativity towards fine art. Executed between 1943–2006, these drawings, which seem...
The Red Shoes (1948) is perhaps the most famous dance film of all time. Sumptuously shot in Technicolor and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in post World War II England, it was one of those backstage dramas so popular then, when audiences...
It’s a little inside scoop that people who frequent art openings often call the Hammer openings “Hammer-ed” openings, and it’s no surprise. Armed with the (possibly) coveted “Director’s” pass, aka VIP, I was able to peruse the party without the distraction of the hoi...
It's amazing how much effort, skill and intellect Neil Raitt directs towards donning the ornate trappings of kitsch. Visitors enter his installation through a painstakingly contrived threshold whose tree-shaped outline resembles that of a rearview mirror air...
"Bhabharosi," the title of Simphiwe Ndzube's show and several works therein, is a neologism the artist coined from the words "barbarous" and "rose" in isiXhosa, his native language, to refer to his protagonists. As insinuated, a mood of bittersweetness transfuses the...
Saturday really was a lot. Shoutout to the Metro, Uber and my strong legs for getting me from South LA to Boyle Heights to East LA, then over to Hollywood; I’m still recovering. As you know, Pacific Standard Time LA/LA kicked off in earnest this past Saturday, with...
While Americans condemn Mexican lawlessness, much illegal drug trade south of the border is driven by U.S. demand. In his PST: LA/LA show titled "Artempatía" (Empathy Art), Mexico City artist Emiliano Gironella Parra imports a sampling of the horrors we usually only...
Known for his immersive cake-like installations, Scott Hove’s latest makings offer wry commentary upon the demise of today’s political, economic, and ecological landscapes in “Last Ticket for the Beauty Train,” a two-part exhibition presented by KP Projects. On...
Greg Escalante was a Southern California art collector and dealer who was a co-founder of Juxtapoz magazine as well as the driving force behind the Copro Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. He recently opened his new space, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, in...
In much of his work, Paul McCarthy explores juvenilia to an uncomfortably advanced degree, finding profane inspiration in all things coprocentric and aesthetically offensive. But McCarthy’s current exhibition at the Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles gallery appears to...
Sporting an orange kaftan shirt and a wide-brimmed black hat perched atop his head, poet Stephen Kalinich looked more like he was ready for a wild trip than for a reading. “I, the poet, write this plea to the world,” he began the evening, noting that he first...
County fairs usually aren't noted for their art; but this year's is an exception, with Millard Sheets Art Center hosting a fine PST LA/LA exhibition, "Judithe Hernández and Patssi Valdez: One Path Two Journeys." Hernández and Valdez were, respectively, members of...
There are two points of entry into Fran Siegel's exquisite exhibition, "Lineage Through Landscape: Tracing Egun in Brazil." One is purely visual: admiring the unique way the individual drawings and collages are sewn together and suspended from the ceiling; noticing...
Dear Reader, This new Fall art season takes off with a bang in Southern California, as the Getty’s second installment of Pacific Standard Time (PST) gets under way all over Los Angeles. PST: LA/LA spotlights Latin American art and Latino art. Once we started digging...
In Sandra de la Loza’s art, research—what she calls “the archive”—is central to her process. Treating archival material as mutable; she relies on it to expand narratives about history. She is also involved in community activism. Not everything she does is art, or at...
Subscribe to our weekly Gallery Rounds Newsletter for new Reviews, Art opps, Art Events, & More every week!