Last Saturday we tackled Round 2 of the fall LA art season openings, starting in Downtown LA. Taking a lesson from our previous weekend in Culver City, this time we arrived earlier than 30 minutes before galleries were closing.The Box showing Barbara T. Smith was...
The great thing about keeping some distance from the dominant trends in the art world is that you stand a reasonable chance of remaining true to what is most unique about your own art-making: your own eye, ear, voice or hand (all are involved in what flows from the...
Walking down the lengthy corridor from the street to Hollywood’s Various Small Fires Gallery for the opening reception of mixed media artist Jeff Zilm’s latest exhibition, “Relics of the Epoch,” a slightly alienating, yet familiar droning sound cascades down the...
The beginning of another arts and culture season also marks a point where we really start to feel the impact of everything we’ve been experiencing over the preceding orbital/calendar year and start to take its measure. Events move swiftly; you can feel as if you’re...
This coming Friday, September 23, at 9 P.M. ET, PBS will air an hour-long Los Angeles-themed episode, the third installment of a four-episode block called Season 8 of its series Art in the Twenty-First Century.The series specializes in charismatic, broad-brush but...
LIVE ARTILLERY Presents: Marnie Weber's The Day of Forevermore, feature-length film debut screening including a Q&A afterwards with Ann Magnuson and daughter Colette Weber Shaw who is the lead actress in the film. It was truly a magical evening crowded with even...
We have abandonment issues lately/forever – desolate, disconsolate and a bit fragile. In Henry Taylor’s painting, that fragility coexists with an incongruous durability – a hard thing that cracks against identity or classification or simply swallows it up. Taylor’s...
Last weekend, as the new fall art season had officially commenced in Los Angeles, we found ourselves debating the most efficient way to make several openings; Culver City seemed the most doable. We had two terribly bourgey friends visiting from France in tow, ready to...
If Rebeca Puga's paintings could speak, they might quote, in their collective voice, the Socratic paradox, "I only know that I know nothing." Instead of formulating bold statements, they suggest ineffable speculations.In pencil lines, thin washes, and wobbly...
Last Sunday we attended an opening that required bathing suits, sunglasses and a heavy dose of SPF 15 almost exclusively. I suppose we should mention we were on the beach and no not the Venice boardwalk variety of hippie beach side art openings. We were in San Diego,...
It’s the first post-Labor Day week-end and we’re approaching mid-September, which means one thing in Los Angeles (and New York, too, I guess – as we head into Fashion Week) – the start of the new arts and entertainment season. LACMA just unveiled an elegant exhibition...
1. Museum of Jurassic Technology (9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, California 90232)From its name to its introductory slideshow to its lighting to its exhibits to its top-floor tea room and aviary, everything about this museum is enigmatic and conducive to the...
Get your Sexy Beast on, and don’t forget to bring your checkbook. The fundraiser art auction for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles is happening again, and again at the fabulous Ace Hotel Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I understand there are still some tickets left.As...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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