The philosophy of the sublime was first manifested in art through 19th century Romantic painters’ vast and awe-inspiring landscapes that emphasized mankind’s diminutiveness in the face of God’s treacherously beautiful creation. It was updated in the mid-20th century...
For this year’s Frieze Art Fair at Randall’s Island in New York City, I tried to avoid the usual fair fatigue one can experience at a show of this magnitude and went on a scavenger hunt for the best painting I could find. Location was sometimes important, as...
There is a stunning archival pigment print in Charlie Rubin’s new exhibition at Kopeikin Gallery titled All Your Dreams Belong To Us. The image, while simple and elegant, is complex in the very best sense of the word. Could it be a tree bleeding real human blood, or a...
“Nostalgia,” the successful, albeit subconscious underlying theme of this year’s Paris Photo LA art fair has, by now, turned upon itself. The memory of the event may be faded, but there are a few talents and galleries that proved they will have a bright future. Paris...
Even under the crowded, frenzied conditions of a gallery opening, where you know collectors, other artists (and additionally, professional photographers in this instance), the usual Hollywood smattering of celebrities, supermodels and beautiful people, and die-hard...
Mineo Mizuno explores the hybridized relationship between the elements as expressed in his uniquely compelling understanding of his materials, both film and ceramics. The unglazed porcelain vessels (atop a raw wood pedestal) in this exhibition do not so much as...
Dear Readers In this issue we take a look “Inside Art”—what’s inside the art world, other than art. This is a theme that has interested us for some time now, but it really hit home after I interviewed abstract painter James Hayward for our last issue on painting. One...
Michael Govan has given a lot of thought to Los Angeles’ identity as a center for culture. While it may go without saying the opportunity to reshape an institution brought him to LA in 2006, if he is successful in revitalizing the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, he...
After dodging the reporters and cameramen that were shooting footage of Leonard Nimoy’s star for memorial news coverage on Hollywood Boulevard, I was buzzed into Glenn Kaino’s studio and escorted up to the second floor by an assistant. Once face to face with the...
For 11 years, Cliff Benjamin and Erin Kermanikian have co-owned Western Project in Culver City. Together they exhibit work that’s consistently challenging and boundary-breaking, representing artists like Tom of Finland (before he was MOCA-acceptable), Bob Flanagan and...
“I understand and appreciate clean-made art, but what I’m mostly attracted to is something raw and more guttural. That’s what brought me to the outsider art world. Plus there’s no other gallery in LA that’s showcasing outsider art,” says Paige Wery, erstwhile golfer,...
The auction market, and in particular the salerooms of the two major auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, have long been a proving ground for the marketplace maturity of every kind of specialty commodity, including fine art. Auction houses have aggressively...
When looking at art one considers line, shape, volume, the play of light across pigment. When looking at Los Angeles, one considers other lines. The stark divide between the haves and have-nots is as tangible as the freeways that divide one neighborhood from another....
Marnie Weber is a Los Angeles multimedia artist who works in photography, sculpture, costume, film and performance. She is also the leader of Spirit Girls, an alt-rock music and performance group. Taken together, her work explores issues of gender and mysticism in...
SNEAK PEEKOpen House at The Broad on a Sunday AfternoonI was lucky enough to get in on the one-day preview of The Broad, the new museum in LA that will house the important contemporary art collection of power philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad. There was a viewing...
The Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills had its annual Oscar week art opening in February with an after-party for its top Los Angeles patrons at nearby Mr. Chow’s. The show this year was a selection of eye-popping oil paintings by John Currin depicting Rubensesque young...
James Lingwood arrives at the Artangel office in a fluorescent yellow cycling jacket, having just ridden across London from another meeting. He looks like an accountant with his neat hair and glasses, though he studied history and art history at Oxford. His world...
You wouldn’t know it from such thriving, vibrant publications as Artillery (can I get that raise now boss?) but print is a dying medium. Sure, they still run off enough copies of Divergent and Heaven is for Real to build a paper mache penitentiary the size of an...
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