Near the end of his new biography of Andy Warhol, where he is discussing his legacy, Blake Gopnik mentions that there have been at least 500 books about Andy Warhol. This might logically lead one to ask: Why should there be another one? Besides the fact that this one...
You never really know which exhibition is going to make you cry. I certainly didn’t expect it to happen at Heather Day’s “Ricochet” at the Diane Rosenstein Gallery. None of the work was particularly sad and I actually had low expectations based on what I saw online. I...
In ever-mounting reports on the interlocked pandemics of COVID-19 and structural oppression, two words cyclically resound: “vulnerable” and “resist.” While the virus causes us to consider our own immune system’s vulnerability or resistance to it, it also creates or...
It is easier than it has ever been to feel distant, from one another and from the world at large. I was seeking to traverse that distance when I visited the Charlie James Gallery, and I found the path through Duke Riley’s new works in "Far Away." In Riley’s glittering...
In grad school at Cal Arts, I remember a renowned professor telling me there were certain symbols one should always avoid because they were “too loaded” oversaturated with other cultural referents to be read clearly. One of these symbols was the heart, not the...
Bright White, forever the blank page, the empty backdrop, illuminating the dreams and desires of other colors – added to, enhanced, augmented, amplified and enlarged – the beginning of everything and the end of nothing – it should be enough just to be yourself, but...
My cultural quarantine began on March 28th, 2020, when I arrived at a huge building in the Fairfax District housing The Zone: The Britney Spears Experience. I was there to cover what was promoted as a massive “immersive retail experience” for Artillery Magazine, and...
Exploring the potency of deep, elemental feminine power and the quality of female corporeality that for many folks evokes a certain kind of planetary magic, Kathryn Garcia joins the ranks of artists across generations whose works have sought to give tangible form to...
Exiting the 110 degree heat at the end of a brutal Los Angeles summer and entering into Matter Studio Gallery to view Brian Atchley’s Being Matter, one name immediately jumped to mind: Robert Mapplethorpe. And for those who visit this show who are familiar with...
"The Democracy Project: 2020" manifests the great, besieged "project of Democracy" as an online exhibition for Artillery's September/October issue, featuring recent work by a diverse selection of the West Coast's most compelling artists. Whether approaching the theme...
Dominique Gallery presents SPOTLIGHT, a group exhibition on view from July 24th through October 15th, 2020. The virtual exhibition, which features photographic journalism, mixed media collage, and cultural documentary, highlights visual artists of color in two-week...
Dear Reader, It was unanimously decided that the theme for our September issue would be Democracy. There was no question about it: September is the Fall issue, the grand opening of the art season and more importantly, it’s two months before THE election. We weren’t...
Slate gray is stoggy, sometimes stingy, and believes himself diplomatic. Presses his suits in the dead of night. Prefers the dawn to the dusk, and rarely works even a minute past five. Is precise and patriotic, though rarely vulgar in his applause. Married for...
On April 8th of this year, Fox News reported that Pennsylvania’s famed Graffiti Highway was being completely covered with truckloads of dirt. The one-mile stretch of Route 61 was abandoned in 1993 after an underground fire in the nearby abandoned mining town of...
I’ve been thinking about the concept of damnatio memoriae recently. Translated as “condemnation of memory,” the term refers to a practice associated with ancient rulers who called for the erasure of their predecessors from the historical record; their likeness removed...
For this democratized issue of Artillery, I’ve decided to focus on the most democratic medium of art: graffiti. Graffiti is as diverse as any medium but, generally, it is the painting of text or images onto surfaces in public spaces. The operative word in that...
Among the amateur photographers of our time are some rare daguerreotype buffs who still practice this 19th-century form of portraiture, which creates a unique image on a photosensitized metal plate. Back in the 1990s, two such buffs were shrewd enough to realize that...
Kimberly Morris creates work that is intensely visceral. She makes art about subjects intrinsically rooted in American culture, yet entirely personal. As an interdisciplinary artist, she has worked with a wide range of mediums over the years, including painting,...