Enchanting objects spill from tiny containers in "The Box Project," an unconventional show of 76 artists from three countries. These artworks were not originally intended for public display; rather, they were created as part of an esoteric correspondence between three...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Reader, This is our sex issue, and I regret to say that since my husband passed away last year I haven’t had much to say on the subject. I haven’t stopped thinking about it, or listening to other people talk about it—it’s just more remote, that’s all. And I don’t...
Matthew Marks
Distributed across the otherwise empty gallery spaces (there is nothing on the walls) are carefully placed, custom-designed wooden tables. Atop each table is a specific arrangement of artist's books by the painter Laura Owens. The presentation is inviting as the books...
People Are Still Making Art
“Have you noticed, that people are still having sex? All the denouncement, had absolutely no effect.” —LaTour, “People Are Still Having Sex,” 1991 After a long conversation with my Lyft driver about the cult he’d just joined, I walked into “The Pleasure Principle” at...
Top Ten 2019 LA Shows
The LA art world has seen an exceptional year. Even as big-name artists and galleries prevail amid the booming market, previously unrecognized artists are being shown more widely than ever; and sociopolitical issues are driving much of the critical discourse. Of the...
Q&A with Toni Bentley
Toni Bentley danced with New York City Ballet for 10 years under George Balanchine and is the author of five books that include The Surrender, An Erotic Memoir, about an obsessive love affair that introduced her to sodomy, rendering the physics, paradoxes and...
In Conversation with Monica Majoli
Monica Majoli, an artist and professor of art in painting and graduate studies at UC Irvine, whose work explores sexuality and intimacy, is interviewed by art historian, Ph.D. Candidate and Provost Fellow in the Humanities at USC, William J. Simmons. WS: I’ve been...
Leigh Salgado’s Thrills & Frills
A pair of pastel-hued bikini underpants are draped across the wall. Riddled with tiny holes, the thong-thin back resembles the mesh of fishnet hose. A large lavender moth orchid hovers over the genital area, recalling the poetic similarities between labia and the...
Janet Levy’s Sexy Stones
Meeting the Los Angeles–and Mexico City–based sculptor, songwriter and curator, Janet Levy, was a gift from one of the many “ifs” of life. Our serendipitous encounter occurred at one of my favorite cafes when I couldn’t help but notice a woman at the adjacent table,...
John Currin: My Life as a Man
The paintings in John Currin’s show at Dallas Contemporary, a non-collecting warehouse museum, widely induced a queasy, unsettling tension. A common response to the artist’s work, the visceral repulsion and simultaneous attraction result from an unresolvable friction...
Desert XXX
There are plenty of deserts around the world. As President Trump memorably said when he abruptly pulled American troops out of Syria as a favor to the Turkish president Erdogan: “There’s a lot of sand there.” So why is it that Desert X, the organization that has put...
SIGHTS UNSCENE
Russ Meyer: FISHIN’ and TITTIN’
People have been photographing sex since the invention of cameras. But the distribution of moving images that depict actual sex acts only became possible in the early 1970s. X-rated films shown in theaters were subject to prosecution into the 1980s. As content moved...
SHOPTALK
Museums and Unions The Marciano Art Foundation has closed, abruptly and in a cloud of controversy. Since its opening in 2017, most of the employees worked part-time, handling visitor services and making close to minimum-wage salaries. On November 1, District Council...
CODE ORANGE: JAN-FEB 2020
Congratulations to our winner Lauren Anderson and our finalists. Anderson's photo is seen above and first in our photo gallery in the January/February online issue of Artillery. The following photographs are the finalists. Please see info below on how to enter for our...
COMICS
Illustrate Your Love
Dear Babs, I’m in college majoring in illustration and minoring in fine art. My problem is some of my fine-art professors put down illustration and make it seem I can’t be part of the “Art World” and still be an illustrator. What do I do? —Stymied Student Dear Stymied...
Interview with Joanne Leah
Joanne Leah is a Brooklyn-based artist. In 2016 she founded Artists Against Censorship, a platform that catalogs artists‘ experiences with social media censorship. She currently serves as a liaison between censored artists and policymakers at Facebook and Instagram to...