Lush foliage abuts geometric abstraction in Carolyn Castaño's vibrant paintings bursting with tropical flair. The Colombian-American artist amalgamates motifs from Latin America and the U.S so harmoniously that it's often difficult to pinpoint the origin of any given...
Gerald Davis
The dotty surfaces of Gerald Davis' paintings seem to flicker like tangled strings of tiny lights, amplifying the visionary eeriness of his eccentric renditions of classical subjects such as bathers. The LA painter's expressionistic pointillism recalls a wide range of...
Norton Simon: By Day and By Night: Paris in the Belle Époque
Upon exiting the newest exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum, “By Day and By Night: Paris in the Belle Époque,” each visitor is invited to take a print of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Red-Headed Woman in the Garden of M. Foret. This print is especially fitting as a...
November Nights Bring Bright Art
At Micheal Stearns Studio and Gallery at the Loft in San Pedro, art power couple Ben Zask and Peggy Sivert exhibited beautiful work in Farewell - from the graceful equine sculptures and haunting dark paintings of Sivert, to Zask’s intricate full-wall panel...
The Award Goes to…
"The most important thing to me was exposure to people who are making things, to other artists,” says Doug Aitken of his education at ArtCenter College of Design. Last Saturday he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from his alma mater, honored along with three...
Brand Library and Art Center: The Nothing That Is
In the haunting group show The Nothing That Is, now at the Brand Library and Art Center, curators Yaron Dotan and Christine Rasmussen have shaped a powerful exhibition that takes as its inspiration a Wallace Stevens poem that suggests viewers behold “nothing that is...
Linda Besemer
At a distance, the paintings in Linda Besemer's show, "An Abundance of Errors," appear to be large-format prints of digitally derived geometric designs. Indeed, they were initially devised on a computer; but the paintings' true tactility manifests itself as you...
WHAT, MEME WORRY?
On June 19th, 2018, Tumblr user deadbefordeath posted a photograph of a white cat with a confused expression sitting in a chair in front of a plate of vegetables, titling the post "he no like vegetals." According to the Literally Media database, the post gained over...
“Images of the Divine in Everyday Mexico”; Día de los Muertos Altars; Contemporary Artists’ Solo Shows
There are so many good shows right now at the Vincent Price Art Museum that it's impossible to choose just one. "Images of the Divine in Everyday Mexico" comprises retablo and ex-voto paintings from the early 19th to mid-20th centuries. Mostly wrought on small sheets...
Shoshana Wayne Gallery: Russell Crotty
You don’t need to read the press release to know that Russell Crotty has outer space on the brain. The work currently on view at Shoshana Wayne Gallery was inspired by a residency at an observatory, and it shows. In mixed media paintings from the last two years, a...
Finding “Hope”
Curious about the current west side exhibitions, we started our gallery openings serendipitously early this week. As we strolled down La Cienega’s gallery row, we noticed some of our favorite spaces were unfortunately closed for installation, but to our delight, Megan...
United States of Prison
Nestled on the ground floor of an academic building on Pitzer College’s campus, the Lenzner Family Art Gallery is easy to miss. Its layout is as humble and curiouser still: an L-shaped room is flanked by two alcoves too small to be rooms and too large to be closets;...
Laurie Nye
Titled "The Sick Rose" after William Blake's 1794 poem and engraving, LA painter Laurie Nye's current exhibition is like a garden of botanical specimens evoking romance and malady. Describing a rose afflicted by the pernicious love of an invisible worm, Blake's...
Walking Dead
From the twice-yearly Brewery Art Walk to the opening of a new gallery space, late October is a lively time to experience art. And then there were some exciting new art works at the annual Dia de Los Muertos event at Hollywood Forever this year, too. At Timothy Yarger...
Roberts Projects: Ardeshir Tabrizi
Iranian American stitch painter Ardeshir Tabrizi's new works on show at Roberts Projects reflect his remarkable journey to reconnect with his Persian roots. Born in Tehran, Iran, he left the county with his family at age four in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq War and...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Reader, Interviews have become my specialty as a journalist, especially if the subject is someone I have admired and whose career I have followed. I still can’t believe my good fortune at having been able to sit down and talk with some of my true heroes. An...
Enrique Martínez Celaya Takes the Road Less Traveled
Enrique Martínez Celaya is embarking on a new journey, and we are faithfully following in his wake. The masterful Cuban-American painter had his first solo exhibition in LA since 2015, “The Tears of Things,” at Kohn Gallery this September. The artist took full...
jill moniz: The Quotidian Blacksmith
jill moniz has been a curator at the California African American Museum (CAAM) and is now principal of her own downtown gallery, Quotidian. She curated the current exhibition “LA Blacksmith” at CAAM. I understand that you have a PhD in cultural anthropology—how and...