Dear Dr. Trainwreck, I have a friend with a few mental health diagnoses confirmed by doctors. She has many symptoms, including “rejection sensitive dysphoria”—meaning (as I understand it) she has a hard time accepting any criticism and overreacts to it. I like my...
In no way am I looking forward to writing this particular piece. Truth? I am a little bit afraid to do it at all. Not that the previous columns have been chock full of levity and good times, but this one might piss some people off. Because it is time. We are here. We...
lu·dol·o·gy /l(j)uˈdɑlədʒi/ n A field of cultural studies that examines games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures that surround them. It is also known as game studies or gaming theory. Have you read about art that “investigates transcultural...
Deep in the Los Feliz hills of a more verdant Los Angeles, during the Civil Rights movement, Corita Kent spread messages of joy and feminine power through her art. “Corita,” as she became known, is widely known for her colorful serigraph prints which called for love...
Artillery catches up with GWAR for their sprawling retrospective at Beyond the Streets. ARTILLERY: Some of GWAR’s songs are actually good—if you’re into thrash. Does it ever bother you that this sometimes gets lost in the focus on GWAR’s wild stage shows? BLOTHAR:...
On a quiet, hilly residential street in Echo Park, behind an unassuming fence, there is a cathedral to freewheeling sexuality, a place where art and sex mingle to such an extent it can be hard to tell the difference. Most Angelenos will be familiar with the Tom of...
With one notable exception, the original cast of This Is Spinal Tap were wildly successful thespians playing complete fuckups. Arguably the most iconic character of the lot, the exploding drummer “played” by everyman Ric Parnell, was another story altogether. The...
I’m not sure exactly when I accepted that the future of contemporary art belongs to the furries. It likely happened at the waterfront rave in Pittsburgh—where, flanked by gyrating, half-clad wolves and sexy tigers—I spent the late hours of July 4th lounging with a...
For decades, art and fashion have occupied parallel but distinct tracks. There have been moments of convergence—think Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus ballet costumes, Salvador Dalí’s sartorial collaborations with Elsa Schiaparelli, and Keith Haring’s “Pop Shop”—but the art...
We asked 12 artists to show us their shoes...
The first thing that catches my eye upon walking into the Von Lintel Gallery for an exhibition of photographs from Chloe Sherman’s renowned 1990s series “Renegades” is a large black-and-white print (17.3 × 24 in.) of a half-dozen young women, perhaps in their early...
If you’re reading this, it’s too late. Summer came and went. Pool parties in the Valley? Over. Midnight drives on Mulholland? Gone. We don’t care that you went to Sicily, that your credit score’s crippled because of it, or that you haven’t k-holed at Marcelino’s since...
For those familiar with the late painter Noah Davis and the lasting influence of his Underground Museum—the Arlington Heights exhibition space he operated with his wife and collaborator, Karon Davis—the Hammer Museum’s eponymously titled retrospective survey of the...
Navigating the tension between impulsive expression and mastery of one’s craft is a fundamental aspect of the artist’s journey. A similar tension underscores the construction of personal identity that defines adolescence, and hence, the Orange County Museum of Art’s...
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