One of the most durable traditions in Modernism, organic form sculpture emerged in the first part of the 20th century in the work of Constantine Brancusi, Jean Arp, Alberto Giacometti and others. Particularly associated with Surrealism, the organic form was a kind of...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Tony Cragg
OUTSIDE LA: Rochelle Botello Bakersfield Museum of Art
“Free Fall,” Rochelle Botello’s solo exhibition at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, affords an incredibly rich and evocative visual experience. Botello’s organic and sometimes strangely discomfiting sculptures suggest an amalgam of associations; looking at these works,...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Jim Isermann Miles McEnery Gallery
When I stepped into Jim Isermann’s spectacular show “Wrapture” presented by the Miles McEnery Gallery and the Pacific Design Center, my first thought was, “It’s 1967 again,” — and I don’t mean in a self-conscious, retro-chic way. Isermann’s super-saturated bright...
REMARKS ON COLOR: Teddy’s Big White House Summer's Hue
Before you, Teddy, there were no clever names for the president’s house, folks calling it The President’s Palace and the Executive Mansion—neither of which has any real descriptive character. Then you came along, the Trustbuster, the sickly boy who made good on his...
GALLERY ROUNDS: “Before You Now” Riverside Art Museum
“Before You Now” features work by 56 artists who employ photography, prints, drawings, installations and video to depict themselves, their identities and, especially, their artistic perspectives. Rather than creating traditional self-portraits, these symbolic,...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Karla Diaz 18th Street Arts
Karla Diaz has been drawing since she was a child. The title of her current exhibition, “Wait 'til Your Mother Gets Home,” is something her aunt would say to her when she would draw on the walls of the family home. Consisting of 37 paintings and works on paper that,...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Suzan Woodruff Billis Williams
Suzan Woodruff’s new body of ethereal, abstract paintings and undulating wall sculptures came at a price—one as much physical as psychological. Diagnosed with virulent cancer amid a national pandemic, she endured multiple surgeries and radiological treatments, which...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Tidawhitney Lek and Veronica Fernandez Sidecar Gallery
At Night Gallery’s newly debuted kunsthalle-inspired space, Sidecar, "What Will You Give?" features numerous large-scale paintings by up-and-coming artists Tidawhitney Lek and Veronica Fernandez. Lek and Fernandez present pieces of work that showcase both the...
PUBLISHER’S EYE: Chyrum Lambert la BEAST Gallery
With rich, saturated hues on both black and cream backgrounds, Chyrum Lambert’s collages on wooden panels are mysterious yet familiar, reminiscent of botanical illustrations or a rock collection display. Titled “An Alphabet of Looking,” the show provides a chance to...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Groove The Hammer Museum
“Groove,” an exhibition of approximately 100 intaglio prints currently on view at the Hammer Museum, has something for everyone, and a bit of everything (save for works in other media), but it will appeal most to those with an unrestricted appetite for aesthetic...
REMARKS ON COLOR: Truman’s “Buck Stops Here” Brown May's Hue
The story is legendary, and one would think where money is concerned, or even mentioned at all, one would find a swath of olive-green bills stacked high on the president’s desk, but The Buck Stops Here sign was in fact not green at all, but mahogany! This is a...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Aly Helyer Vielmetter
In the arresting painting On Your Side (2024), a person and their cat canoodle in twinned profiles that make it seem like they share an eye—and that’s not even the strangest thing about it. The main figure, shirtless and with glowing minty-pistachio skin, has glossy,...
SHOPTALK: LA ART NEWS Frieze LA, Spring/Break, Gana Art LA's Quiet Opening
I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from Frieze LA (Feb. 29–March 3), and the art week that was. In addition to the main event, there were many gallery openings and events, and also the Felix and Spring/ Break art fairs. At Frieze there were fewer...
DYSTOPIAN FILTERS Ethel Lilienfeld Considers the Nuances of our Virtual Selves
Technology cannot be separated from the world we live in today. Indeed, post-pandemic, we are experiencing even more of our daily lives virtually. This phenomenon lies at the core of French multidisciplinary artist Ethel Lilienfeld’s work. Using video, installation...
SHATTERED Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme Find Meaning in Remembrance and Resistance
In the 18th century, when the Iranian elite heard rumors of the grand mirrored halls of Europe, they sent merchants to procure as many sheets of brilliant reflective glass as their boats could carry. Still, the mirrors cracked in their elaborate frames somewhere...
AS THE WORLD TURNS Deborah Stratman Gazes Into the Abyss of Time
“I’m not sure satisfaction is a thing I feel while making art. I get satisfied from stuff like getting my laundry done or digging a trench or putting away my books,” mused director Deborah Stratman in a recent interview with Documentary magazine. Perhaps this...
REALM OF THE SENSES Jónsi’s “VOX” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Jónsi, artist and frontman of Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, masterfully crafted a recent show titled “Vox” which challenges the definitions of visual, sonic and olfactory art, merging the mediums to form a multi-sensory exhibition that plays on the viewer’s mind...
LOST IN SPACE The New Restoration of Franco Rossi's "Smog"
Franco Rossi’s restored Smog plays like a Nouvelle Vague travelogue, with protagonists seemingly lost in an urban landscape that amplifies their inner malaise. That backdrop is Los Angeles and the long-lost 1962 film (now finally available in a pristine 4K restoration...