It’s a long way, spatially, temporally and culturally from the cavernous interior of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA to the idyllic rolling landscape of the Civil War battle field near Bull Run Creek in northern Virginia. But it is precisely that distance (among...
Charles Gaines
The first exhibition at Art+Practice, which recently opened in the historic Leimert Park district, is a site-specific installation by veteran conceptual artist, Charles Gaines. “Librettos: Manuel de Falla/Stokely Carmichael” (2015) consists of 23 acrylic box frames...
Ed Templeton
Ed Templeton has expressed his obsession with watching people who walk along the sidewalks and hang out at the waterfront in Huntington Beach, California. He is equally fascinated by young girls and old men, their modes of dress or undress, and the details of their...
Tom LaDuke
I try to avoid reading too much into titles of paintings because they can rarely be more than the most tenuous captions for something effectively functioning in a language of its own. Occasionally a show’s title underscores a certain theme resonating through the...
Adrian Ghenie
Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie’s work is clearly indebted to that of his artistic forbearers. Not since Anselm Kiefer has a painter dealt so explicitly with the heavy, fraught history of 20th century Europe, and like Francis Bacon, his visages are rendered as...
CAROL ES
Carol Es has long drawn upon two major factors in her personal history—factors that she recognizes that she shares with many others, but perhaps not in quite the same way. Strongly identifying as Jewish, Es has emphasized the cultural and historical aspects of her...
Phyllis Green
Phyllis Green’s “Walking the Walk” consists of sculptural works that also function as garments and performance props. Their use as such is documented by photographs by Ave Pildas with the artist posing and modeling each of the artworks. Toying with the idea of a high...
Gail Tarantino
Harkening to the grace of bygone days when those who wished to communicate with one another would do so by putting pen to paper, East Bay-based artist Gail Tarantino’s “Hand Written” draws content from letters written by the artist to astronomers, naturalists and...
Reza Aramesh
A trio of sepia-toned photographs, displayed at the entrance of the Leila Heller Gallery, documenting four naked men followed by Western soldiers in a rundown village instantly evokes the horrors of Abu Ghraib. The jarring scene—American soldiers humiliating local...
Julia von Eichel
Julia von Eichel’s wall sculptures (all 2014) are oddly unsettling, with innards that seem to strain against their outer skin and an overall configuration suggesting movement or attenuated growth. It’s tempting to see naturally occurring phenomenon like spores,...
The Lives of Bernice
Bernice is premiering at the Palm Springs Shortfest next week and the eponymous documentary celebrates the spunky tenured New York art dealer, Bernice Steinbaum as a long-time pioneer of female and minority artists. I’m sitting beside Steinbaum now, taking in her “New...
Straight From Cuba
“Straight from Cuba” at Lois Lambert Gallery, is an unexpectedly compelling exhibition. To subsist as a contemporary artist in present-day Cuba is no small feat. With little to no resources at their disposal in the way of art materials and economic support, and...
Toxic Sublime
The philosophy of the sublime was first manifested in art through 19th century Romantic painters’ vast and awe-inspiring landscapes that emphasized mankind’s diminutiveness in the face of God’s treacherously beautiful creation. It was updated in the mid-20th century...
Nostalgia at Paris Photo LA
“Nostalgia,” the successful, albeit subconscious underlying theme of this year’s Paris Photo LA art fair has, by now, turned upon itself. The memory of the event may be faded, but there are a few talents and galleries that proved they will have a bright future. Paris...
LACMA’s Michael Govan
Michael Govan has given a lot of thought to Los Angeles’ identity as a center for culture. While it may go without saying the opportunity to reshape an institution brought him to LA in 2006, if he is successful in revitalizing the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, he...
Sage Counsel
When looking at art one considers line, shape, volume, the play of light across pigment. When looking at Los Angeles, one considers other lines. The stark divide between the haves and have-nots is as tangible as the freeways that divide one neighborhood from another....
BUNKER VISION
If anybody reading this is looking for a topic for an art book, I would like to suggest La Fura dels Baus. Although they are well known in Europe (they designed the opening ceremony for the Barcelona Olympics, and have had other pieces performed before audiences of...
ASK BABS
Dear Babs, I’ll be getting out of the Army soon and was thinking about going back to school for an MFA. If I don’t apply to a grad school in LA or New York, what should I be looking for in a school outside of those two areas? I’ve heard it’s an ideal way to make...