TWO VIEWS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANSEL ADAMS AND LEONARD FRANK
Liberty Cabbage. Freedom Fries. Whenever a reactionary quorum congregates one can be certain no good can come of it. While our senate stages a work stoppage on judicial appointments, and a viable presidential candidate—best known for his government shutdown...
Girl Power at Chimento Contemporary
Last night found us in Downtown LA at Chimento Contemporary for Laura London’s show. We’ve been following London’s “girls” for quite some time, so we were anxious to see the newest crop of female adolescents usually featured in her work.It was a beautiful day once...
THE DEATH THAT WON’T DIE
I recently overheard somebody make the observation that David Bowie’s death has “staying power.” It sounded like an idiotic remark at first but in this case it seems accurate. Sure, Bowie was one of the greats, an unfading star who provided an exhilarating soundtrack...
Art of the Prank; NOTFILM
Ross Lipman, the legendary film restorationist responsible for preserving the cinematic legacies of Bruce Conner, Kenneth Anger, John Cassavetes, and a cluster of forgotten American neorealist gems including Killer of Sheep and The Exiles, has turned his attention to...
The Weekend Keeps on Going: Highland Openings plus Kim Abeles
Why is there never nothing to do in the Los Angeles art world? We were hoping for a quiet weekend, but there were just too many openings to avoid them all. We decided to park our vehicle on Highland Avenue and take it from there. First stop was Diane...
SECOND WAVE: Aesthetics of the ’80s in Today’s Contemporary Art
It’s not every day that a public university art museum, outside the Hammer Museum, features an amazing show with cutting-edge artists. So when I saw the "Second Wave" exhibition at UC Riverside where I attend graduate school, I just had to chat with UCR ARTSblock...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers You’ve heard the one about how sculpture is something you bump into when backing up to look at a painting. An old boyfriend who was a sculptor told me that joke.He also told me the story about how Louise Bourgeois was at a high power dinner with an...
The Thing
The “death of painting” is frequently traced to the work and writing of Donald Judd. In 1965's “Specific Objects,” the same essay in which Judd outlined painting’s limitations—above all, its inherent illusionism—he even more forcefully predicted the death of...
FILM: Troublemakers
Land Art, also known as Earth Art, emerged in the period that was, with hindsight, clearly one of the most radical, innovative, experimental and groundbreaking periods in the history of art. The genre is part of a much wider trend that falls under the umbrella of...
Mud Gets Off the Ground
Ceramics is again making a major splash in the world of fine arts. Way back in the 1950s Peter Voulkos pushed ceramics into that realm, with his Abstract Expressionist pieces of cut and contorted clay slabs, followed by the works of his students (among them, John...
Fueled by Youth
The sculptures of Sergio Garcia contain an otherworldly essence. Like relics from an alternate dimension created by Salvador Dali, Henry Darger and Kaz Oshiro, Garcia’s surreal concoctions teeter on the brink of absurdity and play with the experience of living and...
Alternate Empires
As a student, seeking respite from the relatively hidebound painting department, I often retreated to the sculpture studios. There, the critical gaze of teachers seemed less intense; sculpture students did as they pleased. Around that time about a decade ago, I took...
ART BRIEF
Stefan Simchowitz is a controversial figure in the art world. He doesn’t own an art gallery yet maintains a large network of art collectors. He eloquently expounds upon art theory but is not associated with an art institution. He provides advice and monetary support...
UNDER THE RADAR
We are in the midst of the information age, with archives and libraries overflowing, and records piling up like plastic in the ocean. How does personal value translate to cultural value, or is it the same thing? Who decides what is worth preserving? How should...
DECODER
So I was at this opening—or maybe it was an event. In a project space. Or maybe it was a party. There were paintings. It was definitely not an installation. Or, okay: there were things installed in it and the whole space had been taken over and changed but it was not...
PUBLIC DISPLAY
Where cities are being built up and money spent, local legislation has often passed a percent-for-art program; alternately, cities look to create stable partnerships between the public and private sectors, so some of that money is made available for public art, too....
RETROSPECT
Kenny Price’s objects are modest in size and endless in meaning, which is another way of saying they make you think and feel instead of just impressing you. At a recent career survey at Parrasch Heijnen Gallery’s inaugural LA show, the first piece you are confronted...