Given the conflation of mid-century modernist furniture design and improvised experimental music on invented instruments, I’m probably remembering correctly that it was Steve Roden who told me about Harry Bertoia’s “Sonambient” sculptures and self-released LPs, one of...
ART BRIEF
In May of this year, headlines trumpeted that the contemporary art auctions in New York hit a new record of over $1.2 billion in sales for the major auction houses. There’s no doubt that a fair number of sellers of these marquee art works were California residents....
RETROSPECT
School—the word alone makes me shiver. I was forced to go when I was five. “Forced” is an ugly, ugly word but sometimes it turns out for the better. In the ’50s I attended an all-girls school that focused on posture, a good translation of Cicero, and the perfect...
ASK BABS
Got Talent?Dear Babs, I painted this one week in 1969 and have barely lifted a brush since. Should I take it up again? —Will, Los AngelesDear Will, Depends…is that supposed to be JFK? If so, perhaps leave the brush alone. But seriously Will, you should pick up that...
BUNKER VISION
The cliché of the naughty schoolgirl is so ingrained in Western culture that it’s hard to imagine a time before they existed. You can read Japanese Anime about them while wearing a professionally manufactured naughty schoolgirl costume. You can mix a Naughty...
SHOPTALK
BIENNIAL OF THE AMERICAS 2015Denver Biennial focus on NowDenver has been trying to put itself on the map through art and culture, and one path has been the creation of the Biennial of the Americas. The third edition of the biennial (June 14–August 30) was launched...
OP-ED
LACMA is moving forward on the funding and eventual construction of the controversial $650-million-plus Peter Zumthor–designed building project that will replace three of the existing buildings and will bridge over Wilshire Boulevard.Zumthor has done superb work on...
BOOKS
Given the current narrative of Los Angeles art (dueling contemporary museums on Grand Street, hangar-sized prestige galleries in East LA, art openings timed to coincide with Oscars) it is surprising to remember that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is only 50...
RECONNOITER
Like many practicing artists, Martin Durazo is also an educator, having taught at colleges like Otis and Pomona. But he’s made an indelible mark as a public school teacher, having taught at Inner-City Arts Los Angeles, the Montebello Unified School District. Since...
Petra Cortright: Niki, Lucy, Lola, Viola
[fbalbum url="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153116428788870.1073741873.282227883869&type=3"]
ON THE COVER
Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA)
When I enter the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive for the first time, I know that I have not viewed art in any space like it before. The venue bridges the gap between gallery space and archive —the exhibit’s content is displayed among boxes of materials, shelves of...
Going Station to Station with Doug Aitken
In 2013 artist Doug Aitken realized an extraordinarily ambitious art project, "Station to Station," a kind of continuous art performance on wheels. This one rolled coast to coast, populated with creative folk who got on and off, making music, making art, making...
Fruity Exotic DTLA Mural
Katherine Bernhardt’s quirky public mural is currently covering the exterior walls of Venus Over Los Angeles gallery in the Arts District of Downtown LA just in time for the mid-summer heat wave.Giant free-floating cigarettes, slices of watermelon, cantaloupe, papaya,...
Back to the Future
The only quibble I might have with the Getty's excellent show, "Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography," would be that its title is too literal-minded. A show as exciting as this one is might have had a more adventurous title – say, "Back to the Future," or...
TOTTENHAM CORNER
There are few sights more ridiculous than a grown man wearing a pair of shorts. Back in my day, grown men simply did not venture outside clad in shorts. Anyone choosing to appear in public in such outlandish garb would be laughed off the streets. Scorn would...
Unbound at Edward Cella
"Artists Joshua Aster, Kendell Carter, Mara De Luca, Spencer Lewis, Donnie Molls, Ruth Pastine, Chris Trueman, and Jeffrey Vallance" From Unbound: Inaugural Group Show. Posted by Artillery Magazine on 6/30/2015 (17 items) Jeffrery Vallance, Victoria Reynolds Alex...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers We’re going “outside the cube” for our summer issue. This is our second look at alternative spaces—the first time we zeroed in on domestic art spaces—but this time we’re focusing on noncommercial art venues outside the white cube of the commercial fine...