The Cheech Is Here While many museums are opening exhibitions long delayed by COVID, one is unveiling a completely renovated building with a new focus. That would be the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, or The Cheech, in Riverside. Part of the...
SHOPTALK: LA Art News
SCARLET’S SCREENINGS Summer Film Picks
A slew of movies has been pent up during the pandemic, either from delayed productions or distribution plans, or both. Now the floodgates are opening, and some of the films are very good. In this new column, I’m going to make recommendations for your movie-viewing...
THEATER REVIEW: King of the Yees Sierra Madre Playhouse
Every so often I make it a point to see plays that I’ve seen before – plays I thought terrific or felt could have been done better. In the latter case, when the play is done better, it’s an especial joy. This is the case with the current Sierra Madre Playhouse...
SHOPTALK: LA Art News LA Gallery Migration, Museum Make-overs, and more.
New York, New York! The art market is back, and here in SoCal we’re seeing it with a slew of New York galleries moving in. Pace’s “mergence” with Kayne Griffin is official, and I hear the new signage now bears the Pace name. Sean Kelly gallery is occupying a...
THEATER REVIEW: Ann Pasadena Playhouse
To do a one-woman play is a challenge; to do a one-woman play about a noted public figure and keep the audience enthralled for two hours is a tour de force. That’s what Holland Taylor manages to do in Ann, which just opened at the Pasadena Playhouse (through April...
SHOPTALK: LA Art News Art Fairs, Gallery Movement, and more
Frieze 2022 The art fairs have returned, and with such a burst of optimistic energy! Maybe they’re signaling the lifting of the curse of COVID—or our fervent hope for its end. And maybe artists, during all the imposed quarantines and self-isolations, have devoted...
Travels in the Midwest Musing on Art and Architecture
A couple of months ago I took short trips to Phoenix and Denver for a change of scenery, to indulge in culture, and to see the rebranding of Sheraton hotels. Denver is a surprisingly interesting city, and we stayed in the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, which is very...
Shoptalk: LA Art News Art Fairs, Breakout Artists, and More.
On a Roll LA artist Sandy Rodriguez is having a very good year—her work is currently in a solo show, “Sandy Rodriguez in Isolation” (through April 17), at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX, plus she’s part of two major exhibitions in the LA...
Top Films of 2021
What a year, and what a year for films—many of them delayed in production or distribution due to COVID, but roaring back as the theaters reopened. Below is my list of top theatrically released films of 2021; films I have had a chance to see thus far. I’m struck by how...
Shoptalk: LA Art News New Director at MOCA, Academy Museum reopens, and more.
MOCA Madness Good news, the art world is revving up! We have art fairs taking place In Real Life, galleries setting regular opening hours and museums flinging open their doors. Of course, we’re not completely out of the COVID woods—many venues require proof of vax...
Pipilotti Rist Geffen Contemporary
Wild, wonderful and wistful—this survey of Pipilotti Rist at the Geffen Contemporary is long overdue in this town, where she has rarely been shown. “Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor” is a trippy series of multimedia installations with videos and immersive projections...
Shoptalk: LA Art News Fair reports and Compound Long Beach
Felix Fair Report In some ways the fairs and openings that packed the last week in July were a turning point for Los Angeles. It was the first such convergence since February 2020, with the pandemic shutdown following quickly in March. Would people actually show up...
Sugar Houses at REDCAT Rosanna Gamson/World Wide
“Sugar Houses” is another production that was stopped in its tracks last year by COVID, but fortunately REDCAT has managed to stage it as their first live production since the pandemic shutdown, if only for a week (July 8 -11). This kinetic piece of dance-theater is...
Shoptalk Return of Art Fairs, Painting is "In," and What The New Normal Looks Like
The New Normal We thought the world would end in fire, or possibly in ice. And now we know it can end with a virus. As a child growing up in Taiwan and then later in the US during the Cold War, I often imagined—and literally dreamed—how the world would end....
In The Spotlight: Paul R. Williams Two books on the Architect
Master Architects of Southern California 1920–1940 by Marc Appleton, Stephen Gee and Bret Parsons 208 pages Angel City Press Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View by Janna Ireland 224 pages Angel City Press When Paul Revere Williams...
Shoptalk LA Museum Update, Digital Art Happenings, In Memory: Simone Gad
Digital Art Happening In April there was a moment when Yours Truly realized we were finally, at long last, emerging from the pandemic that has shut us in for over a year. It was Saturday night, and we were lured downtown by “LUMINEX: Dialogues of Light,” a one-night...
Shoptalk Art fairs and COVID, Desert X
Art Fairs Aren't Giving Up Delays, delays, and more delays. Last year Art Basel rather optimistically thought it would proceed with its Miami edition in December. That was finally cancelled when they came to their senses. I think there were online viewing rooms and...
Black Art: In the Absence of Light Film Review of HBO documentary
Black Art: In the Absence of Light, is a most timely and info-packed HBO documentary, briskly propelled by terrific interviews with artists, curators and educators. It opens by introducing us to a landmark exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” that opened...