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...
Scarlet Cheng
In The Spotlight: Paul R. 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...
SHOPTALK SoCal Museum News, Pantone Color of the Year, and more.
SoCal’s Museums Museums have been shut down (again), which doesn’t effect the city of Los Angeles too much as museums weren’t reopened except for a very short week or so. Neither LACMA nor the Hammer ever reopened after mid-March shutdowns and, alas, the...
Alex Anderson: Just Like Gold Just Like Gold
It takes a lot of guts to title your solo show “Little Black Boy Makes Imperial Porcelains,” and then it takes a lot of talent to pull off a show with that loaded marquee. Alex Anderson managed to do just that at Gavlak gallery this summer, in a show (March 14–July...
Shoptalk Made in L.A.; Art Economy; Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize winner; and more.
The Art Economy Inquiring minds want to know how galleries are faring during the pandemic. As you know, a number have opened up with limited hours, reservations and timed entry. More than once I have found myself the only person visiting a gallery, which made me feel...
Shoptalk: LA Art News R.I.P. Luchita Hurtado; COLA 2020 online; Carmen Argote's pandemic
COLA 2020 Sadly, so many art events, exhibitions, and performances have had to be canceled during Q time—too many to mention. Here I give a nod to the annual show for the COLA (City of LA) award winners from the previous year. They are each given $10,000 to create new...
HOPPING ONLINE Virtual Viewing has its Virtues
During these last three months art galleries have been tripping over themselves to create virtual viewing rooms and walkthroughs, and to join collective ventures in online selling such as GALLERYPLATFORM.LA and FAIR (from New Art Dealers Alliance or NADA). Meanwhile,...
Shoptalk: LA Art News Taylor Brandon vs. SFMOMA; Museums and galleries may reopen
We Will Never Forget the Spring of 2020 On May 25 the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited a tinderbox over continuing racial and escalating economic inequality in this country. Of course, we were already dealing with the dreaded COVID-19, with its...
SHOPTALK
Pomp & Zoom Spring usually heralds a spate of art-school grad ceremonies and shows—the equivalent of debutante balls for young artists and designers trained at our august art schools. This year with shelter-at-home and social-distancing mandates in place, there...
SHOPTALK April 2020 Edition
Three weeks ago I was visiting LACMA for their landmark exhibition “Where the Truth Lies: The Art of Qiu Ying,” featuring a Ming dynasty painter at the Resnick. Afterwards I came out to look for the plinth where a new Yoshitomo Nara sculpture would be going—the...
Trip to the Desert
Spring is on its way, and the perfect time for a little getaway to the desert before things get hot. And you know how very very hot the Coachella Valley can be. Most of us may already have visited Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs, but there’s also Indian...
Shoptalk
LA Fair Report The fairs are bursting out all over in February—and I just have time to jot down a few notes before deadline. Photo LA (Jan. 30–Feb. 2) is going strong for its second year back on the westside, in the Barker Hangar. This is LA’s longest running fair, in...
LA Fair-ed Well
A few weekends ago, Frieze LA (Feb. 14–16) led the LA Art Marathon, and I put on my walking shoes to get to three of them. Frieze itself was again in the white tent set up at Paramount Studios, this time with 75 galleries, plus 16 Projects in the Backlot. Even...
SHOPTALK
Museums and Unions The Marciano Art Foundation has closed, abruptly and in a cloud of controversy. Since its opening in 2017, most of the employees worked part-time, handling visitor services and making close to minimum-wage salaries. On November 1, District Council...
The Award Goes to…
"The most important thing to me was exposure to people who are making things, to other artists,” says Doug Aitken of his education at ArtCenter College of Design. Last Saturday he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from his alma mater, honored along with three...
Shoptalk
Go Directly to Go The fall art season has taken off like a steeplechase, with so many openings on the weekends that one can take in barely a fraction of them. In addition to the shows at galleries and museums (Lari Pittman at the Hammer and Echiko Ohira at Craft...
