The film Manifesto speaks in the voice of the 20th century, when manifestos meant something—a time when the latest artist or art movement stormed the Bastille of conformity, declaring the one true doctrine—theirs, naturally—and the rest of us sat up and paid...
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NEW MUSEUM IN TOWN Welcome Marciano Art Foundation on Wilshire Boulevard! It’s the new museum that features the contemporary art collection of Paul and Maurice Marciano, two of the brothers who founded the hip jeans company Guess and became zillionaires. The museum...
Coachella Hosts Desert X
Desert X, we love the name of this art biennial out in the Coachella Valley—“X” as the unknown, the sexy, the je-ne-sais-quoi factor. There is something mysterious and alluring about the desert, with its sere, sparse, wide-open expanses and its promise of...
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Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts Eight recipients have just been named by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts to receive their Artist Project Grants, totaling a hefty $319,000. The fortunate ones—Human Resources/356 S. Mission Rd.; The Industry; La Plaza de...
The Joshua Treenial 2017: Event Horizon
Okay, not to be completely overshadowed by Desert X—which takes place in Coachella Valley, the Low Desert—the Joshua Treenial will be returning to the High Desert for its second iteration with “Event Horizon” from March 31–April 2, 2017. Two dozen artists will be...
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Revolution in the Making “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity ...” Charles Dickens was writing about London and Paris before and...
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HELP SAVE SANTA FE ART COLONYThe Santa Fe Art Colony Tenants—some 80 working artists —recently had a close call. Theirs is the only rent-restricted artists’ live/work community in Los Angeles, and the clock was ticking down on their 30-year agreement with the...
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POP-UPS WORTH YOUR WHILE Hospital Happening and a TraphouseKudos to art consultant John Wolf for throwing together one of the most ambitious and giddy art projects this year—“Human Condition,” a pop-up gallery at a former hospital, the LA Metropolitan Medical Center...
FILM: Sky Ladder
It is now official: awe is an essential human emotion. Yes, awe—a sense of wonder at something that is greater or beyond any single individual. “Early in human history, awe was reserved for feelings toward divine beings,” writes Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology...
RECONNOITER
Gerard O’Brien founded The Landing a year ago and is the owner of Reform Gallery in Los Angeles, a store that quickly became a leading source for furnishings, crafts and accessories in the California Modern style.ARTILLERY: You’ve gotten a lot of admiration and good...
Women Gallerists
1. Shoshana Blank: She and husband Wayne Blank run one of the mainstays of Bergamot Station, Shoshana Wayne Gallery.2. Kimberly Davis/Elizabeth East: Two directors of redoubtable L. A. Louver in Venice, repping a long list of artist-worthies including David Hockney,...
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ART BASEL IS BIGThe Big Mama of Art FairsArt Basel is big, very big. The main event is on two levels of a circularly designed building at the Messe Basel complex, with the “Unlimited” section next door in a gigantic convention hall. A series of outdoor installations,...
SFMOMA Gets an Art Recharge
Shutting down a major museum for three years of expansion may seem like suicide, but the newly reborn San Francisco Museum of Modern Art proves it can be a great success. SFMOMA reopened to the public on May 14, preceded by several weeks of well-orchestrated previews...
SF Art Gets Pumped More
The new, the now, the influential SFMOMA is creating a bit of a ripple effect. I am happy to report that Art Market San Francisco, the art fair, is doing quite well, drawing a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd over the weekend of April 27–May 1 at Fort Mason. They also had...
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BERGAMOT STATIONFor Real... and it's LouderLos Angeles adds to very necessary public transportation with seven additional stops on the Expo Line, with runs from downtown LA clear out to Santa Monica. Yes, there are complaints that the train is slow and can take up to...
Notes from Basel
Art Basel is serious business, with some 280 galleries taking part—most of them on two floors of Building 2 at the Messeplatz, Basel's sprawling convention center. The action starts with two days of previews on Tuesday and Wednesday, before the fair opens up to the...
Ai Weiwei
Artist Ai Weiwei takes himself down a notch before you can with the title of his Haines Gallery show, “Overrated.” The works are largely reiterations or extensions of previous work for which he is already world famous; works in which he subverts the authority of...
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LIVELY UP LA ARTS DISTRICT INTERVIEW WITH JENNI SORKINHauser Wirth & Schimmel launched with a bang on Sunday, March 13, opening its doors in a former flour factory in Downtown LA with the exhibition “Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women,...