“Get off Bonnie Brae!” Chris Kraus shouts from the car speakerphone when I resort to calling her for directions. I’m lost in MacArthur Park, a neighborhood that borders downtown Los Angeles, looking for the writer/critic’s house. I wasn’t sure if Kraus raised her...
Conspicuous Consumption Indeed
I forgot to eat! My stomach grumbled as I mentioned to my friend that I hoped there might be some food at the opening of Lauren Greenfield’s “Generation Wealth” exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City. Entering the building complex—not unlike a...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Readers In our last issue, which came out in January, I wrote about Trump becoming our president and the effect this potentially disastrous turn of events might have upon the art world... or not. In any case, in my last sentence I said that we would not be...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Readers Happy New Year! Last October I was invited to moderate a panel titled: “Is Art our Last Safe Place?” The general topic was whether art could be healing in times of war, poverty, starvation, overpopulation ...you know, all that stuff that just keeps...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Readers It’s our Miami issue, meaning this issue goes to Miami. It really doesn’t have anything to do with Miami or the fairs. But it is an issue we designed, content-wise, by what we thought Miami fairgoers might like to read. This year we made it our Interview...
FIELD REPORT: Springfield, Missouri
The grassy plains of southern Missouri came into view as the plane prepared to land in Springfield, a small city on the edge of the Ozarks. I grew up in a much smaller town not far from there. Springfield was the big city where Mom took us to buy new school clothes....
Giving is Sexy
Get your Sexy Beast on, and don’t forget to bring your checkbook. The fundraiser art auction for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles is happening again, and again at the fabulous Ace Hotel Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I understand there are still some tickets left.As...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Readers It’s our birthday! We’re 10 years old this September. I’ve been writing this letter for 10 years—it’s almost unbelievable to me. A decade is always something to pay attention to, I think. A relationship of any kind seems like an accomplishment after 10...
RECONNOITER
Thirty-seven years ago Lydia Takeshita and her college students formed what would become the LA Artcore Center, presently located in Japan Town in downtown Los Angeles, and later added the Brewery Annex location in Lincoln Heights. Takeshita is the founder, executive...
EDITOR’S LETTER
Dear Readers This is our summer issue, an issue that has become the one I’m not sure matters. It’s summer! Who cares about work? Who cares about art? Whatever it is you’re doing, you just want to get it over with, and get the hell out.It’s ingrained in us. The...
The Perfect Day: Burden and Mapplethorpe
The perfect day had been planned: visit the Getty Center in the afternoon to catch the Mapplethorpe show, then stay for the Chris Burden documentary, Burden, with a picnic sandwiched in between.Viewing the velvety Mapplethorpes became this rich and poignant...
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...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers,Film and art just go together. If you’re into art, you’re most likely a film buff (and film snob), and if you’re into film, well... maybe, actually, it doesn’t go the other way around. So let’s stick to the first theory. This is a contemporary art...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers, Last month, Artillery held a panel discussion on whether artists need art school. On my way to the panel, I received a phone call from a friend telling me he wouldn’t be able to make it. This friend is known for his cynicism; he added wryly that if he...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers When I moved to Los Angeles to attend grad school for my MFA at the University of Southern California, it was apparent I was at a crossroads in my life. Making the decision to leave the place where I grew up, to leave behind all my family and friends,...
The Accidental Artist
Just blocks from Venice Beach near Appleton Way I’m wandering down an alley, trying to find Jud Fine’s studio. Over the cell he tells me to look for the DWP truck parked in front. But as I turn the corner the truck is pulling away. I’m not quite sure which nondescript...
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...
Editor’s Letter
Dear Readers In this issue we take a look “Inside Art”—what’s inside the art world, other than art. This is a theme that has interested us for some time now, but it really hit home after I interviewed abstract painter James Hayward for our last issue on painting. One...