In the line to vote, a woman from Guatemala is very proud to be voting Hillary and a guy from Silver Lake is very proud to be voting for marijuana, but they’re both like “Why is there a two-party system?” “Well,” I say, “the thing is that the parties have created...

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, located right in the middle of the Walk of Fame, isn’t just a rare example of a nonprofit contemporary art space right out where the public can get to it. For many up-and-coming artists, a well-reviewed show at LACE can mean the...

I became a Los Angeles artist about the same time Artillery became a Los Angeles art magazine. This 10-year anniversary issue naturally makes everybody wonder whether there’s anything special about art in Los Angeles as opposed to the art mainstream that’s defined by...

I was wondering why everyone in LA always dresses and talks like they’re at work and stoned and then I remembered it’s because they probably are. In 2016 it’s okay to go to work dressed like you’re at Coachella but it’s also okay for your boss to check your Facebook...

Self-portraits have been around forever and photos have been around longer than anyone now living. But selfies, I am going to argue, are their own thing. New in important ways. Definition: on a Venn diagram selfies are a small circle within “self-portraits” and...

So I was at this opening—or maybe it was an event. In a project space. Or maybe it was a party. There were paintings. It was definitely not an installation. Or, okay: there were things installed in it and the whole space had been taken over and changed but it was not...

In “Her Story” you watch a handful of video clips of a staged interrogation. You then have the option to type in searches for key words—if you type the right words, you get more clips from the interrogation. If you do enough of the right searches and watch enough of...

Art does not want us to look at art the way we are asked to look at art. Coming in, worried about making it in time to get to the next gallery and the next, anticipating dinner, standing, not knowing how long the video will go on, not knowing if the next gallery will...

At the Yale School of Painting and Printmaking there is a pit. They called it a pit. There were discussions in the pit and they were twice a year, about you, and mandatory.Some people cried in the pit. They wept because the artist-professors said they held low...

The main point of a show in a nonprofit space isn’t profit—it’s you get to have an art party. There’s nowhere to sit and sometimes people wear headbands, but it’s still technically a party. A good party is an end in itself (and a good party is arguably the end to...

In the middle of this issue where we talk all about the movers and the shakers, I think I should drop in a note saying that, in the end, it is all actually epically opaque.This one came from this obscure place, made a fortune in this impenetrable industry by moving...

Anuradha Vikram is a transcultural critic, curator and educator who’s worked with a variety of contemporary artists from around the world and I’m not. So I invited her into my column to compensate for my ignorance.ZAK SMITH: So: “Asian Art”?ANURADHA VIKRAM: I don’t...

“I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top”—Claes OldenburgNearly everyone who has ever written about art in Los Angeles has had to face the question I’m facing now: Should I write this by the pool, or stay in bed?This is a...

① Non-Dickheadsa) If 90 people are credited with making this art it’s okay because it looks like it might’ve actually taken 90 people to make this art—it’s as complicated as a movie. Or it is a movie. There are things about it to enjoy that you can enjoy for longer...

Art fame is a weird fame: I know artists whose work has been seen by millions who can’t pay the rent. I know artists with unrecognizable names who could pay rent for a year with half a piece.Unlike the film or music industry, fine art isn’t based on selling lots of...

The influence of money on art, you may have heard, is pernicious—or toxic, or corrupting or it is another word that means “bad.” Especially these days. You may have heard that.And why not? It’s bad on everything else. It’s even bad on people who have it—stockbrokers...