We don’t call it ‘AWOL’ for nothing, you know. So while you (and my editors) were all HOWLing for my updates last week – and oh yes, we did have a few – the local art world news was eclipsed by the Los Angeles Review of Books’ publication of Joseph Giovannini’s...
I might have called it Sit Through This (which, I assure the reader, would have encompassed the best the show had to offer). The 60th Anniversary Celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (not the 50th, mind you; the 50th + 10), took place last night at the fabulous Ace...
[Part I of this post appeared yesterday, following the preceding evening’s Third Los Angeles forum at Occidental College. I continue where I left off – as LACMA’s Director, Michael Govan left the stage to the evening’s host, the forum’s principal organizer, and Los...
And so the Govan/Zumthor/LACMA PR juggernaut thunders on, steamrolling over those skeptical eyes looking over their shoulders from near and far, critics and other local scolds (and possibly its immediate neighbors), to say nothing of its own Board of Trustees, the...
By the time I had discovered Eloise (there is only one, you know), I was already well on my way to becoming Eloise – if I wasn’t already. By that time, I had already begun moving away from children’s books and into actual literature. My older brother had already...
Do you ever wonder what happened to the Occupy moment? We can’t really call it a movement because it had no coherent program, plan or organization, no well defined or articulated policy (or revolutionary) objectives; and its only concrete target was a somewhat...
Having followed Gabriel Kahane’s songwriting career for some time, I was primed for a terrific show this past Saturday evening at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. Kahane has the dual gift of an innate musical talent and extraordinary musicianship wedded to a peerless gift for...
Every once in a while (on those rare occasions when we’re away from our favorite gun clubs, firing ranges and ammunition shops), I’ll run into one of our ARTILLERY family and friends and s/he’ll ask me what I’ve been up to. It can be awkward—especially if I’ve just...
There’s always a bit of suspense walking into an exhibition of Anish Kapoor’s work. At this point in the artist’s career, we may have certain expectations about what we will see, which are not infrequently satisfied (i.e., brilliantly finished, reflective surfaces,...
There may have been a ‘great thing’ or two (literally) amongst the millions of pages on display at the Geffen; but good luck finding them. I shouldn’t have to be telling this to Printed Matter (a fabulous art book store that’s a must whenever I’m in Chelsea)—but when...
I sometimes wonder what the point of an art fair is anymore. I mean, isn’t that why we ‘let our fingers do the walking’ through Artforum every month? When I expressed this thought on a recent FB post, one of my pals (a well-known artist) rejoined that a “great...
It’s a commonplace of urban life that certain social or cultural venues exert disproportionate influence simply because of their size and leverage in the community. It’s no different in the L.A. art world, where certain galleries and museums compel our attention...
Like many other American citizens, I listened to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening. Full disclosure: I was an early supporter of the President in his first election campaign—but, as I’ve stated on the record, I live in a state of deep...
It’s been said that The Marriage of Figaro (or, more precisely, The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro, as it was originally titled) was one of the first nails in the coffin of the ancien régime. Its author, the playwright, musician, watch-maker (and inventor),...
“I have no choice but to be optimistic,” a friend of mine remarked to me the other day; and I get it. But I ‘m not so sanguine about our prospects on this front, the challenge to free speech and truly unfettered creative expression in an environment hemmed in by many...
Let me first say that I did not expect to be revisiting the issue of free speech so soon after examining the overblown rhetoric and jingoism surrounding Sony’s release of The Interview and the corporate cyber-vandalism immediately preceding it. It’s not as if free...
Let me tell you what I liked about The Interview: the print promotion. Loved the Marx-Engels, classic Communist kitsch-futurist filtered through an ironically pixelated CGI-inflected graphic poster design. The trailer did not look particularly promising; though I...
It was not by accident that the ‘hub’ of the 2014 FotoFocus biennial in Cincinnati was given over to Instagram, augmented by satellite displays throughout the city, including Cincinnati’s Memorial Hall and the hotel where I stayed during my visit there. (The actual...
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