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SIGHTS UNSCENE
SHOPTALK: LA Art News Art Fairs, Gallery Movement, and more
Frieze 2022 The art fairs have returned, and with such a burst of optimistic energy! Maybe they’re signaling the lifting of the curse of COVID—or our fervent hope for its end. And maybe artists, during all the imposed quarantines and self-isolations, have devoted...
ASK BABS But Is It Exploitive?
Dear Babs, I recently saw a gallery show where an artist staged photographs of a person experiencing extreme poverty, collaborating with them to execute the pictures. The photos were moving, but they left me feeling kinda gross. Am I guilty of unethical voyeurism?...
Mapping Fiction — The Huntington Plotting the Dimensional Fictional World
It is probably safe to say that cartography evolved directly alongside oral and written narrative. Similarly, it is plausible to assume that fictional narrative began to take form as travel between known or proximate locations gave way to voyages across unplotted or...
Remarks on Color: Lounging Lavender March's Hue
Lounging Lavender, or simply L.L. as she is known in the “hood,” which isn’t really the “hood” at all, but more like a dilapidated garden for displaced and aging shrubs, begins her day with a daily routine of sun beams and purified water. To say she lives a life a...
THE FRUGAL MEAL Ethereal Sandwiches and the Demand for Less
I’m not in the habit of writing restaurant reviews but I was so moved by a recent dining experience that I simply had to share it. I needed to get something to eat in a hurry and decided to check out a local lunch counter that has been doing spectacular business for a...
Remarks on Color: Mourning Dove Brown February's Hue
Imagine existing between two worlds, neither here nor there, neither one thing nor another, brown, then pink, then a shimmering iridescent green. Life is very confusing for Mourning Dove Brown, as she is continuously changing color depending on the light, the time of...
Ten More to Remember — or simply bring to Los Angeles Postscript to the 2021 Artillery Top Ten
As I wrote to preface ARTILLERY’s 2021 “Top Ten” compilation, there could have easily been a parallel list of 10 or more shows and exhibitions approaching the level of the ten I selected. At one time, the magazine designated a few “honorable mentions,” usually, as I...
The Truth Is Out There, Somewhere Decoder
Who doesn’t like a bit of mystery? But where are they keeping it these days? There are certainly unknowns—when will this pandemic really end? Did they really do that? But mystery is not the same as a mystery. True crime, for example, isn’t mysterious. In the end...
TALLY HO! Bunker Vision
A friend who made his name in the world of queer underground theater often quipped that “Film is forever.” When he landed a featured role in a late Paul Morrissey film, he was confident that something he had done would outlast him. That film turned 40 years old last...
SIGHTS UNSCENE Deinstalling artist Ning-Hsin Hu’s "Pressure Test" at Torrance Art Museum’s NOMAD show, Torrance, CA, 2021
Shoptalk: LA Art News Art Fairs, Breakout Artists, and More.
On a Roll LA artist Sandy Rodriguez is having a very good year—her work is currently in a solo show, “Sandy Rodriguez in Isolation” (through April 17), at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX, plus she’s part of two major exhibitions in the LA...
ASK BABS BABY STEPS, BACK TO NORMALCY
Dear Babs, Back in the pre-Covid days, I didn’t mind going to art openings and events; they weren’t my favorite thing, but I knew it was essential to show up and meet people. Now, after a year of not going out, I find these activities next to impossible to endure. I’m...
Remarks on Color: Recalcitrant Red January's Hue
Recalcitrant Red has gone on strike once and for all, having shirked his usual duties which include the setting of campfires, blood drives, Naugahyde sex parties, riots and any activity where the devil is set to make an appearance. Recalcitrant Red has turned his back...
Remarks on Color: Cringing Cucumber December's Hue
Cucumber is so much more than a tea-time British delicacy, served on white bread with loads of butter, yet Americans cringe at the thought! Cringing Cucumber, as she is known in the States, decided to open a specialty shop in the heart of Manhattan, serving all manner...
Miami Art Week Artillery Report: Day 4 NADA Art Fair and Jeffrey Deitch's Shattered Glass Show
Come for Art Basel, stay for New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA). With over 170 exhibitors at NADA alone and having already visited several fairs, I assumed the booths would start to blur. At NADA, that was far from what happened. The overall fair was refreshing and...
Miami Art Week Artillery Report: Day 3 A day on the beach at Untitled, American Express X Artsy popup show and a benefit auction for Planned Parenthood
Miami Art Week would be incomplete without attending a few of the special events taking place around the city. At any hour of the day, and well into the night, there’s something pseudo art related to do. For my third day, I visited Untitled art fair located right on...
Jean-Yves Thibaudet at Disney Hall — Through the fog and straight to the moon Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the complete Debussy Préludes — December 1, 2021, Walt Disney Concert Hall
“Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir.” Charles Baudelaire, “Harmonie du soir,” Les Fleurs du mal (1857) The title of the first of the 12 Preludes in Book II of Debussy’s Préludes is “Brouillards”—and Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s audience at Disney Hall was...
