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From the Editor September-October, 2022; Volume 17, issue 1
Dear Reader, As I’ve been saying since the dawn of Artillery (16 years ago now): LA is the most vibrant art city in the country. This isn’t exactly a revelation, so why focus on LA—yet again—in this current issue? Because we felt it was worth revisiting the subject in...
SHOPTALK: LA Art News Aspen Art Week, Tom of Finland Fest, and more
Lonnie Holley Visits LA One of the best gallery shows this year was the self-taught artist Lonnie Holley’s solo show at Blum & Poe, and one of the hottest tickets was a recent Saturday afternoon talk between Holley and Jane Fonda. That may seem an odd pairing, but...
COMMENTARY: Stop Being Supportive
“Dictatorship in the arts, democracy in everything else.” —Dave Godin It might come as a shock to some young people but there was once a time when not every single person was an artist. People are always talking about “the role of the artist in the digital age,” as if...
POEMS "Poem April 3" and "Do It Again"
Poem April 3 The language you are now reading will be born tomorrow morning when the sun that resides in each one of us turns back into music. You and I will be in transit, as usual, rolling along the new roads, practicing our stories in case we’re asked about our...
CODE ORANGE September-October Winner & Finalists
Congratulations to our winner Gayle Nichols-Ali and our finalists, Gayle's photo is seen above and first in our photo gallery in the September/October 2022 online edition of Artillery. The following photographs are the finalists. Please see the info below on how to...
COMICS Bill Hanna & Joe Barbera
APPRECIATION: Carole Caroompas (1946–2022) The Cantankerous and the Lovable
Carole Caroompas, an artist and widely admired teacher whose work encompassed painting, drawing, collage, prints and performance, died on July 30, 2022. In 2007, Western Project, which represented Carole for many years, published a catalog in which various artists,...
From the Editor July-August, 2022; Volume 16, issue 6
Dear Reader, My late husband was a historical biographer with four published books; three of them were written during our marriage. It was an eye-opener to live with someone who writes for a living. For one thing, it seemed like he did a lot of nothing. He would...
Book Review: A Measured Coolness Building + Becoming by Amir Zaki
Building + Becoming By Amir Zaki 272 pages X Artists' Books and DoppelHouse Press The works of Amir Zaki subtly subverts analog photography’s long-held truth claims. His photography, surveyed in the newly published artist book Building + Becoming, addresses the...
Book Review: Heartfelt Moments Portrait of an Artist by Hugo Huerta Marin
Portrait of an Artist By Hugo Huerta Marin 424 pages Prestel What exactly is a portrait? In art, “portrait” is generally understood to mean a visual likeness or representation. One could argue that a photographic portrait captures this visual likeness more closely...
Book Review: Dystopia Redux Brave New World: A Graphic Novel by Fred Fordham
Brave New World: A Graphic Novel Adapted and Illustrated by Fred Fordham 234 pages Harper Collins Original Text © 1932, 1946 by Aldous Huxley Oh wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! Oh brave new world that has such people in’t!...
Book Review: Criminal Culture Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Portrait of a Thief By Grace D. Li 369 pages Tiny Reparations Books The thorny issues of restitution and museums’ complicity in retaining looted artwork do not tend to make for light summer reading. But a breezy new novel turns these issues into the basis of a...
Book Review: Burden of Dreams Poetic Practical: The Unrealized Work of Chris Burden
Poetic Practical: The Unrealized Work of Chris Burden Contributors: Donatien Grau, Yayoi Shionoiri, Sydney Stutterheim, Andie Trainer 284 pages Gagosian It’s impossible to think of the Los Angeles art scene without considering Chris Burden, an incisive social...
Book Review: Ballerina Looks Back in Style Serenade: A Balanchine Story by Toni Bentley
Serenade: A Balanchine Story By Toni Bentley 320 Pages Pantheon As a thin, athletic girl with a springy jump and “not-so-great feet,” Toni Bentley was 11 when she entered the School of American Ballet; she was invited into the New York City Ballet company by George...
SHOPTALK: LA Art News Museum Openings and Summer Programming
The Cheech Is Here While many museums are opening exhibitions long delayed by COVID, one is unveiling a completely renovated building with a new focus. That would be the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, or The Cheech, in Riverside. Part of the...
Beeple and Madonna: Material Girl in a Meta World The Digital
When we think about groundbreakers or early adopters, we think of the first, the biggest, the people that jump up and exemplify a movement. Some will stand the test of time, others will bring shock value in being the protagonists. Whether it be Bowie, Hendrix,...
POEMS "shift work" by Evan Evans; "Enduring Romance" by John Tottenham
shift work twin heads pillow moments away only seats left in the front the forgiving distortion the forgetting of plot so grateful that the light should bow to take the shape of your mouth a movie where she’s so tired from watching him sleep all day —Evan Evans...
