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Category: Reconnoiter
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RECONNOITER
Cheyenne artist Edgar Heap of Birds has made a practice of illuminating Native-American life against dominant culture erasure. In his recent LA-area exhibitions at Garis & Hahn and the Pitzer College Galleries, he focused on activism and history.
You tell stories of, and advocate for, indigenous peoples. How does increased urbanization affect this?
For indigenous tribal citizens, I advocate participation through referencing the homeland and preservation of the community. That pertains to urban populations, too; I look back to the native origins of citizens, not only to preserving their culture, but by participating in it. It’s not a concept but an activation of their location. Where I am (Oklahoma,) we have many traditional ceremonies and people engaged in those. Urban centers are more dispersed and assimilated, but I still advocate participating in a community. This isn’t just a place I go to for subject matter—it shouldn’t be. No matter where you are, connect with your community and help out.How does language preservation and dispersion figure in your work?
My “Native Host” series (civic signage that reveals the location’s original native name) has been going on since 1988, all over the U.S. and Canada. The native language, the tribal names, are more of an insistence on representation and, in a sense, agency. It is an intervention, a reclamation, saying “this is our territory, this is our history.” Without the language, everything is overlooked—America eclipses it with its own history. Reclaiming land through the language and traditions is so important. There is total amnesia about that history.How does “Defend Sacred Mountains” at Pitzer College address land?
I focus very strongly on origin. Land is origin. It is also sovereignty. This show (about sacred native land under threat from commercial interests) is about origin, sovereignty, and also ceremony. Ceremony is how you address land. It’s almost like a religious connection, a stewardship and collaboration with land. When I address the land in my work, it’s about being humble. We are so incidental to this planet. People are important to each other but not to the planet. They pretend to have status but it’s self-made. So, mostly, the tribes seem very humble to be on this planet. They start there and stop there. That is what I’ve learned in over 30 years of my ceremonial training in the Cheyenne tribe.Do you mentor native artists?
Yes, but I also mentor many races of people. I have to engage everybody. I think that’s important. I have former students in LA: Chris Christion (African American); Kade Twist (Cherokee) at Otis, who was in the 2017 Whitney Biennial and was one of my students in Native American Studies. Also, Michael Maxwell, a New York artist with a native perspective on land and responsibility. It’s great to see non-native artists pick up on some of the native precepts that are positive. That sort of transition is productive.And navigating activism and commerce?
Don’t be mesmerized by the market. Some artists are. I try to stay focused on important goals, culturally and artistically. I’m not involved in the market—in the studio or in the interventions I make. The market comes afterward. I like my work to be seen, travel for a few years before it gets locked up, out of sight. It has to address people and get an exchange of ideas. If the market can aid in this, great, but I’m thinking about the mission of the culture and art, before the market. -
RECONNOITER
Naima J. Keith is the deputy director of Los Angeles’ California African American Museum (CAAM), arriving in 2016 from the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.
Being an LA native, what was your awareness of CAAM, their programs, and their history before leaving Los Angeles?
I was very lucky in that my mom is an active arts patron. She’s a doctor by day, but by night and weekends, she is an active collector. She has been involved with CAAM both as a member and as a foundation board member for a number of years in the ’90s. When I was a kid, she would drag us to the museum quite often to see exhibitions, so I definitely was very familiar with the museum, its mission and the artists they supported.Since accepting the role of deputy director, which project to date would you say you’re most proud of?
Of course, I’m invested in every single project, but I would say that I’m extremely proud of the fact that we hosted “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85,” coming from the Brooklyn Museum, just because I felt that it was an important exhibition. I’ve known the curators, Rujeko Hockley and Catherine Morris, for quite some time and they had told me about their plan to do this exhibition a couple years ago. I asked them to keep in touch with me about touring because I would love to bring it to LA. It was an ambitious show for us: there were a lot of loans, a number of pieces that had not been shown in Los Angeles, there were security needs. Not to say that CAAM hadn’t done ambitious projects before, but this exhibition had a lot of ephemera, a lot of objects, and for us to be a part of a national conversation—particularly about what women were doing during this time period—[hosting a] show that had gotten a lot of rave reviews in New York, and for us to be the only West Coast venue, was a huge deal.Comparing New York City and Los Angeles, what contrasts in levels of material support for PoC-centered art do you see?
I’m a native diehard Angeleno, so of course I’m always going to root for Los Angeles no matter what the contest. But it’s no secret that there are several more institutions that are dedicated to supporting arts practitioners of color in New York. Yet I do think that Los Angeles is growing and there are several new spaces and organizations such as the Underground Museum and Art + Practice—even though they don’t exclusively support artists of color—choosing PoC artists to show as part of their agenda.It’s great to see Los Angeles making huge strides in supporting artists of color in a consistent way. New York probably has more support right now, but I definitely think that Los Angeles is growing.
Have you found it difficult to get certain exhibitions approved that might be seen as too political or incendiary, with CAAM being a state-funded nonprofit?
The curators and I have not even necessarily proposed or considered any exhibitions that are way too “crazy,” like a sculpture with Trump’s head cut off. Not to say that we don’t want to be a museum that’s thought-provoking and cutting-edge or responsive to our current climate, but we haven’t had those kinds of discussions. There hasn’t really been a lot of debate at the museum or anything that we’ve had to argue with the board about.Can you give us any insights into any expanded programming you have coming up in 2018?
This year, we’ve started a series called “Reclaiming Our Time,” obviously riffing off of “Auntie” Maxine Waters’ demands [in Congress]. It was a watershed moment because she was demanding not only that her voice be heard, but also that she be recognized. So we’re looking at radical self-care throughout the year. We had a yoga workshop—our atrium was packed. There is a vegan workshop, a movement series… it’s going to take on various forms, and we’re looking at having a diverse range of speakers this year. Our mission is art, history and culture; so we want CAAM to be a place where people have the opportunity to not just learn more about art and history, but also to use as a gathering space where one has the opportunity to talk about culture. -
RECONNOITER
Bill Sheehy is the director of Latin American Masters, which he founded in 1987.
What led you to exhibit only Latin-American artists? Do you think that LA’s proximity to Latin America lends its art a special relevance here?
I was led to exhibit Latin-American art by my travels to Mexico. LA’s proximity to Mexico presents a great opportunity to visit one of the great cultural centers of the world. As for the rest of Latin America, it is a vast and varied cultural landscape that is deserving of greater attention.You said that half your clients are out of state or abroad. Besides LA, where is your patronage most concentrated?
New York. Historically, our out-of-state clients have come from New York, Europe, Canada and Latin America. It’s ironic, isn’t it, given our proximity to Mexico, that we sell at least as much outside of the area.You show a lot of artists who, it seems, are truly masters. Who’s your most prominent star? Whom do you regard as most underrated?
Francisco Toledo is one of the world’s most important artists. He is the artist with whom we have been most involved. His artistic vision and formal range are on a scale that few artists have attained. He is a gifted sculptor, ceramicist, printmaker and painter. His exploration of diverse materials is legendary.
Even though Toledo, among the living artists, is the most famous that we show, he’s not nearly as famous as he should be. He’s constantly reinventing himself, going against the market. His own reticence to publicity has kept him off the radar of many people in the art world. He is, nonetheless, one of the world’s greatest living artists.Do you feel that PST’s focus has validated the importance of what you’ve been doing all along?
PST may have validated Latin-American art for some people. It has no doubt raised visibility for some artists. However, the history of modern and contemporary Latin-American art far exceeds the scope of PST. In short, PST has been helpful but there remains much scholarship to be done on Latin-American art. I always felt that Latin America had produced some of the world’s great art. That is the way I felt 40 years ago and that won’t change.All of this PST buzz is coming to a close, but you’ll continue the cause. Looking forward, what are you most anticipating?
We like to feel that we’re a resource where people can come at any given time and see really good examples of work by major and mid-career artists that are showing internationally. We’re skeptical about the mania for novelty.
We have a show for the great Puerto Rican painter Arnaldo Roche due to open in January. Because of logistical problems in Puerto Rico now because of the hurricane, we may have to postpone it until February or March in order to get the material out of the country. We are definitely going to do the show.
We’re interested in artists who have developed their own language and are pursuing their own vision. I’m not Latin-American. I don’t have any sort of nationalist or political agenda about identity. I just happen to think that these artists are as good as any artists on the planet; and I’m trying to create a place where people who are interested in painting and traditional media can see beautiful examples of those things that are in a dialogue with the world and the history of art. We offer people something that’s really about what’s lasting. -
RECONNOITER
Wendy Watriss is an award-winning photographer, journalist, curator and co-founder and artistic director of Houston’s FotoFest. In the wake of a season of climate disasters unfurling across the Gulf and Caribbean following only a year after FotoFest’s 2016 biennial, Changing Circumstances, with its theme of the anthropocene’s impact upon the planet, ARTILLERY wondered what Watriss’ “hurricane’s eye” view of its physical, cultural and political impact might be—both for the world at large and Houston itself.
How has Houston weathered Hurricane Harvey; and more specifically, how did the FotoFest studios and offices make out during the flooding?
Personally, we fared alright in the Menil neighborhood—which is just slightly higher than the rest of Houston. Downtown is still digging out. The [Houston] Opera and Symphony and the Alley Theatre were all very badly flooded. Amazingly, the FotoFest offices were fine –nothing hurt, nothing touched. But this is still a city with a lot of resources, including construction and engineering.Were you always a photographer? Or was this something you picked up in the course of your journalism and freelance reporting?
I began as a newspaper reporter. I didn’t want to write for women’s pages, so I went to Florida where I worked at the St. Petersburg Times, eventually covering Tallahassee. Then I began getting involved in television. At some point later, I became interested in the impact of visual imagery and studied at night with the photographer, Harold Feinstein. I started to freelance as a writer and photographer. I knew where to look for things.
Wendy and husband Fred, photo by Evin Thayer Both you and Fred [Watriss’ husband, photographer, journalist and FotoFest co-founder, Frederick Baldwin] were very much at home on international terrain. Around the time of your first meeting with Fred, you’ve said you had no real intention of ever returning to America. We know you eventually did—but what made you want to sink roots in Texas?
We were both interested in reconnecting with our country after the tumultuous years of the 1960s and early 1970s; and I have to say after six or seven years of traveling alone, the idea of having a partner to share this with was very attractive.Fred had become very familiar with Texas through his contacts there and their wild stories. To me the idea of Texas was more exotic than Romania. Texas had a much richer history than what got into the history books; and we ended up looking at Texas in some depth as three or four cultural frontiers, a microcosm of different cultures and political experience–which turned into a big exhibition at the Rice University’s Institute for the Arts. Houston has made it possible in spite of itself. It’s extremely open, quite generous and not class-bound.
You’ve covered religious conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. Do you think there’s any possibility people can let go of their superstitions and religious biases under less than the threat of immediate loss of life?
No I don’t feel very hopeful about that. Unless you have a certain basis of material security, it’s very hard to break away into some rationalized image of the world. When people become materially secure, when there’s at least more of the illusion of being able to control your own destiny, that erodes religion.Not that I’m pessimistic—it just takes a very long time. I am worried. It’s important that we have institutions seemingly strong enough to fight against irrational circumstances.
Wendy Waitriss, photog
You’ve talked about beauty creating a sense of concern and wanting to see the Earth on its own terms. We’ve discussed (with Fred) the often startling beauty of bad news. But is it enough to shake people out of a simple fixation on the sensational?
No–I think it has to be repeated over and over again before it can actually make a difference. Unfortunately it’s hard to find the continuous platform for that sort of thing.Your last comment to me—that “it’s going to go pretty soon in one way or another and other generations won’t be able to see it” seems bleakly resonant. Are we simply testifying for a record that by century’s ends will be mere archaeological artifacts?
The natural world is incredibly resilient and regenerative. So there’s still a lot of opportunity for protecting, for saving, for letting evolution take its nonhuman course. There is the fact that are so many more people fighting for this cause in very unexpected places—and it does seem to be gaining momentum. Technology allows us to get so much information so quickly. We’re at the point of a very delicate balance. But I refuse to allow myself to get pessimistic. -
RECONNOITER
Dr. Lourdes I. Ramos was recently appointed as President and CEO of the Museum of Latin American Art in May. Previously, she served as Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico for 12 years. She is the first Latina to hold the position at MOLAA.
How has the museum field recently changed for women, specifically Latina women?
The presence of Latina professionals in U.S. museums has increased significantly in recent years. At the present, many Latina professionals occupy positions in direction, leadership, curatorship and museum administration in general. Previously they also had presence, but like in many other professions, the participation was predominantly in non-managerial profiles.Getty’s upcoming Pacific Standard Time exhibitions aim to shed light on Latin American and Latino art’s connections to the greater Los Angeles Area, something MOLAA has been committed to long before—since it opened in 1996. Do you think PST: LA/LA will change MOLAA’s mission at all in this regard?
Internationally, MOLAA is recognized for its excellence in terms of dissemination and knowledge of Latin American and Latino art. Projects like PST contribute to show the relevance of MOLAA and its mission and strengthen the scene and contributions of Latin American and Latino American artists in general. PST is an extraordinary example of solidarity and what responsible institutions, managers, artists and sponsors have the ability to build together. Undoubtedly, the mission of MOLAA will be strengthened as PST will allow contextualizing open research and opening a new portal to highlight new resources, speeches and interpretations that merit justice to our artists.MOLAA has a PST: LA/LA exhibition coming up: “Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago,” organized by Guest Curator Dr. Tatiana Flores. What are some key highlights we should look for when it opens this September?
The exhibition features 21st-century art of the insular Caribbean through the framework of the archipelago. Recurring themes include race and ethnicity, history, identity, sovereignty, migration and sustainability. These and others are explored in the exhibition’s four thematic sections: Conceptual Mappings, Perpetual Horizons, Landscape Ecologies and Representational Acts. With over 80 artists occupying the entire museum, the exhibition includes painting, installation art ,sculpture, photography, video and performance.What do you think is missing from the Latino/ Chicano/Latin American Contemporary art scene in Los Angeles right now?
There is plenty of talent here… among many other things, a comprehensive cultural re-engineering project that allows management of contemporary arts as a fundamental part of economic and social development. This presupposes but is not limited to: providing greater resources and economic incentives to improve the quality of life of our artists; support and recognize them as integral to economic development of the institutions that represent them; a greater investment by the state to disseminate talents; promotion of academic and formal profile publications and research; arts integration in a proactive way in the school curriculum, among others. Countries like France and Holland, to mention some, recognize the values that unite them through their creators of all epochs. In a context of diversity and cultural plurality, Los Angeles’ ability to recognize the contribution of Latino, Chicano and Latin
American artists in contemporary art as generators of economy and social change is fundamental.What are some of your ideas for ensuring the museum maintains both local and global significance?
The world of ideas is inexhaustible and at present I am in the process of strategic planning. However, I anticipate that every project developed in MOLAA will have as its starting point for fundamental considerations (innovation, inclusion, diversity and accessibility). The priority will be the research, diffusion and contextualization of new content that celebrate the excellence of our creators. -
RECONNOITER
Elena Shtromberg is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Utah. She is co-curator (with Glenn Phillips, curator and head of modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute) for the PST LA/LA exhibition of “Video Art In Latin America” on view September 17 at LAXART in Hollywood.
What led to the decision to categorize the videos showing at LAXART into thematic programs? Were you and co-curator Glenn Phillips beginning to see patterns when viewing over 2000 videos?
We were committed from the beginning to doing a thematic show. Most of the histories that currently exist about video art in Latin America are written as national histories—that is, video art in Peru, Colombia, Chile, etc.—and we wanted to put the works we saw into dialogue with each other across different historical periods and different geographies. We chose themes that resonate not only across different countries in Latin America but globally.Did you have any idea of the quantity of videos you’d be considering and watching?
No, I think we imagined there was work, but not in the quantity that we found. We currently have a record of about 4000 works in our database and know that this is hardly comprehensive and that there is a lot more work to document.When did you come on board with Getty for this project? Did you move here to work on PST LA/LA?
I actually live between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City and when I’m not in SLC, I’m here. I have a longstanding relationship with the Getty Research Institute, and Glenn and I have worked together on video programs before. In 2005, we co-curated a program on pioneering work in Brazilian video art, and in 2006, we did a program on U.S./Mexico Border video art. In 2011, while I was a guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute, we discussed beginning a research project on video art in Latin America, expanding our interest in video to include work that wasn’t well known and on which there was little written about. We wanted to collect research materials and make them publicly available, and give students the materials they need to research and write about this work further. That was in 2012. We began the project in 2013 with a trip to Mexico and eventually, after the announcement of Pacific Standard Time, we decided to expand our project with an exhibition as well. However, it won’t end when PST is over. We intend to continue to work on this so that we can make the materials accessible, including a publication of essays and translated primary texts that we hope will come out in 2019.How many videos will be presented at the LAXART exhibition? Will they be showing simultaneously, or will you rotate some of the work?
We have six thematic programs with about 10 works per program; we haven’t yet finalized it but the total will be somewhere in the range of 65 works. There are three gallery spaces at LAXART where people will be able to see the programs, and they will be looped, the first three will run followed by the next three. We also have a number of large and small installations throughout the space that people can come see even if they don’t have time to watch a whole program, which run about 45 to 50 minutes. And we have offered to show the individual programs at different institutions throughout Southern California. For example, we are doing a program at the West Hollywood Library and hope to work out a series of sessions at different universities that have contacted us with interest.What would you say was your biggest discovery about Latin American art when visiting and traveling throughout the continent?
I think for me, what continues to impress and interest me is how many microhistories there are. In some ways it is very difficult to think about one Latin American art, and I think one of the things that this version of PST will bring out is the diversity and multiplicity within this field. During the last four years of travel for this project I learned that I could continue this research for another 40 years and still not become fluent in this history. There are artists/artworks and countries that figure more prominently, but what you find is that when you travel to countries whose art is lesser known, you will find so many stories that haven’t been told and so many unique and oftentimes spectacular works by artists who are largely unknown outside of their country. I was surprised to learn how little interaction artists in neighboring countries have with each other. They are much more likely to know work out of the U.S. and Europe than that of their neighbors. -
RECONNOITER
In the 1980s, Pam and Steve Nagler founded the performance ensemble Shrimps, which toured nationally and performed locally at venues like LACE. Over the years Shrimps’ iterations included Martin Kersels, Weba Garretson and Ryan Hill. The couple recently retired from 28 years of teaching public high school.
What subjects did you teach?
Pam: I started out teaching English—I’m a writer—and later taught art.
Steve: I taught ceramics, art history, and design. When I started teaching ceramics at Montclair High School, it hadn’t been taught in several years, and the wheels and kilns were from the 1950s and ’60s. I also taught performance in my classes.What was it like teaching art in public high school?
Steve: We retired from teaching at Montclair High School. It has a high percentage of immigrant families, and it’s being affected by the new administration. This is the era of teaching to the test, which is a virus that has gone crazy. It limits the kind of learning that can happen, and it limits the kind of art program you can have.
Pam: The students that we taught came from artisan-based cultures and had a greater appreciation for art than other groups of students that I worked with. Many of their parents made traditional folk art. They had an appreciation for things that were made by hand.How does the future look for art programs in public schools?
Steve: It moves in cycles. There is hope. The big push now is in science with the STEM curriculum: science, technology, engineering and math. But there is also a push for STEAM, which includes the arts. We constantly worked to advance that approach.How did you avoid teaching to the test?
Steve: We responded directly to the students. In the late 1990s, we studied in Mexico to develop fluency in the culture of our immigrant students. We also worked to open our students’ mind to a wider world. Teaching Art History and coaching Academic Decathlon (AD) was part of that. Each year AD had a different theme. It used to focus on different world cultures, but eventually it narrowed. The Trump administration is like the ultimate culmination of navel-gazing and not looking outward.
Pam: I was critical of the AP program because it emphasized rote learning. The AP Studio Art curriculum was the most challenging of the APs because a student had to create their own research and come up with this huge body of work. The studio arts don’t get enough cred, but what’s required is quite formidable and really does advance a student. It’s great preparation for college; it doesn’t matter whether you’re going on in the arts.What was the most important thing you did for your students?
Pam: I thought of art as the lab. Students could pull in things from other classes, and think about it and make it work in art. I tried to create that kind of openness for them to explore their own directions.
Steve: We weren’t trying to train artists. We worked to teach students to enjoy the process. For many of them, it was their only connection to the arts. The majority wouldn’t go on to do anything in the arts. We tried to encourage curiosity about the world and to make creative choices within their work. We also tried to push them to further their education. That’s ultimately what will make their lives better. -
RECONNOITER
Danielle Brazell is the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014. Today the DCA has a budget of $42 million with 64 fulltime staff, a municipal art gallery (LAMAG) and 18 community art centers. Through an application process, they award the annual COLA grant to artists.
You’ve done so many things, and what’s great is that you’ve been working on the ground. You were at Highways…
Highways was really the epicenter of the multicultural arts movement of the 1990s. Highways Performance Space and 18th Street Arts Center are such important organizations for emerging artists, teaching artists and arts administrators.How did you discover the place?
A friend of mine was doing an art show at the gallery inside Highways. He had been documenting the protests happening around the AIDS epidemic. When I walked in, I thought, “This place is powerful.” Tim Miller [one of the founders] was giving a free performance workshop. I mustered up the courage to show up and start taking his workshops. [They were featuring] major contemporary artists that were addressing critical issues facing our time, and they were doing it in really interesting, experimental, and contemporary ways. They were also highly confrontational about it. It was this wonderful place where artists were interested in art as a civic dialogue.What you’re saying seems post-view and pre-view at the same time. I think this kind of civic engagement is going to be important again, with what’s happening.
I think it’s essential. This is the work of artists and creatives, arts administrators and curators, this is what we provide to society. We need to make sure we can reflect a mirror to ourselves, and to challenge our social institutions—government, religion, military, education—this is what we do. In doing so, we offer something extraordinary. We build community cohesion, we promote independent thinking, we build meaning into people’s lives—in many ways, we provide perspective on what’s happening in the world.
Eventually we graduated, and we began to teach our own women’s workshops. We were interested in cultivating other women’s voices, and also further expanding our own voices. In order to do that, you have to develop an economy around it.Were these workshops all done at Highways?
At Highways, at Beyond Baroque—I did a couple residencies at Cal State LA, and we did some workshops at the Gay and Lesbian Center. The Department of Cultural Affairs has an Artist-in-Residence program, and I applied and was an artist-in-residence.What made you think that an arts career was for you?
I think when I was a kid I wanted to do something that had relevance and meaning. For me, being able to have an art career in and of itself is kind of amazing. There was a lot of violence in my neighborhood, a lot of instability, a lot of trauma. I got lucky and I had a teacher, a drama teacher [at Cleveland High School], who said this is a safe place for you, where you can learn to move your trauma into something creative. I began to find community in that theater department, and to really learn how to read and write—at the time I was a functioning illiterate.Tell me about the COLA (City of Los Angeles) grant program—it’s very unusual for a city to give grants directly to artists to advance their career.
It’s such an important stepping stone for emerging and mid-career artists to receive acknowledgement and support from their city. These are for visual arts, literary arts, and design, and we like to give out 15 grants a year but sometimes it’s less. The 20th anniversary is going to be an important moment, because we’re going to be doing an exhibition highlighting the past fellows and the impact the award had on their careers.Will that be at the LA Municipal Art Gallery?
Yes. The energy at the Municipal Art Gallery at the moment is just so exciting; we’re thrilled to have Isabelle [Lutterodt, the director] and her team on board. It’s a 10,000 square foot gallery, it’s a beautiful space, and [this fall] we’re doing our Getty PST show, “Learning from Latin America,” there, a survey show on modernism from a Latin American perspective.We have to think about how are we of service and who are we in service to? We are in service of the people of Los Angeles. We operate basically out of public money that’s funded through tourist dollars, but we are stewards of these dollars. We need to make really thoughtful investments on how we move arts and cultural services out in the community. And we can’t do that without artists—artists and arts organizations are our key partners in achieving our goals.
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RECONNOITER
Carolyn Merino Mullin is the Founder And Executive Director of The Animal Museum whose new space opened December 3rd in the heart of LA’s Downtown Arts District.
ARTILLERY: What inspired you to start an animal museum?
MERINO MULLIN: Other social movements—women’s suffrage, civil rights, various labor movements—have museums dedicated to their cause. Yet there has never been any museum that focuses on animals and animal rights. I marinated on the museum idea for years while working in the animal nonprofit sector—honestly, who starts a museum?—and took a leap of faith in 2009.What does the museum’s mission encompass?
Beyond animal protection, which actually dates back centuries, we focus on events where animals and society intersect through the arts, humanities, science and humane education.An explosion of animal art and photography seems to be taking place in tandem with their alarming decline in the natural world, in part as a plea to preserve their sheer beauty and magnificence. Will visually driven work of this nature be a significant part of the museum’s program?
Yes, our museum will also be a venue to show exceptional and exceptionally curated art on the subject, steered by our curator Rafael Perea de la Cabada, who is an artist himself. Animals have been marginalized as a movement, and so has animal art. We hope to help change that. But we’re not just about putting beautiful stuff on the wall or becoming another country club whose main purpose is validating its own collection. We aim to be a living history, and to actually effect change in the world, enriching the lives of both animals and people.The diversity of the museum’s supporters and board members is impressive: academics, authors, artists, scientists, filmmakers, musicians, lawyers, non-profit administrators, sanctuary pioneers, to name a few …
Many people care deeply about animals because the lives of animals and humans are so interconnected. Why then tell our national story as if this complex and fascinating relationship doesn’t exist? We seek to move it to the mainstream, to challenge the notion that animals and their rights are a “fringe” or “anti-human” concern.One of the key narratives in your permanent exhibit is how the animal protection movement has largely been on the backs of women who appear to identify more with their plight. Will the museum continue to examine this thread in the contemporary landscape?
Opening Feb 25, 14 international women artists explore the question “How does someone become something?” in a landmark exhibition, “The Sexual Politics of Meat.” The works are inspired by the ecofeminist theories in Carol J. Adams’ tome of the same name and will examine intersecting oppressions based on gender, race and species, considering what objectification means to them politically and personally.The endless stream of animal imagery and video on the internet has dramatically increased our exposure to non-human creatures of all stripes whose lives we may not otherwise be exposed to—from the comic machinations of honey badgers to the endlessly surprising behavior of our pets. Do you think all this has intensified interest in animals and made the museum an especially timely venture?
Anything that can get people caring more about animals is a good thing. On the other hand, the Internet can risk reducing animal life to entertaining 30-second sound bites or turn them into celebrities we think we know. For instance, popular media about pigs inspired many people to adopt them as pets. Then the disconnect from fiction to reality hit and many pigs ended up in sanctuaries. The great thing about an animal museum is that it challenges us to see our fellow creatures more historically, and as their own tribes and cultures rather than just objects for our entertainment and pleasure. It also provides a space for having these discussions, to elevate the discourse about human/animal relationships.Do you have pets?
I am claimed by Burrito, a curmudgeon of a cat I rescued as a feral kitten; Sophia—a very angelic pup saved from the streets; and Blik, who we adopted from a shelter.What do you think is behind our love and fascination with animals?
They are nonjudgmental and enigmatic. We rediscover ourselves through their eyes. They carry something about us. -
RECONNOITER
Gerard O’Brien founded The Landing a year ago and is the owner of Reform Gallery in Los Angeles, a store that quickly became a leading source for furnishings, crafts and accessories in the California Modern style.
ARTILLERY: You’ve gotten a lot of admiration and good press for Reform Gallery, and you were already selling fine art there. How and why did you start the Landing?
O’Brien: My original gallery on La Cienaga had an upstairs white box gallery, and I was able to do a number of exhibitions back then. Mainly decorative arts, but I did a show for [people like] Tanya Aguiniga. In December 2007 I did Design Miami, and I had in my first booth J.B. Blunk, Claire Falkenstein and Ruth Asawa.
My interest has always been in postwar California art and design and architecture, and to me they’re all interwoven. At Reform I was showing art in a salon-style with decorative arts. Over the years I had a desire to tell stories more in depth, about artists or groups of artists. The birth of the Landing was just that, I had a little landing in a previous shop.When did you finally decide you needed a separate space for the art gallery? We know space is at a premium now in LA, how did you find this one on Jefferson Boulevard?
For two years, I was doing shows, and I was getting phenomenal press coverage, but the Landing wasn’t really registering. The space next to my warehouse became available, and I jumped on it. There’s ample room, we have about 3000 square feet, with 2000 square feet for exhibition. It’s in an area known as Jefferson Park, next to the Metro, and we’re lucky to have L.A. Louver [their warehouse and second exhibition space] as a neighbor. We’re near the heart of Culver City, not too far from La Brea.Artist J.B. Blunk was your first show in your new space.
Blunk had a big part to play in my committing to being a full-fledged art dealer. I was lucky enough to work with the Blunk estate back in 2006. I knew I wasn’t able to contextualize him as an artist just under the auspices of Reform Gallery. I needed another way to show him as an artist, and I kept finding myself drawn to certain material, work by people who crossed the boundary from design to art. Somebody like Doyle Lane, the African American ceramicist I showed on Melrose. I showed a big mural that Doyle had done in 1964; that mural is now at the Huntington. Until then Doyle was thought of more as a ceramicist.Tell me how the current show about the Rat Bastard Protective Association, came to your gallery. They were a group of artists who lived and worked together in the Fillmore area of San Francisco in the late ’50s and early ’60s, not a long time, but they include some very recognizable names— Wallace Berman, Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo and Manuel Neri. The presentation is historical and almost like a small museum show.
Sam [Parker, the gallery director] is from the Bay Area and had heard of this group. He found out that Anastasia Aukeman was doing the definitive book about the subject [Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective Association, published by the University of California Press, 2016]. She teaches at Parsons, and we invited her to curate a show for us. We worked with primary galleries. We are more of a project-based practice, not so much having a roster of artists and sticking to that. Here we were working with a number of big artists who have primary galleries already, and they made work available for us to show. We did borrow a few things. It was very important for us to have a Bruce Conner assemblage piece, and unfortunately, there were none available on the open market. The di Rosa collection in Northern California was willing to work with us, so we have a phenomenal example of his work. -
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 director, curator and administrative chair for the nonprofit art organization that provides gallery exhibition space for emerging and unknown artists.
ARTILLERY: You’re the founder of LA Artcore Center, which is now 37 years old, which means you’ve been in an executive position for that long. What keeps your work from being monotonous and tiresome?
TAKESHITA: I have all these positions. I don’t have enough time to be bored. I’m too busy! But you know, really, I love it. It’s not just passing the time. There’s always great pleasure in interacting and meeting new artists.Who comes to the gallery?
I have a sign out front. It’s primarily visitors from Little Tokyo. It’s just amazing. A lot of people from China—just yesterday some Australians. Maybe 95% are tourists.Is there an unknown artist that exhibited at LA Artcore Center then went on to become famous?
Yes! Mark Steven Greenfield and also Kamol Tassananchalee. You see, Kamool is an interesting person because his grandfather was an artist for the Royal family in Korea.How do you seek out international artists? How do they learn about your organization?
By accident (laughs). In the early days, when I lived in Seoul, Korea, the Liberal Arts were required by all students. So there, they have a tremendous interest in the arts. You’d be amazed how many universities offer only art. So many [Korean] professors came here looking for places to show. So I didn’t formalize anything. The Korean artists just started coming. Then Japanese artist Yoshio Ikezaki, who occasionally teaches at the Art Center in Pasadena, started showing his work and he’s the one that initiated the exchange show with Japan. Now Nobu Kano, a current Japanese artist will be leading 12 artists to show at Artcore in August. And now for the first time we’re doing an exchange with Taiwan artists.What is the criteria for an artist to get a show here at LA Artcore?
There’s no criteria. It’s just a space provided for working artists. When they think they are ready to show, they contact me. You see, this is it, people contact me. And people who come here aren’t necessarily beginners. There are some mid-career artists. Really just anybody.What if you don’t like the work?
Well it’s too bad. (laughs)You still will show it?
(laughs) Oh sure.But what if you think they are awful? Like they have no talent?
Oh, well that’s different. We still don’t turn them down. I encourage the artist and keep them on file. I have to judge when they are ready to have a show. I might push them a little bit, in a better direction.A mission of LA Artcore Center is to be community-oriented and diverse in their exhibitions, would you say that was your vision and mission from the very beginning?
Yes, it was totally open from the very beginning.Where is LA Artcore going now. Is there anything new on the horizon.
For all these years the first batch of board members were just talkers, and artists are the worst at making money (giggles). So it was really long, maybe 20 years, where the money was always running out. Now we have a new board, with a new president, Norman Ishizaki. They are ready to go. They want to keep developing this. -
RECONNOITER
Aram Moshayedi is a curator at the Hammer Museum. He organized “Made in L.A. 2016” with Hamza Walker, Director of Education and Associate Curator, Renaissance Society.
ARTILLERY: What is your area of curating at the Hammer?
Moshayedi: There are no distinct areas of specialization that separate curators at the Hammer. We collectively bring our different interests to the table in the hopes that these complement one another. My specific background has afforded opportunities to work with artists from different disciplines, but I would say I’ve tended to work with artists who are involved with the time and duration of exhibitions in interesting ways, whether through sound, film/video, or performance.
Can you illuminate the process of selecting artists for this biennial?
The process was organic. We deliberately set out to avoid any restrictions or criteria other than those that are established by the “Made in L.A.” series, which was established to focus exclusively on artists working throughout Los Angeles. Rather than approach things thematically or according to some arbitrary quotient, we wanted to think about the exhibition’s overall structure, and how certain artists and contributors from other disciplines might either fit or reject the structure of museum exhibitions of this nature.
As a group, what do the artists selected for the exhibition represent about today’s art world?
It goes without saying, but there is no singular art world today, and the artists included in the exhibition reflect this. Disparity and divergence from one presentation to the next is at the basis of “Made in L.A. 2016.” There is really no way of adequately representing culture in such monolithic terms, and we don’t expect artists to be emblems in that way. The 26 different perspectives included in the exhibition reflect concerns that are inherently tied to their unique investments and interests as artists, filmmakers, poets, choreographers, designers, composers, etc.
This is the first year fashion, made by a corporation, is in “Made in LA.” How is work created by a corporation—and a fashion label—different than that of an artist?
Eckhaus Latta is an independent fashion label that was founded by the artists Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta. The question surrounding their inclusion in an exhibition of this variety, within a cultural institution that more or less focuses on visual art, was not whether or not what they do as designers should be constituted as art. Instead, we wanted to address the concerns that are specific to their work in the realm of fashion. What role does marketing play, how do museums tend to absorb this form of culture within the conventions of exhibition and display—these were questions we wanted to ask, and Zoe and Mike were interested in having that conversation. One way of addressing this was by working with them to produce a new video to promote their spring/summer 2016 collection. The video is only available online, where they’ve tended to advertise in the past.
Labor Link TV, similarly, is also an entity, not an individual artist. What differences between a for-profit corporation and a labor advocacy group informed this choice?
The ways in which Eckhaus Latta participates in “Made in L.A. 2016” are not unlike how we imagined the involvement of Labor Link TV, which in part is presented through PADNET, a cable access television station out of Long Beach. Cable access television is a context and format that Labor Link TV has worked within since it was founded by artist Fred Lonidier in 1988. We wanted to retain this, while also finding ways in which the activities and history of LLTV could be represented in the format of an exhibition.
