If you are familiar with Laurie Fendrich’s work, you know that the artist is a New York–based painter of vibrant geometric abstractions that strike a precarious balance between order and subterfuge. And you may have heard about her 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. But do you know that she is also a writer and teacher who embraces English novelist Jane Austen as a...
How do we put this? A Guy’s gotta paint! And the Guy who’s gotta paint has clearly gotta be obsessed about it! And maybe a few other things besides painting… like SEX! I mean a Guy’s gotta be inspired to paint! And then he’s gotta get through the stuff that fuels, fires, or contrarily, blocks that inspiration, those obsessions. Like—could he get a drink or something? No—something more...
When I first saw Lauren Halsey’s work-in-progress during her residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, I was stupefied. The installation was genuinely a new experience, challenging my notion of visual and spatial aesthetics. It was exhilarating and puzzling, but familiar. Two years later I saw the float she made for the Martin Luther King Day parade in Los Angeles and I knew this was an artist...
The grassy plains of southern Missouri came into view as the plane prepared to land in Springfield, a small city on the edge of the Ozarks. I grew up in a much smaller town not far from there. Springfield was the big city where Mom took us to buy new school clothes. Upon exiting the airport the muggy air was practically suffocating, and I was immediately transported to the barefoot summers of my...
I recently interviewed curator Rocío Aranda-Alvarado of New York’s El Museo del Barrio at the opening of Site Santa Fe’s current biennial, “Much Wider Than A Line.” Rocío was part of a team of five curators for this Site’s ongoing focus on contemporary art from the Americas. We spoke at length in person, then through email several times after I left Santa Fe. Most of the interview came from...
Monica Wyatt’s “c u r i o u s e r - Assemblage Creations from Wonderland” is a magical mystery tour of immersive experience. Wyatt offers work that is, at turns, whimsical, wild, and ephemeral. Created of repurposed materials, her detailed, intricate work floats and...
Love lingers in memories of past embraces, in y(our) shared moments of agony and affection. The pains of past love form bruises–tender and swollen kinks that excite and sting. Sophia Stevenson’s MFA thesis exhibition is personal, as is our relationship (she is a...
To do a one-woman play is a challenge; to do a one-woman play about a noted public figure and keep the audience enthralled for two hours is a tour de force. That’s what Holland Taylor manages to do in Ann, which just opened at the Pasadena Playhouse (through April...
Me You "Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You." is a classic Barbara Kruger experience. The exhibition serves as an introduction to those who may be unfamiliar with her work, yet also engages with seasoned viewers by re-presenting older works in grand, high tech and...
Architectural remnants of cardboard and porcelain stand scattered across Bel Ami gallery, like elegant queer ruins. "Import Imprint", curated by Talia Heiman, is CFGNY’s inaugural exhibition in Los Angeles. Daniel Chew, Ten Izu, Kristen Kilponen and Tin Nguyen form...