For 11 years, Cliff Benjamin and Erin Kermanikian have co-owned Western Project in Culver City. Together they exhibit work that’s consistently challenging and boundary-breaking, representing artists like Tom of Finland (before he was MOCA-acceptable), Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose (whose work is the best kind of shocking), and Ron Athey (who Benjamin accurately describes as “Promethean”)....
“I understand and appreciate clean-made art, but what I’m mostly attracted to is something raw and more guttural. That’s what brought me to the outsider art world. Plus there’s no other gallery in LA that’s showcasing outsider art,” says Paige Wery, erstwhile golfer, art school dropout and part-time painter.Since opening The Good Luck Gallery in March 2014, Wery, a statuesque brunette, has...
The auction market, and in particular the salerooms of the two major auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, have long been a proving ground for the marketplace maturity of every kind of specialty commodity, including fine art. Auction houses have aggressively expanded their secondary market role in recent years, in their unrivaled capacity to match buyer and seller; and as the legacy segment...
When looking at art one considers line, shape, volume, the play of light across pigment. When looking at Los Angeles, one considers other lines. The stark divide between the haves and have-nots is as tangible as the freeways that divide one neighborhood from another. With the theatrical performance of big money that makes LA more destination than home, the art world can seem like just another...
An interview with Paris Photo LA’s new director, Florence Bourgeois, and the new artistic director, Christoph Wiesner, was the first thing on my agenda for the fair this year. I wanted to get from Bourgeois and Wiesner a sense of what changes or innovations they hope to bring to PPLA. Because this is the third year of the three-year commitment Paris Photo had made to be at Paramount Studio in...
Fragments of paper, cardboard, wire and foil have all been carefully orchestrated into a space that seems to float seamlessly and coalesce into a compelling quasi-geometric composition in “Collages 1957–1982” by Louise Nevelson. On closer inspection, it becomes clear...
Fairytales operate in a special place of human consciousness. They offer the building blocks of moralism and societal standards, for better or worse. Though folk stories, myths and fairytales are found throughout every culture, there are many common elements: simple...
Though at first seeming to depict ordinary, even prudish interior domestic scenes, upon closer inspection Anne Buckwalter’s paintings reveal provocative signs of sex, eroticism and sensuality. In Clean Linens, her first solo show at Rachel Uffner Gallery, Buckwalter...
When it comes to exploring concepts of Zen Buddhism and contemporary art, artists have used Modern and Contemporary art approaches like Minimalism, video, and Expressionism to convey these ideas to the viewer. What about Realism? Ernie Marjoram in his solo show...
I’ve written a lot about Los Angeles and how it’s mistakenly known as an “ugly city.” And while before I’ve been willing to blame that mistake on biased reporting, I’m starting to believe that the call is coming from inside the house. Truthfully, we have only...