Articles
DUELLING REVIEWS: BRUCE NAUMAN
AMONG THE THANATOIDS
Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, his first after the 1974 National Book Award-winning Gravity’s Rainbow, is one of many Pynchon novels dramatizing and celebrating life on the fringes of society.
IN SEARCH OF A CITY
“Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city.” —Dorothy Parker I like to go to parties. If you invite me, I’ll come. I never plan to stay long (“I’m just going to make an appearance,” I tell myself), but once I arrive, I end up having a great time and linger until some regrettable hour of the morning. I’ll dance if there’s dancing, sing if there’s singing, eat and drink whatever’s handed to...
COLLECTING THOUGHTS (print exclusive) Alexis Borges
Why do you collect art? Because I can’t not. Art keeps me awake, thinking, and alive. It’s a rush for me. The emotions it evokes for me are some of the most visceral feelings I have experienced. When a piece stirs something in me, curiosity, joy, or even discomfort, it has to come home with me. Collecting is less about ownership and more about living alongside energy that keeps me awake and...
DINNER AND A SHOW Fernberger and Cafe Telegrama
Dinner and a Show offers vehicle-bound and spatially-perplexed Angelenos the plan for a complete night out in LA. I go see an exhibition and tell you where to eat within walking distance of the venue, offering a few thoughts on the show and even more on the restaurant. THE SHOW: LIORAH TCHIPROUT The world-building possibilities of dolls, the projections they dutifully absorb, the romantic and...
Reviews
LEE FRIEDLANDER at Castle
In the shadow of social media, describing a nude portrait of a woman as “authentic” or “not performative” is often a subliminal way of acknowledging that the image has been composed according to an “alternative” set of stylistic constraints: soft, flattering lighting;...
YANG FUDONG at Marian Goodman Gallery
Yang Fudong’s "Sparrow on the Sea" drifts like a fugue. Commissioned for the LED façade of M+ museum in Hong Kong, the silent, black-and-white film now plays in L.A. with full sound, anchored in a dream logic that warps memory and time. Three actors of different...
DON BACHARDY at The Huntington
The wall text for “Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits”—an exhibition at The Huntington featuring over 100 drawings and paintings—asserts that Bachardy persisted in creating portraits during a time when art was more experimental and less representational. I felt that...
JORDAN ROUNTREE at Baert Gallery
When we are small, adulthood comes to us in impressions: a staticky scene from a horror film, an overheard whisper. As adults, we see childhood memories through a similar film. “I Hear a New World” seamlessly weaves together these visions of curiosity and nostalgia....
DUELLING REVIEW: Viola Frey at The Pit
When The Pit announced a show by the late ceramicist Viola Frey, it piqued my editorial interest. I myself first became aware of Frey when I began taking ceramics courses with other sculptors, who would often speak of her as a totemic influence on their practice and...