Articles
ARTIST TAKEOVER
IN SEARCH OF A CITY — (print exclusive)
Last year, I went through a phase of reading early aviation memoirs. The book that started me on this kick was Beryl Markham’s West with the Night, in which the British-Kenyan aviatrix writes about flying over the Sahara in the early 1900s, delivering supplies between remote desert outposts. What interested me about Markham’s adventures wasn’t the records she set (she completed the first...
WHERE ARTISTS HANG OUT
STAYING SANE(ish) WITH DR. TRAINWRECK — (print exclusive) Dear Dr. Trainwreck
Dear Dr. Trainwreck, I've been relatively successful as an artist, but still, I often feel less than. In a world that is becoming more inclusive and understanding of diversity, economic diversity is still somehow frowned upon. I grew up pretty poor in LA. I've had several friends decide not to introduce me to their higher-net-worth friends or collectors. They say that explicitly. I hate to make...
COLLECTOR’S CORNER — (print exclusive) Jordan D. Schnitzer
Artillery recently sat down with art collector and philanthropist Jordan D. Schnitzer during the opening of The Schnitzer Family Foundation’s “The Art of Food” exhibition currently on view at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Why Art? How do we deal in a world where we are constantly being told where to go, what to buy, and who to listen to, and then plied with misinformation? How do we maintain our...
POEMS
Adopt a Highway Old world sadness meets modern shame on a melancholy walk along a dirty shore, where the beachfront properties are indistinguishable from public restrooms. As we step around fly-strewn masses of rotting seaweed and stare at the sun as it sinks behind the town’s famous rock, we fear that the seasons may have given up— but there is joy in forgetting the things we promised ourselves...
AN ARTIST ANSWERS QUESTIONS Pedro Pedro
Top three dead artists? Fernando Botero, Wayne Thiebaud, and Henri Matisse. This article is available in print and in our digital edition. To read the full article, please subscribe.
STAYING SANE(ish) WITH DR. TRAINWRECK — (print exclusive) Narcissists
I have a notebook from this obnoxious British heritage brand called Smythson, and on the front cover it says, in gold leaf, “Charming in Character and Appearance.” The only thing in this particular notebook is pages upon pages of what I call “unforgivable things”: confusing Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster; referring to anything as “edgy"; when a bartender asks me, “Vodka or gin?” when I...
ART DAMAGED Highbrow Caveman
ROLL CALL
Reviews
CHRISTINE SUN KIM at François Ghebaly
Christine Sun Kim’s work leaves little room for misinterpretation. Clarity, for Kim, is a reality of survival. “American Sigh Language,” the artist’s recent solo exhibition at François Ghebaly, makes it clear: for Kim and other Deaf individuals, intelligibility serves...
GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE at The Getty Museum
Impressionism, with its kitsch trinkets and gift shop ephemera, lives in a realm of surfaces. I’m not alone in thinking this—most of us know Monet through wall calendars, not the Musée. The prevalence of these reproductions make the originals, when seen, difficult to...
VICTOR ESTRADA at As Is
Victor Estrada’s new exhibition appears as an inadvertent, if timely, response to current social upheavals and the militarized chaos that has seized the region. The action-adventure video game, Assassin’s Creed, is an oblique, unlikely inspiration for the show’s...
MAGNUS PETERSON HORNER at Gaylord Fine Arts
On the top floor of The Gaylord Apartments, a spare selection of seven new paintings by Magnus Peterson Horner tingles the optic and haptic senses, even when they’re barely paintings, even when they’re barely there at all. Horner paints people as if sensed through...
Sandra Cinto
The delicate line-work in these semi-abstract sea/land/sky-scapes is incredibly controlled, almost to a fault. It doesn’t leave much room for the unexpected. This might be okay except that the overall vocabulary of forms is a bit too constrained. For instance, the...
Volta’s “Loneliness Triptych” at Jeffrey Deitch
Friday night director/choreographer Mamie Green (collaborating with writers Stephanie Wambugu, Lily Lady, and Sammy Loren) presented 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒚𝒄𝒉, a 30-minute dance/spoken word performance in three consecutive parts, each performed in one of Jeffrey Deitch...
Paul Mpagi Sepuya at Vielmetter
The title “positioner” refers to the photographer’s inclusion of himself in several of these photos as he positions his models, most of which are queer men and women. These are a reflection on studio portraiture as a specific social context. They explore the...
Jill Magid at Various Small Fires
The centerpiece of this show is a carpeted wooden platform, covered with white on blue stars like an American flag. Various Small Fires’ owner, Esther Kim Varet, is running for Congress, and this mini-stage is meant for use by her campaign. What Varet and artist...
Mary Weatherford at David Kordansky Gallery
Two big rooms of Mary Weatherford’s prodigious wall works still aren’t enough space to contain the mesmerizing views the artist generously presents in “The Surrealist” exhibition, which is a bold, seductive reminder of painting’s emotional power and material...
Luis C. Garza at the Los Angeles Central Library
Self-taught photographer Luis Garza began his career as a photojournalist documenting the turbulent social events of the 60s for La Raza magazine, which was a counter-balance to the prevailing conservative and often racist media narratives. His latest exhibit of 63...