The downtown Los Angeles arts district has been evolving, somewhat in tandem with adjacent downtown districts, since at least the 1980s. There was a stabilizing shift at the turn of the century when SCI-Arc took over the old Santa Fe rail depot east of Alameda and began renovating it into studio, classroom and related facilities. A natural anchor and boundary for the northwest end of the...
With its third installment at the Hammer Museum, “Made in L.A.” has settled into its brand as a well-researched survey of current trends and practices in regional art. But there is never a “settling in” as far as expectations for a biennial, which raises the bar not only for curators and the artists involved, but also for those who experience it. Aiming to review the show, I spent one afternoon...
Like Robert Mapplethorpe, who has had exhibitions at two LA museums this spring—the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—Cindy Sherman is a difficult subject because the work is so well known already. The exhibition at The Broad museum does manage a few surprises, however. All but 12 of the 169 pieces in the exhibition are drawn from the Broads’ own collection, which has...
So much about the Los Angeles River is not immediately obvious. That it’s a river at all, for example, still comes as a surprise to some. Others wonder when it will ever get the help it needs to really look like a river. The natural river was at least 80 percent ground water. Now there’s no groundwater to speak of, and the river we have is mostly recycled sewage—surprisingly clean tertiary...
The Day of Forevermore, Marnie Weber’s first feature film, is the culmination of the artist’s long career as a weaver of macabre and otherworldly scenarios through art, film and music. Over the last 25 years Weber has created her own distinctive realm of avant-garde folk art, a personalized occultism which, although highly idiosyncratic, is easily accessible on the level of pure...
Native New Yorker Beth Rudin DeWoody may be one of the most energetic collectors in the world, with a collection that includes about 10,000 works, mostly of 20th and 21st century art. Collecting since the 1970s, Rudin DeWoody consistently makes ARTNews’ Top 200 Collectors list, and is included in artnet News’ list of The 100 Most Powerful Women in Art: Part Three.Rudin DeWoody is notable for her...
Shutting down a major museum for three years of expansion may seem like suicide, but the newly reborn San Francisco Museum of Modern Art proves it can be a great success. SFMOMA reopened to the public on May 14, preceded by several weeks of well-orchestrated previews and parties. The new 10-story wing designed by Snøhetta is brilliant, both outside and in. The white siding of undulating “waves”...
In San Francisco’s downtown gallery district, one building, 49 Geary Street, once held the greatest concentration of the best galleries—over 20 on five floors. With Gallery Paule Anglim across the street at 14 Geary, and a half-dozen more at 77 Geary just down the street, this one block had anchored the whole SF gallery scene. As tech boomed, Bay Area real estate became red hot. For artists and...
Not content with a refurbished building that makes them the largest contemporary art museum in America, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is courting patrons with interactive technology that enhances and even transforms the viewing experience.Visitors are invited to navigate the vast 170,000 square feet of indoor/outdoor exhibition space via a new iOS app (also available on Android in phase...
Hauser & Wirth have galleries in Zurich, London, New York and now Los Angeles, but in rural Somerset, England, Iwan and Manuela Wirth have created a mini-Eden in which they bring all their interests together: art and architecture, conservation and food, community and family. They’ve already had some notable exhibitions by the likes of Phyllida Barlow and Jenny Holzer. A love affair rather...
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...
Now that we are finally emerging from the stronghold of isolation in the wake of COVID-19, the familiar phrase “wish you were here,” takes on new meaning. In Roberts Projects second visual iteration of this phrase, the nine artists in this exhibition reassert the...
The title of Farley Aguilar’s exhibition “Phantom Limb” refers to the corporeal sensation of a limb that has been severed from the body–memories scratch and ache, haunted by the historical traumas of slavery that manifest in transgenerational pain and psychic...
Having opened after an entire year’s delay even as the COVID-19 pandemic entered its third year, the fifth iteration of MoMA PS1’s signature major survey of art in New York City, titled "Greater New York 2021," finds the curatorial team of in-house Curator Ruba Katrib...
Consider the rhythm of poetry, the speaking voice and the eye moving across the page, the mathematics of strict iambic and hendecasyllabic verse pressed into the service of unruly love and nature. The pace and structure of power of three is eternal, the optical...
A series of precious objects rendered in oil paint requires your intimate proximity. Tiny tactile paintings of levitating furs, beaded coin purses, costume jewelry and sequin fabrics depict trompe-l'oeil images of feminine objects commonly associated with glam,...
Southern trees bear a strange fruit. Billie Holiday's iconic song “Strange Fruit” serves as a haunting metaphor for racial violence, evoking the historical and ongoing pain of Black Americans. The song was originally written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 in the form of an...
Comprising seven different exhibitions, “Activation” is an exciting series of works from six individual artists as well as a selection of activist graphics. Featured artists and their exhibitions include Mark Steven Greenfield, April Bey, Carla Jay Harris, Keith...
Hidden amid the bustle of the Bowery, one of New York’s most chaotic streets, is Geary Contemporary, a gem of a gallery that has been quietly making a name for itself with engaging exhibitions of emerging artists. In its latest show, Red Velvet, Orange Crush, Geary...