More than any other MFA programs in Southern California—there are in excess of a dozen—CalArts and UCLA have long been associated with art super-stardom. Whether this perception is accurate or a mere distillation of selective anecdotes, it bolsters the mythology of getting into the right school as a launching pad to a prestigious commercial gallery. Through this looking glass, the notion of a...
Just blocks from Venice Beach near Appleton Way I’m wandering down an alley, trying to find Jud Fine’s studio. Over the cell he tells me to look for the DWP truck parked in front. But as I turn the corner the truck is pulling away. I’m not quite sure which nondescript gate or back alley garage I’m looking for. I enter what I believe to be Fine’s studio, practically tripping over a flimsy...
All good crits are alike; each miserable crit is miserable in its own way. Isn’t that the way it goes? We asked a few reliable Southern California university faculty to recommend recent MFA grad students for contributions to our Back to School issue on their critique experiences. We weren’t able to include every school, but here are a few to share with you. As you’ll see, a common denominator is...
Each April, galleries in Portland, OR, exhibit photography in recognition of Photo Month. As one might expect from a small art scene, the exhibitions are locally important but seem nostalgic, derivative or touristic to outsiders. The two notable exceptions are Coleen Plumb at Blue Sky, and David Hillard at Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Plumb pushes photography’s taxonomical quality, presenting...
In the perennial discussion of which of the several distinguished art schools in Los Angeles is the best, the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California has always been a contender. Until now. This year the Roski School, with its late-model studios and its dozen-odd full and associate professors and as many more lecturers and adjunct professors, will minister to a...
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. —Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the...
This summer we’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to time travel, and see the work of two artists, generations apart but both deeply moved by a need to reflect on the history of racial discrimination in this country. Through their work and careers, we see how times have changed, yet also how underlying dynamics have remained the same, sadly. A survey of the work of Noah Purifoy, “Noah...
Popular music is increasingly a topic of exhibition in the museum and gallery world but I’ve found its presentation can be either overwhelming or underwhelming. After all, how can the curator condense an experience so visceral like performance—an act itself at once singular and communicative—into a walk through display of objects? The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles has managed to do...
Last Sunday, instead of curling up to watch an episode of Orange is the New Black and calling it a night, I headed to Venice Beach where art collectors Mike and Diane Silver had opened their gorgeous canal-front home for “Nude Survey Two,” where the established Plein Air painter Alex Schaefer would be exhibiting a new series of works as well as painting from two female models on the spot....
How often have you found yourself saying, “I would bring my business here, if only they had more generic, mall-safe, focus-group chosen art on the walls?” Surrounded by more museums, galleries, and out-of-work MFAs than in any other city, these SoCal establishments have decided against partnerships that could create unique site-specific works, and have instead trusted the curatorial choices of...
In our post-truth age, where it’s easy to assume any image has been digitally manipulated, photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’ stands out from the pack for his striking candidness. In his eighth solo exhibition at Regen Projects, the German artist presents a diverse array...
After visiting five major art fairs and too many events and special exhibitions to keep track of, it’s safe to say this was an eventful and surprisingly normal Miami Art Week. Like in previous years, the week provided a venue to reconnect with friends and colleagues,...
Betzi Stein celebrates nothing short of love in her solo exhibition now at TAG Gallery, “Art World Friends and Strangers.” Creating brilliantly colorful figurative representations of members of the Los Angeles art community, Stein offers everything from a glowing...
Since moving out of my hometown, I have amassed a small trove of Polaroid photos documenting the clutter in all my living spaces. I’d always liked the idea of keeping pocket-sized time capsules of the things I used to own and person I used to be in those places....
Football is considered the greatest American pastime by many of its fans. It is played in intense heat, rain or snow, with diehard followers who prioritize the game above many aspects of normal life. In his exhibition Fumbly Punts, Rob Thom humorously critiques...
Few grasp the power of language to be visually enthralling while expanding our consciousnesses as well as Lindsay August-Salazar, whose solo show at Lowell Ryan Projects, “There’s No Place Like No Place” brings these questions to the forefront. Employing vibrant color...
Various sizes of square panels mostly covered with dots with groups of parallel lines and occasional fields of paint line the gallery walls of Locks Gallery in Jennifer Bartlett's installation "Recitative"—its title derived from a rhythmic free form vocal style of...
“As the World Turns” is an apt title for Leigh Salgado’s fourth solo exhibition at Launch Gallery. Many of the graceful works are circular, globe-like. A lush world of beauty that also evokes ideas of the circular nature of life: our annual passage around the sun, and...
My first review for Artillery Magazine – almost two years ago now – was for my favorite museum in southern California, The Norton Simon. I recently went back and reread that article, and I found that my own writing was, to be kind, academic. Dry as a bone, really....
Wild, wonderful and wistful—this survey of Pipilotti Rist at the Geffen Contemporary is long overdue in this town, where she has rarely been shown. “Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor” is a trippy series of multimedia installations with videos and immersive projections...