The image of “the road” is one of the metaphors most deeply embedded in the American cultural landscape, perhaps most poignantly for the inter-war generation that produced both Dennis Hopper (born 1936) and Jack Kerouac (born 1922) among so many others.Beginning in the early 1960s, Dennis Hopper produced a rich body of photographic work that has garnered ongoing critical and scholarly attention,...
Contact: Melinda Machado Media Contact,National Museum of American History T: (202) 633-3129The National Museum of American History to Exhibit Artworks by Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George W. BushThe National Museum of American History is pleased to present Presidential Pictures: Paintings & Drawings by Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald...
If you have not seen Ryan Trecartin’s videos, imagine flipping at break-neck speed through 500 channels of reality TV contestants in garish makeup reading random fragments of text from the Internet out loud. More readily, you could also just go check them out on Vimeo where they reside just as comfortably as they do in an art gallery: maybe more so. In a sense, they practically are the Internet....
One thing that came across in Jeff Koons’ recent Broad-sponsored (“Un-Private”) conversation with John Waters was a sense of the satisfaction Koons took from his work as a bond salesman and commodities trader on Wall Street. His fascination with commercial exchange began early, while still a boy, selling items door to door. He has been fascinated with selling – and what sells – ever since. ...
Mike Kelley participated in our Guest Lecture series by providing this spread that he designed specifically for the centerfold of our March/April issue of 2009. John Waters is also the featured cover story in this very special issue.
The word he kept returning to was “conversation,” which, under less pressing circumstances, might have described our interview, except that Philippe Vergne, MOCA’s new director, was on a something of a treadmill. He had scarcely been on the job 10 days, and had already weathered a flurry of interviews and media inquiries on top of a dense schedule of meetings with staff, board members, artists...
Mike Kelley said for years that he would agree to be profiled in Artillery. That was practically a running joke when we would see each other at art events. Finally, in early November 2011, I contacted him to make it happen. He emailed to say he was very busy but he “decided to make some time to do the interview.”I only found out later that our meeting was one of the last loose ends he attended...
While most people half his age are searching for their car keys, Wayne Thiebaud, now 93, peppers conversations with literary references and recalls in vivid, sensual detail the coat that Hans Hoffman wore at an art reception 50 years ago—“it was so thick that it looked like pressed horse manure; it was about that color.” Thiebaud’s memory represents an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of...
When I first read about Beatriz da Costa’s exhibition last year in Southern California, it sounded intense; I was intrigued and determined to see the show at the Laguna Art Museum. It featured da Costa’s most recent work drawing on the practice of engaging the personal, technological, environmental, and social—in this case, through the lens of breast cancer. An advanced stage of the disease took...
Who knew? Who knew that Andy Warhol would become an angel, full of love and the love of God and the beauty that surrounds him in the heavens above? Last night, at the Underground Museum in Los Angeles, artist Jeffrey Vallance conducted a séance with psychic medium Joseph Ross. Vallance held forth in the balmy night air at a backyard gathering complete with candles and flowers. He was seated with...
The "17th International architecture Exhibition of Venice" is one of the first international events opening in time of COVID-19. The open question that Hashim Sarkis, the artistic director of the current Biennale Architettura, articulates in his proposal seems to be a...
Lawrence Calver’s first US show at Simchowitz Gallery, “On the Off Chance,” is one of the most fascinating studies in material of any show in Los Angeles that I’ve had the chance to review. Calver is not a traditional fine artist; his background is in creative...
Two side-by-side paintings face the gallery's front door, awaiting visitors like sentries. They have all the elements that characterize Naotaka Hiro's "Armor" exhibition, namely colorful swatches and fervid mark-making that expands from a vertical center line. The...
Guy Yanai is irreplaceable. Not simply his vibrant, structured style (though that too is unique,) each of Yanai’s paintings carries an air of individuality and transience. Seeing them for the first time is a new wave crashing on the shore of your subconscious, dousing...
Takis is no exception. His sculptures necessitate a venue with high ceilings, and some level of separation as many of them flicker, vibrate, or spin. One sculpture consisting of two lime green and black half-spheres and an iron pole, Aeolian (1983), requires wind energy to operate, and thus can only be displayed outdoors. When exhibited together, these sculptures resemble parts of an eccentric assembly line, leaving viewers agape at their inventive mechanics. Takis uses a wide range of materials, as wires, poles, electric circuits, and electromagnets abound alongside lamps and found objects.
Outsider art is on display in full force in SoHo with a special exhibition hosted by the Outsider Art Fair and curated by Takashi Murakami. Focusing solely on sculpture, the exhibition brings together works by nearly 60 Outsider artists, a term that generally refers...
The radiant and complex paintings in Rebecca Campbell's exhibition “Infinite Density, Infinite Light” draw from the past, yet are very much about the present. They explore the nature of family, the freedom of being a child and the fragile nature of memory. Using found...
Art is a reflection of the artist. The culmination of personal experiences, years of study, and distinct perspectives that comprise their life emerge in their works. But none of us are infinitely unique – which is good, for if we were, we’d have no way to relate to...
Like Schrödinger’s cat, the figures populating the canvases of Italian painter Patrizio Di Massimo’s paintings exist in two potential states at once. In his newest exhibition, Close at Hand at François Ghebaly Gallery, time/space freezes in each of the five paintings...
Julie Curtiss has finally made her artistic debut in the UK with “Monads and Dyads” at White Cube Mason’s Yard. This is the Parisian-born, New York-based artist’s first exhibition in London, where she presents 29 artworks across the gallery’s two floors including new...