La Cienega Boulevard, as it traverses Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Los Angeles, appears not to have changed much over the last few decades, until you hit Venice Boulevard. Trailing south into Culver City, the character of the boulevard shifts dramatically. What was once a gasoline alley of automobile repair and supply shops is now a vibrant gallery district. At Washington Boulevard, looking...
while a long wait line at an LA museum is a rarity, here in New York you could easily pass an hour chatting in the line for the Met or MoMA or merge with the crowds in Chelsea. Late spring, the visceral experience of looking at art together with so many other curious viewers was taken to a new level at the Guggenheim’s opening of “Gutai: Splendid Playground” (February 15–May 8, 2013). Not only...
“And there it is...” Sage Charles smiled as he deftly inserted the business end of a baseball bat into the supine body of Ron Athey as part of the initial preparations for “Messianic Remains,” the latest installment in Athey’s “Incorruptible Flesh” performance series. The series, begun in 1996 with Lawrence Steger (who died of AIDS-related causes in 1999), addresses Athey’s own HIV+, post-AIDS...
While sagas of personal transformation are a staple of recent nonfiction filmmaking—from U.N. peacekeeper Roméo Dallaire’s inexorable drift into despair (and back) in the CBC’s Rwanda documentary Shake Hands With the Devil, to crack-mom Kirk White’s unexpected ascent into rehab in the Dickhouse sleaze-fest The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia—two entries in the 2013 Los Angeles Film...
Richard Hell swaggers up the side-walk, as if in a private movie that is being played out for the pleasure of others, as if he is being watched—which he is. Full of himself. Happy: yes, I suppose that’s another word for it. And why wouldn’t he be happy? He is about to read from his new book to a room full of people who love him: who love his work, that is—which is apparently the same thing. And...
Jenny Holzer’s “Kind of Blue” was the show-stopper at the recent “Tenth Anniversary Acquisitions” exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Holzer’s blue LED strips cascading from ceiling to floor in a 12-hour loop of “truisms and quotes” floated from the museum’s central pavilion, created a mirror effect in the reflection pond, and illuminated the galleries both day and night with its...
Nao Bustamante kicked off Human Resources LA’s July 27th benefit and Perform Chinatown After-party with characteristic mischievous flair. In the preamble to her performance, as she was thanking HRLA for inviting her and thanking us for being there to support the benefit, she seamlessly slipped in some minor mayhem: “Thanks for coming out on this hot LA night even though you all know how hot it...
The large brightly-lit room of the Armory at last month’s Monster Drawing Rally was crowded with people—and it was hot. I’m one of the artists participating in this fund-raising event where around 25 artists draw for one-hour shifts, hang the completed work on a selling-wall where all art sells for $75. If more than one person wants the same piece, a playing card is drawn, and the highest card...
Through the heart of every true Southern Californian, there flows a passionate mixture of blood, salt water and gasoline. "Kustom Kulture II" is a celebration of this Life and Style. Grab your sweetie and a blanket, revv the rod and head down to the sands of Huntington. If you are new or old school to our Southwest turf, Kustom Kulture II, now up at the Huntington Beach Art Center, is a...
Ten years ago, I was driving down Venice Boulevard one morning, late to work as usual, when I spotted a large modern artwork among the bric-a-brac in front of a thrift store. It’s got to be a poster, I thought as I circled the block. But no, it was a framed abstract oil painting with an over-sized, stylized signature in the upper right corner that said REYNOLDS. Being a fan of art featuring...
In a year when art sales floundered and galleries around the world quietly scaled back their operations, the announcement from New York’s The Hole, that they were celebrating their 10th anniversary by opening a second gallery, felt like a collective sign of hope. To...
“Dude, Unmute Yourself” is a sprawling group exhibition of Shockboxx Gallery regulars that the pandemic-smart title reflects the need, particularly in these times, to speak out through art. A few highlights are in the backroom where Randi Matushevitz offers two...
There’s no such thing as an alright abstract painting. They fall, without exception, into two categories: great and garbage. And for whoever’s looked at an abstract artwork, smugly harrumphed and muttered, “I could do that,” I’d...
How we balance our individual experiences within the larger scope of our lives in many ways determines who we are, and how we understand and relate to the world around us. Reflecting on the dense and often traumatic events of the past year, which included a global...
For the 9th edition of the Artes Mundi Prize, an international panel of jurors —made up of Cosmin Costinas (Executive Director and Curator of Para Site, Hong Kong), Elvira Dyangani Ose (Director at The Showroom, London) and Rachel Kent (Chief Curator at MCA,...
Everyone has a fascination with the more macabre parts of life. Not that everyone is John Waters, but there’s a reason we all slow down to look when we pass an accident. It’s just human nature to be transfixed by the dark and the deadly, to find it not only shocking...
It’s Vanessa Prager versus art history in this confounding and enchanting suite of oil on panel paintings, and her aggressive Impressionism-infused impasto is a knockout. Taking on the foundational figurative tropes of nude, still life, and landscape but proceeding...
As the planet enters the beginning of a post-pandemic, post-Trump administration era, it was wonderful to be baptized in optimism from Evita Tezeno’s exhibition, “Better Days” at the Luis De Jesus Los Angeles gallery. One sweeping taste of these works results in a...
With spring just ahead, we are on the precipice of a momentous transition. Rays of hope are beginning to warm the cold landscape of our world, as they have again and again throughout humanity's existence. Caitlin Keogh explores this cyclical nature of history (and our...
A man sits center frame, drowned within an interior sea of red hues, arms spread as he pensively gazes against our direction into the distance of the frame. A woman laughs cross-legged on a stool, mouth wide open as if paused mid-speech or laughter, as a grinning fox...