The Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum beneath it, is a marvelous place to visit if just for the archeology and history. Now a viewer can see how contemporary artists interact with these ruins on a large scale. The exhibition “Post Classici,” curated by Vincenzo Trione, places site specific work or re-contextualizes existing works by artists such as Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto,...
The traveling art bash “Station to Station” concluded its nationwide tour in Oakland last week and it just goes to show: There’s nothing like a road trip fueled by a cool million in corporate donations for having a good time.
From the shaded parking lot, a stark beam of light shines through the loosely shut double doors of a nondescript white brick building. It is late morning, and the sun is already beginning to assert its presence as I approach the now-defunct Regen Projects gallery. It looks eerily empty; I wonder if I have the wrong time for our meeting. I knock softly on the door and loudly whisper, “Lari?” Los...
Since the 2012 opening of his eponymous Hollywood gallery, Perry Rubenstein has exerted considerable influence on the contemporary art world, while imbuing several exhibitions, such as his recent “The Humors,” with intellectual and symbolic perspectives that reference the human condition. At his sleek modernist structure on North Highland Avenue, this fit and debonair 59-year-old...
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...
Katya Grokhovsky is an artist and curator who explores the expectations of the American dream and the lived experiences of immigration to the US. Originally from Ukraine, Grokhovsky founded The Immigrant Artist Biennial, which launched last year despite many...
Our city’s beauty is often overlooked. This is a subject I’ve touched on in the past, and it’s an unfair generalization that Los Angeles is an “ugly” city. Maybe it’s because our city is difficult to walk through, and so you don’t notice the beauty. Maybe it’s only...
Ishi Glinsky’s exhibition explores monuments of survival that honor the sacred practices of his tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation, native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Upon entering Chris Sharp Gallery I am instantly subsumed by Glinsky’s monolithically scaled...
Izzy Barber’s exhibition, “Maspeth Moon,” at James Fuentes brings together new plein air paintings that capture daily life in New York. Petite in size (the smallest 4” x 4” and others around 10” x 9”) Barber’s paintings are snapshots of quiet scenes that are at once...
The Impressionists, at the end of the 19th century, turned away from traditional muses and academies and became chroniclers of their contemporary era. They were described as flaneurs, self-styled spectators of modern life and people in leisure. But throughout their...
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,...