As Karen Finley wisely counseled me some years ago, an excess of gratitude can strike you dumb (or simply annoyed speechless), which is never a good place to be, especially if you’re on a podium and expected to render judgment, offer smart advice or commentary, or...
Nathan Redwood and Folkert de Jong's tandem solo exhibits at DENK, which feature Redwood's paintings on walls surrounding de Jong's floor sculptures, integrate the two artists' discrete yet analogous flairs for applying satirical humor to classical figuration. Each...
I was going to make fun of The Pit’s group show “Vision Valley” at the Brand Library for being a "biennial," since everything is a biennial these days, until I actually read the press release (whoops) and realized that they were making fun of this exact thing...
A diverse trio of shows by significant artists is soon to close at Hauser & Wirth. If you haven't attended, and only have time to visit one gallery this week, you might try this three-for-one-special where discrete exhibitions by Mark Bradford, Geta Brătescu and...
In today’s media saturated world, exhibitions of beautifully printed, small-scale, black and white photographs tend to fall through the cracks. As Mark Ruwedel proves in “Rivers Run Through It,” quiet and subtle pictures of nature can be more seductive and meaningful...
I have to preface this sketch with an admission that seems odd even to me – as someone fairly impervious to the lure of Hollywood legend. What drew me to the first show I ever saw of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s fine art was that he was a Hollywood legend. But that term...
Tasty art offered a feast for viewers’ eyes everywhere in LA this weekend. At the Korean Cultural Center, art collective Durden and Ray offered a terrific 23-artist group show, "Odd Convergences: Steps/Missteps." The expansive upstairs gallery featured a wide range of...
Christopher Page's paintings appear as windows into neon voids. "Opening" at Baert Gallery comprises five trompe l'oeil abstractions whose geometric compositions appear flat from afar but disclose illusionistic shading as one approaches. Flashy color fields are...
Dear Reader, Who am I? Isn’t this the biggest existential question? All artists ask this question and continue to explore it. But do we ever get an answer? I watched an excellent documentary on the recently departed comedic genius, Garry Shandling, directed and...
It’s an uncharacteristically cool, rainy afternoon when I climb the steps to Judie Bamber’s home and studio in a neighborhood off Sunset. As I enter her studio—a surprisingly spare and self-contained space—a rectangle of golden light seems to float on an easel set up...
Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. — Claude Cahun Thinh Nguyen is a non-binary artist who calls our attention to the constructed nature of our ideas about race and gender. Nguyen...
When Carmen Argote was 17, her father took off for Guadalajara, Mexico, back to his hometown and his dream of living in a house he had designed for himself and his family. However, his wife felt quite settled in Los Angeles—their two children had grown up here, her...
Los Angeles–based artist April Bey fuses her fine arts education with a background in design to create rule-based hybrid works that intertwine a host of materials such as caulking, resin and wood along with low quality sewing needles, thread and Hitarget wax fabric,...
On the evening of June 25, 2016, a group of gorgeous mutants rushed out of The Broad museum and began loving themselves and each other on South Grand Avenue. This band of performers, known collectively as Mutant Salon, is run by the LA-based visionary artist Young...
The wave of women coming forward with accounts of sexual harassment and assault has swept the art world like the Santa Ana winds in a California brush fire, and all I have to say is “Finally.” Historically, women have served as objects of sexual desire within the...
Cheyenne artist Edgar Heap of Birds has made a practice of illuminating Native-American life against dominant culture erasure. In his recent LA-area exhibitions at Garis & Hahn and the Pitzer College Galleries, he focused on activism and history. You tell...
The following photographs are the finalists from Artillery's May/June contest. The winner is Alberto Mesirca (seen above and first in the photo gallery; also in the print version of Artillery, May/June, 2018). Congratulations to Alberto Mesirca and our finalists....
LOS ANGELES: A FAIR DESTINATION This winter The Other Art Fair (March 15–18) tested its feet in LA waters—launched by Saatchi Art, the online art gallery, the fair is billed as “An Art Fair for a New Generation of Art Buyers.” On the weekend the crowds came in droves...
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