I have an ongoing conversation with Karen Finley that operates on several levels, one of which is simply her public conversation; i.e., the level on which her work has made its enduring imprint on the culture and more specifically the phenomenon of cultural trauma....
It takes a lot of guts to title your solo show “Little Black Boy Makes Imperial Porcelains,” and then it takes a lot of talent to pull off a show with that loaded marquee. Alex Anderson managed to do just that at Gavlak gallery this summer, in a show (March 14–July...
When I first saw Marie Thibeault’s hybrid landscapes that merge abstraction with representational figures, I was struck by her bold use of color and unusual iconography, in which organic and industrial shapes are combined, many inspired by the Port of Los Angeles near...
Chaédria LaBouvier is the Guggenheim’s first Black curator, first Black woman to curate a Guggenheim exhibition, first Black author of a Guggenheim catalog, first curator of Cuban descent and, at age 33, the youngest independent curator to organize an exhibition in...
Guggenheim Fellow and native Angeleno Todd Gray is a visual artist whose work is in the collections of MOCA, LACMA, the Whitney, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. While mostly photo-based he also presents performance works; that is how we first met and collaborated. We...
As a maker of books, I met artist, photographer, director and historian Stephen Berkman in the “before time,” when fonts and spelling and public exhibitions of artwork seemed of import. Berkman, you see, was coordinating "Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost...
Congratulations to our winner Carter Potter and our finalists. Potter's photo is seen above and first in our photo gallery in the November/December online issue of Artillery. The following photographs are the finalists. Please see the info below on how to enter for...
I first met Gary Simmons in the early 1990s when he was a student at CalArts. At the time I was working for Richard Telles (who eventually opened his own LA gallery) at Roy Boyd Gallery in Santa Monica, and helped to facilitate Simmons’ debut exhibition there. The...
The Art Economy Inquiring minds want to know how galleries are faring during the pandemic. As you know, a number have opened up with limited hours, reservations and timed entry. More than once I have found myself the only person visiting a gallery, which made me feel...
COVID-19 has caused severe financial distress to art institutions—some have closed or cut back on hours and staff, and now there is pressure to sell artworks from collections to reduce deficits in operating budgets. At the same time, the “woke” culture movement has...
I first purchased my now well-worn copy of David Gebhard and Robert Winter’s Architecture in Los Angeles: A Complete Guide some three years ago. For just six dollars, I walked away from downtown LA’s The Last Bookstore with the 1985 edition of a book that quickly...
The other day while seeking collage materials, I picked up a magazine. There was an article about Beethoven’s 250th birthday this year. It seemed like every performing arts venue was doing something grand to commemorate the occasion. Something seemed off, so I checked...
Dear Babs, I’m a high school senior and I was planning on enrolling in college to study art next fall either in Los Angeles or New York City, but Covid has me thinking I might want to take a year off or reconsider college entirely. What should I do? —Nervous in...
The Mountain If a man should ask to meet me at the summit of a mountain to discuss the great questions of life, I would have to turn him down. Talking Woman A woman with a coarse voice can be very sexy, especially if she only says the most negative things. Table In...
Carmina Escobar is an extreme vocalist with an active teaching practice. Born in Mexico and based in Los Angeles, Escobar investigates emotions, states of alienation, and the possibilities of interpersonal connection through voice performances that challenge our...
Lou Andreas-Salomé, the psychoanalyst, writer and infamous lover, defined eroticism as “what ruptures the ego.” To enter into an erotic encounter is to break apart our neatly constructed selves, to invite destruction; it is also a chance for a volcanic eruption of...
The profoundly moving installation Ten Little Children Standing in a Line (One Got Shot, and Then There Were Nine) (1991), positioned to be the first work encountered in Parrasch Heijnen’s career-spanning survey of Mildred Howard, imparts a sense of the Oakland-based...
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