It’s rare to encounter a Warhol exhibition with something genuinely new to say, but somehow Lifetimes (a co-production of Tate Modern, Museum Ludwig, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Aspen Art Museum — its only U.S. venue) accomplishes it. Thanks to both the thoughtful...
OUTSIDE LA: Andy Warhol
GALLERY ROUNDS: The Loft at Liz’s Group Exhibition "A Practical Guide to Parlour Games & Magic"
Dazzlingly inventive and lovingly curated by Jason Jenn and Vojislav Radovanovic, “A Practical Guide to Parlour Games & Magic” at The Loft at Liz’s, features work by Phoebe Barnum, Brad Davis, Adrienne Devine, Doug Hammett, Orit Harpaz, Jason Jenn, Ashley...
Leila Weefur’s Hymns for Other Voices Uncomfortable Questions
Explorations of gender identity are central to the work of Oakland-based artist and curator Leila Weefur, how they felt that their identity was suppressed by belonging to the Christian Church is at the crux of their latest project, “Prey†Play.” Presented in two...
SIGHTS UNSCENE Deinstalling artist Ning-Hsin Hu’s "Pressure Test" at Torrance Art Museum’s NOMAD show, Torrance, CA, 2021
ASK BABS BABY STEPS, BACK TO NORMALCY
Dear Babs, Back in the pre-Covid days, I didn’t mind going to art openings and events; they weren’t my favorite thing, but I knew it was essential to show up and meet people. Now, after a year of not going out, I find these activities next to impossible to endure. I’m...
COMICS A Bunch of Sour Grapes
Top 10 Picks of 2021
I resisted compiling this list (the limitations of which are obvious); but then thought: “Wait! In this awkward year of slow emergence from a pandemic that may never really be over, how many really great shows could there actually be?” Until, as I went over the shows...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Betzi Stein TAG Gallery
Betzi Stein celebrates nothing short of love in her solo exhibition now at TAG Gallery, “Art World Friends and Strangers.” Creating brilliantly colorful figurative representations of members of the Los Angeles art community, Stein offers everything from a glowing...
OUTSIDE LA: Jennifer Bartlett Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Various sizes of square panels mostly covered with dots with groups of parallel lines and occasional fields of paint line the gallery walls of Locks Gallery in Jennifer Bartlett's installation "Recitative"—its title derived from a rhythmic free form vocal style of...
Ilona Szwarc Reclaiming the History of Breasts
Ilona Szwarc is a Polish-American artist based in Los Angeles. Her latest show, “Virgin Soap” at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, introduces sculpture alongside her photography, documenting herself casting a model’s torso in silicone and plaster. Other recent LA exhibitions...
Trulee Hall Femininity in Phantasmagoria
On a blessedly moderate summer Sunday, I am driving over to Trulee Hall’s studio in the industrial backside of LA to participate in the filming of her newest project, Ladies’ Lair Lake, by getting nude and air-brushed green from head to toe. This project will be the...
Things Art Should Be Doing Decoder
Maggie West took over a large, dark space somewhere north of Frogtown last week and filled it with massive images of flowers, pulsating time-lapse photographed in UV light. The colors have weird harmonies: bad-acid Disney-villain purples and magentas, alien and dreamy...
SIGHTS UNSCENE Artist Ewedrt Hilgemann’s Sculpture Implosion Event, Royale Projects, Los Angeles, 2017
COMICS Future Features for Creative Creatures
GALLERY ROUNDS: LACMA Review of Vera Lutter and "Acting Out"
For a museum that has torn down all of the buildings on its original campus, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been putting up some pretty interesting exhibitions in one of only two exhibition spaces that are left. The two photography exhibitions I’m thinking...
SIGHTS UNSCENE Birth of a Foothill Fire, San Gabriel Valley, CA, 2019
COMICS Concerned Creative Artists Against Climate Change
Dozie Kanu’s “to prop and ignore” Manual Arts, Los Angeles
The sculptures in Dozie Kanu’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles flirt with functionality but refuse to reveal a clear purpose. Instead, these stylish hybrids possess the elegance of aspirational interior design and the subtle menace of dystopian relics. Many of...