This mural was created for POW! WOW! Antelope Valley 2016 in Lancaster by artist David Flores. For more of his work check out his website and Instagram.
Oct 142019
Oct 112019
Francisco Rodriguez “Aridity”, 2019
Francisco Rodriguez “In the Garden”, 2019
Currently at Steve Turner gallery in Hollywood are three excellent painting exhibitions. The first, pictured above, is Francisco Rodriguez’s Midday Demon.
From the press release–
Steve Turner is pleased to present Midday Demon, a solo exhibition of new paintings by London-based Francisco Rodriguez, most of which feature an isolated male figure within a desolate urban landscape. In some, the figure is upright and smoking a cigarette. In others, he appears to have passed out. The artist describes the bleak setting as one that fosters exhaustion, listlessness, sadness, dejection, restlessness, anxiety and depression. Rodriguez observed the phenomena of the “midday demon” while growing up in Santiago, one of the largest cities in South America; again in London where he has lived for the last five years; and also during a recent residencies in Poland and Ukraine. He ponders the effects of the oppressive midday sun and wonders if such “spirits” actually do appear at that hour. Are his figures victims of some “midday demon”; or are they the demons themselves?
In the second gallery are Rebecca Shippee’s paintings for The Creators, featuring four portraits that are scaled to life and painted from observation.
From the press release–
Her subjects are queer, their bodies altered medically or through wardrobe choices. One figure bears top-surgery scars and whimsical tattoos, while another wears emerald green silk pajamas and a nameplate reading Boyland. The show’s title refers to self-fashioning, the art of inventing oneself, a pursuit particularly vital to queer life as well as to the fact that all the sitters are cultural creators–artists, writers and activists. In choosing to portray individuals with whom she has close personal relationships, Shippee rejects the traditional notions of “active artist” and “passive muse.” Instead, she portrays the sitters as creators of their own images.
Rebecca Shippee “Noah”, 2019.
In the third gallery are Jon Key’s paintings for Violet Alabama, a solo exhibition “inspired by the artist’s personal history and memories of growing up in rural Seale, Alabama”.
From the press release–
Through self-portraiture, Key explores the lineage and history of his identity through four themes–southern-ness, blackness, queerness, and family–each of which he represents chromatically with green, black, violet and red. He will also exhibit portraits of his father and grandfather to highlight the friction between the generations and the challenges of being a queer Black man in the Deep South.
Jon Key “The Man (No. 4)” and “The Man (No. 3)”, 2019
Jon Key “Family Portrait (No. 1)”, 2019 (front) and “Man in Red Room 1”, 2019
All three of these exhibitions close 10/12/19.
Oct 102019
Oct 102019
From the press release-
Klowden Mann is proud to present San-Diego-based artist Andrea Chung’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, … Only to meet nothing that wants you. The exhibition features large-scale cyanotype works depicting under-sea images of coral that have then been bleached with sugar crystals—a material woven throughout Chung’s practice for over a decade in reference to its relationship to colonialism in the Caribbean. The cyanotypes are placed in context with a brass chandelier that recalls designs from the 19th century; where crystals would hang, Chung has hung glass vials filled with sugar in various shades.
Chung’s practice often utilizes perishable and precious materials with strong underlying histories, forming relationships to pre-emancipation images of the Caribbean, touristic misrepresentations of people and place, the export or import of goods and materials, and the labor of the human body. Completing the quote by Nayyirah Waheed that Chung used as the title of her first solo museum exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2017, “You broke the ocean in half to be here,” the title of the exhibition at Klowden Mann answers with the second half of the phrase, “…Only to meet nothing that wants you.”
In the cyanotype works, coral bleaching becomes a metaphor for colonialism, and the expanding of the philosophy and impact of imperialism on colonial populations and cultures. The addition of sugar crystals to the already highly sensitive cyanotypes underlines Chung’s interest in creating work that defies the notion of artworks as static objects that are meant to remain unchanging and unyielding in the face of shifting environments and time; in a way that also reflects the constant uncontrolled and irresponsible effects of human actions on the environment, and on vulnerable populations. The works are intended to shift and change over the course of the exhibition, as the sugar embeds further in the cyanotype, falls, and expands. The works are linked to the environment in which they are placed in a way that Chung cannot predict and control—and along with the chandelier, ask the audience to consider who pays for the superficial opulence and beauty to which so many have become accustomed.
The work in this exhibition is really stunning, and the fact that it is work that is changing with time, makes seeing it feel even more special. Like so much of the beauty in the world, and especially in nature, you appreciate it, while wondering how long it will still be around to be seen.
This exhibition closes 10/12/19.
Oct 102019
Bleached- Hard to Kill
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (10/10-10/14/19)-
Thursday
Artist Sadie Barnette and her father Rodney Barnette will be celebrating their shared birthday at ICA LA, with an art talk, DJ, and a performance by Global Street Dance Masquerade- taking place along with her newest project The New Eagle Creek Saloon, a tribute to her father’s bar, Eagle Creek Saloon, the first black-owned gay bar in San Francisco
Downtown LA’s Art Walk returns for its monthly event with lots of galleries in the area staying open late
Snow Tha Product is performing at the El Rey Theatre
Numb.er are opening for Drahla at The Echo
Mega Bog, L.A. Takedown and Spookey Ruben are performing free at Zebulon with Dent May DJ’ing
Friday
ArtNight Pasadena returns for its biannual event with a free evening of live music, performances, and free admission to museums and galleries in Pasadena. There will also be free shuttles to take you around to the various locations.
Hassan Hajjaj: My Rockstars Experimental- Live has the Moroccan phototographer, designer and filmmaker, creating sets and clothes from his portraits and videos- this time for the stage of The Ford and including live performances by musicians Afrikan Boy, Bumi, Simo Lagnawi, Marques Toliver, Gail Ann Dorsey and Omar Offendum at The Ford. My Rockstars Experimental, Volume I was shown at LACMA in 2013.
Adam Melchor is opening for singer dodie at the Hollywood Palladium
Dan Luke and the Raid are opening for The Parlor Mob at the Bootleg Theater
Saturday
Bleached are playing at the Lodge Room with Dude York and Lunch Lady
Psychic Twin is having a free single release party show at Gold Diggers with Drum & Lace opening
Culver City Arts District is hosting its annual Art Walk and Roll, a free festival with live music, food trucks, and more, plus a chance to see all the art shows happening in the area.
If you are in Culver City, head to Luis de Jesus Los Angeles to hear artist Laura Krifka discuss her paintings currently on view at the gallery
2019 Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation has three different programs starting at 3pm at REDCAT
Arto Lindsay is playing at Zebulon featuring Rodrigo Amarante, along with Ofir Ganon playing solo/duo with Chris Bear (Grizzly Bear)
Joywave are opening for Bastille at The Greek Theatre
Mereba is performing at the Ford Theatre with We Are King
Sunday
At Fowler Museum on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings, to accompany its exhibition Through Positive Eyes, seven HIV-positive Angelenos known as the Los Angeles Through Positive Eyes Collective will share their photographs and personal narratives (today beginning at 1pm)
The Dead End Kids Club is having its 1st Fall Ball at The Echo with performances by Z Berg, Ryan Ross, Palm Springsteen and Dan Keyes
Highland Park is having its first Oktoberfest at The Hi Hat with music by West Coast Prost, Oktoberfest inspired food and of course, German Bier
Andrew Combs is playing at the Bootleg Theater with Harrison Whitford and Austin Manuel
Monday
Temples are playing at the Echoplex with Trupa Trupa
Kishi Bashi is performing at The Regent Theater with Takenobu opening
The Spirit of the Beehive are opening for Ride at the Teragram Ballroom
Weirdo Night is happening at Zebulon with performances by Dynasty Handbag, Marawa The Amazing, Casey Jane Ellison and Earth Girl Helen Brown
Oct 082019
The Museum of Broken Windows is a free pop-up experience in New York City, a project by the NYCLU currently located Cooper Union.
From the Museum of Broken Windows/ NYCLU websites-
The broken windows theory is an academic theory proposed by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982. The academic theory, which first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, states that signs of disorder in a neighborhood, like a broken window, encourages petty crimes and leads to more serious crimes. This postulation was adopted by the New York City Police Department and has led to the criminalization of poverty and the over-policing of Black and Brown communities at disproportionate rates. The theory has never been proven to be effective at reducing crime.
The Museum showcases the ineffectiveness of broken windows policing, which criminalizes our most vulnerable communities. The strategy of broken windows policing is outdated and has never been proven to be effective at reducing crime. For decades, communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by broken windows policing.
It is time for a change. New Yorkers are coming together for important conversations on policing and what it means to feel and be safe. Using art and creativity, the Museum of Broken Windows will provide a powerful and emotional experience that critically looks at the system of policing in New York.
Pictured above are “…and counting” by Ann Lewis (each tag is filled out with the name of a person killed by police) and one of the group of portraits by Tracy Hetzel of women who have lost loved ones because of broken window policing. The one pictured is of Gwen Carr who is holding a picture of her son Eric Garner.
This show ends on 10/8/19.
Oct 042019
Oct 032019
“Lake Annecy”, 2019 and “Sailboat”, 2019
Lake Annecy, 2019 detail
Currently at Miles McEnery’s gallery locations in Chelsea are two engaging painting exhibitions.
Guy Yanai’s paintings, at the 21st Street location, are created with strips of oil paint and are fascinating to walk up close to, observing the details, and then to pull back from to see as a whole. He also chose a bright yellow for the walls of the gallery to be painted, which brings out the colors of the paintings even further.
From the press release–
Guy Yanai strips his subjects down to geometric necessity and builds them back up again in oil paint, establishing a tension on his canvases between the spatially flat and the physically multidimensional. A combination of diagrammatic delineation of form and vivid color, Yanai’s paintings are an optical delight.
Yanai accomplishes this willful distillation of his subjects by painting obsessively in tight chromatic strips. While from afar the individual brushstrokes fade into the larger landscape, up close one can notice the stops and starts of each metered stroke. This synthesis speaks to Yanai’s desire for his works “to have such tension that if you take out one brushstroke, the painting will collapse.” The smoothness and uniformity of his taut oil bands offer a linear precision that can only be accomplished by the most disciplined draftsman.
While Yanai harkens back to modernist masters such as Matisse and Cézanne, his compositions are pixelated in a manner that is fundamentally contemporary. The collection of short and disconnected brushstrokes merge in the viewer’s eye to create a fully realized image. Yanai’s paintings experiment with the digital in contemporary art. “As beholden to the virtual imagery of the internet as to the history of modernism,” Ara H. Merjian writes in his essay, Élan Vital, “Yanai’s work proves beguilingly complex despite – or rather, precisely in – its congenial simplicity.”
Often revisiting the same subject, he paints from memory – of a place, of a moment, of a feeling. Just as recollections brighten and fade in the mind over time, Yanai recalls his own inspirations and recreates them in different ways as they evolve. What results is a proliferation of works that demonstrate Yanai’s rich meditation on his experiences. Whether an open window or an ocean view, Yanai’s nostalgic passion has a lasting impact on its viewer.
At their 22nd Street location are Brian Alfred’s colorful graphic paintings of places in New York City.
“W. 4th St.”, 2018-2019
“Central Park at Dusk”, 2019
From the press release-
Alfred navigates these complex themes using an approach characterized by sharp lines and blocked colors. Tightly-cropped compositions manipulate the viewer’s perception of space, conflating overlapping buildings, signage, and other urban elements. These vibrant, city-shaped configurations capture ephemeral moments: the view through the gap between two skyscrapers, the contour of a passing storefront from a car window, and a downward glance into a subway entrance. While they might not last long, these unique fields of vision are fundamental parts of the experience of the city.
Both of these exhibitions close 10/5/19.
Oct 032019
Jim Krewson’s “tribute to a vanishing subculture”, A Requiem for Paul Lynde, currently in the Viewing Room in the back of Marlborough Gallery’s downtown location, “questions the loss and amnesia of marginal identity in a new age of equality, instant access, Instagram influencers and celebrity, from homosexuality to homogenization in 20 short years.”
The airbrushed wedding dress spins with images that include Lynde himself, as well as Lady Elaine Fairchild from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the Madame puppet, a Wayland Flowers creation. Flowers’ puppet had her own sitcom in 1982 and also took over Paul Lynde’s center square on Hollywood Squares. Sadly Flowers, an openly gay entertainer, passed away in 1988 at the age of 48 from AIDS related Kaposi’s sarcoma.
If you love of a certain time period of pop culture and Paul Lynde than it will be hard not to embrace this project. But it’s also interesting as a meditation on the state of gay pop culture in the past, the place it is in today, and the question of where it may go in the future now that it is has such a strong, but less subversive place, within mainstream media.
In the main viewing space of Marlborough Gallery is Joe Zucker’s multi-panel 100-Foot-Long-Piece created from 1968 to 1969.
From the press release–
This masterwork, exhibited here with a large body of related archival material, comprises a blueprint for Zucker’s long and diverse practice. It plants a flag for the artist’s ongoing inventiveness, irony, and eclecticism.
With the creation of this work, Zucker presents the viewer with a puzzle-like, encyclopedic visual vocabulary, anticipating subsequent pictorial and conceptual approaches such as New Image, Neo-Expressionism, Appropriation, Neo Geo, as well as more recent process- based abstraction, with a self-referential, wry regard for the embedded, associative meaning of his imagery and materials.
100-Foot-Long Piece is a linear aggregate in which gestural abstraction rubs elbows with hard edged grids, silk-screened passages, sculptural reliefs, and a host of other styles and forms. One is mindful of both physical and critical tropes of progressive art history from the physicality of the frieze to a qualitative timeline tracing the contributions of Modernism.
Both shows close 10/5/19.
Oct 032019
Big K.R.I.T. – Energy
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (10/3-10/6/19)-
Thursday
Porches is performing at The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever
Artist Hannah Black is giving a free lecture at Hammer Museum
PDC Design Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, SUPERSHOW, featuring the work of Los Angeles-based artists Fallen Fruit (David Allen Burns and Austin Young) is having a reception tonight from 5-10pm
For The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA’s third installment of the Return to Exile series it will celebrate Amiri Baraka’s Jihad Records and The Black Arts Repertory Theatre with a pop-up presentation featuring an audio and ephemera archive of jazz poetics LPs, original prints, and rare books, and culminating in a live read of Baraka’s 1964 play The Slave.
Mercury Rev and Beth Orton will be performing Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete at the Palace Theatre
Adia Victoria is opening for Tank and the Bangas at the Fonda Theatre
Iron and Wine are performing with Calexico at the Orpheum Theater
Joan Shelley is performing at the Moroccan Lounge
Friday
Big K.R.I.T. is performing at the Belasco Theater
Constitution Happy Hour returns to Hammer Museum with a discussion of the Treason Clause with Loyola law school professor David Glazier and drinks available for purchase
Metro Art is hosting a free screening in Union Station of Song of the Sea with an introduction by artist, animation director and filmmaker, Lyndon J Barrois.
Norton Simon Museum is free from 5-8pm the first Friday of the month and tonight you can see Hitchcock’s Lifeboat as well as opening night of the exhibition By Day & by Night: Paris in the Belle Époque
Vivian Girls are playing with Great Grandpa and Reckling at The Regent Theater
Ruby Haunt are playing a free show at Zebulon with LFZ
Tangerine and Krost are playing along with Kid Hastings at Non Plus Ultra
Seven Saturdays are playing a free show at Gold Diggers with Layton
Saturday
Artist and filmmaker Rhys Ernst will be in conversation with LGBTQ film historian Jenni Olson after a screening of Something Special (aka Willy/Milly) 1986- “a whimsical teen comedy about a teenage girl who wants to be a boy” at Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater ($9)
Roy Kinsey is performing at Gold Diggers
Michael Jang will be signing his photography book Enter the Jang at Arcana Books
There’s an opening party at Fowler Museum for Through Positive Eyes, “a large-scale photography and storytelling project created in collaboration with more than 130 people living with HIV/AIDS”. The celebration includes a discussion with co-curator David Gere followed by drinks and a DJ set. (free)
Cat Scan are having an album release party at The Hi Hat with Traps PS and Susan
Rüfüs Du Sol are playing at Los Angeles State Historic Park with Bob Moses and Lastlings
John Digweed is performing at Exchange LA
Blanck Mass is performing at Zebulon with Helm and Steve Hauschildt
Sunday
CicLAvia returns with Heart of LA, shutting streets to car traffic in Westlake, Chinatown, DTLA, and Boyle Heights.
If you are downtown for CicLAvia grab some mole at La Feria de los Moles in Grand Park
Odd Ark in Highland Park is having an Artist’s Swap Meet in their parking lot
Los Angeles-based artist Analia Saban will be discussing her work with the Founder and Executive Director of The Mistake Room, Cesar Garcia, and her latest edition made in collaboration with Mixografia where the talk is taking place
The “surrealist variety show” The Butterfly Cabinet, curated by Guy Blakeslee is free and happening at Zebulon