Karen Apollonia Müller– Images from the show Far Out
Müller’s photos, currently at Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, are made by altering raw data taken from NASA/JPL. These abstract images present a new way of looking at the universe and our place within it. There are three series within the show- Citylights, Worldlights and Starlights.
This show closes on 1/18.
From the press release:
Phranc, best known as The All-American Jewish Lesbian folksinger, is also a self-described “Cardboard Cobbler,” who fashions cardboard, paper, gouache, and thread into life-size, three-dimensional replications of everyday objects. As a teenager, Phranc attended The Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building in Los Angeles, but she traces her obsession with cardboard back to childhood. She says, “From the time I sat in my first refrigerator box submarine, I knew the cardboard sea was for me.” Her first exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery, Phranc of California (Summer of 2011), consisted of hand-crafted beach paraphernalia, such as swimsuits, inflatable rafts, umbrellas and beach balls. For her new exhibition, Winter, Phranc will exhibit painted paper and cardboard snowshoes, ski sweaters, ski pants, lift tickets, and even a shiny new red sled! In these trompe l’oeil re-creations of nostalgic winter items, Phranc remarks upon the reconstruction and idealization of memories.
These whimsical cardboard constructions are great. This show is on view until 1/11/14.
Curious about Phranc’s music?- check out this video-
John Divola– from the series- Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert
At the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, another part of the John Divola show, As Far As I Could Get, currently also at LACMA, is open until 1/12.
The Dogs series was shot from Divola’s car as the dogs in the desert chased him while he was photographing abandoned buildings (these images make up another section of the show). According to Divola (when he spoke at LACMA), despite their menacing appearance in the photos, many of the dogs were friendly and mostly just excited to see someone new.
A separate show of Divola’s work called Echo Chamber is at Gallery Luisotti in Bergamot Station until 1/18.
Arthur Rothstein– Gee’s Bend, Alabama (Artelia Bendolph)
At the Window: The Photographer’s View is also at the Getty Museum until 1/5. It showcases various famous photographers (including Gregory Crewdson, Éugéne Atget, Walker Evans, Shizuka Yokomizo and Uta Barth, among many others) who used windows as their framing device.
Images from Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door
Morell’s camera obscura images are incredible. His current show at The Getty Museum closes this weekend (1/5). The Getty site provides a lot of information about his process and his other works in the show.
If you miss this, he also has a show at Rose Gallery in Bergamot station until 1/18/14.
Kent Twitchell– “Elizabeth”
LAMAG’s current show contains a wide range of works in various forms of media. If you are headed to Barnsdall Park, make sure to check it out. It closes this weekend on 1/5.
Karen Carson– Big Job (Case International Combine)
Karen Carson’s paintings of farm machines are dramatic, beautiful and at times, huge (the ones on unstretched canvas are between 9 and 12 ft high). Her current show at Rosumund Felsen Gallery, will have you looking at tractors in a whole new way. It is on view until Saturday, 1/4.
Mark Stock- “HOLLYWOOD: UNCOVERED”
Currently at Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Mark Stock’s show is built around a film noir-like story. Images of famous Hollywood figures are embedded in paintings of the Hollywood sign; a woman is seen digging up a mysterious box; and trompe l’oleil paintings of postcards and notes taped to chalkboards are on another wall of the gallery.
Mark Stock has his own connection to Hollywood- his paintings have appeared in films and he also created a poster for the Telluride film festival.
From the press release-
Blum & Poe is very pleased to present our first solo exhibition with Los Angeles based artist Jim Shaw. Spanning two decades and covering the entire gallery, Shaw’s fantastical, humorous, and psychologically laden explorations into esoteric, as well as popular, cultural phenomena coalesce to render a tale of Biblical proportion. Combing historic texts, artworks, comic books, and his dreams, Shaw’s flood of imagery is an essential tool in conveying his imagined histories and fables. Rivers, houses, and hair are but a few motifs repeated throughout the exhibition. Seemingly disparate, they mnemonically serve each other in depicting over-arching themes of fallen heroes, collapsed economies, concepts of sin, and general doomsday destruction.
This show closes 12/21.
Frank Ryan– “Figure in a Tunnel” from Liminal View at Walter Maciel Gallery
From the press release:
In Liminal View, Ryan draws inspiration from a broader scope of the greater Los Angeles landscape accumulating an eclectic grouping of diaristic observations through the use of drawing, digital still and video images that serve as source material for his paintings. Ryan minimizes the expression of banality by laying the groundwork for an experience of the uncanny. In these moments, familiar subjects are perceived as foreign in the same way that a word will suddenly sound strange. Ryan explores how this inversion allows access to an existence beyond the visible order.
Really interesting paintings by this Los Angeles based artist, including two of the Second Street tunnel. The show is up until 12/21.
