Today (9/7) is the last day to see Hammer Museum’s Made In L.A. 2014, their second biennial exhibition consisting of Los Angeles based artists.
Sep 072014
Jun 082014
Today (6/8/14) is the last day to see Jacob Hashimoto’s stunning Gas Giant at MOCA Pacific Design Center. Thousands of paper sculptures in color and black and white (on the first floor) combine to create the feeling of walking into another world.
From the artist’s website about the work-
In its third and final edition at MOCA Pacific Design Center, Gas Giant begins its voyage subverting the grid of the white cube on the first floor by tangling the black and white elements of the installation while directing the viewer to the second floor, where an open, atmospheric, and colorful emphasis on the verticality of the space is the climax of the piece. Influenced by ample sources that range from sacred architecture, post-war abstract painting, the Light and Space movement from the 1960s in Southern California, and the 1990s generation of Los Angeles painters, Hashimoto expands painting and collage strategies in an ongoing exploration of abstraction and landscape through color, repetition, association, and even simple marks and gestures that when combined together, result in the infinite layers of complexity that characterize his work. Becoming a mirror of human experience, Gas Giant is a metaphor of possibility and temporality—the viewer encounters the beauty of an encompassing landscape, through vastness and detail in equal manner, but also with the idea of loss, since the work also reflects on the intensity of human labor in its creation, and considers the temporality of the viewing experience, and of the piece itself. This exhibition marks Hashimoto’s first solo museum exhibition in California.
May 242014
Maren Hassinger’s current show Almost Weightless at Reginald Ingraham Gallery uses everyday materials like newspapers and plastic bags to create larger sculptures which are concerned with the human condition.
The pink bags of Love (seen above) were inflated with “human breath” and contain “love notes”, tiny papers printed with the word love, within. In Wrenching News, (also pictured above), the harsh stories from newspapers are twisted into a knotted sculpture. Hassinger’s use of these materials with their alternating heaviness and light, grayness and color, enable the viewer to feel the weight of the emotions the sculptures are conveying.
Apr 262014
If you are in Culver City make sure to look up on La Cienega (near Washington) to see the billboard of Rebecca Morris’s cats, an addition to her show at LA><ART, Fantastic LA, which consists of abstract paintings named after popular songs. Morris is also currently included in the Whitney Biennial.
Also at LA><Art is Patricia Fernández’s multimedia installation Paseo de los Melancólicos, which explores the history of Spain during the time of the Spanish Civil War.
These shows both close 4/26.
The outside of the gallery has a mural by Fritz Chesnut (seen above in silver) which will be on view until 4/30.
Mar 152014
Currently at 356 Mission, Scott Reeder’s show consists of large abstract paintings, paintings consisting of humorous lists, and bizarre Star Trek like sets from Moon Dust, a movie described on IMDB as being about “a failing resort on the moon”.
This show is open until 3/16/14.
Feb 222014
Samara Golden- Mass Murder
Jesse Mockrin- Midnight Sun
When you walk into Night Gallery it will take your eyes awhile to adjust. When they do you will see a car parked in the center of the gallery. The next room holds Jesse Mockrin’s paintings, styled after traditional master painters, lit with one light each. The next rooms are filled with odd aluminum covered furniture, a sunset projection on one wall, stuffed animals, pianos, keyboards and more. These objects (and the car) are all part of Samara Golden’s Mass Murder. What does it all mean?
Here’s a bit of the press release:
It’s Mass murder. It’s the world and then the reversal of the world. It’s trying to find the beautiful inside of a horrible world of hypocrisy and contradiction. It’s personal. It’s optimism and pessimism in a dead lock. It’s two stories. It’s bad blood. It’s a caged thought. It’s a purple light giving a performance. It’s our living room 1975-1988. It’s an airport convention room, it’s a bank, a hospital, a hotel. The wall, a dance club, a parking lot. It’s a flight simulator that makes you believe you’re in the sky when you’re actually crashing into nothing-miles away from real life. It’s the disillusionment of the Vietnam generation, it’s my parents. It’s keyboard lessons, gymnastics, those flowers my mom loves, Vivaldi the four seasons, Pink Floyd, The Ramones. It’s a room that was both my sister’s place and my grandma’s. It’s the records, the boom box, Detroit “wheelz” radio, the two cockatiel birds, Rudy, and heavy metal. It’s the black and white TV, the alcohol, the reading, the neon knitted Afghans, the curly grey hair, the heart problems, the smoke, and the cigarettes. It’s also the matchboxes, the taste, the piano, the white carpet, the abalone box in the ladies room, the jewelry. It’s a highway underpass. It’s sleeping in the street. It’s train hopping. It’s April, it’s her amputated leg. It’s a big mess, seriously. It’s a place to think about it. It’s the fog and the mist. It’s asking why-it’s hoping for a peaceful place. It’s a broken heart for the world.
Worth checking out to draw your own conclusions. It closes 2/22.
Feb 222014
Elias Hansen: I’m a long way from home and I don’t really know these roads.
Anat Ebgi gallery is showing Elias Hansen’s new sculptures until 2/22. There are numerous beakers and other glassware combined with natural materials in setups that look, especially when lit with colored lights, like bizarre science experiments, or possibly something more suspicious.
Also in Culver City and closing 2/22:
Patrick Wilson’s geometric paintings in “Steak Night” seem to move the longer you stare at them- at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.
Tony de los Reyes’s show “Border Theory” at Angles Gallery paintings and lithographs are both abstract and political as the lines within them follow the natural border between the United States and Mexico created by the Rio Grande (or Rio Bravo).
Kevin Cooley and Phillip Andrew Lewis have a show called “Unexplored Territory” at Kopeikin Gallery that consists of video and photography that explores human’s desire to control natural elements like fire, and balances this concept with machines acting in ways that make them seem human. There is a video in the center room in which two fans on one power cord seem to be in a sort of dance/fight.
At LAXART, Brendan Fowler recreates photos with a commercial industrial embroidery machine creating a blend of photography and sculpture.
Dec 132013
One room from Pet Shapes at China Art Objects Galleries
If you are in Culver City, tomorrow (12/14) is the last day for this group show. All the works are pet related, and there is even a purring chair (not shown). It’s worth checking out if you are in the area.
Dec 042013
Joel Otterson- Bottoms Up #2
Joel Otterson’s current show is “Chandelier Queer” at Maloney Fine Art. This title references the slang term “chandelier queer” defined as- “a homosexual with exquisite and/or expensive taste” or a “self-spoiled fruit”(according to Urban Dictionary). The show consists of sculptures made from found glass wear. The chandeliers are beautiful and seemingly fragile creations which take take what most consider trashy objects, and turns them into something glorious.
Otterson is one of the artists selected to be in the Whitney Biennial 2014.
Nov 222013
This is the last weekend for Arts ReSTORE LA: Westwood. There are several events planned for the weekend including Popup Arcade Extravaganza– a free event on Saturday with games designed by former and current UCLA students.