Jun 202015
 

hugocrosthwaiteatluisdejesus

hugocrosthwaiteatluisdejesussshatteredmural

The drawings in Hugo Crosthwaite’s exhibition at Luis de Jesus Los Angeles for Tijuana Radiant Shine have an interesting mix of comic elements combined with melancholic ones, while those that make up Shattered Mural are more somber as they focus on the toll of the horrible violence in Mexico.

From the press release:

Taking inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Hymn”, Tijuana Radiant Shine is composed of a puzzle-like installation of fourteen mixed media drawings on panel. The works are visual poems that depict the hopeful possibilities for a better future and the dichotomy of the reality that exists in this border city’s daily life.

Shattered Mural is a floor installation of forty-three sculptural wall fragments that reference the recent abduction and murder of the 43 college students in the Mexican State of Guerrero. This tragic event has become a national, and perhaps international, symbol for victims of institutional corruption and repressive regimes around the world. Unlike the Tijuana Radiant Shine panels, the sculpture fragments of Shattered Mural were created by deconstructing a mural into forty-three shards that when put back together would contribute to the whole.

Also make sure to look at the backs of the mural pieces which have different colors and patterns. This show closes 6/20/15.

May 302015
 

alexandrawiesenfieldklowdenmann

Alexandra Wiesenfeld‘s current  exhibition at Klowden Mann when i when if when lie when life (Xavier Villaurrutia) is filled with lush paintings which (according to the press release) are a “meditation on landscape, desire, human presence/absence, and the nostalgia and longing embodied by natural landscape at a moment in which human history faces a growing recognition of its own eventual erasure.”

This show closes 5/30.

May 302015
 

edtempletonrobertsandtilton

edtempletonrobertsandtiltonbeach

Today (5/30) is the last day to see Ed Templeton’s exhibition Synthetic Suburbia at Roberts & Tilton in Culver City.  His new paintings and drawings present a unique perspective on the Huntington Beach community.

Apr 232015
 

Eternal Summers- Wonder

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (4/23-4/26/15)-

Thursday

Eternal Summers are opening for Turbo Fruits at The Roxy

Tonight is the last screening of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster series with Cremaster 3 (2002) at the Hammer

Friday

Matthew Barney and composer Jonathan Bepler will discuss their recent collaboration River of Fundament (premiering at UCLA on Saturday) with professor Kenneth Reinhard at the Hammer Museum. Free but get there early

Fuzz are playing the El Rey Theatre

Saturday

Kaiser Chiefs are at The Wiltern along with We Are Scientists

The Dead Milkmen are at the Troubadour tonight and Sunday

Saturday and Sunday

The Brewery is having the first of its biannual art walks (free admission and parking)

The Jackalope Art Fair is taking place in Old Pasadena

Sunday

LACMA is having a community day to celebrate their 50th Anniversary with free admission (even to ticketed exhibits) and events

Artist Vincent Lamouroux is painting Silver Lake’s deserted Sunset Pacific Motel, also known as the “Bates Motel”, and its surroundings (including trees) white with lime wash to turn it into a temporary art installation that will be completed today for the opening (3-6pm)

Reptar will be playing a free in-store show at Origami Records

Apr 192015
 

robertwilliamslamaghollywoodaftermidnight

robertwilliamslamagsymbioticmediocrity

robertwilliamslamag

kazuhirotsujidalilamag

Today (4/19) is the last day to see both Robert Williams’ exhibition Slang Aesthetics! and 20 Years Under the Influence of Juxtapoz, a group exhibition by guest curators Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Gallery and Gary Pressman of Copro Gallery at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG), in Barnsdall Park.

Robert Williams has had a long career, from working on famous 60′s comic book Zap Comix to later helping to create Juxtapoz Magazine in 1994 to provide exposure for underground artists.  His paintings are highly skilled and detailed and each one has a story explaining the meanings behind the work.

The Juxtapoz exhibition has a diverse range of artists including Mark Ryden, Margaret Keane, Triston Eaton, Brett Armory, Andrew Schoulz and too many others to list here. Also drawing crowds are two of Kazuhiro Tsuji’s eerily lifelike sculptures of Dali (pictured above) and Andy Warhol.

Apr 182015
 

robertsandtiltongroupshowroom

robertsandtiltongroupshowyellowalexchaves

Alex Chaves

Currently at Roberts & Tilton, the exhibition And There Is An End is a wonderfully eclectic mix of painting and sculpture.

From the press release-

A search for poetic truths entails a search for art that not only has a dialogue with  contemporary  issues, but talks back to us. This exhibition brings together disparate voices to convene in a context spanning multiple generations and varied identities. With a range of works that acknowledges the individual via paintings and sculptural works with an unabashed display of the personal, the hand and the intuitive, implementing autonomous figuration and tactile expressions of materials that question the act of production and active image making.

This show closes 4/18/15.

Apr 112015
 

mernetlarsonhandshakevsfgallery

mernetlarsonskiervsfgallery

There is something pleasingly disorienting about Mernet Larsen’s paintings, currently at Various Small Fires (VSF) Gallery until 4/18. The once familiar objects take on new shapes and forms through her unique perspective.

This is the first show in Los Angeles for the artist who, though painting since the 1960′s, primarily showed in her home state of Florida, where she also taught painting at the University of South Florida.

Apr 102015
 

devngoshaskullatmerrykarnowskygallery

The three person show currently at Merry Karnowsky Gallery, includes the artist collaboration of Devin Liston and Gosha Levochkin known as devNgosha (seen above), Glenn Barr, and William Wray. Barr’s collection of paintings of women on the phone have a dreamy film still quality, while Wray’s portraits of down and out superheroes will seem familiar to anyone who has seen the Hollywood Boulevard characters when they drift away from the strip.  DevNgosha’s brightly colored creations address the concept of drought and thirst in the California landscape.

See it before it closes on 4/11/15.

Apr 102015
 

christinefrerichsatklowdenmann2

christinefrerichsatklowdenmangallery

christinefrerichsatklowdenmann

christinefrerichsatklowdenmannsmall

For Los Angeles based artist Christine Frerichs’ show at Klowden Mann she has painted in two sizes, large and small. There is an incredible energy to the large paintings, with their waves of motion moving over dense layers of colorful paint. In her smaller paintings there is a more concentrated imagery, often seeming like paintings of the memories of photographs.

From the press release:

The show is Frerichs’ second with the gallery, and continues her focus on memory, relationships and the construction of personal identity, as expressed through abstract painting.  The exhibition centers around a series of paired canvases layered with thick oil paint, acrylic and wax, using subtle, bold, light and dark colors, and curving textured lines which ripple across each of their surfaces.  These formal qualities describe an abstracted representation of two figures, and the visceral experience of different landscapes as they relate to the physical and emotional self.

This show closes 4/11.

Apr 042015
 

kennyscharfpaintinghonorfrasergirls

kennyscharfhonorfraserroomofpaintings

kennyscharfhonorfraserbugpainting

kennyscharfroomset2

kennyscharfhonorfrasercollage

kennyscharfhonorfraser

Kenny Scharf’s current show at Honor Fraser is a fun mix of collage, painting, and video, with many of the works making their debut.

From the press release:

Though Scharf is best known for his exuberant iconography, his work also contains underlying themes that reflect his ongoing commitment to social and environmental concerns. For Scharf, the embrace of fun is an act of defiance, his considered use of unconventional materials, bright color palette, and playful shapes a protest against restrictive cultural conditions. In his latest body of work, the Born Again paintings, Scharf encapsulates this notion of transforming the mundane by inserting his familiar characters and motifs into found amateur paintings. Akin to his earlier customizations of mass-produced objects like phones, washers, and televisions, here it is the discarded artwork that is repurposed.

His famous characters also make an appearance all around Davis Bros Tires on Washington and La Cienega nearby.