Jun 262014
 

Shannon and the Clams- Rip Van Winkle

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (6/26-6/29/14)-

Thursday

A.L. Steiner speaks with Tyler Green for a live podcast recording at The Hammer

World premiere of Petra Cortright’s commission for MOCAtv “Tags for Likes” at MOCA Grand Avenue– Free with RSVP

Fuck Buttons are playing at El Rey

Friday

Friday Night Flights at the Getty– hosted/curated by Ooga Booga (who run interesting art centered shops in Chinatown and at 356 Mission), they are bringing in artists and musicians for installations and performances around the museum

LACMA is presenting Do the Right Thing (25th Anniversary Screening and Conversation) moderated by John Singleton with director Spike Lee, actor Roger Guenveur Smith, musician Chuck D, and others

Bleached and the Zig Zags are playing at the Echo

Saturday

Lolipalooza at the Echo with Missing Persons, Shannon and the Clams, The Lovely Bad Things and many more-full list here

Artist’s Tag Sale at Center for the Arts Eagle Rock- everything is 50$ or less and there are some great artists on the list

Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Show Host– One night only at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Ira Glass of This American Life will tell stories while the dancers from Monica Bill Barnes & Company perform. The link has a video that gives you an idea of what looks like a pretty interesting show.

Citizen Kane is playing at the Orpheum Theatre through Last Remaining Seats

Sharon Van Etten is playing at El Rey

Sunday

Symposium: The Improper- Mike Kelley’s Dissent– art historians Thomas Crow, Amelia Jones and John C. Welchman discuss Kelley’s work at MOCA Grand Avenue

King Khan and The Shrines are playing at the Troubadour

Jun 212014
 

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Augusta Wood- The Last Autumn, Self Portrait with Andy Sleeping

For her show at Angles Gallery, Whether it happened or not, Augusta Wood has combined photos from old family slides, and sometimes more recent ones she has taken herself, to form singular images all taking place in and around the house she grew up in. The result is images that question the nature of memory and personal history.

From the press release:

Whether it happened or not is an act of organizing chaos and composing a view that asserts the way things exist in the artist’s mind. These are works that reflect what she remembers and wants to stabilize, complete, and believes should not be forgotten. Wood is resisting loss. This happened, this is real, and these images exist now, whether it happened or not.

This show closes on 6/28/14.

Jun 192014
 

Anamanaguchi- Meow

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (6/19-6/22/14)-

Thursday

Nightmares on Wax is playing Amoeba Hollywood (free) and at the Fonda on Sunday

Award winning shorts from the Cinematographers Guild at the Egyptian

Friday

Anamanaguchi at El Rey

Dwell on Design begins at the LA Convention center (through 6/22)

Design Hooky West– a free self guided tour around shops and galleries with a focus on design, ending in a party at Chalk LA

Saturday

Culver City Artist Tour– Artists at various galleries will be speaking about their work, demonstrating specific techniques and participating in workshops with visitors

Cal Arts post-graduate exhibition at Cirrus/HYPERHYPER

The Ice Age Hair Ball at the Page Museum- elaborate wig/hair contest, djs, cocktails, tarpits and more

Kitten is playing at El Rey

Opening night at the Hollywood Bowl begins with The Go Go’s, Kristen Chenowith, Pink Martini and fireworks

Saturday and Sunday

Artists and Fleas Market on Mateo St. in the Arts District

Sunday

A discussion of Abstract Painting and the art of JonMarc Edwards at Coagula Curatorial Gallery with Andi Campognone (director of MOAH), Shana Nys Dambrot (arts writer), Jamie Brooks (gallerist) and the artist himself

Janelle Monáe is playing at the Hollywood Bowl

USA play Portugal in the World Cup at 3pm Los Angeles time so it should be easy to find a bar to cheer them on!

Jun 132014
 

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The Wanderers (image via Greg “Craola” Simkins site)

Tomorrow (6/14) is the last day to see Greg “Craola” Simkins’ show Good Knight at Merry Karnowsky gallery. His work may look familiar from his mural on La Brea.

Jun 082014
 

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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
 

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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.

May 222014
 

Holy Fuck- Red Lights

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (5/22-5/26/14)-

Thursday–

Creativity: The Perfect Crime– Philippe Petit (who walked a tightrope between the towers of the World Trade Center) speaks about creativity at the Central Library Downtown (free/ standby tix only)

Holy Fuck is playing at the Roxy

Ericka Beckman presents three of her films at MOCA

Yamashiro Farmer’s Market is back!

And so is the one on the Sunset Strip

Friday–

designLAB event at the Pacific Design Center- 14 galleries having receptions for shows

Superhumanoids are at the Echo (free)

Saturday–

Los Angeles Poverty Department is having a parade/performance/brass band- Walk the Talk-and Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead will be a part of it- a PDF with a full description of the event is available on their site

The Big Lebowski on the lawn at the Autry

Protomartyr are playing at Permanent Records (free)

Sunday–

Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon at the Egyptian Theatre

Tony Molina, Big Eyes are playing at the Roxy

Monday (Memorial Day)–

Target Free Mondays at LACMA

Also this weekend- Lightning in A Bottle Festival

May 102014
 

melaniewillhidevonlintelgallery

Melanie Willhide– T and V, Mesa Elks, 2008

Farrah Karapetian has put together a wonderful collection of photographs from various artists for Von Lintel Gallery’s inaugural exhibition in Los Angeles, Lay of the Land. Many of the artists in the show, including Zoe Crosher, Ed Ruscha, and Catherine Opie, are primarily based in Los Angeles and many of the photos are connected to Los Angeles in some way.

Farrah Karapetian is both an artist and a curator. She also recently curated the excellent Unsparing Quality at Diane Rosenstein Fine Art.

This show closes 5/10/14.

May 092014
 

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Chris Engman: Ink on Paper

Luis de Jesus gallery is currently showing Chris Engman’s incredible photographs which play with the notion of what is real. Although the images sometimes appear three dimensional (like the cube and paper above) or altered in some way, they are more straight forward than they seem.  These optical illusions should be seen in person to get the full effect.

Also take a moment to see Antonia Wright’s video work in the back of the gallery. Watching her fall through a sheet of glass naked repeatedly is mesmerizing and disturbing.

Both shows close 5/10.

May 032014
 

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Irit Batsry- Altered Sites

Currently at Shoshana Wayne gallery is Irit Batsry’s fourth solo exhibition. From the press release:

Altered Sites is a partial survey of Batsry’s photographic work from the last two decades illuminating key themes for the artist: the fragmentation of space, the construction of virtual space, and the dissolution of borders between photography, painting, sculpture, and the moving image.

Three different series of photographs are presented in the show. Neither There Nor Here is a series of photos taken from video material shot in Southern India. The Through the Looking Glass series, taken in Northwest Brazil, includes fun house mirror images of the sky and buildings, like the one seen above. Also shot in Brazil, the images from the third series, Caution, incorporate sculptures she built with security caution tape that she places within a coastal landscape.

This show closes 5/3.