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 132014
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.
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
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
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
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.
May 032014
Daniel Arsham- Kick the Tires and Light the Fires
For his current show at OHWOW gallery, Daniel Arsham molds familiar American cultural objects out of rocks and minerals, such as obsidian, quartz, volcanic ash, or glacial rock dust to create work that feels like its been unearthed from a time capsule.
This show closes 5/3/14.
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.
Apr 262014
“Throwing-Nikomat”
“9 Perspectives”
Lew Thomas: Structural (ism) and Photography (images via Cherry and Martin)
In this exhibition of Lew Thomas’s photos, focusing on his work from 1971-1978, the mostly black and white images focus on different ways to use the medium to capture time and structure. Some of the work consists of multiple images of the same object put together to create an overall pattern, while others, like “9 Perspectives” (shown above), are several photos pieced together to form one single image. There are other explorations of photographic representation within the show as well, including “Throwing-Nikomat”(pictured above), and black and white photos of documents. There is a charm and sometimes humor to Thomas’s work that make this not only an interesting exhibition to see, but also a fun one.
This show is at Cherry and Martin until 4/26.