“The sculpture is an homage to and celebration of the unique and multi-faceted character of the borough of Brooklyn. The spirit of Brooklyn has always been about upward mobility and connection to roots. The large-scale sculpture of a bronze arm pointing toward the sky is intended to convey to a wide audience a myriad of ideas about individual and collective identity, ambition, and perseverance”.
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (2/26-3/1/15)-
Thursday
Artist and critic Lorraine O’Grady, probably most famous for her first performance piece Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, is giving a free talk at MOCA Grand Ave
Mayor Garcetti’s favorite movie is Airplane!?- When Zócalo and KCRW asked him to pick a movie to screen at The Million Dollar Theater, this comedy classic was his selection. Tonight he’ll be there along with Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker (the trio who directed, wrote, and produced Airplane!) to discuss it after the film (free with registration)
Dan Snaith aka Caribou is playing three nights at the Fonda Theatre starting tonight
Cathedrals are playing with Empires, LANY, and Rush Midnight at the Echo (advanced tickets are sold out but there may be tickets at the door)
Friday
Seattle band La Luz are at the Bootleg HiFi with The Shivas and The Lovely Bad Things
If you haven’t seen the fascinating Los Angeles Plays Itself, why not check it out for free in Union Station, one of the many iconic locations seen in the film clips. Q&A with the director will follow
King Tuff is playing with Sonny and the Sunsets for CouchTrippin’ 2015: Los Angeles which will also have live art and Lagunitas beer- free with RSVP at Mack Sennett Studios
The area around Santa Monica and Highland has gradually become its own arts district and ForYourArt is hosting A Hollywood Walk of Art: The Awards Shows– a free self guided tour of the area (and a few other Hollywood galleries) with events that include free donuts at Donut Time
From a distance the paintings in Nicolas Grenier’sOne Day Mismatched Anthems Will Be Shouted in Tune, his exhibition at Luis de Jesus gallery, look like patterns and gradients. On closer inspection though, words materialize to comment on the societal structures currently controlling us.
In the first image above, Middle Ground II, anger in the darker colors moves to the “whatever” placed in gray. The center text reads “toward a bipartisan middle ground”. In the second, One Day Mismatched Anthems Will Be Shouted in Tune, the top text line fading in the pinkish gray reads “mass of folks that are left out and slowly sink to the bottom”, and further lines describe increasing ways that “folks” deal with their lot in life until the bright yellow center which reads “few folks that actually make things what they are”.
From the press release-
For Grenier, color functions as a kind of ecosystem to house the social, political, and cultural systems that serve as points of departure within the work. Gradation is used as a scalable, mutable device for organizing the paintings into large, concentric forms, as well as the interface through which we experience smaller letterforms and vectors. Thus, color plays a double agent: working to both solidify meaning (produce readability) and obscure signs as they become recognizable.
Grenier will be speaking at the gallery Saturday, December 13th at 3pm. This show closes December 20th.
The Hammer is hosting Love Has Many Faces- An Evening with Joni Mitchell where they will be screening The Fiddle and the Drum- a film of the eponymous ballet set to her songs followed by a Q & A with the artist and a celebration of her birthday
Artist Analia Saban discusses her work with curator Nancy Myer in the Broad gallery at LACMA
The Black Keys are playing at The Forum with Jake Bugg
Friday
We Were Promised Jetpacks are at The Fonda with The Twilight Sad
Two screenings and discussions at MOCA Grand Ave– Larry Clark’s Passing Through and Wu Tsang’s Wildness. Both directors will speak after the films. Free with admission to the museum
There is an artist talk with Robert Hale and curator jill moniz at Reginald Ingraham Gallery in Culver City
