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.

Jun 072014
 

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Photo by Robert Capa of Private Huston S. Riley at Omaha Beach

Today, June 6, 1944, is the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, when Allied (American, British and Canadian) troops invaded a 50 mile area of the Normandy coast in France. The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history and contributed to the Allied victory in the war.

Photojournalist Robert Capa was there, and took one of the most famous pictures from that day. It was one of only eleven images from the ten rolls of film he was able to bring back that survived, due to an accident in the darkroom when they were being processed.

This Vanity Fair article is a great portrait of Capa and also details his experience on D-Day.

For more information on Capa and a collection of his other images, Magnum Photos (which he helped to found) is worth checking out.

Artsy is also a good source for artist information and lists current exhibitions and related artists for further exploration.

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 102014
 

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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 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.

May 032014
 

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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
 

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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 252014
 

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Hannah Whitaker– Arctic Landscape (Pink Sky) 2014

For Hannah Whitaker’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, Cold Wave, at M+B Gallery, she combines photos of nature scenes, naked bodies and other images with a series of hand cut paper screens that together create abstract geometric forms and patterns. The images remain recognizable but are given added dimension through this process. Other work in the show concentrates more on graphic shapes and less on traditional imagery, but the strongest images are the ones in which something familiar is seen with a different perspective through this unique technique.

This show closes 4/26/14.

Apr 192014
 

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At Dorielle Caimi’s first solo show Complex Candy at Gusford Gallery, her colorful oil paintings feature nude women in various (and at times surreal) situations, all exploring issues concerning women today.

From the press release:

Examining the idea of innocence as a virtue lost too soon, Caimi’s nude figures resist vulgarity and sexualization. The bright, vivid colors serve to draw the viewer in closer to the women, whom the artist imbues with psychological complexities. Incorporating a dark sense of humor and a vision of what an authentic self might look like, Caimi lays bare her own personal psyche, creating bold paintings that speak to, and for, a larger generation.

This show closes 4/19/14.

In this interview with Caimi from Combustus, she goes into more detail about her creations as well as the issues behind them. It’s a really interesting read and also mentions other artists including John Currin, whose painting style immediately came to mind when I saw these works.  Her content, however, is delivering a very different message.

Apr 162014
 

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Currently at Stone Malone Gallery on Melrose, two well known Los Angeles street artists, Gianni Arone and Cecilia Romero are showing their work.  Arone’s work (seen above) is a combination of writing, sculpture, painting and assemblage, while Romero’s paintings are brightly colored and filled with energy.

This show closes on 4/16.