Los Angeles Art Shows- “Giant Robot Biennale 5” at the Japanese American National Museum

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Drawing, Installation Art, Los Angeles Art Shows, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Sculptors / Sculpture
Jan 042025
 

Work by James Jean

Work by Luke Chueh

Work by Giorgiko, moniker of husband and wife duo Darren and Trisha Inouye. These works are an homage to Darren’s family as Japanese Americans that experienced the WWII era.

Work by Mike Shinoda

Work by Yoskay Yamamoto

Work by Yoskay Yamamoto

Giant Robot Biennale 5 at the Japanese American National Museum features artwork from Sean Chao, Felicia Chiao, Luke Chueh, Giorgiko, James Jean, Taylor Lee, Mike Shinoda, Rain Szeto, and Yoskay Yamamoto.

From the museum about the exhibition and Giant Robot–

Giant Robot launched in 1994 as a hand-assembled zine in Los Angeles and grew into a staple of Asian American alternative pop culture. Since 2007, JANM has partnered with Eric Nakamura, founder of Giant Robot, to produce the biennale that is dedicated to showcasing the diverse and creative works brought together by the Giant Robot ethos.

This year marks Giant Robot’s thirtieth anniversary. While the zine and magazine are no longer published, its legacy and influence are indelible parts of our culture. The shop and gallery continue to thrive in Sawtelle’s Japantown and reflect the independent spirit of its origins. Giant Robot continues to be a highly influential brand encompassing many aspects of Asian and Asian American popular culture. These galleries contain a cross section of Giant Robot’s stalwart artists, emerging talents, and friends.

The video below from PBS Artbound is a great documentary about the Giant Robot project.

This exhibition closes Sunday, 1/5/25. On the same day the museum is free and hosting the 2025 Oshogatsu Family Festival- Year of the Snake event which will include cultural performances, crafts and other activities.

 

Los Angeles Art Shows- Firelei Báz at Hauser & Wirth

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Collage, Conceptual Art, Los Angeles Art Shows, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Sculptors / Sculpture
Dec 302024
 

“Atabey (or change the body that destroys me)”,2024, Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas

“Zemi (A New Spelling of My Name)”, 2024

“Zemi (A New Spelling of My Name)”, 2024 (detail)

“Ayida-Weddo (freed from all that is not marvelous)”, 2024, Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas

“Ayida-Weddo (freed from all that is not marvelous)”, 2024, Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas (detail)

“Mawu-Lisa (I build my language out of rocks)”, 2024, Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas

“Mawu-Lisa (I build my language out of rocks)”, 2024, Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas (detail)

“Huracán (beyond the triumphs of rootedness)”, 2024, Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas

Firelei Báez has created several stunning paintings for her exhibition The fact that it amazes me does not mean I relinquish it, currently on view at Hauser & Wirth’s downtown Los Angeles location. The historical documents that serve as a background for her beautiful ciguapa figures add another dimension to the complex works.

From the gallery’s press release-

New York-based artist Firelei Báez has achieved wide acclaim over the past decade for her rigorous paintings, drawings and immersive installations that explore the influences of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Conjuring forgotten narratives, Báez carefully fills history’s lacunae with joyful rebellion.

This September, in her first exhibition with Hauser & Wirth since joining the gallery in 2023, Báez will present new large-scale canvases, drawings and her first-ever bronze sculpture at the gallery’s Downtown Arts District center in Los Angeles. Complex and layered, Báez’s work depicts fantastical hybrid figures and reimagined worlds. Employing beauty to reprocess the enduring effects of violence and trauma, Báez challenges traditional representations of history, nationality, gender and race. United by common cause, the paintings incorporate a wide range of subjects including art history, science fiction, anthropology, pop culture, folklore and fantasy.

‘The fact that it amazes me does not mean I relinquish it’ is a reference to the work of Martinican writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant, a key figure in shaping theories informing the Caribbean’s influence on the global stage. Drawing inspiration from Glissant’s text, ‘Poetics of Relation’ (1990)—from which the title directly quotes— Báez navigates the tensions between identity and place, using Glissant’s concept of opacity to explore modes of resistance, namely the ability to navigate the world freely within a refusal of being fully understood—both to others and to oneself.

Báez considers mythology an important tool, “a way of correcting the past and projecting a different future. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, the artist heard local folk stories about a mythic femme trickster called a ‘ciguapa’ who was known for her elusiveness. While such lore was shared to discourage unruly and wild behavior, Báez has embraced the ciguapa in her work as a figure of endless possibility. Ever-morphing and multiplying, her composite creatures are often depicted with human legs, a coat of delicate fur and backwards facing feet so that she remains traceless and ultimately unknowable. In the ciguapa, Báez explores the body as a living archive, a shape-shifting repository of meaning and history, whose continuous transformation is inherently defiant.

In the painting, Zemi (A New Spelling of My Name), (2024), a supernatural figure appears at the entrance of a cave. Rather than standing before a blank canvas, Báez begins her paintings over plans that conceal narratives of violence and exploitation. In the aforementioned painting, Báez builds her imagery atop a 19th-Century drawing of the Taíno caves in Santana, Hispaniola. At the time of its production, the illustration functioned as a factual document; however, it was only an approximation of a real location wherein Báez’s hybrid figure materializes, a triumphant manifestation of empowerment and hope in a pieced-together landscape.

This exhibition closes 1/5/24.

Los Angeles Art Shows- Art Share L.A.- “Plateaus: Art That Resonates”

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Ceramic Art, Collage, Conceptual Art, Drawing, Fiber Arts, Glasswork, Los Angeles Art Shows, Los Angeles Music, Mixed Media, Music, Painting / Painters, Performances, Photographers / Photography, Sculptors / Sculpture
Nov 152024
 

Sculptures by Emily Sudd

Sculptures by Kyung Boon Oh

Photography by Kate Turning

Pictured above are some selections from Plateaus: Art That Resonates, a multisensory group exhibition at Art Share L.A. exploring the dualities of life that artists bring into their work.

From the gallery-

Art Share L.A. is pleased to present Plateaus: Art that Resonates a multidisciplinary and multisensory immersive art exhibition that explores dualities: art and craft, death and life, grief and love, and activity and stillness. These contrasts exist with an interdependent bond, reminding us that bonds are intrinsic and often intertwined partners. In multiple materials, processes, and scales, monument-like creations are revealed through thoughtful burnishing of passion.  The exhibition curated by Stacie B. London features seven visual artists: Amanda Maciel Antunes, Kyong Boon Oh, Hadley Holiday, Soojung Park, Emily Sudd, Kate Turning, and Cheyann Washington, along with additional contributions of ikebana by members of Sogestu Los Angeles, music by Rocco DeLuca, perfume by Lesli Wood (La Curie Eau de Parfume), and seating by Hunter Knight. Through a shared refinement of intentional experimentation with their mediums – acrylic panels, clay, glass, ink, photography, scent, sound, stone, thread, tree stumps, and wire– these artistic achievements reveal work that is brave, meditative, resilient, and vulnerable.

Our five senses inform our experiences and knowledge and assist us in ordering the world. In Plateaus: Art that Resonates the traditional forms of visual art of painting, photography, and sculpture are broadened to include aural art — via music and sound — and olfactory art. These multisensory and immersive pieces enhance the experience of viewing visual art and introduce additional dualities: sight with smell, smell with hearing, and hearing with sight. The expanded human experiences in an art gallery switch the expected experiences and invite the possibility of a familiar experience in a new way, or a breakthrough!

Breakthroughs often occur after long periods of what often seems like stagnation, or a plateau. It’s instinctual to want growth to be a continual upward trend, but instead it’s usually a series of long, flat periods (plateaus) of work with few visible results. Seemingly out of nowhere the plateau makes space for a breakthrough of creativity or growth—an intermittent moment when everything comes together. Instead of focusing on the result, it’s good to get comfortable in the plateau.

The artists and artisans of Plateaus: Art that Resonates use a broad range of approaches and techniques towards creative creations that are examples of how to grapple dualities, navigate the plateaus of life, and share breakthroughs that transmute our awareness of mortality into loving engagements with life and it’s contradictions and opposing perspectives that inspire and infuse life with meaning, immediacy, awareness, and appreciation.

Below are two of the ikebana created by members of Sogetsu Los Angeles.

This exhibition closes this Saturday (11/16) with a closing reception from 6-9pm.

Los Angeles Murals- Dont Stop x Denseinthehead x Keef Aura x Eder One

 Art, Artists, California Street Art, Los Angeles Street Art, Painting / Painters, Public Art, Street Art
Apr 052024
 

This mural, by @elpinchegogo, @denseinthehead, @keefaura, and @eder_one, was spotted in 2019 outside the A+D Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

Eder Cetina (eder_one) also runs Wilson Cetina Group, which has worked on numerous artistic projects for various organizations and museums.

Song of the Day- Breanna Barbara- “Landslide”

 Los Angeles Music, Music, Musicians / Bands, Spotify Playlist
Nov 092022
 

Breanna Barbara- Landslide

This song is from Breanna Barbara’s upcoming new album Nothin’ But Time, out on 11/11/22.

She will be playing at The Airliner in Los Angeles on 11/12 with Big Search and Le Pain opening.

Los Angeles Street Art- NYCHOS

 California Street Art, Los Angeles Street Art, Street Art
Oct 282022
 

Captain Hercules Fighting Hydra, 2015, by NYCHOS, located in downtown Los Angeles.

From his other website about the work-

It shows the fight between Captain Hercules and Hydra, and is a fusion of two stories: One goes back to the greek mythology, where Hercules is given the task to kill Hydra, a nine headed snake that grows two new heads for every decapitated one. The other story refers to a comic book published by none other than Marvel, where Captain America fights the identically named terrorist organization Hydra. When merging these two plots, Nychos creates the story of Captain Hercules, who is battling a multi-headed snake and its skeleton. Covered with the translucent skin of a lion and equipped with the attributes of both heroes – Hercules’ spear and Captain America’s shield – Nychos’ character appears on multiple layers, visually as well as substantially.

More of NYCHOS’ work can also be found on his Instagram.

 

Los Angeles Street Art- S.C. Mero x Wildlife in 2015

 Art, Artists, California Street Art, Installation Art, Los Angeles Art Shows, Los Angeles Art Shows, Los Angeles Street Art, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture, Street Art
Jul 282022
 

Going back to 2015 for this mural by Wildlife and S.C. Mero, who still create work in the area. Also check out Mero’s other page, where she highlights neighborhood (DTLA) events, people and art- including work by Wildlife.

 

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