Oct 232024
 

magnetic instinct, Liz Larner’s current exhibition at Regen Projects, balances the textures and colors of her unique ceramic sculptures with the simplicity of her 1989 work Rubber Divider. The show is also part of the Getty’s PST ART: Art and Science Collide programming.

From the press release-

“…for wander is a verb that needs no object…My aim is to limit myself to the ingenuity of innate action, to be awed by it, and not to try and clear up its mysteries.”
—Fernand Deligny, The Arachnean and Other Texts, 2015, pp. 37/46

The exhibition presents new ceramic works surrounding Larner’s “Rubber Divider, 1989—two sheets of pure gum rubber connected to steel rods attached to two flame-cut, solid steel blocks that hold the tension of the opposing pull of weight and elasticity of the rubber sheets. Their opposition and mutual dependence underscores Larner’s longstanding interest in the relationship between structural support and the attitude of the object.

Engaged with the many possibilities of sculpture and abstract form, Larner uses material to encourage discoveries led by an intrinsic link between impulse and perception. Polished to a mirror finish, the brass and aluminum of these sculptures allows them to be positioned on the wall, as the side of the glazed ceramic facing the wall is reflected in the cool light of aluminum and the warm glow of brass. Each surface has its own quality, from the extremely reflective to a textured matte, and these differences create a varying vibrancy of reflected light. Larner’s ceramics highlight a symbiotic continuity that troubles definitions of art and environment, object and subject.

Larner’s morphological research thinks likewise with ecological networks, as described in the writings of Fernand Deligny, or by the botanist Anne Pringle, in “Establishing New Worlds: The Lichens of Petersham.” The dialogue between these new works and Larner’s more historic sculpture, Rubber Divider—which debuted in the 1989 Whitney Biennial—underscores the interplay between support, form, surface effect, and infrastructure, that has often animated her practice, exploring how our observed experience of the world is innately personal but based on connection. Mindful of the specter of the Anthropocene, it also occasions a meditation on how we distinguish past and present, wondering what forms, what artifacts of human action and intelligence will last, and outlast us.

Distinguished by the unique physical rules that govern its transition, from soft to fragile to almost indestructible, Larner engages clay in part because of its apparent self-determination and pliancy, a kind of material agency and chemical intelligence distinct from our own. The ceramic forms in this exhibition are molded by impressions with ubiquitous forms made with a precision that often goes unnoticed. These forms are softened by the contact of the clay being shaped by them. The consequence of this method of forming is ghostly and transpositional. Among many other potential interpretations and resonances, the exhibition’s title points to these principles, and likens them to the same encodings that inform human perception and the activity of many other life-forms, as we are learning to be of and with.

Larner’s work is also currently on view as part of Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean at the Orange County Museum of Art and For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego . Both shows are also part of PST ART: Art and Science Collide.

For more on her creative process, and earlier work, check out the video below from Art21 in 2016.

 

 

Jul 182019
 

Bill Baird- Your Dark Sunglasses Won’t Make You Lou Reed

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (7/18-7/21/19)-

Thursday

Italian composer , sound artist, and performer, Drum & Lace will be at Bootleg Theater for her semi songs EP release show that will include visuals, a light installation, and a dance performance

There’s a free performance of Roger Guenveur Smith and Marc Anthony Thompson’s Portrait of Charles White at The California African American Museum

Goon are having an LP release party at the Echoplex with Draag and Kevin also playing

Tyler Ramsey (former lead guitarist from Band of Horses) will be playing with My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel at Highland Park Ebell

Hammer Museum’s free Summer Concert Series continues this week with Wild Belle performing

Will Fox and Mara Connor are playing an early free show at Gold-Diggers

 

Thursday through 7/28/19

OUTFEST Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival opens Thursday with an Opening Night Gala and a screening of Circus of Books, about the recently closed WeHo store directed by the daughter of the store’s owners. It continues in various locations with screenings that include shorts and television episodes.

 

Friday

UCLA Film & Television Archive is screening the double feature Roman Holiday and Three Coins in a Fountain at Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater ($9)

21 Savage is performing at Shrine Expo Hall with Calboy and Young Nudy

Dean Wareham will be performing the Galaxie 500 album On Fire at the Teragram Ballroom

Potty Mouth and Colleen Green are opening for Dressy Bessy at Moroccan Lounge

Learn to dance the Argentine Tango at The Music Center’s Dance DTLA night in Grand Park

It Looks Sad. are playing at The Hi Hat with Derek Ted opening

 

Saturday

Bill Baird is playing a free show at Highland Park Bowl with Manhattan Murder Mystery and Mirrorball

ICA LA is hosting Reading the News-a 34,000 Pillows workshop with artist collaborative Díaz Lewis. 34,000 is the quota of detained immigrants per day in 250 facilities around the country mandated by the US Congress and enforced by ICE. Pillows from recycled clothing will be created and added to the 34,000 Pillows project to be sold for $159 (an amount that reflects the average amount of taxpayer money spent each day by Congress to detain one person daily) with 100% of proceeds donated to national and local immigration organizations. While the pillows are made there will also be a reading of news, literature, and poetry. (free)

Union Station is hosting Magic & Mystery, a free night of performances by magicians on the South Patio

Independent Shakespeare Co. is having free performances of the play Twelfth Night in Griffith Park all weekend and tonight as part of their Salon Series, Invertigo Dance Theatre Artistic Director Laura Karlin will lead an exploration into creating story through choreography.

 

Saturday and Sunday

Hauser & Wirth is hosting LITLIT: Little Literary Fair, a free two day book fair celebrating independent booksellers, book publishers, and book makers from Los Angeles and beyond. While you are there, make sure to check out the excellent David Hammons and Guillermo Kuitca exhibitions.

 

Sunday

Sculptor Liz Larner will be discussing artist Chris Burden at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA as part of their Artists on Artists series

Turn It Up!, a new group advocating for gender parity in music, is hosting an afternoon concert fundraiser at the Echoplex, with performances by Solvej Schou, Phranc, and The Groans as well as the Turn It Up House Band featuring Abby Travis (Sumo Princess), drummer Tosha Jones (the Randies), bassist Gere Fennelly (Redd Kross), and guitarists Blare Bitch & Sharon Needles (both from Betty Blowtorch) with vocalists Lisa Kekaula (Bellrays), Nina Diaz (Girl in a Coma), Drew Arriola Sands (TrapGirl), Kristine Nevrose (the Tissues), Alice Bag, Adele Bertei, and Abby Travis.

Later at the Echoplex, Ringo Deathstarr, Tennis System, Blushing and The Meeting Places will be playing for Part Time Punks night

UCLA Film & Television Archive’s screenings at the Hammer Museum continue with three 1990s DIY indie films- Sarah Jacobson’s I Was A Teenage Serial Killer and Mary Jane’s Not A Virgin Anymore and Tina Krause’s Limbo ($9)

Singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade will be performing with maestro Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl

We Were Promised Jetpacks are playing at the Teragram Ballroom with Catholic Action opening

Feb 142014
 

lizlarnerregenproj

Liz Larner at Regen Projects

This is the final weekend (closes 2/15) for Liz Larner’s show at Regen Projects.

From the press release:

Regen Projects is pleased to present an exhibition of new sculptures by Los Angeles-based artist Liz Larner.The exhibition brings together her recent navigations of geological poiesis, fissures, folds, curves, and reconfigurations, and includes wall-mounted ceramic slabs, a large stainless steel X sculpture, two paper-based planchette pieces, early photographs, and a new “culture” sculpture. Larner has shown at Regen Projects since 1989, and this presentation marks her seventh solo exhibition at the gallery.

The photos in the side gallery are particularly worth noting.  Placed near the pool at the Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles, are single jars filled with different objects- in one, guitar strings submerged in pool water- while people sunbathe or use the pool. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, both the objects within the photos and this work within the entire show.