At this time of political turmoil, It Passes Like a Thought comes as a breath of fresh air. Focused on seven artists who employ avian imagery and themes, the title of the exhibition derives from a John James Audubon quotation that states, "When an individual [bird] is seen gliding through the woods and close to the observer, it passes like a thought..." Presented at the Beall Center for Art + Technology at the University of California, Irvine, and curated by Artistic Director, David Familian, the show offers works in a wide range of media that variously investigate avian flight, language (birdsongs, calls, and the ability to mimic human speech), habitats, and diversity, as well as issues of endangerment and extinction. As a center for art … [Read more...]
Sao Paulo Surprise
During a few days in Sao Paulo, I went to several museums and about a dozen far-flung galleries. Each had something to recommend it, whether the art or exhibition on view or the architecture or physical lay-out of the space, but nothing I saw or experienced surprised or captivated me as much as what I saw at MASP. MASP, the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, is a private, nonprofit museum founded by Brazilian businessman Assis Chateaubriand in 1947. Originally located elsewhere, it moved in 1968 into a Modernist structure designed by Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi on Avenida Paulista, a busy shopping and business thoroughfare. The museum occupies a glass-walled rectangular box that is suspended high above the street … [Read more...]
Inhotim=Paradise*
I wept from joy 3 times during my 2 1/2 days at Inhotim. The first was in the gallery that houses Canadian artist Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet (2001). The piece consists of 40 speakers on stands that encircle an otherwise empty, large, white-walled space. A single horizontal window cut into one wall affords views of the abundant foliage outside. From each speaker comes the voice of one of 40 singers performing the sixteenth-century choral piece Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis. Although I have experienced this work before and have always been deeply affected by the tapestry of voices raised in sacred song, the rays of light streaming through the window and the slice of Eden glimpsed just beyond made immersion in the piece even more … [Read more...]
Arshile Gorky: The Man and his Art
Among the recent initiatives of the Arshile Gorky Foundation have been two endeavors that have shed light on Gorky's personal and artistic legacy. One is the exhibition Ardent Nature: Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943-47, recently on view at Hauser + Wirth on 69th Street, New York. It offered a breathtaking array of works produced by the artist at the height of his powers, the time when he liberated himself from his earlier sources to create an art--a world--wholly his own. Curated by Saskia Spender, one of the artist's granddaughters and head of the Foundation, it consisted of 30 paintings and drawing drawn from museums and private collections. The other is the 2011 documentary film Without Gorky, written and directed by his other … [Read more...]
SUPERFLEX: Flooded McDonald’s at the Hammer
While the trailblazing exhibition Radical Women is a must see at L.A.'s Hammer Museum (and will be the subject of a later post), concurrently on view and of contemporary relevance is the 2009 film Flooded McDonald's, situated in a small plaza gallery. The 21-minute film was made by the artist collective SUPERFLEX, which was founded in Copenhagen in 1993, but is now based in Denmark, Sweden, and Brazil. The group's mission is to explore systems of power, global capitalism and trade, community relations, and more. I first became aware of the collective through their piece CopyLight/Factory (2008) in the Museum of Modern Art's Print/Out exhibition of 2012. Part of the group's ongoing "Supercopy Series," it consisted of computer and other … [Read more...]
proyectosLA: A Model Fair
Amid the hubbub and bounty of the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative is proyectosLA, a two-month long commercial art fair of remarkable quality, taste, and inspiration, which is housed in a converted downtown warehouse. Near the entry, a collection of small rooms radiating off communal office space serve as booths for 19 galleries from throughout Latin American and the U.S. that present select works by Latin American artists. The remainder of the 20,000 sq. ft. space is occupied by the exhibition Here the border is you, which is comprised of fascinating and distinguished work drawn from the 19 galleries. They are installed so as to elicit dialogues among the established and emerging, multigenerational artists … [Read more...]
Paul McCarthy WS at Hauser + Wirth L.A.
Walt Disney's Snow White bends her head to perform fellatio on... No, wait... It is Dopey's head she has taken in her mouth and this is not Snow White, but White Snow, the lascivious doppelganger of the Disney princess with whom Paul McCarthy has been preoccupied since late 2008. Over the course of the past decade, McCarthy has repeatedly taken the beloved 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as subject, exploiting it in several different series of drawings, sculptures, installations, films, and more. Throughout, he has twisted and perverted the tale, subjecting it to intense psychosexual scrutiny as well as to the abject sensibility that has long characterized his art. Also playing major roles are dark humor, art history, … [Read more...]
Stacey Steers Vital Signs
I was invited to judge Art in Print's Prix de Print, a bimonthly contest, for their July-August issue. From among the more than 30 high quality, anonymous submissions, I selected the print that most intrigued and captivated me. This turned out to be Stacey Steers' Vital Signs, the very first print made by a Boulder-based experimental filmmaker who often incorporates her films into sculptural installations. Click here for my commentary. … [Read more...]
Notes on Art Basel Hong Kong 2017
On our way to Seoul to attend a traditional Korean wedding (see photo at the bottom of this post), my husband and I stopped off in Hong Kong, where I attended Art Basel Hong Kong for the first time. I spent two days at the fair and still didn't see it all, but what follows are short notes on a few of the works that struck me and stayed with me. What those who attended the fair only on the Wednesday--the VIP day--may not have realized and what I found remarkable as someone who attended several iterations of Art Basel Miami Beach when it first began, is that when I went to the fair on the Thursday, the first day the fair (which is in its fifth year in Hong Kong) was open to the public, there were thousands of people waiting to get in--and … [Read more...]
Alex Prager La Grande Sortie
Upon entering the Lehmann Maupin Gallery on Chrystie Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, you are greeted by applause. On a small video screen inserted into a large white wall, a seated audience faces you and claps. Most audience members are enthusiastic, while some appear distracted or bored. Nevertheless, you may well feel pleased, gratified, appreciated. It occurred to me that seeing this would be a lovely way to start each day. The video provides an introduction to Alex Prager's La Grande Sortie, an installation consisting of work related to the production of the Los Angeles-based artist's ten-minute film of the same title commissioned by the Paris Opera Ballet. (It may be recalled in this context that Prager's debut as a … [Read more...]
Doug Aitken: Electric Earth at The Geffen
If you currently have no plans to be in Los Angeles before January 15th, when Doug Aitken: Electric Earth closes at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, make them, as the exhibition is a must see (it will also be shown at The Modern in Fort Worth, May 28-September 24, 2017). The exhibition is well worth the journey as it itself presents a journey, one whose images and experiences will long be impressed upon the eye and mind. The forty-eight-year-old Aitken was raised and trained as an artist in the Los Angeles area--its landscapes, cityscapes and sunsets figure prominently in his art--and he has long been familiar with The Geffen, whose spaces he has reconfigured so as to offer multiple paths of exploration to his work of the past twenty years … [Read more...]
Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles
Five years in Los Angeles and I finally made it to the Craft and Folk Art Museum with a Southern California ArtTable event and I'm glad I did. The museum is practically across the street from LACMA and is a few doors down from the new Los Angeles branch of the Sprueth Magers Gallery. Two exhibitions are on view through May 8, 2016. The first, Little Dreams in Glass and Metal, presents paintings, sculptures and objects selected from a vast collection of American work in enamel dating from 1920 to the present belonging to the Los Angeles-based Enamel Arts Foundation. Bernard N. Jazzar and Harold B. Nelson, who established the foundation devoted to this under-documented art form, are both specialists in design (the latter is Curator of … [Read more...]
On the Opening of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel
Over the course of the past year, I've had the privilege of attending the press previews of three remarkable public institutions devoted to modern and contemporary art. In May, the new Whitney Museum building opened on Gansevoort Street in lower Manhattan. In September, The Broad was inaugurated in downtown L.A. Today, the new campus of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, located near the Los Angeles River in downtown L.A., offered the press its first view. Wait, you may well say, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is not a public institution, but a commercial, for-profit gallery, yet another outlet of the mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth with locations in Zurich, London, New York, Somerset (England) and now Los Angeles. However, it is an art center … [Read more...]
Enrique Martinez Celaya Studio Visit
A few nights ago, I had the privilege of visiting the Culver City studio of Enrique Martinez Celaya, whose work I have long admired, together with a small group from ArtTable. Martinez Celaya moved back to Los Angeles two years ago after a ten-year hiatus, during which time he lived in South Florida (where he retains a studio) and Berlin. Martinez Celaya is an old-fashioned artist in the sense that he paints in oil and wax on canvas and creates sculptures cast in bronze that are rendered in a representational manner. However, his works go beyond naturalism to embrace poetry, poignancy and wonder, being rich in implied narrative and displaying a deep-rooted humanism. Each provides a journey into its own world and experience. Each is … [Read more...]
Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2016
Art Los Angeles Contemporary this year had terrific energy and featured a lot of interesting, high quality work. It continues to surprise me, however, given that L.A. now houses one of the world's more dynamic art scenes, being replete with artists of national and international reputation, galleries showing exciting and important work and a growing collector base, that this, the city's preeminent fair focused on current work, which is now in its 7th year, has remained so modest in scale. It is by no means just a local affair, as the galleries indicated below will testify, but I anticipate that in the coming years this fair will greatly expand its scope and become a magnet for collectors worldwide. Soon, the major New York galleries that … [Read more...]