Communal openings do bring out the crowds. On an evening when frost warnings were posted, LA’s art world denizens came out in serious numbers to attend dozens of galleries in the La Cienega/Washington vortex. It must be said from the onset, openings are probably the worst possible time to actually view art. This malady was [...]
The thing about Jasper Johns that is often overlooked is that his art has become part of the DNA of the Art World. Some might argue that this happened in a Big Bang fashion in the late fifties when his art burst on the scene. It was then that the rather commonplace motifs of Johns’ [...]
The New Regen Projects exhibition space opened in late September in an area of Los Angeles that can best be approximated as south Hollywood. At over 10,000 square feet and designed by architect Michael Maltzan, the space meets and exceeds the expectations of ambitious and pretentious (I use this word as a positive) upper echelon [...]
I don’t know how it will play in Texas when it comes to the Nasher Sculpture Center in February 2013, but Ken Price’s magnificent exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is so thoroughly suffused with the bittersweet aura of a memorial that it’s impossible not to be thrilled by the joy that [...]
1988 was a rotten time to be a teenager. During the Reagan-Bush era, you had to put in a lot of work to hear something other than Bon Jovi. There was no internet, and the indie revolution in film and music and fashion and new media was still years away. A girl interested in [...]
The concept of an exhibition being perfect for a summertime setting might too easily be misinterpreted as a slight. It is not. The paintings and drawings by Matthias Düwel currently on display at Martha Otero Gallery capture the high key color and sartorial swing that does indeed seem suited for the ratatattat of August. If [...]
(For an introduction to Laura Lark’s advice column, click here.) Dear Laura, I think I’m ready to approach a gallery about showing my work, and maybe even ask them to represent me as an artist. I’ve heard from older artists that it’s sort of like dating. Is that true? And if it is [...]
Photography’s greatest Achilles heel may be that it’s too damn illustrative. How then to wrestle the poetry back into a medium which explains so much and leaves so little for interpretation? I was reminded of this re-occuring struggle when I saw, again, the emotive and evocational prints of James Fee at Craig Krull Gallery. Fee, [...]
The thing about group shows, especially in the long dog days of summer, is that they can drive you to distraction. While the art world in general has become a 365 days a year affair, many galleries still work on a “cultural season” of September through May. Summer group shows might not be the best [...]
Pick of the Week for July 25th, 2012 Granted, to write a rave review of a show closing in four days is regretable. But when the art work on display and the curatorial excellence is so remarkable, it would be more of a crime not to sing its praises. The exhibition in question is the [...]
