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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Carl Andre’s star is ascendant. Again. This is ironic because the artist has long ago earned his place in the canon of art history. But he hasn’t been much of a presence on the gallery scene. Slowly but surely we are seeing Andre pieces reemerge in the exhibition landscape, no doubt catalyzed by the fact [...]
Pick of the week for June 25th, 2012 Frank Stella has created distinct bodies of work every decade for the past 50 years. His working methodology has defined the template of the contemporary artist-variations on a theme. Whether by his artistic nature or by design, this approach has all but become de rigueur in MFA [...]
