Urs Fischer

Mon, Apr 02, 2012

Using head shots of stars from a time when a star was made from a film career (as opposed to sex tapes or simply being famous for being famous), Fischer substitutes Magritte's green apple for phallic fruits, vegetables and hardware.

Samantha Fields: Be Careful What You Wish For

Wed, Mar 21, 2012

The last time I saw a show of Fields' work it was a myriad of small fires taking over California. Here we see a softer gentler interpretation of the way nature affects the city and landscapes around LA. All of the scenes seem to be covered in fog, rain or haze. There is a soft focus blurriness that is reminiscent of not only photographic images but of film, where in the land of Hollywood this is most appropriate.

Kristen Morgin

Thu, Mar 15, 2012

It's kind of weird to see Morgin's work in a gallery space. That's because of the persistent feeling that you have of one who has wandered into an abandoned tree house from the 50's. Old degenerating toys, books, comics, cards and drawings hang neatly on the walls or are carefully arranged on the floor. The memory of "let's play war" or "let's play house" floats throughout the room.

Shirley Tse

Wed, Mar 07, 2012

This is the strangest of alien landscapes. Every material here is familiar yet it's the eccentric pairing of strange bed follows that creates never before seen objects. Chain and wire drape over free form acrylic, moss and icicles cling to a propeller, ribbon pretends to hang a piece of foam in a reverse maypole like display and an unidentifiable airplane part contains radiating colored pieces of acrylic and paper.

Ryan Slugget

Wed, Feb 29, 2012

The best art has surprises. Like much abstract art, Slugget's work is filled with intersecting shapes that reference organic and geometric forms, scribbly lines, and bright swaths of color that hover over flat planes.

Adam Ross

Fri, Feb 17, 2012

For all the mystery amassed in the images, there is still a sense that hands were here. The surface appears burnished for the resulting gleam, like a cousin of the resin coffee table my father made when I was a kid.

Jack Reilly

Mon, Feb 06, 2012

Metallic colored rose petals constitute these optical illusions that jut out into space, glimmering all the while, like some huge starship. Patterned with stripes that build dimension, the pieces conjure notions of marblized objects neatly sliced from a mythic quarry.

Bret Price

Mon, Jan 30, 2012

Like Arabic calligraphy, Price's painted steel sculptures are language made into design. Each piece is elegant script, that curls with volume and candescent color. Some pieces are metallic flecked while others are muted and matte.

Top 10 Art Shows of 2011

Fri, Jan 20, 2012

Top 10 lists are really silly but irresistible too. It’s interesting to go back and revisit the list of artists I wrote about throughout the year. There are always surprises, some names give me a jolt; perhaps it’s an artist I liked but didn’t label as Big Pick or Must See. Other times I see a name I raved about at the time and now I have no special response to the thought of their work. The passage of time has a great influence on the way I feel about art work, some ages beautifully throughout the year, other pieces slip away without leaving a strong imprint behind.

Roland Reiss

Sat, Jan 14, 2012

You could call this show a retrospective of Roland Reiss shadow boxes, with almost 30 glass rectangles creating a tiny world that we peer into for a look into a multi-layered parallel existence. Each tableau has certain things in common: an appearance similar to daily life, an amazing amount of detail and recognizable objects.

Matthew Ritchie at L & M Arts

Tue, Jan 03, 2012

First impressions are important. If like me, you enter the west gallery first, you will see paintings and a single sculpture. The paintings are golden abstractions, wings and flight are conveyed along with a sense of the heavens. A hybrid of angels and science, the paintings encapsulate our earth with markings that belong to diagrams and galaxies through ephemeral light that speeds through space.

James Richards at Shoshana Wayne Gallery

Tue, Dec 20, 2011

James Richards' string, pipe cleaners and paint pieces, attempt to redefine painting.

Aaron Curry and Richard Hawkins

Thu, Dec 08, 2011

A three room installation by Aaron Curry and Richard Hawkins creates a combination of shanty shack, play fortress and magical mushroom trip.

Paul Donald

Sun, Dec 04, 2011

Paul Donald's sculptures are a spindly legged hybrid of child's building blocks and war trophies. Made of carved wood and spray painted in primary colors, the pieces are comprised of forms that are familiar and yet unknown.

Ron Laboray

Fri, Nov 25, 2011

As part of a three person show on abstraction at JK Gallery, Ron Laboray's paintings stick out with their slick and unusual surfaces.

Terry O'Shea at Cardwell Jimmerson

Fri, Nov 18, 2011

Using resin and phosphorescent pigment, Terry O'Shea fabricated pieces that look more at home in the lab of an anthropologist than an art gallery. Tiny bits of prehistoric larvae, insects and resins, appear to be encased forever in an amber like holding.

David Lloyd at Gallery KM

Fri, Nov 11, 2011

David Lloyd has created a rare language using symbols, images and text. It's the kind of information that is best not completely decoded, instead letting connections bind themselves with personal associations like a complex formula.

Peter Alexander at Craig Krull

Thu, Nov 03, 2011

Peter Alexander is best known for his resin pieces, work that was done at the same time compatriots Larry Bell, Craig Kaufman, De Wain Valentine and Helen Pashgian were working with similar materials. Due to the toxicity of the materials, Alexander moved away from sculpture in the 70's-80's and worked in a decidedly softer medium, velvet, sewing, glitter and paint. Even as he moved to a addressing a 2 dimensional plane, his fascination with light that is filtered, glowing, and spectral continued on.

Five Car Stud by Edward Kienholz

Tue, Oct 25, 2011

This installation piece by LA Edward Kienholz, has only been seen once, in 1972. Shortly after it's one time showing in Germany, it was bought by a Japanese collector and put into storage for the next 40 years. In my mind's eye I picture a Citizen Kane/Raider's of the Lost Arc kind of storage facility, where something incredibly powerful is tucked away in a cavernous lock up because it is too dangerous for us mere mortals.

Patrick Wilson at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles

Wed, Oct 19, 2011

Jose Parla at OHWOW

Fri, Oct 14, 2011

Jose Parla's work is urban street wall, meets graffiti, a la calligraphy. Upon first look it appears to be Ab Ex but in short time you see the correlation to a kind of beautiful city decay, where a cement wall contains peeling paint, corroding posters, and juvenile scrawl.

Amy Yoes at CB1 Gallery

Fri, Oct 07, 2011

Like a towering Mondrian inspired piece of architecture, Amy Yoes takes over the CB1 Gallery space with an installation that takes on cityscapes and the glow of footlights.

James Turrell at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

Wed, Sep 28, 2011

As I walked into the final gallery room of the James Turrell show, a gallery guy said - It's on a 2 1/2 hour loop, I'll bring you some coffee. I didn't stay for the whole cycle but I will be back for more, because what you see in this room is alive and transformative.

Chris Barnard at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Sat, Sep 24, 2011

Chris Barnard's paintings are filled with eerily desolate landscapes. Most of the paintings include a structure that is created by human hands, symbols of our advanced civilization, yet they are strangely devoid of human life.

Tm Gratkowski at Blythe Projects

Sat, Sep 17, 2011

It's fitting that Gratkowski's first show with Blythe Projects is happening right now, with the mammoth Pacific Standard Time shows starting last weekend.

Flag Stop

Tue, Sep 06, 2011

This weekend was the premiere of the "alternative contemporary art event" called Flag Stop. Organized by a group of artists, the show was a combination of traditional gallery spaces (if you can call a converted Lexus dealership showroom traditional) and non-traditional spaces consisting of 50 PODS.

Ann Weber at CAFAM

Fri, Sep 02, 2011

Using recycled cardboard boxes, Weber uses one of the most common every day materials and transforms it into totems, fetishes, and primitive re-imaginings using glue, staples and shellac.

Julia Schwartz at Bleicher Gallery

Tue, Aug 23, 2011

The new body of work by Schwartz moves in the direction of greater abstraction. Often in past work, figures and animals are clearly alluded to. Here forms only hint at a sense of something, whether it be object, man or structure. Like the vague references you experience in dreams, the people and places you don't quite remember in the morning but feel the presence of, Schwartz's paintings are populated with the hangover of memories and emotions barely deciphered.

Yvette Gellis at Garboushian Gallery

Fri, Aug 19, 2011

Yvette Gellis explodes structures, space and time. This explosion happens not in a physical sense where a bomb goes off, but where time is happening all at once so that many kinds of movement shift everything physical into many spaces. As if you are watching a scene happen so quickly that everything blends together.

Abel Baker Gutierrez at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Fri, Aug 12, 2011

Sport as an entrance to exploring male relationships, is the theme in this recent body of work by Abel Baker Gutierrez. Following in the tradition of Thomas Eakins who painted men in the midst of much physical contact via wrestling, along with the solitude of men rowing, Gutierrez looks at the relationships of young men through the visage of water, rowing and rescue.

Joan Semmel: Best in Show at Blum and Poe

Sat, Aug 06, 2011

Currently Blum and Poe has a group called "Glee", where the stand out is Joan Semmel. Semmel made these paintings in 1972 and they are amazingly fresh and contemporary today; they fit in perfectly with young artists also showing work born 50 years after Semmel.