By Peter Frank   Mon, Sep 26, 2011

Well known in academe as a proponent of abstract painting, veteran southern California artist Roland Reiss remains best known for his figurative sculptures. These he produced between about 1971 and 1993; before and after (indeed, overlapping at the outsides), he was and remains an abstract painter. Significantly, however, in his paintings of the last two decades – no less than in those of the ‘60s – Reiss has emphasized plastic values, composition and contour at least as much as color and certainly more than image. But his sculptures, with one big exception, brim themselves with color, and certain series rely on color as a crucial signifier of emotion and dramatic interaction. Although “Personal Politics: Sculpture from the 1970s and 1980s” includes no wall-hung work of any kind, it is full of painterly strategy.

It is also full of boxes. The sculptural works displayed here – with, again, one notable exception – are carefully, even exquisitely crafted human terraria, adult dollhouses – or, more accurately, doll-offices, doll-sets, and dollscapes – dynamized by the lives people live. In some of the boxes (particularly those of the “Adult Fairy Tales” series) human figures confront one another animatedly, enacting agitated tableaux suspended somewhere between drama and psychodrama – imagine a 3-D Edward Hopper scripted by David Mamet – often surrounded by what seem to be contemporary sculptures or furniture acting as their emotional doppelgängers. (It’s telling to compare these to the much more overtly erotic interactions taking place in Robert Graham’s voyeuristic figure boxes produced a decade or so earlier; Reiss’ scenarios make us feel less as if we’re peeping through a keyhole and more as if we’re walking in at an inopportune moment.) In other series, including “The Dancing Lessons,” “The Morality Plays,” and “FIX,” it’s all scenery all the time, albeit scenery so dense and complicated – and so clearly evincing recent use – that they speak volumes without relating a single line of inferred dialogue.

Tellingly, the centerpiece of “Personal Politics” is a lifesize tableau, a living room strewn with objects (mostly having to do with eating – cups, plates, TV dinners – but not entirely – ashtrays, a gun) fabricated out of unpainted particleboard.  The lack of color here, replaced by the tonality of the board (which itself can read as a kind of bleached “old master brown”), physically puts the visitor in the same sort of dramatic suspension implied in the figureless boxes: we are walking into a place where something either has happened, is in the process of happening, or will happen. Predating the “Adult Fairy Tales” by several years, The Castle of Perseverance even infers that we could be not simply the viewers, but the actors. What proves most unsettling about this installational sculpture, then, is not its oddly homogeneous fabrication, but the 1:1 scale of its elements.

Superbly crafted, the sculptures in “Personal Politics” (and, for that matter, the towering figures Reiss produced in the mid-1980s, absent here) are not all that sculptural in conception. Even The Castle of Perseverance invites narrative association far more than it does somatic interaction or even the appreciation of objecthood. The boxed tableaux may crucially complicate our reading of things and events with their details counterpositioned in space; but that space is restricted entirely to our field of vision, and those details, very knowingly and deliberately, are arranged as if on a game board or in a model-train set-up (the boy’s equivalent of the dollhouse). Myriad unnatural touches – the frequently weird coloration of things in particular – not only skews our interpretation of apparent events, toward metaphor and dream and away from prosaic reading, but signals Reiss’ deliberate, even aggressive emphasis on the artificial. These are not trompe-l’oeil fabrications but exercises in storytelling, their resonance cinematic, not anecdotal – and their impact, for all their materiality, more or less entirely pictorial. These are a painter’s sculpture.

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

Drawing from the Museum’s extensive print collection and a few select loans, the exhibition includes approximately 150 prints, portfolios and multiples, including works by the local founders of the movement, such as John Altoon, Garo Antreasian, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Ed Moses, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha and June Wayne. Proof also includes works by a significant number of artists who traveled west to print specifically in Los Angeles, such as Josef Albers, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg.

Printmaking had for centuries been explored by painters and sculptors alike—most notably Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes and Pablo Picasso—but it was not embraced by the 20th-century American avant-garde, though there were a few exceptions. In 1960, Los Angeles–based artist June Wayne took it upon herself to “create a pool of master artisan-printers in the United States.” These words were spoken at the founding of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles by Wayne, who, through her dedication and hard work, created a workshop that would educate printers, artists, curators and collectors alike. Indeed, Tamarind sparked a renaissance in the graphic arts—a revival that spread well beyond Los Angeles and the medium of lithography. In the next few decades, all methods of printmaking would be established and legitimized as viable and valuable forms of art making.

Throughout the 1960s, Tamarind opened its doors to artists both experienced and inexperienced in printmaking. Many world-renowned painters and sculptors made the journey to Los Angeles to learn the craft at Tamarind. The artists’ two-month fellowships were staggered so that no two artists were new at the same time. Wayne established the editioning of prints so that twenty from each edition went to the artist, and nine went to Tamarind. In this way, the workshop was able to donate a complete set of every work it produced to nine public institutions, thereby spreading the knowledge of printmaking and building enthusiasm for the medium among curators and collectors. The Norton Simon Museum is home to a near-complete set of prints created at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California features nearly 70 of these works.

The artists represented range from John Altoon, Billy Al Bengston, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, David Hockney, Ed Moses, Lee Mullican, Louise Nevelson, Ed Ruscha, and Norman Zammitt, to June Wayne herself.

In addition to works from Tamarind, the exhibition includes prints created at Gemini G.E.L., a lithography workshop established in Los Angeles in 1966 by master printer Ken Tyler and business partners Sidney Felsen and Stanley Grinstein. During its first decade, Gemini was known for working with East Coast–based artists, and the exhibition features works by Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella. Proof also features a select group of prints created at Cirrus Editions, which was founded in 1970 by Jean Milant after his nearly two-year tenure as a printer at Tamarind. Unlike Gemini, Cirrus focused on Los Angeles–based artists. In this exhibition, works by John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Charles Christopher Hill and Greg Card are featured. Finally, several important examples of early local etching, screenprinting and lithography are presented, including works from the 1920s through the 1950s by such artists as Clinton Adams, Leonard Edmondson, Ynez Johnston, Paul Landacre and Rico LeBrun. All of the artworks have been selected to illustrate the
variety of materials employed by artists, including ink on paper, acetate and uncommon synthetics, as well as the variety of forms, including portfolios, photolithos and three-dimensional prints. Special attention has been given to both artists and printers.

Altogether, the artworks featured in Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California tell the fascinating but seldom-explored story of the renaissance of fine-art lithography in Los Angeles in the 20th century. Starting with small local efforts in the first half of the century, to June Wayne and the founding of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in the 1960s, and on to the establishment of Gemini G.E.L. and Cirrus Editions in the mid-1960s and 1970s, printmaking became an essential medium in an artist’s oeuvre, and Los Angeles was the birthplace of this effort. What is more, the exhibition illustrates how some of the era’s most cutting-edge artists transformed the medium, pushing the boundaries of what was possible with their embrace of new materials and techniques.

About “The Original Print,” a companion exhibition

In conjunction with Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California, the Museum presents The Original Print, an exhibition that looks at the technical aspects of printmaking. Held in the small, rotating gallery on the Museum’s main level, the exhibition combines explanatory texts, archival documentation, photographs, video footage and the actual implements of printmaking (a woodblock, an etching plate, a lithography stone and a screen). A select group of prints on view serves to illustrate these concepts directly, in an effort to familiarize visitors with the methods and terminology used to describe the graphic arts.

Images courtesy of Norton Simon Museum

Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899–1991), Mask, 1964, Lithograph, Sheet: 22 x 18 in. (55.9 x 45.7 cm), Printed by Michael Knigin, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1967
© D.R. Rufino Tamayo/Herederos/Méxi­co/2011

Louise Nevelson (American, 1899–1988), Untitled, 1967, Lithograph, Overall: 43 x 46 in. (109.2 x 116.8 cm), Printed by Anthony Ko, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1969
© 2011 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Lee Mullican (American, 1919–1998), Sleeping Gypsy, 1964, Lithograph, Sheet: 20 x 25 3/4 in. (50.8 x 65.4 cm), Printed by Ernest Rosenthal, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift
© Estate of Lee Mullican

John Altoon (American, 1925–1969), Untitled, 1965, Lithograph, Sheet: 22 x 30 in. (55.9 x 76.2 cm), Printed by Ken Tyler, Published by the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, 1967
© 2011 Estate of John Altoon, Braunstein/Quay Gallery

By   Fri, Sep 16, 2011

The much-anticipated exhibition, Doinʼ It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Womanʼs Building, opens October 1 at the Ben Maltz Gallery on the main campus of Otis College of Art and Design. Along with historical ephemera and documentation, the show surveys the work of groundbreaking feminist artists/designers and artist collectives who gathered together at the Los Angeles Womanʼs Building from 1973 through 1991. The exhibitionʼs opening reception and publication launch is expected to draw many of the artists who pioneered the feminist art movement in Los Angeles and beyond. Artist Linda Vallejo will enact a collaborative opening ceremony that recalls the legacy of the Woman's Building community. Vallejoʼs art performance will be followed by The Waitresses, a performance art group formed in 1977 by artists who were also waitresses, as well as graduates of the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Womanʼs Building. And renowned feminist artist and Womanʼs Building co-founder Judy Chicago will make a personal appearance and sign books at the opening reception October 1, 4pm-7pm.

The feminist art movement of the 1970s set off an explosion of art-making and analysis that continues to reverberate in the art world today, and the Woman's Building (WB) in Los Angeles was one of its epicenters. In 1973, artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven founded the WB, and for over two decades it helped shape the regional and international cultural landscapes. Through extensive public performances, site-specific work, networking with political activists, and collaborations, the feminist art movement at the WB raised consciousness, invited dialogue, and transformed culture. The WB handed women their rightful claim to the role of “artist.” It inspired and allowed members to create a community of women who saw art as a powerful tool for social change, and shared this vision with the public. A listing of the artists featured in Doinʼ It in Public, including Miriam Schapiro, Faith Wilding, Betye Saar, and Suzanne Lacy, can be found at www.otis.edu/benmaltzgallery.

Exhibitions such as WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, 1965-1980, (MOCA, Los Angeles, 2007); Catalog L.A.: Birth of Art Capital: 1955-1985 (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2006); and Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago's Dinner Party in Feminist Art (Hammer Museum, 1996) positioned the WB within the West Coast feminist art movement. This exhibition is the first to fully explore the contributions of the Womanʼs Building in its widest ramifications.

The major focus of Doinʼ It in Public is revealing the WBʼs emphasis on developing, teaching, and executing collaboration. The work of collaborative groups such as Ariadne: A Social Art Network, Chrysalis Magazine, Feminist Art Workers, Feminist Studio Workshop, The L.A. Womenʼs Video Center, Madre Tierra Press, Mother Art, Sisters Of Survival, The Waitresses, and the Womenʼs Graphic Center is presented and contextualized through the exhibition, programs, and publications.

Otis is releasing a two-volume publication in conjunction with the exhibition. Volume I: From Site to Vision: the Womanʼs Building in Contemporary Culture, is a collection of 14 essays originally published online in 2007, edited by Sondra Hale and Terry Wolverton. Essayists include Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and Lucy R. Lippard, activist and writer on contemporary art and culture. Volume II: Doinʼ It in Public: Feminism and Art and the Womanʼs Building includes research and writing by a prestigious team of scholars who assembled in 2008-09 to shape the curatorial focus of this project.

On October 15 and 16, to complement the exhibition, Otis is producing Still Doinʼ It: Fanning the Flames of the Womanʼs Building, with a performance by the Feminist Art Workers. Part convening, part symposium, part reunion, part performance, the two-day event is a dialogue between feminist artists then and now. Doinʼ It in Public scholars Alexandra Juhasz, Jennie Klein, Michelle Moravec, and Jennifer Sorkin present tours of the exhibition on Saturday afternoon, and WB writers read from their work in the evening at Antioch University. Sunday includes a no-host reunion breakfast with keynote speaker Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, plus interactive dialogues and performances including one by the Feminist Art Workers. On Sunday afternoon Phranc, the all-American Jewish lesbian folksinger, hosts “This Is Your Life: the Womanʼs Building” at the Skirball Cultural Center. The complete schedule and tickets are available at http://www.otis.edu/public_programs/ben_maltz_gallery/wb_tickets.html.

Doinʼ It in Public 411

Doinʼ It in Public is on view October 1 through January 28, 2012. Admission and parking are free. Doinʼ It in Public is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.

Otis has organized multiple Doinʼ It in Public programs and events, spanning four months, including:

Beginning October 6, Show nʼ Tell will occur most Thursdays at Noon throughout the run of the exhibition at the Ben Maltz Gallery. A case in the exhibition is opened to share a closer look at some of the artists' books, graphic materials, and historical artifacts on display.

On November 5, a premiere of the film Mother Art Tells Her Story, followed by a tour of the show by feminist art cooperative Mother Art in the Ben Maltz Gallery.

On January 14, a presentation by Feminist Art Workers: Cheri Gaulke and Laurel Klick in the Ben Maltz Gallery.

Otis has collaborated with other Pacific Standard Time participants to host interactive workshops and film screenings about related exhibition themes. Public programs include receptions, tours, and poetry readings, in addition to an extensive website with an ongoing oral ʻherstoryʼ project linking to YouTube and Facebook. Otis students will participate in curricular activities and produce an electronic news magazine that surveys feminist art today, and Otisʼ position in the evolution of the L.A. art scene. The full events calendar can be viewed at: http://www.otis.edu/public_programs/ben_maltz_gallery/wb_events.html

By   Fri, Sep 09, 2011

The exhibition examines the presence of ritual and superstition in our professional and personal lives and asks why, in such an advanced and sophisticated technological and cyber driven world, ritual still occupies such an important and dominant role. Exploring the three central themes of ritual in relation to sport, religion, and artistic practice the artists provide refreshing and surprising commentary on ritualized behavior in the 21^st century.

Elaborate ritualized behavior by sports fans and players dominates the world of sport. Whether it involves wearing the same unwashed jersey throughout the season, sleeping with a baseball bat to overcome a hitting dry spell, boxers drinking blood before a prizefight, repetitive rituals performed by baseball players with their gloves or feet before stepping into the batter’s box, fishermen avoiding the path of barefoot women, all of these behaviors are regarded as acceptable decorum; yet when isolated and examined, free from the clutter of a falsely normalizing setting, they are utterly absurd and hardly distinguishable from madness.

Similarly, sociocultural practices such as occultism or Freemasonry—as well as more conventional religions like Christianity or Buddhism—are sheathed in secrecy and cryptic codes, and all require adherence to specific practices and costumes. Whether it is transubstantiation or reincarnation, each has its own particular set of rules and fantastic belief systems that require faith in the irrational and the unproven.

Tic disorders, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and repetitive involuntary movements have legitimate expression in many artworks today. Examples abound, this century and last, in expressionism, abstraction, conceptual, pop and performance, and can be seen in work as far apart as Roman Opalka’s mapping of numbers one to infinity and John Bock’s Paul McCarthy-inspired deranged personae performances. Whether artists are using these “syndromes” as systems to make the work—process, series, repetition—or evoking these states to call attention to social/political/cultural aspects, the list of artists is extremely long and likely to grow.

Common to all these practices and activities—whether athletic, religious or artistic—is their reliance on behavior that is obsessive, repetitive, irrational, and unsubstantiated. The work of the artists in Synthetic Ritual all reference or employ some form of ritualistic behavior that, if taken out of the context of art, would be regarded as aberrant and unstable.

Participating Artists: Mounira Al Solh, Meris Angeoletti, Beatrice Catanazro, Marcus Coates, Joel Kyack, Lawrence Lemaoana, Yoshua Okon, Adrian Paci, Marco Rios, Kara Tanaka, Carlin Wang, Amir Yatziv

By   Tue, Sep 27, 2011

Posing Beauty in African American Culture explores the contested ways in which African and African American beauty have been represented in historical and contemporary contexts through a diverse range of media including photography, film, video, fashion, advertising, and other forms of popular culture such as music and the Internet. Throughout the Western history of art and image-making, the relationship between beauty and art has become increasingly complex within contemporary art and popular culture.

The images in this exhibition challenge idealized forms of beauty in art by examining their portrayal and exploring a variety of attitudes about race, class, gender, popular culture and politics as seen through the aesthetics of representation. The first of three thematic sections, "Constructing a Pose," considers the interplay between the historical and the contemporary, between self-representation and imposed representation, and the relationship between subject and photographer. The second theme, "Body and Image," questions the ways in which our contemporary understanding of beauty has been constructed and framed through the body. The last section, "Modeling Beauty & Beauty Contests," invites us to reflect upon the ambiguities of beauty, its impact on mass culture and individuals and how the display of beauty affects the ways in which we see and interpret the world and ourselves.

Posing Beauty explores contemporary understandings of beauty by framing the notion of aesthetics, race, class, and gender within art, popular culture, and political contexts. This exhibit features approximately 84 works drawn from public and private collections and will be accompanied by a book published by W.W. Norton.

The exhibition is organized by the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. The exhibition is curated by Deborah Willis, University Professor and Chair of the Department. The touring exhibition is made possible in part by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation and Curatorial Assistance. Additional support has been provided by grants from the Tisch School of the Arts Office of the Dean's Faculty Development Fund, Visual Arts Initiative Award from the NYU Coordinating Council for Visual Arts, and NYU's Advanced Media Studio.

A lively conversation examining and challenging conventional perspectives on identity, beauty, cosmopolitanism and community in Africa and the African diaspora. The event will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition Posing Beauty in African American Culture.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 : 5:00pm to 6:30pm
University Park Campus, USC Fisher Museum of Art

Contact: Vanessa Jorion, 213-740-4561
E-mail: fmoa@usc.edu

By   Mon, Sep 26, 2011

By   Sat, Sep 24, 2011

Top 10 Now is the first in a series of independent curatorial exhibitions by Avant-L.A. Founded by Los Angeles art icon Mat Gleason, and art collectors and gallerists Michael Napoliello and Maria Frisk, Avant-L.A. stages fine art exhibitions that connect established and emerging contemporary artists to the public.  The inaugural Avant-L.A. exhibition, Top 10 Now, will feature today’s top 10 indie artists in Los Angeles, giving art collectors insight into California’s emerging art landscape. 

Juxtaposed to the Southern California museum-anchored event Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945 – 1980 (an event that is expected to mark Los Angeles as a leader in the art marketplace), and the major ancillary contemporary art fairs—Art Platform Los Angeles and Pulse Los Angeles—Avant-L.A. injects a unique vibe into the cultural milieu with an alternative to the post-war perspective of California art the museums and fairs will provide.

“Avant-L.A. Exhibitions has identified the 10 most compelling and important established and emerging artists, who are both living and working independently,” said Mat Gleason, curator and co-founder of Avant-L.A. The artists selected are: Abel Alejandre, Michael Arata, Mark Brandvik, Megan Geckler, Kristi Lippire, Vito LoRusso, Antonio Mendoza, Leigh Salgado, Veronica Soto, and Tim Youd. “We hope that it will complement the experience of attending Platform, which I expect will rule the L.A. art fairs,” Gleason added.

“We are excited to introduce a new feature to the museum and market circuit next month with Mat at the helm. He embodies the Los Angeles art scene and with his experience and insight, ‘Top 10 Now’ should be on everyone’s itinerary,” said Michael Napoliello co-founder, Avant-L.A.

Avant-L.A. Top 10 Now opens on Thursday, September 29, 2011 with a VIP preview, and will open to the general public on Friday, September 30 through Monday, October 3, 2011. The exhibit is located in an alternative space in downtown Los Angeles at 1835 S. Main St., L.A., CA 90015, adjacent to Platform-LA at the L.A. Mart. 

Visit www.avant-la.com for more information.

By   Mon, Sep 26, 2011

This weekend Downtown Los Angeles will play host to a trio of new art fairs led by Art Platform - Los Angeles, whose parent company, The MMPI Art Group produces The Armory Show (which for 18 years has been one of the leading international contemporary art fairs in the world), Art Chicago, Art Toronto, NEXT, Volta, Volta NY, and now, Art Platform - Los Angeles.

Following Art Platform's lead are PULSE and Fountain art fairs, each with roots established in Miami and New York. Each hoping to transplant some of their success in Los Angeles.

All three fairs offer a unique vibe, with exhibiting galleries hailing from all over the United States (including many from right here in Los Angeles) and the world.

Here's an overview of what's in store.

Art Platform - Los Angeles

The aptly named Art Platform - Los Angeles art fair will demonstrate the rich and diverse cultural landscape of Southern California and underscore Los Angeles’ influential position within the contemporary art world.

Art Platform - Los Angeles will bring together the local and international artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and art enthusiasts that play important roles in the vibrant Southern California art community. To emphasize the increased recognition of Los Angeles as an international art capital along with the anticipation of the shows and events taking place during the Getty's Pacific Standard Time initiative, the directive of Art Platform - Los Angeles 2011 will be to contextualize works by the many critically acclaimed artists working in and from Los Angeles. To demonstrate Los Angeles' position in the contemporary art world, priority will be given to single artist presentations or to curated presentations of Los Angeles based artists, thus giving emphasis to artists individual practices both locally and globally.

In addition, Art Platform - Los Angeles will feature several new programs such as Co/Lab, a unique event bringing together 19 non-profit art institutions, alternative spaces and independent art initiatives under one roof. At the Co/Lab installation, artists, gallerists, curators and collectors can survey the thriving art landscape of Los Angeles and allow art lovers to discover new talents from some of the most exciting new spaces showcasing emerging artists today.

Co/Lab participants include local favorites such as Actual Size, Emma Gray HQ, JAUS, Materials and Applications, Monte Vista Projects, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Weekend, and WPA, among others.

Opening Preview
Friday, September 30, 2011
3PM – 5PM  Opening Preview
5PM – 9PM Vernissage Party benefitting the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of art and The Museum of Contemporary Art.

General Admission
Saturday, Oct 1 • 11AM – 6PM
Sunday, Oct 2 • 11AM – 6PM
Monday, Oct 3 • 11AM – 4PM

Venue
L.A. Mart
1933 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90007

Purchase tickets here.

PULSE Los Angeles

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair is the leading US art fair dedicated solely to contemporary art. Through its annual editions in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, PULSE provides a unique platform for diverse galleries to present a progressive blend of renowned and pioneering contemporary artists, alongside an evolving series of original programming. The fair's distinctive commitment to the art community and visitor experience makes PULSE unique among art fairs and creates an art market experience that is both dynamic and inviting.

The Fair is divided into two sections and is comprised of a mix of established and emerging galleries vetted by a committee of prominent international dealers. The IMPULSE section presents galleries invited by the Committee to present solo exhibitions of artist's work created in the past two years.

In addition, PULSE develops original cultural programming with a series of large-scale installations, its PULSE Play> video lounge, the PULSE Performance events, and the recently launched PULSE Profiles series of artists and curators talks. The PULSE Prize is awarded to one of the artists presented in the IMPULSE section. PULSE supports numerous nonprofit art organizations and schools.

Opening Preview
Friday, September 30, 2011
12PM – 2PM  Opening VIP Preview

General Admission
Friday, Sept 30 • 2PM – 8PM
Saturday, Oct 1 • 11AM – 7PM
Sunday, Oct 2 • 11AM – 7PM
Monday, Oct 3 • 11AM – 5PM

Venue
Event Deck at L.A. Live
1005 West Chick Hearn Court
Downtown Los Angeles, California

Purchase tickets here.

Fountain Los Angeles

Fountain is an exhibition of avant garde artwork in New York during Armory week, Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach and now in Los Angeles during Pacific Standard Time opening weekend.

Fountain Art Fair will include several west-coast based exhibitors making their Fountain debut. Ever Gold Gallery, CHALK, HungryMan and Blythe Projects will join artist projects by Aleve Mei Loh and returning Fountain favorite Carly Ivan Garcia to add some California flavor to this New York-based fair. Jumping into the mix is west coast artist collective, The Mechanism. Made up of six Pepperdine University graduates, this young collective embodies true Fountain spirit, hitting the streets hard with an innovative drive to tackle the chaos of it all.

Opening Night Reception
Friday, Sept 30 • 7PM – 12AM

General Admission
Friday, Sept 30 • 12PM – 7PM
Saturday, Oct 1 • 12PM – 7PM
Sunday, Oct 2 • 12PM – 7PM

Venue
Lot 613
613 Imperial Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021

$10 day pass / $15 weekend pass
All tickets sold at the door

By Craig Stephens   Tue, Sep 27, 2011

The ShinyArt  concept is simple – market flatscreen TV’s to assorted venues and display on them a collection of art specifically designed for the client and venue. So they’ve now done the same with an iPad.

Browse and rent contemporary video art from the ShinyArt internet site and stream it onto your television for curated video art exhibitions in your home. Create an ever-changing exhibition of abstract or representational video art on viewing screens in corporate or public spaces.

The new iPad app, designed by the development team at ShinyArt and created by Mobovivo, provides the option of viewing video art exhibitions either on your iPhone or iPad, while on-the-go, or on your television screen.

In just a few easy steps access artwork created by visual and sound artists and filmmakers from around the world. ShinyArt provides easy access to the same video art works you find in galleries, museums, and at film festivals, along with the option of displaying these images on your own devices, and in your own home or corporate space.

Company CEO Kristy Phillips explains, “ShinyArt is a service that rents video art for display on HDTVs that are becoming ubiquitous. Video art has been around for about 35 years but with the growing popularity of flatscreens, we feel there is a unique opportunity to bring this art out of galleries and film festivals and into public spaces with new audiences and new contexts for viewing art.”

Phillips adds, “This is the only app available that is designed to display a curated exhibition of video art on your mobile device and your home television. The exhibitions are accessible and brief, with lots of interpretative information about the work, as well as anecdotes from the artists that really allow their voices to project. Exhibitions change monthly and the first month of the app is free.

To download click here.

By   Mon, Sep 26, 2011

Fair Trade is presented in conjunction with Fair Trade month (October) and dedicated to featuring works that speak to this increasingly relevant and transformative topic.  Featured artists will be creating original works in statement of fair trade practices and others will actually incorporate the use of fair trade products as their medium.  This exhibit will be featured alongside the Los Angeles Fair Trade Marketplace, to be hosted at the gallery.

Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate, flowers and gold.

Featured Artists: Ofunne Obiamiwe, Stéphane Tourné, Raksha Parekh, Pascal Giacomini, Andre Van Zijl

Ofunne Obiamiwe and her family survived the genocide of the Biafran/Nigerian war.  Now living in the United States for the past 20 years, Ofunne is an Associate Professor of Digital Art at Santa Monica College and the founder of Republic of Peace, an emerging arts and culture collective. Ofunne's work deals with multilayered issues of racism, gender, poverty, class, inclusion/exclusion, power/disenfranchisement, culture, colonialism, and spirituality unattached to religion. Her work reflects a profound dedication to human rights and activism and the belief that afflictions of violence, discrimination and intolerance will continue to fester until they are replaced with understanding and empathy.

Stéphane Tourné’s series “Ici L’Espoir” is the basic foundation and inspiration for this exhibit.  His work in Africa with Oxfam led the artist to consider the consequences of unfair trading practices. Through his photographs, Tourné invites us to discover his views on this subject and in turn, to form our own. So simple, but powerful, the photographer utilizes images of naked bodies, carved and redesigned with raw materials and consumables (oil, flour, rice, cotton, etc.). This alliance between a smart aesthetic research and a humanitarian cause leaves the viewer in a state of breathless shock and ultimately develops to a sensual art-trash.

Raksha Parekh creates her unique works from such commodities as sugar and cotton.  “I am deeply interested in the dynamic space where the history and psychology of the Indian and African experiences meet. My current works examine the connections of these two diasporas in relation to the colonial past using cotton and sugar as my mediums, both products being central players in this history.

The international expansion in consumption of sugar and cotton is deeply embedded in colonial history as these goods were crucial to the establishment of empire in the Americas, Asia and Africa. The history of sugar continues to have great relevance because of its defining role in shaping world history and culture”.

Pascal Giacomini is a multi-talented and multi-faceted artist. Working in several genres — mixed-media photography, sculpture, and functional art — he has exhibited in museums (UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History; Museum at California Center for the Arts, Escondido; and the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles), as well as creating solo public sculpture exhibits (City of West Hollywood, City of Malibu) and site-specific functional art for prestigious private properties (Lloyd Wright’s Sowden House and the Norma Talmadge Estate). Over the years, he has also exhibited in various Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department venues throughout the city.

Andre van Zijl – “Art in my present understanding is the activity of the de-tribalized shaman, navigating a path beyond death through the reefs of art history and political reality, finding within the confusion of modern society a clear vision of the stars above; so that the ancient rite of storytelling may continue around the ‘campfires’ of the city, granting all a vision celebrating the fruits of their unique spirit gifting the earth and all who dwell therein.”  Andre van Zijl: Painter, sculptor, educator, writer, pragmatic idealist, visionary, husband, father, world citizen.

By   Thu, Sep 15, 2011

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

The exhibition features works from a circle of friends Herms found in Florence, as well as artists introduced to him by the exhibition curator, Neville Wakefield, including Rita Ackermann, Kathryn Andrews, Lizzi Bougatsos, Robert Branaman, Dan Colen, Leo Fitzpatrick, Elliott Hundley, Hanna Liden, Nate Lowman, Ari Marcopoulos, Ryan McGinley, Melodie Mousset, Jack Pierson, Amanda Ross-Ho, Sterling Ruby, Agathe Snow, Ryan Trecartin, Kaari Upson, and Aaron Young.

Ever since he first started exhibiting in Los Angeles in the late 1950s, George Herms has been a central figure in the development of so-called West Coast aesthetic. Influenced by a beat generation more attuned to the musical nuance of the everyday than the modernist requiem to order, Herms's commitment to counterculture is expressed through his use of impoverished materials and his rejection of compositional devices in favor of loose associations of materials and ideas. The resulting assemblages blur the boundaries between art and life to make of each the other. Herms salvages elements from the trash heap of popular culture, combining them with words and phrases to create final entities that are neither pure thought, nor pure object—they are both prop and proposition. At times, Herms has been associated with landmarks of the developing L.A. art scene—Wallace Berman and Semina, Walter Hopps and the Ferus Gallery, Dennis Hopper and the film culture of Easy Rider—but his art has refused any singular identification. An advocate of all things free—spirit, material, and love—Herms is the spiritual godfather to an art of the unknown, forging something out of nothing, which continues to be a driving compulsion of artists today.

In 2008, Herms was invited to Florence by designer Adam Kimmel who was being celebrated by the fashion event organizer Pitti Imagine. It was there that he got to know and hang out with a generation of New York–based artists, including Lizzi Bougatsos, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, and Rita Ackermann, along with artists from a somewhat older generation, namely Ari Marcopoulos, and Jack Pierson. Herms’s predilection for privileging the found over the made and for using the raw materials around him as the stuff of his art immediately dovetailed with the raw, unfiltered, and anti-art-establishment tendencies of a group that came of age when ever-higher production values corresponded with auction records and spiritual bankruptcy. Like the open dialogue that fueled the Semina collaborations of Berman, Herms, Hopper, Edward Kienholz, and others, this is a group for whom the free trade of ideas and art blurs the boundaries, not just of authorship, but also of distinctions between art and the everyday.

George Herms: Xenophilia: (Love of the Unknown) embraces these tendencies. Exploring the notion of assemblage from both material and conceptual viewpoints, the exhibition displays Herms’s signature junk art of the past six decades and recent collages alongside the work of a group of much younger artists from both coasts. The presentation merges the New York School, which emerged out of the first decade of this century, with artists from a similar generation who are living and working in Herms’s hometown of Los Angeles. The opportunity to reconsider not just the centrality of Herms's role but also the spiritual and material legacy of his improvisational aesthetic is offered out of the chaos.

Photos by Brian Forrest, courtesy of Museum of Contemmproary Art

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

Australian consists of two video projections screened on opposing walls. As the title suggests, the work's focus is on the artist's homeland, exclusively sourcing its imagery and sound from the cinema of Australia. The video is the next installment of Rüting's ongoing process he refers to as "Tri Repetaé". "Tri" referring to the human ability to see three channels of color, trichromacy. "Repetaé" referring to meaning affirmed through repetition and context. Rüting uses cinematic sources, wrenching them from their linear format, cutting and shifting time, recomposing imagery in colorful ghost-like forms and figures moving through a stationary camera space. In "AUSTRALIAN", the tri repetaé form explores a compositional narrative focusing on the question of what the term "Australian" means.

Themes explored in Rüting's video installation include primitive utopianism, colonialism, gender politics, transgression, the modern condition and spirituality. The artist has subtitled a few segments within the installation, "Nura (Country)", "White Fellas", "Petrol Heads", "Blokes and Sheilas", "The Big Smoke" and "Dreamtime".

The result is a thirty-minute drop into a psychedelic Down Under, filled with wonder, angst, hedonism, transformation and suspense. Sonically abrupt and mesmerizing "AUSTRALIAN" disarms the viewer into a bi-polar space, where iconography and narrative meet to create a poetic identity hidden within the cinematic condition of a unique modern nation.

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

Beyond Eden is focused on the thriving New Contemporary Art Movement or lowbrow art scene. This genre of art continues to build momentum on a national level and is finally starting to receive mainstream recognition from major institutions and publications the world over. With its foundation firmly planted in Southern California and a patron base here in Los Angeles that has been building over the past several decades, it’s easy to see why Beyond Eden has been welcomed with such open arms by the Los Angeles arts community.

Beyond Eden 2011 will showcase the works of a half dozen galleries and will be held inside the historic Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery during the weekend of October 1st and 2nd with an opening night celebration planned for Saturday, October 1, with special presentation celebrating the art & accomplishments of Anthony Ausgang. Participating galleries include C.A.V.E. Gallery, Copro Gallery, Gallery Nucleus, La Luz De Jesus Gallery (in celebration of their 25th Anniversary this year), Toy Art Gallery, and Thinkspace.

In addition to the works on display from the participating galleries, Beyond Eden 2011 will also feature live painting demonstrations throughout the gallery inside and out alongside special exhibitions from Cannibal Flower (emerging LA based artists) and Spoke Art (the LA stop of the traveling ‘Quentin vs. Coens’ exhibit) and a special showcase of Los Angeles street artists presented by Thinkspace and curated by local artist Euth. Rounding out this special event will be a showcase in the media room of the ‘best of’ Sketch Theater, the popular online site designed to inspire creativity through time-lapsed, start-to-finish sketches from the world’s best artists.

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

By   Mon, Sep 19, 2011

Most L.A. artists and galleries have an edge. Secret investors, the nepotistic support of an art institution, or just good old cronyism cultivated from geographic roots. Hailing from Australia seven years ago, artist, curator and gallerist Om Bleicher seems to have defied the constraints of anonymity, shining in the face of adversity like many “foreigners,” in Los Angeles.

Removed from comfort and familiarity and in stark contrast to the current economy, Bleicher now has two thriving galleries in Los Angeles, with an expanding portfolio of artists, esteemed patronage and growing media profile. 

Still Bleicher remains humble, “I’m not entirely sure as to how I ended up as a gallerist. Certain artists struck me when I was exhibiting and navigating the L.A. art scene that didn’t have strong representation. I started helping them out with business matters and it snowballed into representation and private dealing. I eventually opened my Santa Monica gallery Bleicher/Golightly, and more recently the Bleicher Gallery La Brea.”

When pressed about his criteria for choosing artists to exhibit at his spaces, Om confides, “The artists that I choose are unique in their ability to blend contentious art world boundaries, particularly high brow and lower brow art boundaries. I like work that blends the contemporary and the traditional, with a psychological element in tow.”

“I have been following artists that are difficult to place in other galleries because of their cross-disciplinary or deep psychological aspects. At one time their work was not ‘cool’ enough for the lowbrow galleries, but had too many accessible, expressive, or lowbrow elements in their work for conceptual galleries. [My] gallery attempts to push traditional gallery convention, and consequently experiment with exhibits beyond usual linear catalog shows.”

Of his own work (which he creates under the name "Airom") Bleicher elaborates, “I make paintings and mixed media sculptural painting combinations. I’m interested in the way that thoughts and emotions interact. I layer my canvases first with conceptual sketches, then do an expressionist painting in response on top of these, followed by more drawing in response to the paint, until it builds up to a point that feels finished and balanced. My work has the same naïve, raw elements as many contemporary self-taught artists, however it is coupled with highly academic thinking.”

October sees one of Bleacher’s premier artists, painter Courtney Reid, launch her own solo show at the La Brea space in October. The show comprises her first landscape series and new figurative works. Om says her work “opens worlds perhaps born from the new challenges, joys and realizations from being the single mother of a child with down syndrome.” Much of her inspiration is derived from  “psychological and spiritual insights" learned from this new era in her life.

A Hollywood Hills native, Courtney Reid grew up in an environment rich with art. Her Uruguayan born British father, Kenneth A. Reid, studied at Chouinard Art Institute under Rico Lebrun and exhibited with the likes of Motherwell, DeKooning, and Pollock. Reid's early years were centered around her father’s studio, art galleries and museums where she was introduced to a number of painting heroes from Goya and Francis Bacon to Nathan Oliveira and Cy Twombly.

Revealing the rudiments of her painting career, Courtney confides, ”Paintings, and painting were always present in my life, so I can't speak to understanding it, it was just a part of our world, we looked at a lot of painting in galleries and museums and we'd have to sit for portraits as small children and teenagers. I grew up with the understanding that painting itself was important and, somehow, endlessly fascinating "

Reid says she seeks core inspiration from an engrained instinctual response to paint and its spiritual evocations.  She says she remains faithful to her father's demand that what matters is the paint.

Yet another notch in Bleicher’s art world belt sees him curate shows outside his own spaces.  One such show is  “In Effect,” a solo show by Armenian American artist Argishti Musakhanyan set for October 22 at Blue 5 Gallery.

Curated with fellow artist and gallery owner Nancy Larrew, “In Effect,” will feature video and assorted two and three dimensional installations, and sculptures constructed from a range of materials, including string, resin, steel, bronze, glass, ipad, projector, solid gold, and even roofing tar.

Argishti said the works seek inspiration from various themes, which include, “how relations and interaction with others mold an individual, how hero’s and anti-heroes are formed, and how threads are formed with every interaction.”

Blue 5 Gallery is at 2935 S Sepulveda Blvd. (www.BlueFiveArtSpace.com)

Images:
Airom Bleicher Mirage, oil and ink on canvas
AiromBleicher Hopefully, acrylic on canvas, 48x30in
Courtney Reid, Lethe oil on canvas
Argishti and Arman Musakhanyan mixed media installation

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

Co-curators writer Susan Morgan and MAK Center director Kimberli Meyer have worked closely with the Esther McCoy papers–an invaluable primary source comprised of thousands of documents and photographs–housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art, as well as local archives. Through photographs, drawings, texts, videos, and audio interviews, Sympathetic Seeing will highlight the extraordinary range and importance of McCoy’s work. The exhibition covers McCoy’s activist journalism focusing on fair labor practices and Los Angeles slum clearances in the 1930s; her work with Schindler first as a draftsperson and later a critic and historian of his work; the Arts & Architecture magazine years and the rise of innovative domestic architecture; her campaign to save Irving Gill’s 1916 Dodge House; and her always incisive stories that deliver an irresistibly compelling, first-hand view of American modernism.

Sympathetic Seeing is part of Pacific Standard Time. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.

By   Tue, Aug 30, 2011

The City of Agoura Hills announced that the 7th Annual Reyes Adobe Days will be part of Pacific Standard Time (PST) with ART 91301 - Then and Now. The exhibition will showcase the local art movement and premiere at the Night at the Adobe, continuing during Reyes Adobe Days, September 30 through October 2, at the Reyes Adobe Historical Site.

“In conjunction with Pacific Standard Time, Art 91301 Then & Now will tell the story of local art and culture through the decades, reflecting Los Angeles’ many unique art movements,” said Amy Brink, community services director.

The opening reception for ART 91301 Then & Now will be at Night at the Adobe in the period setting of the Reyes Adobe under candle light with food, wine, and beer samplings from local restaurants and caterers. “For this year’s event we are expanding with more stations and space throughout the grounds,” said Brink. The reception will kick off the weekend’s art related events during the Reyes Adobe Days festival that will showcase the gallery exhibition inside the historic barn and grounds, along with museum tours, demonstrations, live entertainment, and a weekend of family events.

Featured artist for Then & Now is Plein Air watercolorist Pong Apinyavat, whose paintings capture the timeless natural beauty and many moods and colors of the sea, beaches, mountains and coastal highways. He is a juried member of Watercolor West and his paintings are found in many private collections and galleries in the United States, Asia and Europe. He will be giving watercolor demonstrations throughout the weekend.

Additional fine art artists exhibiting with Pong in the adobe’s historic barn gallery are Wes Van Dyke, Craig Morton, Debbie Green, Beverly Lazor, Lillian Bleuze-Nelson, Jim Rule, Douglas Tharalson and Barron Postmus who all work in a variety of media. The historic grounds will also have on exhibit indoor/outdoor installations of metal sculptures, mobiles, pottery, and banners by other local artists and an “Artisans Row” with artisans displaying jewelry, ceramics, and crafts for sale. There will be a Student Art Exhibit for ages 12 – 19 years.

The public, ages 21 and over, is invited to attend Night at the Adobe on Friday, Sept. 30, from 6:00 – 10:00pm. The suggested donation of $15.00 includes wine, food and beer tasting. For ticket information visit www.reyesadobedays.org or call 818-597-7361. Seniors will also have an opportunity to sneak preview ART 91301 Then & Now during Reyes Adobe Day’s “Fiesta at the Adobe” earlier in the day.

The Reyes Adobe Historical Site is located at 5464 Reyes Adobe Road in Agoura Hills. For information on Pong Apinyavat contact 805-527-8601 or pong@pongapinyavat.com. For complete information on the 3-day festival, contact the Agoura Hills Department of Recreation at (818) 597-7361 or visit www.reyesadobedays.org

By   Thu, Sep 29, 2011

Steve Turner's Los Angeles Artists Map features 24 studios of emerging artists who work in a diversity of media and styles. The map grew out of Turner's discipline of visiting an artist nearly every day, something he has been doing since 2009. When people discuss the local art scene, they usually describe the galleries on Wilshire Boulevard or those in Culver City and Santa Monica; they seldom mention the actual sites of production, whether Boyle Heights or Highland Park. Steve Turner's Artists Map provides a new opportunity to expand one's experience of the Los Angeles art community and to understand more fully how and where artists create their work.

Participating artists include: Sergio Bromberg, Joshua Callaghan, Alida Cervantes, Michael Decker, Noah Doely, Gabrielle Ferrer, Eben Goff, Yaron Michael Hakim, Pearl C. Hsiung, Masood Kamandy, William Kaminski, Greg Kozaki, Nevan Lahart, Jane Lee, Jed Lind, Justin Lowman, Lee Lynch, Anne McCaddon, Adam D. Miller, Jesse Mockrin, Ana Rodriguez, Morgan Wells, Rowan Wood & Jemima Wyman.

A copy of Steve Turner's Los Angeles Artists Map can be downloaded by clicking here.

Prizes will be awarded to studio visitors, see link for details.

In addition, the first four visitors to each studio will receive a free ticket to Art Platform good for one person and a guest.

Steve Turner Contemporary represents the work of emerging and established contemporary artists.

By   Sun, Sep 25, 2011

October kicks off with The Brewery ArtWalk, a twice annual open studio weekend at the world's largest art complex. With over 100 participating resident artists, you will have the opportunity to see new works, discover new favorites, speak with the artists and purchase artwork directly from the artists at studio prices.

The ArtWalk takes place October 1 & 2 from 11:00am – 6:00pm.

Admission is free and so is parking. Come and support LA’s finest artists, take home some great works and dine at the on-site restaurant.