Throughout my life I have practiced the art of reading gestures and studying the “signs of the times.” For example, I like to watch television on mute and study the gestures and body language of the people talking. One can find out what kind of person someone is just by paying attention to the shape of their lips when they speak. I have noticed, for example, that when people are being sincere they speak using the center of their mouth, and when they are not, they speak through the sides of their mouths:
I also like to rip out interesting and strange headlines from the paper, like these:
I have also started to document my outfits:
 |
| Alive, well, always looking for the new. |
ART TO LOOK FORWARD TO:
Made in LA, the first biennial of LA-based artists, will be at the Hammer June 2-Sept. 2, 2012. The show will include emerging artists like Dan Finsel, Math Bass, and Carlos Ontiveiros, and well-seasoned artists, such as Channa Horwitz and Morgan Fisher, to name but a few. Accompanying this show will be the Venice Beach Biennale, curated by Ali Subotnick, a tongue-in-cheek informal festival or performances and art booths in Venice Beach.
Artists Orlando Tirado and Margaret Valery playing Billy the Kidd and Jean Harlow in an adaptation of Michael McClure’s controversial play “The Beard.” The duo has been making art as the two characters for a process-oriented “scrapbook” installation at Commonwealth&Council in July 2012. Expect blonde hair on blue velvet, a raked stage, a traditional quilt made entirely out of plastic wrappers, and questions about who exactly is the ‘real you’ and the ‘real me.’
Commonwealth&Council. 3006 W. 7th Street #220, Koreatown. W-S 12-6, and by appointment: 213-703-9077.
Llyn Foulkes will be part of Documenta 13, in Kassel, Germany this summer, and the Hammer Museum is planning a retrospective of his work in 2013, which may travel in the US and abroad.
The Getty Center will have a survey exhibition of DYN, an art journal by Wolfgang Paalen, the first artist to use fumage in surrealism (the use of candle smoke to automatically write on paper), whose theory and art practice was highly influential to the abstract expressionist movement. DYN was first published in 1942 in Mexico City, had six issues, and was distributed throughout Europe and the US. The show is a rare opportunity to read the journal, which is a very expensive printed volume that is not readily available in most art libraries, and signifies the transition between surrealism and abstract expressionism. Also at the Getty, opening April 3, Herb Ritts: LA Style and Portraits of Renown: Photography and the Cult of Celebrity, two photography exhibitions that are about LA culture.
The Getty Center. 1200 Getty Center Drive. Westwood. 310-440-7320. T-S 10-5:30, Sat. open until 9 pm. Free.
CURRENT SHOWS TO SEE:
Greetings from LA: Art and Publics 1945-1980, the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition travels to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin. March 15-June 10, 2012. The historicizing project continues across the Atlantic and it looks like Lalaland is on the map. Even though I don’t get out much, my art does most of my traveling (23 people that I pioneered early on are in the Berlin show!).
LA RAW: Abject Expressionism in LA 1945-1980 at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Jan. 21- May 20, 2012. Considers a trend in post-war West Coast existentialism, including works by Rico LeBrun and Paul McCarthy.
PMoCA. 490 E. Union Street. Pasadena. W-Sun. 12-5. Admission: $7 adults, $5 students & seniors; free first Friday
 |
| Leigh Ledare, the artist, named after actress Vivian Leigh, stretches the possibilities of the basic photographic medium by using risk and experiment. |
The Box Gallery. 805 Traction Ave. Dwntwn LA. W-F 12-6.
Elad Lassry at David Kordansky. March 23-May 26, 2012. A mediation between picture, object, and the frame.
David Kordansky Gallery. 3143 S. La Cienega Blvd. Unit A. Culver City. T-S 12-6. 323-222-1482.
It Happened at Pomona (Part III) focuses on the influence of Mowry Baden, 1969-1973, at the Pomona College Museum of Art. Mar. 10-May 13, 2012. T-Sun. 12-5
Pomona. 550 N College Ave. Claremont. 909-621-8000
Ben Sakoguchi: Paintings 1966-Present, at Cardwell-Jimmerson Gallery. March 10-April 21, 2012. Ben was shown at Ceeje Gallery circa 1964, along with Ed Carillo and Charles Garabedian. Barbara Rose was a big fan of his work, and I collected it. Ben has been working ever since and has evolved his anti-establishment aesthetic into diaries of the US, past and present, still relevant and alive. Cardwell-Jimmerson continues to show yet to be evaluated masters from the 1960s and 1970s, some who are in my collection, like Lloyd Hamrol, Ben Sakoguchi, Michael Olodort, and Gabe Kohn (David McKee of McKee Gallery in NYC said Gabe Kohn is to wood like David Smith is to metal). I have kept their works for over 50 years because their energy kept speaking to me over the years, and they remain as alive as when I first collected them.
Cardwell-Jimmerson Gallery. 8568 Washington Blvd. Culver City. T-S 11-6 and by appointment: 310-815-1100.
FURTHER NOTES AND OTHER NEWS:
Aaron Wrinkle is a site-specific neo-conceptualist. His work is a testament to the emergence of a new kind of artist in the postmodern practice of art as it exists today. He integrates his ideas with the collection-- creating a sculpture or plinth, for example-- and presents this intervention as art. Here is a link to one of Aaron’s recent projects, in which he invites artists to write something about a single image.
I went to see the Berman-Heinecken show at the Armory in Pasadena, just before it closed. Most often, I prefer solo shows because it allows me to focus on the work of a single artist, to truly attempt to understand their process. For that reason, in respects to the Berman-Heinecken show, I would have presented each artist's work in separate rooms, so as to highlight each artist's singularity. Then, perhaps, if necessary I would have created a third room which might include their work juxtaposed. I found the show merely comparative, and therefore, a dis-service to the work. Additionally, I discovered that Wallace Berman really needs an intimate space to be experienced. As I realized this, I remembered his studio, which was about 200 square feet, and crowded. I thought maybe there is a correlation between the size of the space in which a work is created and the size of the space it is eventually presented. The organization of the Armory did not lend itself to the intimacy needed for the work, and the Berman verifaxes were dwarfed by the largeness of the walls. There was one wall in particular, painted red, on which three small collages were shown. The drama of the red was a shock to the work, so much so that the design of the exhibition over-powered the work itself. The show is now closed. The catalog they created is superb.
Las Cienegas Projects officially closed; it was one of the best art galleries in LA.
Luis de Jesus Gallery moved to the Culver City neighborhood. Currently at Luis de Jesus, Hugo Croswaithe’s Tijuanerias, an installation and drawings inspired by everyday life, poetics, and desmadre south of the border.
Luis de Jesus. 2685 South La Cienega Blvd. Culver City. T-S 10-6 and by appointment: 310-838-6000.
If you are looking for a great artist that is doing new things with the found object, look to Pablo Rasgado, who replicates the found object-- such as a door or a wall-- by using the original materials on canvas.
 |
| An example of Pablo Rasgado’s canvases. |
Michael Maloney has a good eye.
At Marc Selwyn, most of Kristen Morgan's pieces initially looked like old-fashioned toys, but upon closer look, they are the artist's own ceramic constructions, painted meticulously to create a new brand of appropriation and assemblage that is not necessarily stuck in the 1960s.
Marc Selwyn Fine Art. 6222 Wilshire Blvd # 101 Los Angeles. T-S 11-6 and by appointment: 323-933-991
I went to see David McDonald's self portrait sculptures at Carter and Citizen; they are totally individualistic and highly inventive, made of materials that are rough and ready (cement, paint, bricks). Holly Meyer writes, "The work has a quality of tenderness [...} extended here in a new direction: toward a more explicit exploration of the human condition." Carter and Citizen is currently showing Eventide: Leon Benn and Whitney Hubbs.
Carter and Citizen Gallery. 2648 La Cienega Ave. Culver City. T-S 11-6 and by appointment: 213-359-2504.
 |
| The composition of the gallery space at Perpetual Conceptual, which closes this weekend, on April 21, 2012. |
Corazon del Sol and LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) present Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler, a multi-part exhibition about the conceptual projects at the cutting-edge Eugenia Butler Gallery, 1968-1971. A woman ahead of her time, Eugenia Butler was a fearless artist, collector, and gallerist who supported the work of many avant-garde conceptualists, such as Eric Orr, George Miller, Gary Lee Byars, and Dieter Roth. Her interventions with art discourse were also conceptual art, like her project "The Kitchen Table," a series of art discussions where many new ideas were born. She was also infamous for Dieter Roth's cheese installation, which consisted of many suitcases filled with different cheeses, each suitcase to be open daily throughout the run of the show. The cheese eventually rotted (maggots emerging from inside the suitcases!), made the gallery walls expand, and was shut down early by the health department. I was there. Every Saturday, a picnic was hosted inside the gallery, and the run of the show concluded with a live seance by artist Matt Greene, along with an art bartering event at Barney’s Beanery, and other events. Corazon del Sol and LAND have really put together a conceptually strong series of exhibitions with a strong core.
Perpetual Conceptual. 8126-8132 Santa Monica Blvd. WeHo. W-S 12-6 and by appointment: 646-620-8289.
 |
| Dieter Roth’s suitcases full of cheese, ca. 1970, at the Eugenia Butler Gallery, led to the shut-down of the gallery by the LA health department. |
… Speaking of women ahead of their time, Betty Asher's papers were donated by Michael Asher to the Getty Research Institute (GRI). To make an appointment to view and handle the papers, contact the librarians at the GRI.
GRI. 1200 Getty Center Drive Ste. 100. Westwood. 310-440-7390, M-F 930-5 (Special Collections reading hours).
Being straight, my contact with gender-queer, transgender, and gay people is somewhat limited. Despite my little experience, I think James Gobel, who recently showed his felt paintings of “bears” at Steve Turner, is a painter who should be considered seriously.
Steve Turner Contemporary. 6026 Wilshire Boulevard. Los Angeles. 323-931-3721. T-S 11-6 and by appointment.
Check out: Works by artists Melissa Lambert, Ed Ruscha, George Herms, Raymond Pettibon, and others at Beyond Baroque Art for Music’s Sake Auction. May 6, 2012. 2 pm.
Beyond Baroque. 681 Venice Blvd. Venice. 310-822 3006. More information at www.beyondbaroque.org
The Eli Broad Museum. 'Nuff said. I heard that once the Broad Museum opens, MOCA will fall under its umbrella, i.e. when visitors buy admission to the Broad, they will be allowed entrance at MOCA's two locations. For details about the financial problems facing MOCA and Eli Broad's involvement in saving the institution, read Mike Boehm's "MOCA exits put spotlight on finances," in the LA Times, March 2, 2012. MOCA just recently published a press release reacting to Boehm’s article that claims MOCA is not in financial strife and is on the up and up.
