[Danny Heller, “Eichler House with Automobiles,” 2008. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of LACMA]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
The Art Museum Council (AMC) of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art invites the public to Wet Paint on Sunday, June 1stat Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills from 10 am - 4 pm. Art lovers, artists, and families will gather for a day outdoors, sharing the creative process and raising funds for the museum. Attendees can watch and purchase works of art created live by some of Southern California’s best artists, many of whom are represented by the AMC’s unique Art Rental & Sales Gallery. Oh, and did I mention admission is FREE?
[Francisco de Goya, “Great Deeds! With Dead Men!” Courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery, New York]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
Peter Blum Gallery(Soho) is now showing the work of Francisco de Goya in Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) through August 1st. The exhibit is a blunt portrayal of the total collapse of man’s ethical treatment toward his fellow man. Though the show directly references Spain’s War of Independence, its negative treatment of and general disgust towards war leaves the viewer to ponder just how mankind’s behavior can be so atrocious.
[Michael Kalish, “Rose on Red,” 2008. Bent car parts. Courtesy of the artist/MODAA]
Artist Michael Kalish is as famous for his innovative art as he is for the people who buy it from him. Kid Rock owns an original Kalish; so do Sharon Stone and the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Other owners? Muhammad Ali, Nancy Reagan, Tim Allen, Ringo Starr, Nike, Disney. The list of Kalish collectors reads like a who’s who of pop culture.
[Gregory Crewdson, “Untitled (Shane),” Summer 2006. Archival inkjet print, printed on Epson Premium Luster Paper, Ed. of 6. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery]
Crewdson is fast turning into the Edward Hopper of the staged photograph. He balances a keen sense of drama—the drama of ordinary people who do not loom large in their own worlds—with a keen sense of place and time.
[Art by James Chapin, left, and Charles W. Hawthorne, right. Courtesy of ACA Galleries]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
ACA Galleries is exhibiting work by artists Charles W. Hawthorne and James Chapin. The exhibit, a two-sided undertaking titled simultaneously A Life in Color and The Dark Side of Light, will be on view at the gallery through June 27th, and brings together two historic artists whose styles, though not identical, provide a historic complement to one another.
[Rondal Partridge, “Love in a Box,” 1978. Platinum palladium print. Courtesy of Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
The Armory Gallery in Pasadena is currently exhibiting a show entitled Good Doll Bad Doll, which surveys work by contemporary and modern artists who use dolls to create alter egos of themselves. Through the dolls, the artists are able to self-impose themselves into more ideal worlds where there are no boundaries and their abilities as humans are infinite. Above all, what this exhibition reminds us is that fantasies do not end with our childhoods.
[Allen Cox, “Eroica.” Oil and wax on linen. Courtesy of William Merrill Gallery]
William Merrill Gallery presents new abstract paintings by Allen Cox. Distinguished by a subtle earth-toned palette, the paintings are multi-layered compositions of pencil, oil and wax.
[David Shapiro, “Origin and Return 115,” 2007. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Greenfield Sacks Gallery]
David Shapiro’s abstractions balance the hard and the soft, the clear and the obscure, the bright and the dark in sequential panels that contrast forms and colors.
Over the course of his artistic career, William Utermohlen struggled with Alzheimer’s disease, reflecting on his experiences in a lifelong series of canvases that bring the harrowing realities of his illness to the fore
By Layla Revis
There is a famous quote that goes something like this: “A moment lasts all of a second, but a memory lives on forever.”
Though the sentiment is altogether poignant and inspirational, it also touches upon the notion of memory and value we place on our own lives—and our past—every day. For the artist and the everyman, this loss of past and the rich contextual experiences that make up our lives and our art can also mean a living death sentence; one that robs a person’s life out from under them.
Art and Living gets the lowdown from artists, curators and directors themselves, courtesy of correspondent Emily Grossman
On April 25th, Gloria William Sanders, curator at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, unveiled her show Marcel Duchamp Redux, a tribute to the “father of Conceptual Art.” The present exhibition is a newer incarnation of the historic By or of Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy, organized by the late Walter Hopps forty-five years ago at what was then the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum).
[Rosalyn Engelman, “Dream of Freedom.” Courtesy of Gallery 440]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
This weekend, Gallery 440 has a solo exhibition of work by Rosalyn Engelman on view. As Engelman explains, the show — entitled Dry Tears — is inspired by those who have survived deprivation and cruelty around the world. The artist uses a combination of metal, plastic, and paint to express her outrage against things like war and its effects. Though she uses others as her inspiration, Engelman is no stranger to hardship. Twenty years ago, she contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that left her temporarily blind and paralyzed. Through the help of loved ones, she was able to overcome the disease. In all, this exhibit is a tribute both to those fighting and those who have fought something tragic.
[Interior view of Red Pearl Kitchen. Photo by Carl Lindstrom/Courtesy of Red Pearl Kitchen]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
This Saturday, May 17th, DNJ Gallery is hosting a lecture by Joe Goode (3pm) and Andy Shwartz (11am). Both lectures highlight and work in conjunction with The Miracle Mile Art Walk and LACMA’s Muse ArtWalk. Goode will spend time discussing his exhibition Ashes, which is on display at DNJ Gallery through May 24th. So spend this Saturday getting to know art and the artists behind the paint.
[Editor’s Note: Sadly, the legendary Robert Rauschenberg passed away late Monday night at the age of 82. What follows is a piece from the current issue of Art and Living about the legacy of both Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. As Peter Frank explains below, Rauschenberg will forever be remembered for his innovative oeuvre and momentous contributions to the art world. Rest in peace.]
Fathers of the Future
By Peter Frank
If there had been no Jasper Johns and no Robert Rauschenberg, we would have had to invent both of them. Our art, our lives, our current sense of the world are all inconceivable without their accomplishments, their lessons, their demonstrations of art’s—and life’s—simultaneous availability and ineffability. Art, they showed, could be ordinary and mysterious at once—and, indeed, mysterious for its very ordinariness.
[Ed Moses at work in his Los Angeles studio. Courtesy of the artist]
Seminal artists Ed Moses and Larry Belltalk with Art and Living about the nows and thens of the Los Angeles art scene
Art and Living: What was it that kept you in L.A. during the 50s and 60s?
Ed Moses: I thought about traveling but in the 50s I was still in school until the late 50s. Then I joined the Ferus Gallery in December of ‘57 where I was in a group show and met all of the primary artists of the Ferus Gallery—Bob Irwin, Larry Bell, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha coming later in 1959. And there was a huge amount of camaraderie and competitiveness. We fed off of each other in terms of attitude, not imagery. Everybody seemed to have their own view. A lot of studio visits took place and we hung out at Barney’s Beanery. It was a strong motivator when you returned from these studio visits. And that was all very convenient because we all lived in Venice and Sawtelle.
[Balin’s Carnaroli Risotto with Farm Rabbit and Erbaluce di Caluso Wine]
Visitors from far and wide come to sample the haute cuisine of Italian chef Angelo Silvestro. Risotto, anyone?
By Lars Carlson
Taking a seat in his chair in Beverly Hills’ Il Fornaio restaurant, Italian native and renowned chef Angelo Silvestro smiles amicably. His eyes beam from behind his thin, black spectacles as he inquisitively searches for the right words. He opens his mouth to answer, but pauses for a moment, rethinking his first statement. “I will try to be serious for this interview,” he smiles widely before continuing. “But I like to joke.”
[From left to right: Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, Ken Price, Billy Al Bengston, and Larry Bell. Photo by Howard Wise]
Ferus Gallery was the hotspot of the midcentury L.A. art scene. But it wasn’t the only one, writes art critic Peter Frank
Everything old is new again, especially in an art world that (literally) values its history but is always on the lookout for a good investment. So while bidding wars erupt over obscure contemporary artists because they come from the right school or gallery or country, whole movements and art scenes that hardly rated a footnote ten years ago are suddenly dug out of the basement, and artists whose phones haven’t rung since they were rotary suddenly have to get answering machines—and e-mail, and agents, and calendars. The cutting-edge artists of postwar Los Angeles, for instance, attracted much attention in their day, and not just locally; many Angelenos who emerged back then jumped from local group shows into Whitney Biennials and even enjoyed their first one-person exhibitions in New York galleries such as Pace and Castelli. Similarly, La Cienega Boulevard’s “gallery row” featured outlets vigorous, sophisticated, and well-supported enough to show the latest work from New York and San Francisco and even Europe.
[Sally Storch, “Night Stories.” Oil on canvas. Courtesy Sue Greenwood Fine Art]
Artist Sally Storch has made a name for herself as a storyteller with a brush, often focusing the subject matter of her representational paintings on people who find themselves in cleverly staged and mysterious circumstances. A letter left on a table, a keepsake forgotten in a taxicab or other, similar visual peculiarities against romantic urban backgrounds stimulate the imagination of the viewer.
[Artist Jose Picayo, “Mug Shots,”2008. Courtesy of Robin Rice Gallery]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
Robin Rice Gallery is showing Jose Picayo’s new exhibit Mug Shots through June 22, 2008. With this exhibition, Picayo attempts to get away from “artificial beauty,” which he contends has become a standard for our society. Picayo asks the question: what does the real face of humanity look like? The exhibit is an examination of bare beauty — without make-up, without help, flawed. I’m happy to let the public in on this exhibit in that it reveals some poignant truths about what we are and what society has become.
[The interior of Ambrogi Castanier Gallery. Courtesy of the gallery]
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
Ambrogi Castanier Gallery is currently displaying Four Months in Heaven, a solo exhibition by Vahe Berberian running now through May 24th. The gallery employs artists with a sense of presence and a raw touch; Vahe Berberian is no stranger to creating this sort of powerful work.
[Andy Moses, “Summer Daze.” Acrylic on shaped canvas. Courtesy Peter Blake Gallery]
Not to be missed this month at Laguna Beach’s Peter Blake Gallery are new paintings by Andy Moses, whose works explore the visual and emotional relationships between natural elements. Moses stretches his canvases over concavely curved armatures, thus giving them a three-dimensional twist that plays to the artist’s stratified visual vocabulary reminiscent of shifting horizons, light-drenched beaches, and more.
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
In collaboration with Marian Goodman Gallery, Tracy Williams Ltd.is hosting PONG, a new exhibit featuring artists John Baldessari and Matt Mullican. The exhibit will open this Friday, May 2 and runs until June 28. The opening reception is from 6-8 pm, so be there or be square. This is not an exhibit to miss!
Christy Dusablon checks in with her weekly exhibit, chef and theater picks for this week’s art dating and matchmaking
ModernbookGallery in Palo Alto is showing Claudia Kunin’s new exhibit titled 3-D Ghost Stories. Her work offers a new kind of mythology, making bold statements about heaven, hell, earth and life. Her latest photography collections, Ghost Stories and Holy Ghost Stories, rise out of an imagination influenced by visionaries such as Caravaggio and Bosch. Kunin first shoots the images and then assembles them through Photoshop, producing a final image that requires 3-D glasses to view. The process adds a whole new dimension to her photography.
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