Written on: Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Art
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[Christopher H. Martin, “Antilles.” Image courtesy of the artist]
New West Hollywood gallery opens its doors with a showing of two cutting-edge artists
Back in September, Martin & Lozano Gallery opened its doors on Robertson Boulevard. Its inaugural show features the work of the gallery’s two namesakes, Christopher H. Martin and Kandy Lozano.
Based out of Texas, Martin has achieved international recognition for his creations. His vibrant, acrylic‐on‐acrylic abstracts fuse lush colors and movement, forming expressions of nature. He also creates inspirational, metallic filmwork of artistically enhanced images.
Written on: Friday, August 28th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[DJ Hall addresses the audience]
Renowned artist reflects on painting and more at West Hollywood event
On Wednesday, August 19th, Beverly Boulevard’s LA Art House gallery welcomed artist DJ Hall for a lively talk and Q & A. Renowned for her hyper-realistic depictions of people (often in sunny settings) in candid and intimate moments, Hall opened up to gallery visitors about her personal artistic process.
[Torben Giehler, “Mont Blanc,” 2002. Acrylic on canvas. Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation]
Exhibition showcases selections from the collection of Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
A short drive up Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles is the Frederick R. Weisman Museum, part of Pepperdine University’s Center for the Arts. Removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, the museum stages a number of provocative exhibitions staged in an tranquil and intimate setting just a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean.
Just this last weekend, the Museum opened up its latest show, Elements of Nature: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation. According to the museum, the exhibition gathers together works of art that reflect on how the four elements of nature have meaning in our lives.
Written on: Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[Emma Ferreira, “Lady Luck.” Image courtesy of the artist]
Exposure highlights new photography by Los Angeles-based artist
Opening September 13th at Bergamot Station’s Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa Monica, California is a collection of new work by painter and photographer Emma Ferreira. It’s definitely “exposure” in a couple senses of the word — this show is composed of photographic male and female nudes from her series Bare/Fever in addition to never-before-seen new works.
Written on: Monday, July 20th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[Installation view. Image courtesy of Shoshana Wayne Gallery]
Exhibition of video and drawings comes to Bergamot Station gallery
In 2007, the J. Paul Getty Center commissioned artist Nicole Cohen to incorporate French decorative arts from the museum’s permanent collection into an interactive video installation. What resulted was Please Be Seated, which featured replicas of several French chairs fabricated in an all-white room. Visitors could sit in them and look to an overhead screen to see the chair and their image transported to the original interior from whence the furniture would have existed, complete with prerecorded contemporary performers inhabiting the televised scenes. It was an an exercise in exploring history as well as a way of examining social mores regarding etiquette.
Written on: Monday, July 20th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[Julius Shulman, 2008. Photo by Jim McHugh]
Remembering an icon
Last week, Julius Shulman, arguably the most talented and accomplished architectural photographer of the 20th century, passed away at the age of 98. A good friend of Art and Living, he will be sorely missed, both by those who knew him and by countless appreciators of his work worldwide.
Back in January, Art and Living was honored to be able to recognize Mr. Shulman with an Art to Life award. As part of that recognition, Art and Living ran a piece highlighting the career and accomplishments of the well-known architectural photographer. In memory of the artist, here is that piece.
Written on: Friday, July 17th, 2009 | Filed under:
Art
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[Deborah Brown. Image courtesy of the artist]
A Postmodernist in Fairyland
Plastic artist Deborah Brown has revealed a fresh crop of creations at her sculpture farm just outside London in St. Albans, England. Falling somewhere between the whimsical, the quizzical, the inoffensively mocking and the slightly unsettling, Brown’s fantastic animal-vegetable, animal-human, and vegetable-human hybrids suggest figures populating a fairyland set borrowed from a mutant’s version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Written on: Friday, July 17th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[Robert McGinley, “Farm Rake Fog.” Image courtesy of the artist/Blue Seven Gallery]
Santa Monica exhibition welcomes art lovers and environmentalists alike
Conservation landscape photographer Robert McGinley opened up an exhibition of his latest work at Blue Seven Gallery in Santa Monica on June 27. Titled Topography, Light and Magic, the exhibit explores natural landscapes through a series of strikingly beautiful images.
[Otto Ernst Wiesenthal, the owner of Hotel Altstadt]
Vienna hotel makes for an exquisite, artful escape
Situated in the heart of picturesque Vienna, Hotel Altstadt provides visitors to the capital city of Austria a respite from the hustle and bustle of the busy city. Otto Ernst Wiesenthal, Art collector needed a gallery for his collection so converted an old patrican house to a boutique hotel. You can even request the room with the Bösendorfer piano.
Poignant exhibition showcases the intricacies of the human condition
Vienna’s Albertina Museum is currently showcasing an exquisite assortment of photographs exploring the human body its multitude of forms.
Whatever their artistic origins or national provenance, the artists featured in this show — Erwin Wurm, Gottfried Helnwein, Helmut Newton, Franz West, Chuck Close, John Coplans, Elke Krystufek and Marie Jo Lafontaine — focus on the body, its qualities of expression, or text and body (image) combinations in their works.
In all, there are about 80 photographic works from the holdings of the Albertina on display. Among these is Gottfried Helnwein’s image of a 1980s-era Michael Jackson, a visage which is particularly striking in the face of Jackson’s recent death.
Written on: Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[Cathy Begien, “Black Out,” 2004. Still from video, color, sound; 5 minutes, 19 seconds. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Winkleman Gallery
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art stages a special exhibition featuring a new generation of feminist video artists
Currently on view at the Brooklyn museum is the exhibition Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video, which presents recent videos by a number of feminine video artists.
Written on: Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Filed under:
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An installation by one of the masters of 20th-century art comes to Palm Desert
For anyone familiar with the fine art or art history, Robert Rauschenberg is a name who needs no introduction. Challenging yet relevant, Rauschenberg was one of the New York artists when New York was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the art world. His work, along with the work other notable contemporaries, bridged the gap between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art.
Talking with the faces behind one of the world’s great cultural institutions
By Kathleen Joiner
On August 23, 2004, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, steps from the banks of the Ohio River, the dividing line separating slave and free states in the decades leading to the Civil War. Housing slavery era artifacts, permanent and changing exhibits—including an original slave pen, a holding place for slaves awaiting auction—the Freedom Center tells the story of slavery, America’s struggle for freedom, while serving as a safe house to foster healing and restoration.
While the museum was still a concept, a diverse core group of citizens united to raise the necessary $110 million to start the institution. The mission was clear: To reveal stories about freedom’s heroes, from the era of the Underground Railroad to contemporary times, challenging and inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom today.
We talked to some of these founders and current Freedom Center supporters about why building and growing the Freedom Center is paramount. Here’s what they had to say:
^ John Pepper, Retired CEO of Procter & Gamble and Co-Chair of NURFC’s Board of Directors: “The youngsters are the nucleus of change,” he says. “Change cannot be made if the history is unknown.”
Santa Monica exhibition showcases the work of artist Doni Silver Simons
Artist Doni Silver Simons opened an exhibition of her newest work on March 26 at Sherry Frumkin Gallery in Santa Monica. Silver Simons has built a career on the meticulous “marks” found throughout her paintings and drawings; the artist refers to her work as “doing lines,” and it is through these lines that she records the passage of moments, days, weeks and years. Viewers often recognize a language in the work, with the marks taking on multiple meanings and interpretations.
Written on: Monday, April 27th, 2009 | Filed under:
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At home with a pair of art-loving connoisseurs
By Victoria Charters
“People collect for different reasons. My family and I like the whole idea of living and working in art and design,” says Marty Collins, art collector and president/CEO of Gatehouse Capital, the largest independent developer of W Hotels and condominiums and the force behind Hollywood’s posh, new W Hotel and Residences, scheduled to open later this year. “We like having it woven into the fabric of our lives.”
Written on: Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | Filed under:
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Neiman Marcus Topanga hosts cocktail party and silent art auction for artist Tommy Hollenstein to benefit Shane’s Inspiration and Canine Companions
Neiman Marcus Topanga hosted local San Fernando Valley artist Tommy Hollenstein (www.tommyhollenstein.com) and a selection of his paintings in the store to kick off the holiday season and to raise money for Shane’s Inspiration (www.shanesinspiration.com) and Canine Companions (www.cci.org). Tommy Hollenstein survived a biking accident that left him a quadriplegic and now uses his wheelchair wheels for his paint brush. His work portrays a whimsical world of his own invention layering vibrant colors applied by tire treads to create the perception of fluid motion in static space.
[Linda Valliant of Canine Companions; Bob Lugari, vice president and general manager of Neiman Marcus Topanga; Lucy Matsumoto of Shane’s Inspiration; and artist Tommy Hollenstein]
[Linda Kunik, “Things Fall Apart #1033.” Courtesy of the artist/LAAA/Gallery 825]
Gala showcases developing art trends
Los Angeles Art Association hosted its annual gem benefit last Saturday, April 11 at Gallery 825. The event, widely embraced by the art community and leading collectors as a showcase of emerging art trends, featured the art of over 100 emerging, mid-career and established artists including Meeson Pae Yang, Dan Monteavaro, Julia Strickler and Steven Fujimoto. With over 200 original artworks beginning at $100, the event brought together budget-minded collectors as well as traditional connoisseurs! Getty Museum Director Michael Brand and wife Tina Brand served as the Benefit Co-Chairs and the Benefit Committee comprised many renowned cultural figures, including Harry Chandler, Howard N. Fox and Cheech Marin.
Written on: Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Art
| Art Chat
[Willem De Kooning, “Woman III,” 1952-53. Oil on canvas]
Heralded Collection makes showing at Sotheby’s New York from April 2-14, 2009
A loan exhibition from the collection of Steven and Alexandra Cohen closes out its run today at Sotheby’s in New York. Entitled Women, the exhibition focused on one area of the Cohen’s collection: works depicting female subjects. This remarkable assemblage of twenty masterpieces ranges from Edvard Munch’s Madonna and Pablo Picasso’s Le Repos to Willem de Kooning’s Women III and Andy Warhol’s Turquoise Marilyn, and it includes paintings, sculpture, works on paper and photographs by the most influential artists of the modern era. The collection has never before been exhibited to the public.
[Left to right: Ronald Davis, Ron Cooper, Robert Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper, and Larry Bell]
Actor and artist Dennis Hopper curates two exhibitions to honor long-time Taos friendships—and to mark the 40th anniversary of Easy Rider
Dennis Hopper first set foot (or wheels, as the case may be) in Taos, New Mexico in 1968 while directing one of the 60s’ most powerfully iconic visions, Easy Rider, a film that looked so real, felt so raw, and sounded so good it helped define a social movement—and, some may say, the way a nation saw itself.
For the next 15 years, Hopper pretty much made Taos home, taking up residence at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house, continuing Mabel’s tradition of hosting the best, brightest, and surely the most off-beat of his generation.
[Blake Edwards at the opening of his PDC exhibition]
The Art of Blake Edwards: A Retrospective of Sculpture and Paintings 1969 - 2008
By Gail Feingarten Oppenheimer, Curator
Everybody has always known Blake Edwards as a successful writer, producer, and director of film, but very few people knew about his secret passion for painting and sculpting. I have known him for 35 years and had no idea how many paintings he had created and stored while also making successful films. I knew he had about ten paintings stashed in the closets but, through the years, that number grew to hundreds. His art has even ventured into three dimensions; in 1983, when Blake was doing a movie about a sculptor, he started creating the sculpture himself. The quality of the art is so extraordinary.
Written on: Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | Filed under:
Art
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An elegant, doe-eyed Natalie Wood sitting strong and confident in a shoulder pad-imbued dress; artist David Hockney afloat in a boat amid a placid English lake; sculptor Robert Graham in the studio awash in the stains of pliable clay; a self-absorbed Andy Warhol curled up in a massive fur; punk-poet Henry Rollins reading a Wall Street Journal on fire. These are only some of the legendary images that graced the Palm Springs Art Museum’s walls during celebrated Hollywood photographer Michael Childers’ 2003 career retrospective.
The show represented a bygone era when Childers, knee deep in the entertainment industry lifestyle and alongside his director-partner John Schlesinger, was able to turn his intimate relationships with cultural icons and his inimitable ability to yell ”Fabulous, yes!” into breathtaking images. These were the days when, as an Interview magazine photographer, he captured the essence, rebellion and freedom of rock and film stardom. Over the ensuing decades, Childers’ career began to shift.
Written on: Monday, March 9th, 2009 | Filed under:
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[Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte), “The Flight into Egypt,” c. 1544–45. Oil on canvas. Norton Simon Art Foundation]
Two powerhouse museums create an unprecedented loan program
By Diane Dunne
On view at the New York’s Frick Collection through May 10th are five 16th- and 17th-century masterpieces, none of which have, in over thirty years, left their home at Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum, an institution noted for seldom lending works of art from its collection.
The five featured paintings were specifically selected by the Frick’s Associate Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Colin B. Bailey as iconic examples from the important California museum, and they happen to be works by artists not represented in the Frick: Jacopo Bassano’s brilliant Flight into Egypt (c. 1544-45), Peter Paul Rubens’s admirable Holy Women at the Sepulcher (c.1611-14), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri’s (Guercino) striking Aldrovandi Dog (c. 1625), Francisco de Zurbaran’s extraordinary Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose (c.1633), and Bartolome Esteban Murillo’s touching Birth of Saint John the Baptist (c. 1660). These five artists are in the first tier of the finest Flemish, Italian and Spanish European master painters.
Written on: Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | Filed under:
Art
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Michael Grecco wanted to be a great Hollywood photographer ever since his days on assignment with People, where he shot journalistic pictures to illustrate lifestyle stories. “I immediately started to request more opportunities to take portraits,” he says. “I’ve been attached to the portrait ever since I was a little kid, but when I started to shoot serious actors, there was a whole new added depth of expression that our collaboration would provoke that was exciting. Actors certainly raise the bar of every shot.”
Written on: Friday, January 30th, 2009 | Filed under:
Blog, Art
| Art Chat
[Portrait by Jim McHugh]
The legendary Robert Graham passed away in late December at the age of 70. As follows is a piece from the current issue of Art and Living in which Daniella Walsh highlights the legacy of the artist and the grief that has gripped the art community since his passing.
As the City of Angels says farewell to Robert Graham, one of its most renowned and best-loved artists, it brings us great sadness to join in. Mr. Graham built a stellar career on creating public sculptures that paid homage to figures like Duke Ellington, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He gained world attention when he created two statues for the “Olympic Gateway” at the Memorial Coliseum for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
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