Lauren Quin: If It Were A Snake It Would Have Bit Me @ East Hollywood Fine Art

If It Were A Snake It Would Have Bit Me, Lauren Quin’s first solo show in Los Angeles, presents a body of work characterized by a nimble image and a sentimental mark. Dipping into the networks of an organism, these paintings are biotic, and they need for their small and large elements to coexist as a whole being. With a drag of a dull knife or the tip of a fingernail, fine-lined drawings are carved into wet paint on the surface. They are sharp marks that pull themselves up and away from the whole of the painting; incisions that linger in a shallower focal plane, only to be discovered with a certain degree of intimacy.

If It Were A Snake It Would Have Bit Me is on view through July 28 at East Hollywood Fine Art 4316 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029. photographs by Lani Trock

Ever Present Series Features A.S.T.R.A.L.O.R.A.C.L.E.S @ The Getty Center in Los Angeles

Inspired by the exhibition The Wondrous Cosmos in Medieval Manuscripts, Ever Present brings together a group of artists who integrate the intergalactic into their varied work. Like their medieval forbearers, they quest for new artistic, analytic, and spiritual ways of understanding our connection to the cosmos. Performances include music by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and Vedic astrologer Deradoorian (known for her work with Dirty Projectors), choral scores translated from the constellations by experimental artist and composer Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, an interdimensional ritual by A.S.T.R.A.L.O.R.A.C.L.E.S with live music accompaniment by ambient composer Ana Roxanne, a planetarium-style visual lecture on the multiverse by artists Jennifer Moon and laub, and site-wide energy work by multidimensional artist and Afrofuturist Jordi.

Ever Present occurs throughout the year at The Getty Center 1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049. photographs by Lani Trock

Dana Hoey Organizes Ladies Muay Thai Fight Night @ Petzel Gallery in New York

As part of her exhibition Dana Hoey Presents, artist Dana Hoey organized a live Ladies Muay Thai Fight Night featuring 5 amateur fights, emceed by JoAnn Falanga, which took place on Friday night in the 20’ x 20’ boxing ring installed inside Petzel Gallery. Dana Hoey Presents challenges and confronts preconceived ideas and realities of feminism, combat, violence, self defense and the martial arts.

Dana Hoey Presents is on view through August 2 at Petzel Gallery 456 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011. photographs by Rann Golamco



Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983 @ The Broad Museum In Los Angeles

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists made over two revolutionary decades in American history, beginning in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement. The exhibition examines the influences, from the civil rights and Black Power movements to Minimalism and developments in abstraction, on artists such as Romare Bearden, Barkley Hendricks, Noah Purifoy, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Alma Thomas, Charles White, and William T. Williams. Los Angeles-based artists appear throughout Soul of a Nation, and more deeply in three specific galleries, foregrounding the significant role of Los Angeles in the art and history of the civil rights movement and the subsequent activist era, and the critical influence and sustained originality of the city’s artists, many of whom have lacked wider recognition.

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power is on view through September 1st at The Broas Museum 221 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Franco-American Duo FAUX REAL Releases New Music Video For "Second Sweat"

Faux real is the deranged child of Franco-American brothers Elliott and Virgile Arndt. In the summer of 2018, they invoked the union of their inner-gene genies and gave birth to faux realism. The brothers started playing their first shows as a duo with nothing but a couple of microphones, a flute, some handmade costumes and a weird/incestuous/compelling 30-minute long choreography. With no music online or a single confirmed show on the horizon, they took off on a month-long US tour in march 2019, with high hopes and low expectations.

They ended up performing over 30 times that month from SXSW in Austin, to Los Angeles and New York City, performing anywhere and everywhere the city would allow, from large venues to sweaty nightclubs to street corners, house parties, art galleries, illegal raves, or hijacking existing bills with impromptu slots. The two brothers are quickly becoming notorious for their wild, unhinged, retro-futuristic and avant-garde anti-rock performances, ranging from flute-infused 808 ballads to feverish stooge-esque self-flagellation, tongue-in-cheek frenglish poetry, faux athletics and improvised quasi-ballet.

Liz Johnson Artur: If you know the beginning, the end is no trouble @ South London Gallery in London

Liz Johnson Artur’s first solo show in the UK presents new sculptural works incorporating photographs selected from her substantial archive of images documenting the lives of people from the African diaspora. While Artur has taken photographs across Europe, America, Africa, and the Caribbean for more than three decades, this exhibition focuses on images that capture the richness and complexity of Black British life in London.

Liz Johnson Artur: If you know the beginning, the end is no trouble is on view through September 1 at the South London Gallery 65-67 Peckham Road, London. photographs courtesy of the South London Gallery

Greg Ito & Honor Titus: Enter the Garden @ Penske Projects in Los Angeles

Multidisciplinary artists, Greg Ito and Honor Titus, are currently exhibiting their work in a group show at Penske Projects in Los Angeles. Both artists have taken the urban landscapes they have lived in and frequented, and reflected the beauty and the mystery of these cities in their respective artwork. While Ito uses iconography engrained in Los Angeles’s urban surroundings to express the many faces of the city, Titus focuses on depicting street scenes which encapsulate the memory of hot summer months spent in cities such as London, New York, and Paris. Ito and Titus’s complementary bodies of work come together in this exhibition to navigate the viewers through a tour of the magical urban gardens they have created through their work.

Greg Ito & Honor Titus: Enter the Garden is on view through July 27 at Penske Projects 4859 Fountain Ave, Los Angeles, California. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Lauren Spencer King Presents I Dedicate This Song to You at Big Pictures Los Angeles

Big Pictures Los Angeles presents I Dedicate This Song to You, an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures from Los Angeles based artist Lauren Spencer King. King weaves together personal experiences, in past work around death and grief but more recently an exploration of partnership and relationship, together with historical sites and practices rooted in relatively unknown ceremonial rites of passage. A constellation is created between the works in disparate mediums to create a new narrative woven from threads of personal and collective history.

I Dedicate This Song to You is on view through August 3 at Big Pictures Los Angeles 2424 W Washington Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90018. photographs courtesy of Big Pictures Los Angeles

Lorna Simpson Presents Darkening @ Hauser & Wirth in New York

Hauser & Wirth presents ‘Lorna Simpson. Darkening,’ the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in New York. Debuting a suite of new large-scale paintings, the exhibition finds Simpson returning to and building upon themes and motifs at the center of her practice: explorations focused on the nature of representation, identity, gender, race, and history. For more than 30 years, Simpson’s powerful works have entangled viewers in an equivocal web of meaning, drawing upon techniques of collage through the use of found materials, often culled from the pages of vintage Jet and Ebony magazines. In ‘Darkening,’ Simpson continues to thread dichotomies of figuration and abstraction with vast and enthralling tableaux that subsume spliced photos and fragmented text, abstracted beyond comprehension. Equally arresting and poetic, the paintings engage viewers with layers of paradox, capturing the mystifying allure of an arctic landscape in inky washes of blacks, grays, and startling blues.

Darkening is on view through July 26 at Hauser & Wirth 548 W 22nd St. New York, NY 10011. all images courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Marco Castillo Presents The Decorator's Home @ UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles →

Inspired by Cuban Modernism, The Decorator’s Home, curated by Neville Wakefield, personifies the vision of a fictional interior designer, tracing their style evolution from the commercial, North American-influenced Modernist design of the 1950s to the revolutionary, Soviet-influenced style of the 1960s and 1970s. Through sculptural installations, watercolors, drawings and a video, The Decorator’s Home is an attempt to capture the work of a generation that was cut short. Click here to read our interview with the artist.

The Decorator’s Home is on view through July 13 at UTA Artist Space 403 Foothill Rd. Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

Marilyn Minter Presents "My Cuntry 'Tis of Thee" @ Simon Lee Gallery London

In Marilyn Minter’s video work, “My Cuntry 'Tis of Thee” (2018), women write the word ‘cunt’ into condensation on a glass pane. As the women articulate each letter, their features are gradually revealed as the steam hiding them dissipates. Minter reclaims one of the most widely acknowledged offensive words by providing the women in her video the chance to, quite literally, write it away from its degrading associations. The artist’s debut exhibition with Simon Lee Gallery and her first solo presentation in the UK in thirty years explores feminism and sexual politics through images that dismantle Western culture’s hierarchies of censorship and misogyny. “My Cuntry 'Tis of Thee” is on view through July 13 at Simon Lee Gallery 12 Berkeley St, Mayfair, London. photographs courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery London.

June Edmonds Presents "Allegiances & Convictions" @ Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Allegiances and Convictions explores the American flag as a malleable symbol of ideals, promises, and identity. June Edmonds’s new Flag Paintings create space for the inclusion of multiple identities including race, nationality, gender, and political leanings. Each flag is associated with the narrative of an AfricanAmerican, past or present, a current event, or an anecdote from American history. Edmonds investigates the complexities of these stories through the creation of new symbols for Americanness. Allegiances and Convictions is on view through June 29 at Luis De Jesus 2685 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. Click here to read an interview with June Edmonds and gallery owner/director, Luis De Jesus.

Group Show 'TRANS WORLD' Opens at @ Nicodim Gallery In Los Angeles

According to multiverse theory, every decision a person makes causes a split in the universe, wherein an alternate version of one’s self continues to exist in an alternate universe, living with the consequences of an alternate decision. There are an infinite number of variations of ourselves existing throughout time and space, having made an infinite number of differing decisions. BUT WHAT IF AN INDIVIDUAL IS ABLE TO OCCUPY MULTIPLE UNIVERSES SIMULTANEOUSLY? Trans World is on view through August 10 at Nicodim Gallery 571 S Anderson Street Ste 2, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock

Sterling Ruby "S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA" Collection Presentation During Pitti Immagine Uomo 96 in Florence, Italy

Endocannibalism X Exocannibalism – The Los Angeles-based artist, Sterling Ruby’s first runway presentation at the gorgeous Le Pagliere in Firenze, Italy was a triumphant clash of tribalism, studio wear, bleach splatters, dark natural landscapes and a chilling romanticism. Presenting a form of soft sculpture on the runway, Ruby’s first collection is autobiographical, a chart through cloth of Ruby’s life, influences, fantasies and reality. The references include heavy metal and punk album cover art, Amish and Mennonite dress, and Ruby’s own geographical journey across America, from his rural upbringing in Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California. The craft language of American folk tradition - of crafting, mending, the patchworking of quilts - is here embedded in garments, whose worked surfaces are a map of the journey of their making. The first drops are available here and here. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Pronounce SS 2020 Collection “A Fresh Dig” During Pitti Uomo in Florence, Italy

The Guest Nation China project culminates with the fashion show of the Chinese duo Pronounce, the experimental fashion brand established by Yushan Li and Jun Zhou in the Dogana, will be launching the SS 2020 collection “A Fresh Dig” on the catwalk, along with reinterpretations of Converse Jack Purcell shoes. The special event is organized with the support of Labelhood, incubator of emerging designers and one of the most innovative retailers in China, and of V/Collective, international creative agency based in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

The Gucci Garden Cocktail Reception On The Occasion Of Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence

The Gucci Garden , a place dedicated to the heritage of the Florentine brand, a constantly evolving laboratory created by the Creative Director of the Maison Alessandro Michele, chooses a new layout for his Period Room and Pitti Uomoto reveal his new clothes. The story of the creation of Jayde Fish and the imaginative phrases of Coco Capitán give way to a series of unpublished walls, created by two artists, capable of involving the visitor and talking to the windows that open onto Piazza della Signoria, establishing a contact between the Gucci Garden transit spaces and the teeming space of the square. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

A Short Novel On Men's Fashion Curated By Olivier Saillard @ Palazzo Pitti Museo della Moda e del Costume

On the occasion of Pitti Uomo 96, the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery presents ROMANZO BREVE DI MODA MASCHILE – A SHORT NOVEL ON MEN’S FASHION, an exhibit showcasing thirty years of menswear from 1989 to the present as seen through the eyes of Pitti Uomo. Passing through the halls of the Palazzo Pitti Museo della Moda e del Costume one by one, Olivier Saillard will recount the history and evolution of menswear, the intersection of Made in Italy with guest designers, and the fashion talents from the international contemporary scene together with the experiences of leading menswear entrepreneurs. The project is dedicated to the memory of Marco Rivetti, President of Pitti Immagine from 1987 to 1995. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Valerj Pobega Presents "Kabuki in Berlin" Fall/Winter 2019 collection

Avant-garde fashion designer and artist Valerj Pobega presented her “Kabuki in Berlin” -Fall/Winter 2019 collection with a site-specific performance in collaboration with dancers, acrobats and a music performance by Lawrence Rothman. Dressed in the designer’s hand-painted silk creations from “Kabuki in Berlin” her collection was inspired by the hybrid identities and androgynous stylings as seen in the Liza Minnelli’s turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, and the epicene performances of Lindsey Kemp and David Bowie in their 1970 mimed numbers which had hints of Kabuki theatre. photographs by Mekael Dawson

Growing Up In Wallace Berman's World: Read Our Interview With Tosh Berman →

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Wallace Berman carves a mysterious, counter-cultural figure in the cave wall of Los Angeles folklore. His legend is enhanced by a tragically early death on his fiftieth birthday as a result of an automobile crash with a drunk driver in Topanga Canyon, further cementing his myth as the beatnik of the Southern California chaparrals.

In a new memoir, entitled Tosh, Berman’s son opens the opaque curtain on the enigmatic artist through a bildungsroman of the Beat Generation and hippie counterculture, a childhood on the frontlines of 1960s Los Angeles and San Francisco freakdom. Tosh Berman and Jason Schwartzman got together for a public conversation at Skylight Books to discuss his memoir and growing up in Wallace Berman’s world. Click here to read more.