Opening of LOVE/WAR Group Show @ MAMA Gallery

NYC artists MINT&SERF and PaperWorkNYC have come to Los Angeles’ MAMA Gallery to present LOVE/WAR, a week-long group show examining the inevitability of uncertainty and conflict. LOVE/WAR is a multimedia exhibition comprised of photographs, paintings, installation and video, curated by Mint&Serf and PaperWorkNYC, a synergy that revels in the spirit of artistic collaboration. LOVE/WAR will be on view until February 7th, 2015 at MAMA Gallery, 1242 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles, CA. 

Roger Hiorns Exhibition @ Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt

Luhring Augustine announces the most comprehensive solo exhibition to date of Roger Hiorns' work at Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt. Hiorns (born 1975, Birmingham, GB) is a leading artist of his generation. In 2009 he was nominated for the renowned Turner Prize for his celebrated work Seizure, a huge crystallization in an empty London apartment. The exhibition will be on view from February 1st until May 4, 2015 at Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt in Biel, Switzerland. 

'The Shell' @ Almine Rech Gallery In Paris

Inspired by Peter Schjeldahl’s quote that “Modern art history has ceased to represent a road traveled, and has come to seem an encircling panorama,” this exhibition gathers paintings (landscapes, portraits, shapes) by nearly twenty international artists from different generations, from Bridget Riley to Christian Rosa. Their artistic commitment harks back to some various eras when choosing a discipline –visual arts – didn’t carry the same promises or contingencies. The Shell will be on view until February 14, at Almine Rech Gallery in Paris.

Harmony Korine 'Raiders' @ Gagosian Beverly Hills

To create Raider Burst (2014), Korine stuck overlapping segments of masking tape to the center of an unprimed canvas, then used a broom to spread primary red, yellow, and blue dyes over the surface. He then removed the tape to reveal bright, irregular stars shining through colorful mists; the final composition is characterized by a spontaneous, explosive radiance. Other paintings are inhabited by shadowy, clawed creatures reminiscent of Goya’s ghastly Caprices, obscured by layers of housepaint, sprayed with letters, and repainted over the course of several years. Raiders will be on view until February 14, 2015 at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. photographs by Douglas Neill 

Mike Kuchar 'Saints and Sinners' @ François Ghebaly

François Ghebaly presents a Banquet of Beefcake celebrating Satyrs, Stone Age He-Men, Sugar Daddies, and Bawdy Buccaneers, drawn painted, digitized, and hosted by underground cartoonist and movie maker, Mike Kuchar. Saints and Sinners is on view until February 14 at François Ghebaly Gallery, 2245 E Washington Blvd, Los Angeles. photographs by Jason Levins

TAL R "ALTSTADT GIRL" @ Cheim & Read in New York

Cheim & Read presents an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Copenhagen-based artist Tal R. For the past two years, Tal R has been drawing women in confined interior spaces – hotel rooms, bedrooms, corridors, in the shower, and in front of mirrors. Though carefully chosen, his subjects are strangers and casual acquaintances. Tal R’s artistic process begins when he asks the women to pose for him: the foundation of his paintings rest on the anxiety of an uncertain exchange. This provides his work with palpable intensity and, as he notes, “awkwardness,” and is further emphasized by his use of saturated color and off-kilter compositions. Altstadt Girl will be on view until February 14, 2015 at Cheim & Read, 547 West 25 Street, New York. photographs by Agnes Fischer 

Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman @ MOCA

MOCA presents Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman from October 11, 2014 to January 18, 2015 at MOCA Pacific Design Center. Organized by guest curator Yael Lipschutz, the exhibition will be the largest survey of Cameron’s work since 1989 and will include approximately 91 artworks and ephemeral artifacts. The exhibition features Cameron’s role as a pivotal figure in the development of postwar Los Angeles art. "A seminal figure within LA's mid-century counterculture, Cameron's work contains echoes of an important time that is also our time. A younger generation will be fascinated by her unique melding of surrealism and mysticism, and by her commitment to live her life as art," explains guest curator Lipschutz.

John Waters 'Beverly Hills John' @ Marianne Boesky Part One

Marianne Boesky Gallery presents Beverly Hills John, an exhibition of new work by John Waters. This is the artist’s third solo show at the gallery. On view from January 9 to February 14, 2015, at 509 W. 24th Street, New York. photographs by Lily Landes

Rascal House @ Half Gallery

Half Gallery presents Rascal House, a collaborative project conceived by and including Blair Thurman along with John Armleder, Justin Adian, and Stéphane Kropf. The exhibition is the result of a strange confluence of memory, sensory perception, and association (both free and mediated): a 3-D painting installation-cum-diner booth born of historical, personal, aesthetic and ulterior connections.  Rascal House will be on view until February 4, 2015 at Half Gallery, 43 East 78th Street, New York. photographs by Paige Silveria

Learn to Read Art On View @ 80 WSE Gallery

80 WSE Gallery presents Learn to Read Art: A Surviving History of Printed Matter, an exhibition chronicling the thirty-nine year history of iconic artist’s book organization Printed Matter, and subsequently the larger history of artists’ book production from the 1970’s through the present. The exhibition will be on view until February 14, 2015 at 80 WSE Gallery. 

[TOUR] Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles

Located in the quaint and cozy back streets of Echo Park in Los Angeles, the Tom of Finland Foundation is not so much a gay mecca as it is a mecca of sexuality and a celebration of desire. The house – an early craftsman built in 1910 – was purchased by Durk Dehner in the late 70s. After Durk met Touko Laaksonen (aka Tom of Finland), the house became their sanctuary and the attic became Touko’s private studio. The house also became a safe haven for art with homosexual overtones when AIDS was painted as a gay disease. Today, the home is full of Tom of Finland’s distinctive black and white illustrations of buxom men with their muscles glistening and members bulging. Even though Tom of Finland died a little more than twenty years ago, his room is virtually the same – with his boots propped up and a smudge of ash still in the ashtray. We were fortunate to be given a tour of the foundation by its vice-president and curator S.R. Sharp who took us on an extensive journey that started with the entry drawing room and ended in the backyard – dubbed Pleasure Park – where palm trees swayed and Los Angeles sparkled under a crepuscular sky. Text and photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper