Through the systematic and meticulous processes of weaving or deconstructing a wide variety of unconventional materials—from luscious mohair yarns to synthetic utilitarian textiles, poly cord, and paper— Mimi Jung examines the space in between: weft and warp, process and material, viewer and art-object. Exhibition on view at opening reception and by appointment only. photographs by Lani Trock
Resilience: Philip Guston in 1971 is Guston’s first solo Los Angeles exhibition in over half a century. The exhibition sheds light on a single pivotal year that launched Guston into the final prolific decade of his career, during which he painted what are now celebrated as some of the most important works of art of the 20th Century. On view will be two major series, the Roma paintings and the Nixon drawings, accompanied by a select group of larger works. Created immediately after the overwhelming critical rejection of his new figurative work, exhibited in October 1970 at Marlborough Gallery in New York City for the first time, during a time of social and political turmoil in the United States, these works bear witness to an artist at the height of his powers, exquisitely responsive to his world. Resilience: Philip Guston in 1971 is on view through 5 January 2020 at Hauser & Wirth 901 East 3rd Street Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of Hauser & Wirth
Viken’s paintings describe the human psyche in bold and unflinching terms. On view is a selection of the artist’s small format works from her Diary Notes series. Originally intended as a visual daybook of self-portraits, over time it has evolved into a larger body of paintings that explore the medium's ability to convey interior moods and fantasies. The exhibition also showcases new large-scale paintings by Viken that have never before been shown in the US. Unmasked is on view through October 12 at M+B 612 North Almont Drive Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of M+B
Spaceland and Lethal Amounts announce an evening with Kenneth Anger at The Regent. On the occasion of the Autumnal Equinox, Kenneth Anger and Los Angeles artist Brian Butler will perform at the historic Regent Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. A selection of Anger’s iconic films including Invocation of My Demon Brother, Lucifer Rising, and Scorpio Rising will be presented along with a conversation on the occult forces which drive these two visionary artists. The presentation will climax with the shattering ritualistic spectacle of magick, sound and light; Kenneth Anger & Brian Butler’s Technicolor Skull. Purchase tickets for September 21, 2019 here. Image: Yvonne Marquis in Puce Moment, 1949
Running until November 2, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles presents a remarkable body of Judy Chicago’s work that has been largely unseen for fifty years. On the occasion of this monumental show, Prospect and Judy Chicago created a Book of Postcards, including thirty-six 4 by 6 inch postcards featuring iconic works by the artist, many of which will be on view at the gallery. Additional items, never before seen in Los Angeles, will be available from the Prospect X Judy Chicago collection, including fine bone china plates, silk throw pillows, scarves, sweatshirts, t-shirts, and a new pomegranate goddess soap sculpture. Limited editions range from $18 to $225 and will be available online at prospectny.com
Sonic Mountain (Sonoma) is situated within Donum’s lush eucalyptus grove. Mimicking a wind chime, Doug Aitken’s installation responds to changes in the surrounding environment and creates patterns of sound as wind moves through it. As a living and interactive artwork, Sonic Mountain (Sonoma) explores the fluidity of time by creating a continuously evolving experience that is activated by the surrounding landscape.
On September 7, the installation was activated by multimedia artist Hisham Akira Bharoocha and 20 percussionists at dusk. Audience members tasted wines from the vineyard and sat on benches as they watched the performance from cozy, blanketed benches. Once the sun had fully set, all were invited to stand in close proximity to the installation, and experience the performance in a more intimate, ritualistic setting. Standing there in the sonic radius of two concentric circles of graduated steel rods, surrounded by a dense canopy of eucalyptus trees, a pulse was shared between a few dozen strangers for one late summer night in the Sonoma Valley.
Colony is a solo exhibition by Erin Morrison. For this exhibition, Morrison unveils a new body of painted bas-relief sculptures influenced by historical currency produced in the European settled colonies of the New World. Colony is on view through October 5 at Ochi Projects 3301 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
Thoughts become words, words become images is a group show with Dev Hynes, Gia Coppola, Kelsey Lu, Lily Gavin, Cassi Namoda and Amanda Charchian curated by Anaïs Ngbanzo at HVW8 gallery, Los Angeles. Literature in itself is an art form; carefully chosen words paint visuals upon a page for the theater of the mind. This has often inspired other, more visually oriented artists to create works based upon these mental images. Thoughts become words, words become images is an exhibition which illuminates the interplay between literature and visual art. Thoughts become words, words become images is on view through October 13 at HVW8 661 N. Spaulding Ave, Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of HVW8
Featuring mostly large-scale acrylic paintings, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME elaborates on Todd James’ recent theme of surreal interiors rendered in a lush, saturated palette. These are deeply personal spaces, populated with slightly abstracted objects, which form engaging compositions that draw the viewer into the artist’s world. There’s not place like home is on view through October 27 at Over The Influence 833 E 3rd St, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock and courtesy of Over The Influence
Son of the Soil is Moffat Takadiwa’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Takadiwa reassesses his own Korekore craft culture through the appropriation of garbage from the West, elevating found objects into sculptural forms that engage with issues of cultural identity, language, social practice, and the environment. All of his artworks are composed from the discarded remains of consumer waste, woven together in the language of traditional Zimbabwean textiles. Macrobiotic in his approach to material, his repurposed objects tell stories of each piece’s past lives to viewers brave enough to confront their own ecological and colonial legacies. Son of the Soil is on view through October 19 at Nicodim 571 S Anderson Street Ste 2, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock and courtesy of Nicodim
Just when you think you have the measure of them, these composites of painting and sculpture slip out of mental reach. At first glance Moreland’s latest body of work evokes the geometry of industrial spaces: a saw roof; bi-fold windows; up-and-over garage doors…. But the closer you approach, the more the architectural undertones are disrupted. In the face of brightly painted, leather-hinged, canvas-covered wooden panels, architecture gives way to a story of making. Tacks, tucks, folds: no part of fabrication is disguised. These crafted elements may lurk in the shadows but they are handled in such a way as to become significant features. Like the sixties Minimalism movement that it references, Moreland’s work is without pretension; unlike the Minimalists, it is not devoid of emotion or artistic gesture. There are just discernible brush strokes on the painted surfaces, and his striking use of color points up the geometry of each piece. Deliberation is on view through October 27 at Wilding Cran Gallery 939 South Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
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Good paintings, those with intrigue, appeal and tension, ask us to hold competing and simultaneous understandings in mind, and contend with synchronized yet oppositional forces. At odds with the unexpectedness and complexity of Egan Frantz’s works is an effortlessness, an instinctive ease, vital in producing an image that is at once seemingly familiar and impossible to place. This is a show of new images, adamantly straightforward yet enigmatic, that manifest a proprietary power and charged presence. Paintings is on view through October 5 at Team (gallery, inc.) 83 Grand Street, New York. Photographs courtesy of Team (gallery, inc.)
Affinities is a two-person exhibition of work by Trinidad-based artists Jasmine Thomas-Girvan and Chris Ofili at the gallery’s London location. Featuring sculptural works by Thomas-Girvan alongside paintings by Ofili, Affinities brings to light the rich artistic conversation that exists between these two artists, arising both in response to their shared environment as well as an ongoing dialogue throughout the nearly two decades they have known each other.
Drawing alternately from Caribbean history, myth, ritual, literature, and her own experience, Thomas-Girvan’s poetically inflected works are grounded in the specificity of the Caribbean landscape and the region’s colonial past, but open out onto universal themes—most prominently, transformation and the construction of identity. Her sculptures and installations seamlessly weave together traditional supports, such as wood and bronze, with both found everyday objects and materials sourced from the natural environment, including shells, pieces of coral, palm fronds, and mangrove hairs, culled from a vast collection that she has amassed over time. The resulting assemblages, which cohere into singular visual statements, are at once familiar and fantastical, both venerating and working through a rich and complicated past. As Ofili notes: “Jasmine’s work tells beautiful and mysterious tales that are a combination of fragility and dread with a knowing nod towards alchemy and witchcraft of the past, present, and future.”
On view will be several large- and small-scale canvases by Ofili from a 2019 body of work devoted to the figures of Calypso and Odysseus from Homer’s Odyssey. Inspired in part by the music of Trinidad, where Ofili has lived since 2005, the artist has reimagined Calypso—traditionally represented as a deceptive femme fatale—as a striking mermaid, and he has visualised Odysseus as a beautiful, dark-skinned suitor. In the paintings, Ofili presents the characters with curving bodies, sumptuously spread out across the compositions and displayed in layered surfaces filled with arabesque vines and bubble-like forms. Known for his intricate, kaleidoscopic paintings and works on paper that deftly merge abstraction and figuration, Ofili’s recent works—vibrant, symbolic, and frequently mysterious—evoke the lush landscapes and local traditions of Trinidad. Affinities is on view through September 21 at David Zwirner 24 Grafton Street, London. Photographs courtesy of David Zwirner
Portrait of Britain, is the largest exhibition of contemporary portrait photography ever held, as much a celebration of photography as it is a celebration of the diversity of our country’s people. Now in its fourth year, British Journal of Photography will launch the nationwide exhibition on 2 September across JCDecaux UK’s national channel of digital screens. Following an open call by British Journal of Photography earlier this year, thousands of portraits were submitted, and judges had the task of selecting the 200 shortlisted images from that number. All 200 images will be printed in the Portrait of Britain Book Vol.2, published by Hoxton Mini Press, and released on 5 September.
The 100 winning entries will be showcased across JCDecaux’s network of digital Out-of-Home screens throughout the country, from rail stations and airports, to shopping malls and high streets, throughout the month of September.
GOOD TASTE is a collaborative project, curated by Paige Silveria, presenting an intimate take on the current state of arts and culture in our society. It blends various disciplines of contemporary art into the format of a group exhibition. GOOD TASTE simultaneously exists in the mainstream yet provokes and predicts the mainstream. Artists featured include Philip Ashley, Soft Baroque, Lisa Boalt, Ganna Bogdan, Erik Brunetti, Cali Thornhill DeWitt, DRx, Erik Foss, Taj François, Lukas Gansterer, Joe Garvey, Jan Gatewood, Julian Klincewicz, Alex Knost, Stephen McClintock, Jason Nocito, Hassan Rahim, Shay Semple, B. Thom Stevenson, Nick Stewart, Devin Troy Strother, Peter Sutherland and Stephen Zerbe. GOOD TASTE was on view from August 22-28 at 801 Mateo Street in The Arts District of DTLA.
Installation view courtesy of the gallery.
Installation view courtesy of the gallery.
Ewen Spencer
1st Anti CJA March London Trafalgar Square
Installation view courtesy of the gallery.
Derek Ridgers, Spiral Tribe
Vinca Petersen: Ali & Frisbee, 'No System', 1999
Installation view courtesy of the gallery.
Installation view courtesy of the gallery.
Vinca Petersen: Bus and Rig
Sweet Harmony features multimedia room installations and audio-visual works by some of the rave movements' most prolific and authentic visual commentators. The acid house revolution is charted through typographic accounts, photo stories, live music events, talks and panel discussions by the movements' architects and influencers. By reliving the revolution through the voices and lenses of those who experienced it, the exhibition portrays the new world that emerged from the club scene of the 80s and 90s. Participating artists include Mattko, Ewen Spencer, Dave Swindells, Chelsea Louise Berlin, Seana Gavin, Project Zoltar, Carsten Nicolai, Lost Souls Of Saturn, Jeremy Deller, Minnie Griffith and Max Mcgarvie, Weirdcore, Adrian Fisk, Cleo Campert, Colin Nightingale and Stephen Dobbie, Liam Young, Cyril de Commarque, Aida Bruyère, Anna-Lena Krause, Matthew Wilkinson, Molly Macindoe, Mustafa Hulusi, Immo Klink, Shaun Bloodworth and Toby Mott.
Sweet Harmony is on view through September 14 @ Saatchi Gallery Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, London. all images courtesy of the gallery
Preparing for the Unknown
(Dream Snake)
2019
polymer clay, hemp string, bottle caps
20 feet long, installation dimensions variable
Installation view
The Lemon Juggler
2019
oil on canvas (in artist's frame)
20x16 inches
Exit (Mouse Hole)
2018
installation
dimensions variable
The Sun Hung Low #3
2019
oil on canvas (in artist's frame)
60x48 inches
Installation view
A snake made of bottle caps wraps around itself on the floor. Trees grow, overgrow, burn, and grow again. And some kind of mouse created a hole in our newly-built drywall (this may or may not be related to the snake).
It’s hard to tell if the sun is rising or setting. You might come to a conclusion based on the time of day, the temperature outside, your political views, or something else. Whatever the case, you’re looking at some paintings and not the sun itself. This is probably a good thing.
The Sun Hung Low or A Question Loomed is on view through September 1 @ Everybody 1722 N Western Avenue, Chicago. photographs courtesy of the gallery
‘Charrette’ is a group show of large scale sculptures, where the artists confront materiality, space, collage, light, time, discomfort, and the unknown as a way to bring difference together as one interdependent exhibit of work. The exhibition features works from artists Shagha Ariannia, Daniel T. Gaitor-Lomack, Thomas Linder, Mike Nesbit andJenny Rask. Charrette is on view at 3626 west Jefferson blvd, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
Dreamin’ of a… is a group exhibition conceived by Los Angeles-based art historian and curator Sagi Refael featuring work by Adar Aviam, Mara De Luca, Rafa Esparza, Robert Ginder, Renée Lotenero, John Knuth, Marisa Mandler, David O’Brien, Rotem Reshef, Glen Wilson, Nathan Zeidman and Barak Zemer.
The show is a tribute to the landscape of Los Angeles, as seen and experienced by walking its streets and taking its public transportation. The show closely examines the tensions between the glamorous cinematic and televised images of the “City of Angels” and the grittier realities of life in the city. Dreamin’ of a… takes its title from John Knuth’s piece from 2018, a mylar sewn landscape composed on a cardboard sign the artist bought from a homeless person. The piece expresses LA as microcosm of the American Dream and suggests the outlet of creativity and imagination as a means of socio-economic advancement. The artworks gathered for the show vary widely in media and operate together as a form of “Gesamtkunstwerk”, aiming to synthesize from many perspectives an idea of the identity of Los Angeles. Emphasizing the city’s fragmented and evolving nature, its continuous becoming and collapsing, Dreamin’ of a… examines the act of dreaming in LA and its linkage to branding and image-making, contemplating drives to self-measure and climb socially against the broader canvas of time, landscape, and community. Dreamin’ of a is on view through August 31 at Charlie James Gallery 969 Chung King Road, Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
