On May 25, 2018 PAM hosted the debut performance of Untangling Manhood, Maceo Paisley investigates gender through embodied inquiry, juxtaposing identity and social constructs. Using movement, language, and audience interaction, Paisley guides us through a narrative that goes beyond making art, inviting audiences to confront themselves in the process. photographs by Lani Trock
In a quest to challenge our perceptions of materiality, objectivity, gender identity and medium, Alex Rojas has curated a group show that pushes the individual boundaries of self. Featured artists include Nasim Hantehzadeh, Carolyn Janssen, Larissa Lockshin, Erica Mahinay, Sophia Narrett, and Sarah Ann Weber. These works highlight the perennial and intimate connection with chaos inherent in human existence. Speaking to a desire for reason, these works provide intimate outlets for exploration and clarity through identity and physicality. The exhibition is on through July 1, 2018 at OOF Books 912A Cypress Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90065. photographs by Lani Trock
Charles Ray has divided the larger gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, into three rooms and installed a single sculpture in each one. Reclining Woman(2018), in the center of the main room, is machined from solid stainless steel. Presented in a relaxed pose on a rectangular steel base almost at eye level, the figure is slightly larger than life-size. The subject’s body has not been idealized, and every detail, from the toes on her feet to the mole on her cheek, is carved with a directness matched by her frank facial expression. Charles Ray: three rooms and the repair annex is on view through June 16 at Matthew Marks Gallery 522 W 22 Street and 526 W 22 Street New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer
Pace Gallery presents the first exhibition of Jean Dubuffet’s Théâtres de mémoire series in New York since 1979. The exhibition is curated by Arne Glimcher, the founder of Pace Gallery. “These gigantic collages are composed of overlapping papers, layer upon layer, where Dubuffet has tested their placement by moving the elements, adding, rearranging, and deleting images until an eventual perfect coalescence of the interlocking parts satisfied the artist,” says Glimcher. The Théâtres de mémoire is one of Dubuffet’s most important series of works, and contains some of the largest paintings he ever made. Each work is made up of smaller paintings, which the artist cut out and glued to the canvas. The paintings depict abstractions, landscapes, scribbles and figures from Dubuffet’s mind. For Dubuffet, each of the Théâtres de mémoire is a collection of actual places and scenes that crowd and conflict in our memory. The exhibition is on view through June 29th at Pace Gallery 510 West 25th Street New York. Photographs by Adam Lehrer
This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich and Many Other Artists surveys an array of world-renowned artists and one indispensable assistant—the Los Angeles-based artist, sign painter, and fabricator Norm Laich. The exhibition will consist of paintings and graphic installations fabricated by Laich over the past three decades. Laich has been a key contributor to the production of many iconic works by a range of artists including Ed Ruscha, Paul McCarthy, Barbara Kruger, Allen Ruppersberg, and Jenny Holzer, among many others. The exhibition is on view through September 2 at Institute of Contemporary Art 717 East 7th Street Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
This show features large-scale paintings from Carroll Dunham's Wrestlers series, which demonstrate Dunham’s continued exploration of and fascination with interpretations of the nude body with particular attention to the male form. Made over the last year, these paintings reflect a clear new direction for the artist through the lens of the distinctive approach to painting that Dunham has employed and tinkered with throughout his career. Using the visual language of mythological depictions of wrestling, mined from art historical sources and his own memory, these paintings propose new through lines in Dunham’s practice that are both formal and autobiographical in nature. The exhibition is on view through June 16 at Gladstone Gallery 24th Street New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer
Over the Influence Los Angeles is proud to present this unprecedented homage to Los Angeles gallerist Hollis Benton. In 1980 the Hollis Benton Gallery opened its doors on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Architect Michael Graves gave the architectural concept pro bono. Decked out in chrome, marble surfaces, and harsh accent walls; it was a loud bullhorn for the day’s visual culture. In its nearly ten-year run the gallery broke all the rules for selling out and became an aspirational pioneer in the process. Hollis Benton was a brash British collector with family connections to Hollywood. He bought Memphis furniture, Patrick Nagel paintings, and Robert Graham sculptures. His scene was never part of the mainstream art world of Los Angeles and for him that made him a maverick. In 1979, thanks to Benton’s long friendship with Hugh Hefner, the artists Patrick Nagel and LeRoy Neiman both began collaborations with Playboy magazine. It would rocket their fame making them voices of a generation. For nearly a decade both artists would paint multiple exclusive images for every issue of Playboy. Neiman became the Playboy Mansion’s artist-in-residence. Click here to read more. An Homage To Hollis Benton will be on view until June 24, 2017 at Over The Influence gallery in Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper
Ellen von Unwerth, Again?, 1997
To celebrate the first eight years of exhibitions in their iconic Stockholm venue and their 2019 openings, Fotografiska just released this gorgeous photography book, called The Eye.
Albert Watson, Waris, Ouarzazate, Morocco, 1993
The Eye, featuring 256 images from 83 of the best photographers in the world, is a vibrant photo book that interprets the evolution of the field. It highlights a unique selection of exhibited photography, ranging from icons to bold and exciting new talents, and includes work of masters such as Bryan Adams, Roger Ballen, Guy Bourdin, Nick Brandt, Edward Burtynsky, Anton Corbijn, Elliott Erwitt, Esther Haase, Pieter Hugo, David LaChapelle, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sarah Moon, Jimmy Nelson, Helmut Newton, Martin Parr, Andres Petersen, Bettina Rheims, Herb Ritts, Paolo Roversi, Sebastião Salgado, Martin Schoeller, Vee Speers, Christian Tagliavini, and Albert Watson.
Emma Svensson, Diva, 2016
The Eye is available for pre-order here.
Inez & Vinoodh, Joan via Inez, Theatergroep, Mugmetdegoudentand, 2015
Margaret Wise Brown’s iconic children’s book, Goodnight Moon, was published at a time when research on child’s psychology was germinating. The story was instrumental because it strayed from the fairytales and legends typically reserved for children and focused instead on what was directly familiar to them, i.e. what items lay about in their room. Familiarity manifests itself in Greg Ito’s penchant for giant neon-lit candelabras and paintings of mythological imagery juxtaposed with local geography, many of which are bordered by window sills echoing the illustrations from Brown’s book.
In conjunction with Ito’s installation is a dining experience from chef Richard Blais, who’s tailored his dishes to Ito’s works in order to complement and correspond playfully (some plates include “Bird in Hand” and “Unicorn Soup”) rather than mimic abjectly. Hallowed Ground follows a lineage of art and dinner-related installations; Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party and more recently, Monkey Town, come to mind.
Pop-ups have become standard fare as fleeting outlets for creative synthesis; Blais himself could be recognized for his appearance on ‘Top Chef’. But with familiarity also lurks the unrevealed or obscured. “Everything is not what it seems”, muses Blais. The exhibition’s name reinforces the exhibition’s church-like layout, and Ito’s paintings adorn the walls like stained-glass windows. However, while the candelabras induce a divine glow, they also emulate a sordid motel’s vacancy sign or even the hues of a red-light district.
The marriage of Ito’s multidisciplinary installation and Blais’ culinary accompaniment creates a spectacle. Considering the show is also housed in a former Hollywood soundstage, Hallowed Ground alludes to the Entertainment Capital of the World’s capacity to seduce the city’s art world.
Hallowed Ground runs from May 11th - June 3rd, 2018 at ArtCubed LA (1541 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90028).
Liam Casey is a freelance writer, researcher and DJ from Los Angeles. In addition to being a contributor for Berlin Art Link, he also has a background in housing and urban planning, co-developing a think-tank on Los Angeles’ housing crisis. He is also a co-organizer and resident of the queer collective Bubbles.
For the finale concert of Monday Evening Concert's 79th season, artistic director, Jonathan Hepfer offered a pairing of rarely performed works by the American mavericks Meredith Monk and Julius Eastman. Eastman's Femenine was described by the New York Times as "a longing, tender, grandly unruffled 70-minute masterpiece that takes its place at the pinnacle of the Eastman works that have survived," and Monk’s storied career as a vocalist, composer, dancer, choreographer and filmmaker has influenced luminaries from Bruce Nauman to Jean-Luc Godard. The towering pianists Ursula Oppens and Gloria Cheng join us to present selections from Monk's solo and duo piano catalogue. Eastman and Monk, who were colleagues in real life, are reunited in spirit at MEC’s 2018 season finale. photographs by Lani Trock
Over the course of her decades-long career, Marilyn Minter has developed a singular and provocative pictorial language imbued with themes of desire, power, glamour, and beauty. Oftentimes simultaneously seductive and repugnant, her paintings and photographs mine the imagery of Hollywood, fashion, advertising, and pornography while also referencing the history of art. Inspired by feminism and sexual politics, her subversive pictures reframe the conversation about looking and the female figure in visual culture. The exhibition is on view through June 23 at Regen Projects 6750 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper & portrait by Mathilde Huron
Both born in 1989, Mattea Perrotta and Jonathan Ryan. each started out as observational painters and are now working in abstraction. Mattea Perrotta began painting portraits, then pivoted to a simplified, abstract series of shapes that capture and distill the essence of her female subjects into flattened, geometric forms. Jonathan Ryan’s abstractions reference architecture and universal form, he uses repetition and drop shadows to depict impossible structures. The exhibition is on view through June 30 at the Landing 5118 w Jefferson Boulevard Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
The ‘National Peace Service’ is an ongoing series of activated, immersive installations. Each site is connected by intention, but is unique in expression. The project employs methods of social art practice as an intentional inquiry into the artist’s role and responsibility in the active cultivation of a peaceful society. photographs by Lani Trock
Noah Davis’ fourth exhibition curated from MOCA’s permanent collection features four seminal artworks by Olafur Eliasson, Hans Haacke, James Turrell and Fred Eversley that use natural phenomena as sculptural material, along with a poem installation by LA’s Poet Laureate, Robin Coste Lewis. The show is a meditation. Water. Flow. Woman. Moon. Aqueducts. Flint. Light. Climate. “Seeing yourself seeing”. Power. Water & Power is on view at the Underground Museum 3508 W. Washington Boulevard Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
The Eye Sees Not Itself arrives from conflicting encounters with the Eurocentric academy, burgeoning metropolitan cultures and spaces, and indigenous histories as forms and concepts, systems and processes, to approach the metaphysical context of artistic practice and production. The exhibition includes works from artists Umar Rashid, Moffat Takadiwa, Charles Dickson, Lavar Munroe, Simphiwe Ndzube and Buhlebezwe Siwani. The Eye Sees Not Itself is on view through June 16 at Nicodim Gallery 571 S Anderson Street Ste 2 Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
Sweat comes from work. All to often the people sweating, the people working. Are forgotten. This show celebrates members of communities of labor, their contributions, their agency. The exhibition features works from artists Oscar Ochoa, Robben Muñoz, Rosalee Bernabe and Ben Miover. Sweat was on view May 5th at Nous Tous Gallery 454b Jung Jing Rd Chinatown Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
The book’s title 36 refers first, to the number of frames Weaver captured of each subject, and secondly, to the number of subjects he captured. Each shoot would only be 3 minutes long, each photograph taken every 5 seconds. I would photograph while I stood in one place and ticked off the time audibly, with the subject free to move in and out of frame as they desired. The book includes portraits of Ariana Papademetropoulos, Devendra Banhart, Andrü Sisson, Father John Misty, Robbie Williamson, Double Diamond Sun Body and more. The book is available for pre-order at www.toddweaver.com. photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
In residency with Coaxial, Maria Maea creates an environmental sound installation that explores coming into consciousness as an artist and her daily practice of getting out of her own way. Altering the mundane as sacred she constructs her personal mythology – out loud. 'When I Came To' is on view since May 5th at Coaxial Arts Foundation 1815 S Main St. Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
Abraham & Sons, Inc. is LA’s leading commercial exhibition by Steve Hash and Stephen Neidich. Hash & Neidich use only top notch materials combined with top notch craftsmanship to ensure a lasting artwork for the client to enjoy for years and years. It is a fact that nothing can take the place of artwork created in a timely manner. The end result always being a great relationship with art history, lasting decades or even centuries to come. Abraham & Sons, Inc. is on view through June 16 at Hilde 4727 W. Washington Blvd Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock
Frieze New York closed its seventh edition on Sunday, May 6, bringing together 197 leading galleries from 30 countries. This year's fair enjoyed record visitor attendance and continued to build on its commitment to discovery - with new programming, curators, and a redesigned layout, bringing a fresh energy to the fair. Frieze returns to Randall's Island in May 2019 247 Centre Street 5th Floor New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer
