It’s July in Los Angeles, and as every hokey reality television show portrays, the beach beckons. I pass barefoot teenagers hustling toward the Venice promenade, Boogie boards in tow, and a motley crew of sand-encrusted terriers out for a midday stroll. My hands are already sticky from the brined air as I reach for the door of L.A. Louver—a gallery that has been situated in this[…..]
In the face of economic fluctuations, not to mention the whirlwind of popular taste, how do galleries survive, adapt, evolve, and thrive? On September 15, 2008, contemporary artist Damien Hirst took an unprecedented risk. Bypassing the normal protocol enforced by his partnering galleries and dealers, Hirst took 223 of his own works to auction at Sotheby’s Auction House (London), resulting in a two-day sale marketed[…..]
In the face of economic fluctuations, not to mention the whirlwind of popular taste, how do galleries survive, adapt, evolve, and thrive? The popular perception of the contemporary art gallery is one of inaccessibility and elitism. By and large, the gallery’s reputation is one of isolated sanctity, an entity that sustains itself through a preserved set of conventions and a closed system of values. The[…..]
Since sitting down six minutes ago, my iPhone has buzzed no less than eight times. E-mail. E-mail. Text message. E-mail. Breaking news notification. Follow up text message. Reminder alarm. E-mail. Approve the attached contract to begin production. Bombing suspect hospitalized. What’s the address for tomorrow? Please send details for exhibition. Go to bank. John Doe wants to be your friend! Despite this electronic outburst, I[…..]
For both Walt Disney and Llyn Foulkes, it all started with a mouse. Mickey, to be precise, accompanied both men throughout their respective careers—Disney in a manner of lucrative iconography, and Foulkes in a manner of psychological distress. To most, the cartoon rodent was the paragon of jubilant youth, but through Foulkes’ lens, Mickey was a sanitized, furtive representative of the rats infesting the politics,[…..]
Let’s begin with the facts. This year’s 12th annual installment of Art Basel Miami Beach featured 257 exhibitors (excluding publications, institutions, or bookstores). This means 257 booths spanning the floor of the approximately 500,000 square foot bottom floor of the Miami Beach Convention Center. If you walk all eight north-to-south aisles (one way), you will canvas a little over two miles of carpeted ground. This[…..]
“I didn’t set out to be a 48-year old man painting unicorns,” remarks Cuban-born painter and sculptor, Enrique Martínez Celaya. Featured in six of the sixteen works currently on view at L.A. Louver, the one-horned mythical creature does make an unlikely appearance in Celaya’s work; though it is merely one facet of his calculated exploration of absurdity rooted in reality. The Hunt’s Will is[…..]
