At a talk at the Frieze Art Fair in London in October artists Broomberg and Chanarin and Taryn Simon talked about the relationship between photojournalism and art photography. In the Q&A that followed, someone in the audience asked why there were no strictly-photography galleries at the fair. The question seemed both unanswerable and, to a large extent, irrelevant. Though the talk itself circled an issue[…..]
On view at SFMOMA and traveling to the Guggenheim in 2012, Francesca Woodman is a testament to the faithfulness of an artistic inquiry. In photo after photo Woodman experimented with formal elements, tested endless configurations, and explored feminine identity. Woodman’s self-discipline is evident in the multiple galleries hung with her photographs. Considering her age—she was in her late teens and early twenties when the work was[…..]
Matt Lipps’ newest body of work HORIZON/S, flips the traditional mode of institutional curating on its head. In this series, Lipps appropriates content from a late 1950s arts and culture publication that promises to offer a curated selection of international culture that will add a sense of sophistication to anyone’s taste. From these images, Lipps’ playfully explores what happens to the meaning of certain objects[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley My favorite photograph in MOCA Los Angeles’ newly opened Weegee show is the one of the crime photographer turned expert ogler with Marlene Dietrich’s legs. It’s a riff off another Weegee image, “Self-portrait with Marlene Dietrich,” in which the photographer leans in, smiling in a pandering sort of way at the actress,[…..]
In the 1960s, the Italian artist Lucio Fontana created Concetto Spaziale, a series of paintings that challenged established notions of the pictorial plane by slashing and poking holes in the canvas. Fontana explained, “I make a hole in a canvas in order to leave behind the old pictorial formulae, the painting and the traditional view of art, and I escape, symbolically, but also materially, from[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley When photographer Larry Sultan was growing up, his mother hired a decorator to “cozy up” their new San Fernando Valley home with its marble floors and 12-foot fireplace. The decorator had red hair, tight pants and lipstick that always spread beyond the limits of her lips. She brought in shag carpets, candelabras,[…..]
Standing on a hillside gazing into the Pacific Ocean, one can’t help but to be overwhelmed by the beauty and ruggedness of the landscape. Rolling hills, steep cliffs, and thick forests bring to mind epic stories of western expansion and the conquering spirit of those who have traveled here, a spirit currently under investigation at Eli Ridgway Gallery. Better a Live Ass than a Dead[…..]
