This Summer Session we’re going Back to School, and in addition to providing pedagogical resources and investigating the state of arts education, we are also looking at work that is informed by the idea of “school.” Today we bring you a review from Catherine Wagley’s column L.A. Expanded, wherein Wagley reviews separate gallery exhibitions by Craig Kauffman and Liz Craft. Wagley’s analysis pivots around the[…..]

L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley Artist Craig Kauffman had been living in Europe and was on his way home to L.A. in the early 1960s when he stopped in New York and saw the work of former friend and neighbor, Billy Al Bengston, on view at Martha Jackson Gallery. Bengston, one of L.A. cool motorcycle-savvy surfer artists[…..]

L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley Back when L.A. art was in its adolescence, critic Peter Plagens asked painter John Altoon why being an artist couldn’t just be about making work: I used to say, “John, what about the artist who just goes into his studio, paints paintings and tries to make them the best that he can?[…..]

L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley Craig Kauffman has a shoe fetish. He’s had it since he was a child. “My mom wore high heels,” Kauffman explained in a 2008 interview, the same interview in which he talked about the affect campy lingerie ads from Frederick’s of Hollywood had on his adolescent mind. (“Blow up bras, stuffed padded[…..]