Elad Lassry’s latest exhibition at David Kordansky commingles two groups of seemingly disparate works: highly wrought wooden sculptures, carved from single slabs of dark walnut, and dated commercial photographs, which have been intervened upon with materials such as acrylic paint, colored wires, and beads. The show attempts to bridge the gap between the two bodies of works by engaging the issue of pictorial representation as[…..]
It is a strange fact that Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Arnold Schoenberg, Thomas Mann, and Bertolt Brecht all resided in Los Angeles, California, in the 1940s. Unsurprisingly, few of them found their wartime haven a particularly sympathetic milieu. Brecht’s stay was especially ill-fated, ending with his interrogation by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and consequent return to Berlin. A decade earlier, the Latvia-born film director[…..]
For the next three years, the estimable Underground Museum, co-founded by husband and wife Noah and Karon Davis, will bring artworks from Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MOCA) permanent collection to its unassuming storefront in the largely black and Latino working-class neighborhoods of West Adams and Crenshaw. Reciprocally, MOCA presents Noah Davis’ Imitation of Wealth, which was first exhibited at the Underground Museum, in its new[…..]
This month marks the opening of the first major Australian solo exhibition of Pierre Huyghe’s work at the TarraWarra Museum of Art, so today we revisit this review by Alex Bigman, who assesses the humor and mythology of Huyghe’s retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This article was originally published on January 21, 2015. There is a scene in Pierre Huyghe’s shadowy, dreamlike film The Host and[…..]
Novelist Don DeLillo once quipped, “California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of lifestyle. This alone warrants their doom.” This concept is the curatorial mission behind HA HA! BUSINESS!, currently on view at Luis de Jesus, Los Angeles. HA HA! BUSINESS! reprimands what it sees as a jingoistic and self-centered lifestyle—a world filled with social-media fiends who are willing to cut down the[…..]
In an interview earlier this year, Peter Saul confessed, “I have to admit I’ve been enjoying myself. But through a large part of my life I’ve been desperately trying to think of some good reason for all this, and I haven’t really thought of a good reason. So that’s that.” Saul’s work is the kind that begs critics to ask, “But why?” while simultaneously and[…..]
From our friends at Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, today we bring you a review of Matt Siegle’s solo show at Park View. Author Lindsay Preston Zappas notes, “Maybe this show would’ve been more successful as a book.” This article was originally published on May 26, 2015. The wall pieces presented in Eddie’s Gulch, a new solo show by Matt Siegle at Park View, are very[…..]
