LACMA boss Michael Govan is on the far right wing here, flanking some of the artists in PHANTOM SIGHTINGS at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Artist Carlee Fernandez and curator Rita Gonzalez attending an early-April preview of PHANTOM SIGHTINGS at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibit runs thru September 1.

Artists Harry Gamboa and Sandra De La Loza attending an early-April preview of PHANTOM SIGHTINGS at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibit runs thru September 1.

Artist Eugenia Butler died over the weekend from what I was told was a stroke.

Eugenia was a neighbor of mine at the Brewery Art Colony for many years. She was supportive of my projects over the years (especially early on, when it meant the world) and once gave me a ride to the airport (a big deal in L.A.).

She had a reputation as a high-maintenance personality and there are a lot of great stories about that side of her, but she had a compassionate side too - and I think it was borne out of her experiencing the 1960s cultural shifts while she was developmentally able to comprehend what was going on as she was going along with it (a perk of being an early baby boomer, but manifest expressly in her personality and the hopeful, probing side of her art).

Her art was quite heady at times, and ever the Aquarius, she loved grouping people together for projects like The Kitchen Table and The Book of Lies. I most liked her small paintings illustrating sound that appeared to be minimal contrasts of stark color and simple line drawings that were elegant and involved. She was prolific - especially for a conceptual artist - and never afraid to try new things. I included her in a survey of artists from the Brewery that I curated in 2001 for Shasta College in Redding up in Northern California.

The last time I spoke to her was right after Allan Kaprow had died, we had a long discussion, and over this past weekend I went to the Allan Kaprow retrospective at MOCA and thought of Eugenia, how she was a part of the tradition Kaprow had berthed, how she would not have allowed MOCA to dare put on such a piss poor rambling bullshit tribute to an important artist and then I wondered how she was doing as my thoughts wandered through the show… she was already gone and I didn’t even know it.

Out of respect I just can’t find it in me to relay here one of many stories of how OUT THERE she was in her fearless confrontation with anyone on any subject at any time, but she was a legend among the personalities of the art world.

I found someone’s YOUTUBE video of her… the best part is her laugh…

–Mat Gleason

Artist Tim Forcum has been exhibiting in Southern California for over a decade. He manages the great trick of making raw painting composed with an elegant precision. He is a brilliant colorist and a lyrical linesman, drafting strokes of orchestrated infinities with purpose. His show at D.E.N. Contemporary is a must-see if you have any inclination to see abstract painting leap the chasm of where it has all been to where it should be going. The show runs thru April 12.

Artist Edward Walton Wilcox and one of his large new paintings on display at Ambrogi Castanier Gallery. His solo show opened in early March and is filled with apocalyptic paintings of the demise of Los Angeles, physically and spiritually. The exhibition is entitled Are You Going With Me? and it runs thru March 29. It combines masterful realistic painting with a creepy sense that we are living in the end times. I hope Edward is wrong about the philosophy and right about great art appearing in galleries.

A throng of people Wednesday night at Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills during a performance by female bodybuilders who were the subject of artist Martin Schoeller’s photographs on display at the gallery.

Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills presented a spectacle to open a quartet of solo shows. The main gallery’s feature, photographer Martin Schoeller’s portraits of female bodybuilders, was transformed from the merely pictorial to the performance as some of the women Schoeller has shot were modeling on a stage in the center of the gallery for a crowd that included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck and a flow of 500 art world denizens at any given time. On a Wednesday!

In addition to the photos, sculptor Robert Graham has new work, 3-D and 2-D, on display and it was the living master himself whose work was most complemented by the flexing glamazons. Graham’s delicate figure paintings are the sort that would die with one mistake of the loosest paintbrush in town – and yet, they are more precise capturings of the human form with all its potential energy to be released. Exquisite rendering is almost never this perfectly expressionistic.

There are also small displays by sculptor Judy Fox and 2-D cut-up Justin Pearce on display. Ace Gallery Beverly Hills is at 9430 Wilshire Boulevard.

Artist Martin Schoeller’s poses next to one of his large-scale photographs on display at Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Legendary art dealer Doug Chrismas at his Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills during a performance by female bodybuilders who were the subject of artist Martin Schoeller’s photographs on display at the gallery.

The performance by female bodybuilders who were the subject of artist Martin Schoeller’s photographs on display at the gallery.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was among the throng at Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills during a performance by female bodybuilders who were the subject of artist Martin Schoeller’s photographs on display at the gallery.

Artist Robert Graham at the opening reception of his exhibition at Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills.

The Dutch Artist team Villeroy & Boch pose for COAGULA in their installation La Sindrome di Stendhal - Feb 02, 2008

This was a fantastic show and was funded by the local cultural wing of the Dutch Government - more Southern California galleries are turning to foreign consulates for funding and this creates a more international atmosphere at Los Angeles Galleries. The well-funded shows are usually of high caliber artists and local galleries have expenses like advertising and postcards covered by the cultural commissions and consulates. Galleries have discovered that by offering a show to a European artist, that artist can apply for a grant to help defray the costs of constructing the art for the show, promoting the exhibit and even buying good European beer for the opening. At the dawn of the new recession, expect more local galleries to tap into the European funds available and with the weakening dollar, expect more of these consulates to see hosting shows in L.A. as both hip AND affordable within the structures of official grants.

PLUS - some people still view Europe as being a continent with taste, sophistication and style. I said “some”…

–Mat Gleason