Est. 1992
Cuong Tuse’s exhibition “Nghịch Dất” (Translation “Against the Land”) at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association featured an expansive collection of painting and sculpture. Tuse was mostly known for paintings that depicted settings hauntingly devoid of figures but serving as portraits of the unseen. The artist continues the play with presence and absence … Read more
Artistic exchanges between visual artists in different countries are a time-honored tradition and may be more necessary than ever in a fractured, polarizing world obsessed with isolating policies. These exchanges reveal that the artistic impulse is universal and that talent is not reserved in one nation or peoples. The Durón Gallery at SPARC (Social and … Read more
It was the first Lisa Yuskavage exhibition in Los Angeles in thirty years, or so the Zwirner press release tells us. Some of us were there though, it was actually 29 years ago at Christopher Grimes Gallery in Santa Monica, but okay, it’s been a while. Almost three decades later the artist is still doing … Read more
Los Angeles, a city where dreams are made, destroyed, or both. That is the subject of a show of work by the preeminent Chicano artist Carlos Almaraz now on view at Marc Selwyn Fine Art. It may be that place—where things happen—is as important as time in the unfolding of history. In this process Carlos … Read more
As I prepare to step down as President of Inglewood Open Studios at the end of this year, I find myself reflecting on this remarkable and difficult journey that began almost two decades ago. Inglewood was finding its rhythm when I arrived, poor yet armed with a shiny new degree from nearby Otis College of … Read more
Leigh Salgado’s solo show PISSED ‘N BLISSED opens Saturday, October 19 with a reception 5-8 PM at LAUNCH LA Gallery, 170 S. LaBrea Ave. in Los Angeles. The show runs thru November 9. I had exclusive access to the art studio of Leigh Salgado because I am her husband and it is our garage. She … Read more
In 1994, legendary Los Angeles art collector Frederick R. Weisman died, leaving the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation under the direction of his wife and former Getty Museum conservator Billie Milam. Today the Foundation’s main Holmby Hills house, annex pavilion, and surrounding gardens are accessible to the public (by appointment only) on guided tours. The foundation also … Read more
Rochelle Botello’s recent work continues her quest to be an uncompromising formalist who takes the stuffiness and rigidity out of the “art for art’s sake” approach. Her superpower is a talent to render whimsy and make it no less serious than any other grand philosophical foray into the meaning of things. Refreshingly free of theoretical … Read more
Over the last decades, value shifted from art to artist. We still travel to see singular works of art: da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Caravaggio’s Medusa, Klimt’s The Kiss, Picasso’s Guernica, The Rothko Chapel, The Lightening Field by Walter De Maria. Yet it is no longer enough for an artwork to be authentic. The audience wants to see beyond the art, to know … Read more
I’ve seen hundreds of museum shows around the world. This exhibit is the worst. Its only standout feature is that it is clearly the worst, that no other show comes to mind to even compete with it.