Saw a terrific sculpture show by fellow Otis faculty member Patrick Nickell. Negotiating the spaces between drawing and sculpture, two dimensions and three, and dealing with the viewer's space in interestingly thwarting ways. Pretty colors too! :-)
Molly Zuckerman's small and fearless paintings light up the Tunnel Room at John Connelly Presents. Zuckerman consciously avoids being pinned down by any one style. Each painting explore models in which a painting can be produced, such as the Landscape, Portriat, Abstraction and the minimalist grid. After spending some time with the show, what was at first seemingly quiet and metatative became unrully and restless.
Click on the John Connelly website for more images and info.
Note: The first image was taken from the John Connelly Presents website.
Sarah Braman and Jole Shapiro could not make a better pairing in the second gallery at Andrea Rosen. Both have a keen sense of balance and unbalance that creat a waightless tention in the work, as if perpetually on the verge of collapse. I am a big fan of both artists and could not get anough of the show!
Rita Ackermann pulls out all the stops at Andrea Rosen Gallery. The paintings are tough but considered and hang along side her collages encased in plastic that stand leaning agents the well. The plastic pieces take on a figurative quality as they stand in the room with you.
Peep the gallery website for better images and info.
Angles in Santa Monica had a good group show that opened Saturday. The gallery has some images on their site, here's the link. I filled in the gaps with my photos. Big faves were Kelly MacLane's awesomely weird painting of sumo wrestlers dragging a buffalo, Tim Ebner's latest excursion into abstraction, and one of Llyn Foulkes little masterpieces, does he ever make any other kind? :-)
If you go to an Angles opening you owe it to yourself to walk down the street and have drinks/dinner at The Galley, a kitschy nautically themed restaurant (think portholes, nets, blowfish, Xmas lights) that serves great steaks and cocktails. Someone told me that Beck hangs out there but I've never seen him.
Henry Samelson creates small funky abstract paintings that dance off the wall and longer in your mind long after you leave the show at Sunday L.E.S. I initially I did not like the show, the painitngs are tough and unruly, which is precicly why I have come to really enjoy the show.
With all the buzz of small painting here in New York, this show really turns up the valume!
Trong Nguyen enlists wedding cakes with swards and cakes spinning on an old turn table have serve as devises to titalate and chalange at Fruit and Flower Deli.
For more info check out the artist's and gallery websites.
John Isaacs's show at Museum 52 obscures the familiar with objects from the everyday and not so everyday. In a way, what words are to poetry, objects are to these sculptural works.
Jaffar Khald's paintings beam in the humble space at Thiery Goldberg. Ambitious in scope and scale, Khald packs the paintings full of personal, political and art historical refrences which serve as a basis to creat haunting work.
Active Form at Eleven Rivington feature artists Edgard de Souza, Marcius Galan, Mira Schendel and Camila Sposati. The show is curated by Fernanda Arruda.
All artists in the show are from Brazil and work in a deceptively simple manner. At first glance the works seem formal and reminiscent of minimalism. Upon closer inspection each work take on more human relationships to form and texture.
As expected, the opening night of the fall art season here was totally nuts. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people cruising La Cienega and Washington Blvds. I decided to stay in Culver City rather than try to hit all the other hot spots like 6150, Chinatown, Bergamot, etc. Traffic in LA is just too unforgiving to try to attempt an epic but ultimately futile and frustrating trek from the Westside to the Eastside on opening night.
Highlights included Tanya Batura's sculpture show at Western Project, Roberts & Tilton's awesome new humungous and beautiful space holding their grand opening next to Susanne Vielmetter, and Alex Lee's deranged mushroom cloud sculpture at Kinkead Contemporary. Images of all of these accompany this post.
Most of these pix are of people and not art because it was so crowded you couldn't see a goddamned thing! I did manage to get some shots of Tanya with her powerful charcoal grey ceramic head sculptures as well as Alex Lee's nuclear nightmare.
If you're from LA you probably recognize a lot of these folks, if not I got a good shot of Ace Gallery's rockstar painter John Millei sporting a George Clooney like beard talking to installation goddess Megan Geckler.
KCLOG founder Kris had one of his paintings up behind Cliff's desk at Western Project, diggit Kris!
The Colts got clobbered by the Bears tonight so I'm licking my wounds and preparing to teach my Otis kids tomorrow.
Fall is here and it's kicking off to a great start. Nathan Skiles sculptures are a breath of fresh air. Skiles uses humble material such as cardboard, felt and foam sheets to create highly crafted realist sculptures in a not so realist way. The sculptures have the look of asslemblage sculpture, but Skiles takes it a step further by actually creating the oblects to be combined.
Greene Contemorary is a brand new gallery located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and this is the premeir show! Check it out and welcome this new addetion to the growing art scene that is in the LES.
For more images and info check out the gallery website.
New York City, NY.
Sarah Braman and Jole Shapiro could not make a better pairing in the second gallery at Andrea Rosen. Both have a keen sense of balance and unbalance that creat a waightless tention in the work, as if perpetually on the verge of collapse.
New York City. NY
Henry Samelson creates small funky abstract paintings that dance off the wall and longer in your mind long after you leave the show at Sunday L.E.S. I initially I did not like the show, the painitngs are tough and unruly, which is precicly why I have come to really enjoy the show.
Maris Loser brings down the house at Luxe. The wall of photos are unforgettable.
John Isaacs's show at Museum 52 obscures the familiar with objects from the everyday and not so everyday. In a way, what words are to poetry, objects are to these sculptural works.
New York, NY
New York, NY.
