California Art Museum Calendar: Andy Warhol at SFMOMA through September 2, 2019

Andy Warhol From A to B And Back Again at SFMOMA

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) had a strong connection to California: it was in Los Angeles at La Cienega Boulevard’s Ferus Gallery that Warhol had his first solo show in 1962, the 32 painting series, Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Warhol’s art has returned to California, the major retrospective Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again(organized by New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art) now occupies the fourth floor and several other galleries at the expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).  The exhibition spans Warhol’s lifetime of art making from his humble early roots as an ad illustrator to his now classic pop art phase to repetitive silkscreen portraits of celebrities to his large-scale oil paintings, made close to his untimely death.

Exhibition entrance at SFMOMA

While Warhol’s pop art Brillo boxes and Campbell soup cans may seem ubiquitous and his silk screen style often copied, the exhibition goes beyond his iconic images. Abstractions, skulls, his rarely seen body parts series and a1972 painted wall-sized portrait of Chairman Mao are special revelations. Warhol cannot be understood without his studio, know as the Factory. A short film chronicles Warhol at work with one assistant silk screening Silver Marlon, a portrait of Marlon Brando (taken from The Wild One film publicity still); in later years, he worked with dozens of assistants and few of the pieces presented are signed.

Exit through the Andy Warhol themed gift shop

 Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again will be at SFMOMA through Sept. 2, 2019. 

Architectones at Neutra's VDL Research House

Architectones by Xavier Veilhan

VDL Research House

Excerpted from the Los Feliz Ledger:

French artist Xavier Veilhan’s site-specific sculptures are now on view at Neutra’s VDL Research House on Silver Lake Boulevard through Sunday Sept. 16th. Veilhan's intention was to trace Neutra’s life and times via abstract and figural sculptures. During the exhibition, water has been returned to the house for the first time in ages as both the front reflecting pool and rooftop pool have been refilled.

Richard Neutra profile on Silver Lake Blvd.

Veilhan’s detailed notes on his monochromatic sculptures inspired by the house and Neutra’s professional and personal life are here. Check out the site for an artist's look at the exhibition. The installation's mobiles and sculptures were conceived as a dialogue between art and architecture displayed in “the most important modern architectural private residence in America,” per Veilhan.

Visiting hours: Thursday/Friday 3-8pm and Saturday/Sunday 11am - 4pm.  Admission is $10. Guided tours of the house are only on Saturdays.

VDL Research House
2300 Silver Lake Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039

The Project Room at Pasadena Museum of California Art: Nancy Baker Cahill

Pasadena Museum of California Art

From the March 2012 Los Feliz Ledger:

Nancy Baker Cahill’s artworks address the body and its inherent vulnerability. Fascinomas, her multimedia installation now on view in the Project Room at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA), was inspired, in part, by a look into an electron microscope at specimens kept at the Natural History Museum.

“Medical technology allows you to see things but not necessarily know things,” said Cahill, and that is at the heart of Fascinomas (medical terminology for an unusual case or diagnosis). Using computer animation and sound design, Cahill’s interactive installation flows between six of her paintings, projected through a large opaque scrim.


“I play with scale a little bit, so that your experience as a viewer, you are looking at something referring to something microscopic and yet you are dwarfed by it,” said Cahill. “I really wanted the viewer to be aware of their vulnerability and vulnerability of their own bodies,” she said. To create the paintings, she airbrushed pigment across objects varying from specimens of dried kelp to wire and then removed the debris leaving only telegraphed impressions. The now abstracted images are somewhat unsettling as they transition glacially from one image to the next. Fascinomas is at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 E. Union St., Pasadena, now through May 20th.

Kenny Scharf's Kosmic Krylon Garage at PMCA

Los Angeles: Take a local art break

James Franco at Art Platform LA

This holiday season find time to explore art in your neighborhood, as local support is what keeps the visual and performing arts viable.   

        

Galleries: Although numerous art galleries have closed or moved in Silver Lake, Los Feliz and Echo Park—Thinkspace to Culver City for one—many of those that still dot the neighborhood follow a hybrid model of artspace plus commerce. Give them some love this holiday season and give yourself a visual treat.

Sancho in Echo Park at 1549 W. Sunset Blvd.

Two new storefront galleries opened this year. Weekend (at 4634 Hollywood Blvd.) is an artist run gallery. Look for Jay Erker’s multi-media collages at photographs at This is So Much Better, which opens Dec. 2. Sancho, at 1549 W. Sunset in Echo Park, showcases new artists inside and new bands outside at its small backyard performance space.

Celebrating 25 years, a visit to Wacko's La Luz de Jesus Galley in Los Feliz is a step into the wild and imaginative work of talented illustrators, comic book artists and animators and well-known artists such as Shag and Gary Baseman.  Selected by owner/curator Billy Shire, there’s always a twist to every exhibition.

           

Subliminal Projects in Echo Park had a thrilling year of exhibits from Art, Access & Decay: NY 1975-1985 revisiting the highly original 1980s downtown New York art scene to the current show of painter and collagist Billy Al Bengston’s latest work (through Dec. 11).

Alias Books in Atwater features a single artwork show

Bloom at M&A on Silver Lake Blvd.

 

Materials & Applications (M&A): Since 2002, a Silver Lake Boulevard courtyard has been home to an art lab of inspiring architectural and sculptural installations. Bloom is M&A’s current installation—a 20-foot tall metal flower with solar petals that open and close in response to the sun’s heat. 

Stop by and watch the sculpture bloom.

Museums Link Up for Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles 1945-1980

Charles & Ray Eames @ LACMA

 [Excerpted from November 2011's Los Feliz Ledger]


A grand retrospective of post-war art to the 1980s—that also encompasses architecture, design, street and performance art and more—the Getty Foundation-sponsored Pacific Standard Time is well underway with dozens of exhibitions across town. As mixed media snapshots of an era, the exhibitions reflect differing emotions from sunny post-war optimism to the disaffection of the late 1970s punk rock era.

Take home a souvenir Barbie

At LACMA, California Design, 1930-1965: “Living in a Modern Way,” is a must see for fans and fanciers of mid-century modern design. The casual California way of life, where the gentle climate led to letting the outdoors in, impacted design and material culture.

There are some key contributions from Silver Lake residents such as furniture from both Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler. “Silver Lake was an incubator of ideas,” advises Bobbye Tigerman, the museum’s assistant curator of Decorative Arts and Design.

Interesting Silver Lake-made pieces include a prototype for a  “Camel” desk (so-called because legs could be altered) from the Neutra-designed VDL house and rarely seen Rudolph Schindler furniture, crafted for the un-built Shep house. So many works on display are very familiar, from the first-ever Barbie and Ken dolls to Heath Ceramic tableware to Eames chairs, demonstrating the lasting power of good design.

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA hosts "Under the Big Black Sun" (named after an “X” album) that surveys California art from 1974-1981. Dark is the only way to describe the mood of the show, as the art explored reflects the tumult of the 1970s and the questioning of sexual identity and gender roles colored by disturbing geo-political events. Large screens click through historic snapshots—slideshows of chaos. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination, the fall of Saigon, the Jonestown mass suicides are backdrop to work by Mike Kelly, Ed Ruscha and Robert Arneson’s famed but long-hidden ceramic portrait of San Francisco mayor George Moscone.

Archival pieces are added in for context including President Richard Nixon’s letter of resignation. In a far corner, a video loop from San Francisco’s Target Video showcases seminal punk bands of the era and artist Raymond Pettibon’s flyers for Black Flag form a colorful collage. [Extremely amusing to those who may have lived through that era.]

Tim Burton at LACMA

Tim Burton's site specific animated sculpture for LACMA

Edward Scissorhands costume by Colleen Atwood: magnificent in its details

Balloon Boy by Tim Burton at LACMA

Film fans, this one is for you. Tim Burton at LACMA is a not to be missed exhibition of 700 works (models, drawings, costumes and more) from film director Tim Burton.  Extraordinarily creative, Burton is one of the few directors who has maintained his singular visual style throughout his many films. Among the highlights are: Johnny Depp’s costume for Edward Scissorhands (which showcases the talents of costume designer Colleen Atwood), models from The Nightmare Before Christmas and storyboards for Burton’s upcoming film Frankenweenie. Now through Oct. 31^st. 

Art walking in Culver City

Pagoda by Zhang Huan at Blum & Poe

From the Los Feliz Ledger:

Culver City’s annual art walk (held in June this year) was a revelation. Not only was there a vibrant street scene and eclectic galleries, the art was inspiring. Thinkspace Gallery, which moved from Sunset Junction, is now there too and thriving in what has become L.A.’s contemporary art Mecca. On La Cienega’s Gallery Row you’ll find the city’s most renowned and impressive contemporary art space: Blum & Poe. Chinese artist Zhang Huan’s 49 Days exhibit (now through July 9^th) features monumental gray brick sculptures throughout the museum-sized gallery. His work Pagoda, which recalls a stylized Buddhist stupa, is a massive piece and centers around a taxidermied pig and occasionally emits smoke.

LeBasse Projects is presenting street artist Shark Toof’s first solo show: a series of dense and layered paintings that mix graffiti and animal portraiture. If you can’t make the trek to Culver City, the gallery recently opened an annex on Chun King Road in Chinatown.

LeBasse Projects Chinatown L.A. gallery

MOCA's Art in the Street rules

Banksy

Excerpted from the June Los Feliz Ledger: 

Street art fans: this show is for you.  From graffiti art’s origins to contemporary works by Shepard Fairey and Banksy and dozens of other artists, MOCA’s sprawling Art in the Streets appropriately spills outside the Geffen’s front door and even covers the museum’s wall facing Temple Street. Colorful, vibrant and loud—there are a guitar, drums and a wall of amps that can be played in one gallery—the exhibition is the first to organize these oftentimes outlaw artists’ works into a crowded, somewhat garish and very fun show.





The show is loosely laid out chronologically; there’s some historical information and a photo retrospective of New York’s subway cars covered in graffiti. New York’s Fun Gallery is reconstructed; a Jean-Michel Basquiat hangs in the window. The on-site MOCA store has been imaginatively re-decorated by Subliminal Projects’ Shepard Fairey. Unlike most major exhibitions, this one allows photography. So bring your camera. If you’re not a street art fan, this show may change your mind.

Art in the Streets now through August 8th, 2011 at the Geffen Contemporary.

David Edward Byrd: Creator of iconic pop culture images

Silver Lake artist David Edward Byrd and his iconic Godspell poster art

Excerpt from May 2011 Los Feliz Ledger:

Jimi Hendrix. Woodstock. The Fillmore East. The Who’s Tommy. Do you associate certain images with these rock-n-roll legends?  Illustrator David Edward Byrd is the man behind some of the most iconic album covers and poster art of the late 1960s and 1970s rock era.

A graduate of Carnegie Tech., Byrd got his start serendipitously: his friend worked for promoter Bill Graham who needed some posters made quickly for an upcoming show. And the rest is rock-n-roll history, as Byrd went on to design Jimi Hendrix’s poster art for his headlining show a the Fillmore East in 1968, posters for the Grateful Dead and the Grammy-award wining album cover art for The Who’s Tommy.

For the past 15 years, Byrd has lived in Silver Lake along with partner and mosaic artist Jolino Beserra. Their 1928 bungalow is a colorful pastiche of inlaid mosaics and hand-painted furniture. Stepping inside the house is like walking into a three-dimensional sculpture as mosaics cover many surfaces. “To me it’s important; art is your life, what you touch and see every day,” said Byrd. Also gracing the wall is Byrd’s original line drawing for the classic program cover art for the 1971 Broadway musical Godspell that depicts Jesus with cascading, intertwined locks.“I never felt I had a style, but everyone thinks I do,” said Byrd of his prolific career. “I let the job tell me how to do it.”
His other distinctive art deco-tinged images are found on posters and playbill cover art for original Broadway productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and the poster art for the film Day of the Locust.

Byrd continues illustrating today and his once throwaway rock posters are highly collectible. Beginning June 11th, Glendale’s Brand Art Library Galleries will host a 40-year retrospective of Byrd’s work aptly entitled: The Byrd Show: 40 Years of Art & Design.

Retro Banksy in honor of Oscar week: Banksy's 2006 Downtown L.A. show

Welcome to Banksy's September 2006 downtown L.A. show

 

 

Yes, there was a painted elephant in the room. I was one of thousands who toured British street artist Banksy's warehouse show in September 2006. Follows are some samples from that exhibition in honor of the still anonymous artist who is painting the town this week in Los Angeles, in one of the most chronicled Oscar week publicity stunts of all time. The elusive auteur is nominated for directing the documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop." 

Poster for Banksy's documentary "Exit through the Gift Shop" from Fairfax Ave.

Whoever he is, he's definitely having some fun and has a wicked sense of humor. Banksy's website chronicles his official works. Good luck at the Academy Awards. Bravo!

Love the Banksy shop.

Resnick Pavillion at Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens soon

Resnick Pavilion designed by Renzo Piano

Opening to the public on October 2, 2010, Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) ultra-contemporary $53 million, 45,000 square foot Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion was unveiled to Los Angeles' media today.

An Olmec basalt rock monument

Three exhibitions fill the space. Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico features monumental prehistoric stone sculptures as well as smaller objects from Mexico's earliest civilization.

An Olmec Colossal Head 1200-900 BC

Fashioning Fashion is a rare chance to look into history's closet and has nearly 160 exquisitely made examples of  clothing and accessories from intricately embroidered silk and muslin dresses to tailored waistcoats to a rather sexy c. 1900 leather corset accessorized with fetish boots.

18th Century-style fashionistas

Eye for the Sensual: Selections from the Resnick Collection has more than 100 fine pieces of furniture, sculpture and decorative art (such as a pair of Art Deco lamps made from bronze cobras) that span centuries and reflect the couple's eclectic taste. The building's numerous skylights face north, so the entire space is flooded with natural light. The palm garden and surrounding landscaping is by Robert Irwin who also designed the Getty Center's landscaping. Check out the impressive new space, BCAM and LACMA's vast holdings for free during the inaugural weekend of October 2-3. Ticket info here.

LACMA's new Resnick Pavilion

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-857-6000

John Baldessari at LACMA Los Angeles

Welcome to conceptual artist John Baldessari's retrospective complete with gift shop at LACMA. The entire second floor of BCAM is now Baldessari-land with 150 works created from 1962 to the present (and a site-specific 60' nose and 60' ear hanging from the building's exterior).    John Baldessari: Pure Beauty runs through September 12th. Inaugurated at the Tate Modern in London, the show will move to the MET in NYC after its Los Angeles dates.

Based in Santa Monica and a well-loved fixture of the LA art scene, Baldessari's relationship with the museum has been fruitful, advised LACMA's CEO Michael Govan today. The artist helped design LACMA's logo and also art directed the stunning Rene Magritte exhibition that memorably included Magritte's signature blue sky above.

I've always thought there was much sly humor in his text and photo pieces; his answers to journalists' questions today were peppered with wry observations and funny comments. A self-professed film addict, Baldessari is a fan of film noir and often uses found film stills in his work. He finds that movie imagery (the dying cowboy, for instance), captures stereotypes and cliches that are embedded in a viewer's mind. He seeks to manipulate and tweak them to mean something else.

"I don't think art should be elitist," he advised. To that end, there's a Baldessari iPhone application coming out Friday and a commissioned mixed-media series, entitled "W/Studio 54," on display at Wolfgang Puck's CUT restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire, Four Seasons too.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art 

12-8 M/T/Th • Closed Wednesday • 12-9 F • 11-8 S/S
5905 Wilshire Blvd • Los Angeles California 90036  

323-857-6000

The Vader Project is back in Los Angeles: 100 customized Darth Vader helmets

Hey "Star Wars" movie fans and pop-culture enthusiasts: this show is for you. One of the most popular events during the annual Star Wars' fan convention held in Los Angeles in 2007, the Vader Project returns this month (June 11-20) to its own pop-up gallery at 6812 Melrose Ave. The brainchild of my friends Sarah Jo Marks and Dov Kelemer of DKE toys, the Vader Project is 100 Darth Vader helmets customized by artists such as Gary Baseman (above).

At the pop-up gallery you will be able to not only see the one-of-a-kind creations (and some are rather wacky) but also buy a catalog of the entire collection before it goes to auction in July at Freeman's Philadelphia Auction.

You may not get to see "real" "Star Wars" characters like those at the fan-boy convention, but you never know.

Daily from  Noon- 6 p.m. June 12-20, 2010
The Vader Project
6812 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Ventura, California's Art City and Art Walk

A few shots from my trip to Ventura's Art Walk (next one is October 16/17). Art City Gallery and Stone Supply was one of my favorite studios: completely outdoors, its home to 20 sculptors.  Per my story in the Los Feliz Ledger:  For more than 25 years, the acre site has been home to Art City Gallery & Stone Supply: a vast yard that exhibits fine art stone used in sculpture making.  The real attraction is the 20 open-air studios where artists create sculptures using materials that range from pebbles and shells to massive monoliths of Canadian marble.

One of the stops on Ventura’s bi-annual art walk, Art City Gallery is one of those places that must be experienced to fully appreciate its tactile nature. Here sculptors are actively manipulating and transforming rock, resulting in visual poetry.

Visit soon—the one-of-a-kind studio is open Wednesday through Sunday and during the Fall Ventura ArtWalk scheduled for October 16th and 17th.

Art City
197 Dubbers Street
Ventura, CA 93001
805-648-1690

Farmlab is downtown L.A.'s earthy, artistic think tank

Not a Cornfield was one of Los Angeles’ most creative, ambitious and perhaps largest public art installation.  From mid-2005 to March 2006, a blighted industrial vacant lot just north of Chinatown became 32 verdant acres of living sculpture within view of downtown’s skyscrapers.

Conceived by artist Laren Bon and funded by the Annenberg Foundation, the Not a Cornfield legacy continues to grow at Farmlab, now headquartered across from the northernmost end of the State Historic Park (the former Not a Cornfield site).

Farmlab is an artistic think tank and meeting space that visibly demonstrates a more holistic approach to urban living. Junked cars are planters blooming with native plants; 15’ high barrels collect rainwater; and wildflower seeds that were collected in the State Historic Park are distributed for free.  Each Friday, a free lunch hour public salon—lunch included—offers a range of thoughtful presentations by local artists, curators, historians and activists.

Read my full piece at the Los Feliz Ledger.

Beverly Hills' Gagosian Gallery Addition Brings Out the Stars

For Housingwatch.com: a glittery opening for Andreas Gursky --worth checking out his manipulated digital satellite images of oceans.  New space is impressive--bowtruss roof saved, skylights and a massive sliding door to the street.

Beverly Hills' Gagosian Gallery Addition Brings Out the Stars

ManifestEquality Hollyood shows art with a message

This is one Oscar week event in Hollywood that's not just about the glitz. In a former dingy Big Lots space on Vine St. in Hollywood, ManifestEquality explores the theme of equal rights for all in a pop-up art exhibition that features dozens of contemporary artists. "The gallery has gathered international and local artists in a call to present art that unites art, activism and the message of universal equal rights into a memorable multi-media moment," explains organizers Jennifer Gross, Apple Via and Yosi Sergant in a prepared statement.   

Commune design gets props for remarkably transforming the mundane big box retail space into a of-the-moment gallery partitioned by angled walls perforated by recycled windows that uses every inch of space creatively--even the barbed wire fence outside. There are nighttime performances and DJs Wednesday and Saturday nights. Shepard Fairey DJ'd the opening night preview; look for his work in the show along with other artists such as Robbie Conal, Gary Baseman, Amanda Visell and a memorable building wall-sized justice mural by graffiti artist El Mac outside.

MANIFESTEQUALITY
1341 Vine Street
(between Hollywood & Fountain) 

Los Angeles, CA 90028-8141 

March 3rd - March 7th, 2010
Wed & Thurs - 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Friday - 11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Sat & Sun - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm