Standard Oblivion

I love living in oblivion. I never quite know what the hell is going on. It can give you the opportunity to see things in a different way. I also love it when I get the occasional call from Paige inviting me to an art related event. This time it was an invitation to view some video art at the Standard. Why? I don't know. I figured maybe I'll find out why eventually, maybe not. It's all good in the Land of Oblivion.

I show up on time as most midwesterners will to a hotel room on the 7th floor. I should've left details to my whereabouts with some friends. What if I were to get jumped and robbed or abducted into a cult? Well, I decide I'm still pretty spry for 42, so I took the chance and walked in. I meet some pretty ladies including the Art Director for the Standard and notice a gigantic black foot in the huge bathroom.



Eventually people start to filter in. We start to taste the strange h'orderves inspired by the videos we were to watch. Macaroni & Cheese Balls a la Marinara my favorite. David Stone starts handing out the Champagne and is heard regaling the young ladies in the room with his tales of meeting Warhol. It's a party! We sit down in front of a TV and start watching. I'm waiting for the pitch to buy the Timeshare but it never comes. No Amway products either. What we did see were some interesting video art pieces chosen to play at the Standard on their StandART channel. Ok, now I get it. Apparently some of this stuff is being projected somewhere in the building as well as through the room televisions. Pretty cool idea.



My favorite was Mika Rottenberg's Time + a Half, which deals with women making worthless consumer items in a sweat shop setting. Other notables were Martha Colburn's Triumph of the Wild, a fantastic stop motion animated opus of violence and weirdness. Also, Neistat Brothers' Yogurt VS.Gasoline, was a humorous documentary about a race in NYC in which a yogurt powered man is set against a motorcycle. Also also, Gonzalo LeBrija Asterion, features a businessman with briefcase riding a bucking bronco.



Well, unfortunately the mystery was solved but I did get a few free beers out of it. Next up, who will win the art debates? Porn? Yep, porn wins. Might be best to hold my tongue this time around.

StandART Video Series

Permission to Fail in Chinatown

Hey, I saw a good sculpture show at Sam Lee Gallery on Hill street last Saturday. It was the opening of Macha Suzuki's Permission to Fail. I've known about Macha's work for awhile now as he was renting a work space in the same building I still rent in downtown. I love his work, it's easy on the eyes.

This new show is similar in style to the pieces I had seen previously. Macha continues with the use of the figure, an almost digital use of materials, clean and precise execution and a mostly inner narrative conceptual approach. Hey, I'm being to sound like I know what I'm talking about!



One of his works explores the idea of what if god designed life the same way people design consumer items. There's always a series of simple failed prototypes that don't quite make the mark and get thrown away. So, Macha's prototype for a sheep features an extruded octagon with cottonball fur and no head, an early iteration to be sure. On top of the sheep is a figure adapted from a childhood memory of himself and his friends incompetently trying to imitate cartoon characters . Hope I got that right.



Another large standing piece explores the idea of the birth of generosity. The intent is present but the actual form of the giving is undefined represented by a wireframe polygon waiting to be skinned with the gift once it is realized. Anyway, this is good stuff. I hope you catch the show down at Sam Lee before May 15th when the show closes.



Sam Lee Gallery
990 N. Hill Street #190
Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.samleegallery.com

Totems in the Forest

It was an Ace Gallery kinda Saturday. First day of spring, perfect LA weather. About time! I went first to the Eastern campus. This is such a beautiful and large space in The Wilshire Tower, an old Art Deco building on Miracle Mile built in 1928.

The current exhibition was a series of mostly gigantic paintings by John Millei from his Maritime series. There must've been more than a dozen rooms of various sizes all full of huge paintings, some of the rooms with great views of Wilshire Blvd. I kept thinking what a shame it was that the space was barely utilized. It's just begging for various functions including Avant-Garde art performances, yoga classes, lectures, parties, book signings.



Then it was off to the Western campus in Beverly Hills. Amazingly, there were even more paintings by Millei from a different series of gigantic Picasso studies. Some of the Maritime series were pretty but, I'm not sure they warrant 10,000 square feet. The only excuse would be if the artist were actually a 50 foot tall giant and even then it's a little excessive.

But, what I was really there to see was Herb Alpert's Black Totems and luckily I came on the perfect day. Later in the evening a Chamber Music recital would be performed in the large room where the totems were set up. So the floor space was filled with chairs and a stage. There was also large sound baffling foam on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. It created an environment reminiscent of a rain forest. Ok, maybe that's a stretch but I loved how the primal black trunks were seeming to grow out of the underbrush of chairs and up into the floral-like baffling. I kept expecting to hear water droplets or some exotic bird calls as I explored. The sunlight through the skylight was reflecting off of the metal chairs and the white walls infusing the room with a soft, full light. It was dim in places but no dark shadows.



This is not how the sculptures were supposed to be viewed of course but I was fascinated by this temporary accidental installation. I would've loved to see these powerful sculptures anyway but the added environment made me feel like I was seeing something special. I love the large abstract work, it sometimes almost approaching representational forms, like people's bodies or animal shapes. They do seem to be alive and growing or shifting. Very mysterious. Show is still up through May 25. It's free, be sure to see the totems before they disappear in the mist.



ACE GALLERY
5514 Wilshire Blvd. (Mid-Wilshire)
9430 Wilshire Blvd. (Beverly Hills)
http://www.acegallery.net

One Trick Dragon?

There were a couple performance events last Saturday I wanted to attend. I have been experimenting a bit with performance lately so I was interested in seeing what others had put together. Unfortunately there were two events at the exact same time on the same night. One was "Live Sprawl" by Lucky Dragons at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary, the other was "Gutted" at LACE featuring a couple dozen performance artists. Having recently seen a few of their videos I went with Lucky Dragons, little did I know I probably could've seen both.

I'm from the midwest and one of our habits is being on time or early for shows, parties, events, etc. I get burned by it every time in LA and Live Sprawl was no exception as I got there a little before 7. MOCA claimed Live Sprawl would "engage partygoers in a collaborative construction of their environment using sound, video, lighting, physical contact, conversation, and other surprise elements." Well at around 9:30 the only conversation I was hearing was "when the hell is the performance going to start?" The same 20 minute long video of various banal strobed imagery was playing all night long on a large screen in the main performance space. And the only "interactive element" was a few people aimlessly tooting on some recorders (those crappy flues they gave you in elementary school music class) that had been given out during the evening (for no clear reason). I had to entertain myself by going back to the scene of the crime in the main gallery and taking another look at their lackluster 30 years show.



Finally at 9:45 some languid boys and girls started to shuffle onto the stage. What ensued was a mostly improvisational, and somewhat rhythmic electronic sound collage. There was some acoustic drums, moaned vocals, electronics, all loaded with delay and effects and a few obligatory laptops. This sort of musical style has a long history. I was in the "cassette culture" back in the 80s & 90s and the label that I ran had a lot of similar sounding music. This was really a basement version of what was going on back in the 60s and 70s when experimental electronic music was first starting out. But, I have to say that what was going on back then was a little more exciting. Geek infused projects like the No Thing Ensemble, Randy Greif, New Carrollton, Thomas Dimuzio, Throbbing Gristle, Merzbow, Harrison & Chapelle, Smersh, all had charm and power. The Lucky Dragons set just seemed like an echo of an echo of an echo.



The one element that was fantastic and totally fascinating was when LD passed out some sort of electronic instrument to the crowd that was hooked into the sound system. This was the true interactive element I had been waiting for all night. There were half a dozen or so small devices that were on the ends of electric cords. When manipulated by the audience a bright, swirling, tonal, wash would rise and fall. It seemed like the intensity would shift and increase when people would touch each other or bring the cords closer together. This was truly compelling. But after a 3 hour wait and little else to keep my attention I left thinking are they a one trick dragon?

Spelunking Nick Cave

Adele, Roger and I took a recent jaunt over to the Fowler at UCLA to see the Nick Cave show. I have been wanting to see this for some time. I'm glad Adele took the initiative to organize the trip. I had already missed a couple performances featuring the costumes (or Soundsuits) so it was mandatory I saw the show.

No photos and no touching. Are they serious? This is the modern age, there are tiny cameras in every pocket. How do museums expect to enforce this rule? Futile. Anyway, I was able to sneak a few shots in.



Nick Cave's elaborate Soundsuits are immaculate and refined. Their height is impressive and seems natural at about 8 feet. Steel welded armatures hold various assortments of consumer items like old toy tops or in a couple cases porcelain figurines. The suits display complicated designs done with sewed sequins, crochet, fun fur, buttons, lots and lots of buttons. They had a folk art feel to them. Fantastic. You gotta see this show.

Next door in an adjacent gallery was an exhibit called Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives. In it were folk items from all over the world, some contemporary, some ancient. The exhibit included masks and costumes used in various folk and religious ceremonies. The resemblance to some of the Nick Cave items was remarkable. There was even a video of a folk ceremony in New Caledonia I think that featured and outfit with long fringe similar to one of Nick's. The movements of the performer (shaman, priest, not sure) in that costume were almost identical to the video of the dancer in the Nick Cave suit. Pretty fascinating. What Nick Cave is doing here seems to be a contemporary version of these folk ceremonies.



Adele, Roger and I got to talking about the inspiration for the dances. We were wondering if the concept came first for the dance or did the costume design the dance itself. I leaned toward the idea that the suit designs the choreography. The materials and the sounds they make demand certain movements. Anyway, judge for yourself. The show is still up through May 30th.

Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth
January 10, 2010 to May 30, 2010

Artillery and Art History

It was an art history kinda night down in Chintown last Saturday. At the Box on Chung King Road was a show featuring works of Robert Mallary, an abstract artist know for his unusual use of materials who was active starting in the 1950s. His work is somewhere in between sculpture and painting, incorporating materials like resin, cardboard, concrete, dirt, wood and canvas. It was the perfect show for a rainy, overcast, LA winter evening. The pieces looking like exhibits excavated from a petrified shanty town. Really bold and beautiful stuff.
http://www.theboxla.com



Later at Artillery and Ammo it was "going off" for the closing party of Friends of Ours, a 3 person show. I've never seen Patrick Hammerlein so intoxicated. Must've been huffin' some of those underpass fumes.



These three artists presented a concise and efficient assortment of illustration, and collage. It was pleasing to the eye in so many ways. Patrick's always excellent manipulated photo collage work fit in well with Bill Donovan's surreal and meticulous pencil drawings, and Maureen Shields' nostalgic collage experiments.



I was finally able to fight may way through the crowd (and the cloud) to congratulate Deryke on his adept curatorial effort. It's well worth the trip to visit A & A. You probably drive over it every day on your way to work.

Artillery & Ammo Gallery
1162 Glendale Blvd.
Echo Park , CA 90026

Lada Adventures

Free admission, free parking space, free glass of wine. Now that's the way I like to roll.

I was lucky enough to get a last minute invitation to attend the Los Angeles Art Show opening Gala at the LA Convention Center last Wednesday. I slogged down there in the rain and parked and must've walked a mile though the cavernous and seemingly deserted convention building. I was beginning to think there had been a mistake. Did I get the wrong address? But, eventually I saw some signs of life, artsy-looking people in the distance.

Once I entered the gallery partition area though I realized I was going to have to throw out any notion I had of doing a review of this event. It was simply sensory overload. A maze of hundreds of galleries displaying their wares. I attempted to document some of my favorites but, things broke down very quickly.

So, I had a glass of wine and started to explore. Find below the highlights.



left - Artist Patrick Quinn standing in front of a Jackson Pollock inspired painting (not his). Don't worry Patrick I Photoshopped your double chin out.
center - The Pyo Gallery had some interesting pieces by Sung Tae Park made with metal screen mesh. Nan Chao had some bizarre concave relief sculptures. Very striking. Interesting technique.
right - A couple of wealthy patrons shelling out some dough for an abstract painting. So sophisticated they were. Vertical lines are making a comeback in 2010.



left - Look! A shark made out of old tires!
center - Hanging out with my friends L. Installácion, Deborah Martin Deborah, and a Glenna Jennings impersonator. How did these scruffs get in? Security!
right - Not photogenic? C'mon Kate, you are my Lucky Star!



left - Bert Green in da house in front of one of Peter Romberg's enigmatic portraits of identityless, handicapped children. Luckily, the Clippers were in better shape as they were taking it to a scrappy Bulls team next door at The Staples Center. "I love to see Derek Rose & Eric Gordon go at each other", Peter excitedly states. I concur! Take it 2 th' hole Kaman!



left - A giant chocolate kiss installation!
center - Look! A Ram made out of old tires!
center - Wow, how much do you think that giant glass lynx weighs? How the hell did they get it here?
right - The most inappropriate shot of the night. Kim and Jill with a furry pillow. Salacious!

http://www.laartshow.com