Jimmie Durham, At The Center of the World (Installation View), via Art Observed

For nearly fifty years, artist Jimmie Durham has worked at a unique junction of material and focus, exploring the modern world through his haphazard material sensibility.  Compiling works from broken planks of wood, reclaimed oil drums, signs, blown glass and other objects, the artist’s assemblages delve into the modern landscape, repositioning one’s perspective on the landscape of modernity, and the often challenging disconnects between human progress and the day to day world.  Currently presenting a survey of his work at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the artist gives the viewer a moment to catch up to the times, bringing together a range of interests in history and politics that constantly undergird his approach to his work.

Jimmie Durham, Homage to David Hammons (1997), via Art Observed

(more…)

Shahryar Nashat at Made in LA (Installation View), via Art Observed

Currently on view at Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum, the third Made in L.A. Biennial is exploring the broad experiences and voices of the city’s thriving arts community, culling together a body of work running from digital subversions to more concretely conceptual work, each time underscoring ideas of interconnected and related experiences of the Southern Californian experience.  With a subtitle written by poet Aram Saroyan, the show is intent on exploring concepts of expanded work, where the contributions and performances of those on view spill over into the city, and state, more broadly. (more…)

The Hammer Museum has named its list of artists for Made in L.A., which will open in June.  The list of 35 artists participating in the exhibition include Piero Golia, Tony Greene, Wu Tsang, and project space Public Fiction.     (more…)

In conjunction with the late Richard Artschwager’s ongoing retrospective at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the museum has partnered with the Los Angeles Nomadic Division and the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas to install a series of the artist’s blps pieces across the cities of LA and Las Vegas.  The museum is also hosting a contest around the blps installation, entering any viewer who posts an image of one on Twitter or Instagram for a drawing to win an Artschwager prize pack.    (more…)

Museum galas in Los Angeles continue to feature celebrities to bolster fund raising: The Hammer Museum has invited Katy Perry, Steve Martin and MSNBC personality Rachel Maddow to its gala on Oct. 6th. The Hammer fundraiser will honor artists Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman and it will be co-chaired by Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker. Individual seats range from $1,500 to $7,500; last year’s gala raised approximately $1.7 million. Additionally, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art gala takes place on Oct. 27th, honoring filmaker Stanley Kubrick and artist Ed Ruscha, with Steven Spielberg presenting and music by Florence and the Machine. The Museum of Contemporary Art has postponed its gala until the spring. (more…)

‪‬Los Angeles philanthropists Jarl and Pamela Mohn fund $100,000 Mohn Prize through The Hammer Museum and its “Made in LA 2012” biennial, the fund committed to at least five biennials [AO Newslink]

(more…)