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…)

Will Cotton and Katy Perry at the exhibition opening, via People

Will Cotton‘s new paintings at Michael Kohn Gallery depict beautiful women caught inside dreamlike, manufactured fantasies.  In a show that tethers Cotton’s natural mastery of painting to the undeniable pull of popular culture and mass consumption, Cotton seems to be struggling to walk the line between the empowerment and overpowering his subject matter.  Contextualizing the female icon within a candy-coated dream world, Cotton is no newcomer to traditional subject matter, and his large-scale paintings straddle exaltation and exploitation.

More images and story after the jump…

(more…)