Ed Ruscha, Cold Beer Beautiful Girls (2009), © Ed Ruscha. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by Robert McKeever
On view at Gagosian Gallery’s Paris exhibition space are two exhibitions entitled “Prints and Photographs” and “Books & Co.,” organized by Gagosian director Bob Monk to explore the innovation and legacy of Ed Ruscha across a range of printed media.
Kehinde Wiley, Arms of Hugo von Hohenlanderberg as Bishop of Constance with Angel Supporters (2014)
The Brooklyn Museum is hosting a mid-career retrospective of Kehinde Wiley, the L.A.-born and New York-based artist known for his juxtapositions of contemporary youth through the lens of a classical notion of aesthetic. Wiley’s mostly street-cast models, sporting untouched urban attires, replace the highly familiar figures of classic European paintings that generally exclude people of color. Wiley consequently redeems what is missing from the canon of Western art in his intricately detailed oils on canvas, yet pays homage to Old Masters such as Velásquez or Ingres. Maintaining some distinct elements such as outfits and posture, his models, mostly young males of African descent, do not simply recreate what was already done centuries ago, but also reclaim a collectively missing part of their history. (more…)
Bloomberg Business has published strong praise for the LA outpost of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise this week, calling it “what might be the most interesting gallery in Los Angeles right now.” The article notes the 356 S. Mission Road location’s laid-back atmosphere and welcoming refreshments, alongside its impressive curatorial vision as major components to its success and inviting nature. (more…)
Ed Ruscha is bringing his Cactus Omelette recipe to the Barbican this year, serving up portions of the recipe to festival-goers at London’s installation of Doug Aitken’s Station to Station project. “It’s essentially an artwork, says curator Leila Hasham. “It’s edible cactus art.” (more…)
The art collection of late film executive Samuel Goldwyn will go to auction at Sotheby’s in the next few months, spread across nine sales in New York (including May’s Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale) and estimated at a total value of $25 million to $30 million. “To me, these film pioneers and these artists had the same spirit and energy,” says Sotheby’s Simon Shaw. “The art had to be bold, I suppose, to hold its own in that house.” (more…)
LACMA has published an editorial on its blog this week, calling for renewed efforts in preserving the Nevada region of desert called Basin and Range, where artist Michael Heizer is working to complete his monumental City project. “As the possibility for protecting Basin and Range comes close to a reality, LACMA and other museums around the country are hoping to bring attention to the positive cultural impact protecting this land would have,” the article states. (more…)
This fall MOCA in Los Angeles will play home to the traveling exhibition focusing on the work of Matthew Barney, as well as a screening of the artist’s most recent film River of Fundament, marking the only time the show will take place on U.S. soil. “I thought it should be seen in America,” says MOCA head Philippe Vergne. (more…)
Anish Kapoor, Monochrome (Garnet) (2014), via Art Observed
On view at Regen Projects is an exhibition of recent sculptures by the Bombay-born, London-based artist Anish Kapoor. The series focuses on terrestrial forms made from resin and earth contrasted, with two of the artist’s signature, mirror-surfaced works.
Harmony Korine, Fex Chex (2014), all images Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Currently on view at Gagosian Beverly Hills is a group of new paintings by American film director, producer, screenwriter, author, and artist Harmony Korine. Although he is primarily working within the mediums of film and writing, Korine has recently begun publicly displaying his works, immense, swirling compositions composed in a variety of techniques and palettes.
Adam Lindemann is opening a new gallery in Los Angeles, the aptly titled Venus Over Los Angeles, which will open downtown in April with a show of work by Dan Colen. “I don’t know that I’m going to be the person to find the next great L.A. artists,” Mr. Lindemann tells the New York Times, “but it’s a great place for huge sculpture, huge paintings.” (more…)
Paramount Ranch 2, via Art Observed
Tucked away in the mountain ranges outside of Santa Monica, the Paramount Ranch is a relic of the Golden Age of the Hollywood studio system, a massive film set and town used to shoot Westerns. It’s just this history that makes the landscape a fittingly Californian location to stage an art fair. Now in its sophomore year, Paramount Ranch offers a unique take on the fair experience: galleries and artists are invited to participate, steering away from any formal application process, and the selection of works often leans towards the more imaginative and immediate.
Haciencda at Paramount Ranch 2, via Art Observed (more…)
Preparations are already underway for the second edition of Los Angeles’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition in 2017, which will focus specifically on Latin American art, and which is turning to South and Central American arts institutions for leadership in planning the event. “By nature, the breadth of this topic requires bringing in more people. With PST: LA/LA, we thought we had the unique opportunity to strengthen the connections between research communities in Los Angeles and Latin America,” says Joan Weinstein, deputy director of the Getty Foundation. (more…)
Bill Powers interviews painter Jonas Wood this week on Art News, discussing the artist’s move to L.A. a decade ago, his inspiration, and his marriage to fellow artist Shio Kusaka. “When we first moved to California, we lived on the second floor of a pretty big house in Echo Park,” he says. “It was a disaster. In retrospect, I think we both needed to figure out who we were as artists on our own before we could handle it.” (more…)
With two art fairs this January, Los Angeles is making a play as one a global city for fine art, preparing to open Art LA in two weeks, and Art Los Angeles Contemporary later this month. “In the short span of six years, Art Los Angeles Contemporary has managed to turn an otherwise anti-art-fair town into a place where both emerging and established galleries from around the world can connect with an important West Coast audience,” says art attorney Joshua Roth. (more…)
The LA Times sits down with Broad Museum Curator Joanne Heyeler to discuss the completion of city’s new art museum, set to open in late 2015. “I have to say, living and breathing with these renderings and plans for almost five years now,” Heyeler says, “I am absolutely thrilled to see it finally revealed as a whole exterior.” (more…)
Nine works valued at $10 million, and stolen less than a decade ago have been recovered in Los Angeles, the LA Times reports. The works, stolen from an Encino home in 2008, included Marc Chagall’s Les Paysans, and Diego Rivera’s Mexican Peasant. Federal authorities arrested Raul Espinoza in connection with the theft. (more…)
Artist Maurizio Cattelan is in New York Magazine this week, taking a tour of the Los Angeles art world, including studio visits with Frances Stark, reviews of the Pierre Huyghe LACMA show, and an afternoon spent with actor, comedian and long-time painter Jim Carrey. “His energy is boundless, and he’s clearly having fun testing the boundaries of painting and sculpture,” Cattelan says. (more…)
Artist David Hockney is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal this week, reviewing his recent work, and offering his take on the meaning of being an artist. “Lots of people don’t really look,” he says. “They scan the ground in front of them, but they don’t really look that hard.” (more…)
The inaugural Los Angeles edition of Paris’s FIAC art fair has been pushed back to 2016 in an effort to give galleries more time to prepare for the event. “FIAC has listened to the recommendations of its participants to modify the launch of its Los Angeles endeavor to provide both organizers and galleries sufficient time for optimal preparation,” the organization said in a statement. (more…)
Sam Durant, Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions, Washington D.C. (2005), via LACMA
After its entry to LACMA’s permanent collection in 2013, Sam Durant’s Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions, Washington D.C. is on view for the first time at its permanent home. Durant has always been strongly tied to the historical and social dynamics in America, and the artist’s ongoing work with the flux of history and spatial politics perhaps reached an apex with this installation. (more…)
Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, Still from untitled work in progress (2014), via Regen Projects
Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch have enjoyed one of the more distinctive artistic collaborations in recent history, creating bizarre viewing platforms, caves, stadium seating and other eerily familiar arrangements in the service of immersive film-viewing environments, some of which is currently on view at the duo’s first exhibition at Regen Projects in Los Angeles. Combining a set of Trecartin and Fitch’s bizarrely evocative sculptures with films and installations, the show welcomes a deep investigation into the pair’s practice, both as solo artists and in collaboration. (more…)
Paul Sietsema, Red painting (detail) (2014), all images courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
On view at Matthew Marks is an exhibition of new work from LA-based artist Paul Sietsema. The exhibition includes new paintings and drawings, in addition to Sietsema’s two most recent films, all focusing on varying themes of production, consumption, proliferation of cultural objects and the systems in which these objects circulate.
Sterling Ruby, SP288 (2014), Courtesy Sterling Ruby Studio and Gagosian Gallery.
Declared ‘one of the most interesting artists to emerge in this century’ by Roberta Smith, Sterling Ruby has become one of the major fixtures among West Coast artists after leaving the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2005. The L.A. based artist, who is known for his large scale ceramic or bronze sculptures and ambitious installations challenging the limits of artistic production (his first exhibition with Hauser & Wirth was on view in Chelsea this spring after the artist joined the gallery roster), is presenting VIVIDS, his spray paint works on canvas at Gagosian Hong Kong. This exhibition is another addition to Ruby’s recent series of projects in Asia, which started with an exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo, and will continue with the Gwangju and Taipei biennials, alongside an upcoming exhibition at the Ullens Center in Beijing. (more…)
Upon a further budget review, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has added an additional $54 million to the $84.7 million earmarked for arts organizations in the Californian metropolis. The money will allow for major renovations to a number of LA Arts organizations and institutions. (more…)
