The Gallery: Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2011

This year Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC) was in the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport, a favored venue for the fair. ALAC is a relatively small-scale and digestible fair which has a very diverse group of galleries from ACE, Los Angeles to Mother's Tank Farm, Dublin. The fair had an independent spirit which we view as one of ALAC's positive attributes.

1301PE's booth at ALAC 2011

Tracy William's booth exhibited three artists, Matt Mullican, Peter Stickbury, and Anna Craycroft, all of whom use portraiture for different means. Many LA artists' space also held booths at the fair. WOR focused on Marnie Weber and Jennifer Bolande. Night Gallery made a day appearance at the Eight Veil booth. The late night Night Gallery experience could not be replicated but the attempt was notable.

Archive: Venice, CA Part Two

Venice Part Two 1951-Present

Venice's forlorn condition in the 50s made it an attractive home for many of the early beat poets. Poets like Tony Scibella hung around the Gas House and Venice West Cafe.

Feel of rain in the face
moonjuice/
partial to poets
the lady’s tears

-Tony Scibella

Gas House on Ocean Front Walk

Venice West Cafe

In the 60s, the Venice art scene replaced the 50s Beat scene. Artists involved include Ed Moses, Ed Ruscha, and Billy Al Bengston, dubbed 'The Venice Boys.' According to the website 'Virtual Venice,' Andy Warhol was lured to Venice by Dennis Hopper, and had his first US show in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery which though on La Cienega, had its origins in Venice. In early 60s, hung out with Gavin Lambert who wrote 2 books that concerned Venice. In 1978 Warhol had a show "Torsos" at the Ace Gallery. Owner Doug Chrismas said "When we got to the gallery, the entire street was a solid block of people." To help protect Warhol, he had bodyguards from Gold’s Gym. After the opening, they partied at Hal’s on the beach.

Archive: Venice, California Part 1

1301PE has been spending some time at John Baldessari's new studio in Venice in preparation for the upcoming exhibition "Not Prints: Posters 1966-2010". For the exhibition the gallery will be covered wall-to-wall with over forty years of posters designed by the artist. These posters mirror the evolution of Baldessari's work which has become more colorful and dimensional over the years. Spending time in Venice, CA, a sub-city in Los Angeles, it is interesting to think about its history over the past 105 years.

Inside John Baldessari's Studio

Poster for John Baldessari "Not Prints: Posters 1966-2010."

Los Angeles: Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston at LACMA

This past Thursday exhibitions featuring work by Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston opened at LACMA. Although they are two independent exhibitions, the works in them operate similarly. This makes their sharing of BCAM's second floor a fruitful coupling. In a conversation a couple days before the opening Lynne Cooke, curator of the Blinky Palermo exhibition, and artist Mathias Poledna spent much time discussing the lightness of Palermo's work. Mathias noted that Gerhard Richter, a friend of Palermo's, was jealous of Palermo's light touch and skill with color. Lynne expanded on this, stating that although Palermo's work seems effortless he struggled and destroyed many paintings he felt to be beneath his standards. His work embodies the effort of looking effortless. This quality also exists in Eggleston's work. His photographs may appear as though they could be taken by anyone but very few people could take the same modest photograph and have it look as successful and effortless as Eggleston. Eggleston, like Palermo, is also a master of color. He was one of the first photographers to use color photography, earning him the title the 'Father of Color Photography.'

Palermo, To the People of New York City, 1976, 40 individual panels, acrylic on aluminum installed at Dia on 22nd St. NYC, 1987-88.

Los Angeles: Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Film at LACMA

LACMA's film department is currently screening "Cries and Whispers: The Psychological Cinema of Ingmar Bergman." Films being exhibited include "The Silence" (1963) and "The Seventh Seal" (1956), the former about contemporary alienation and the latter about a medieval plague. Although renown as a director of dramas, Bergman's films transverse genres, moving from the austere to the comedic to the libidinous. Not surprisingly, Woody Allen described him as "probably the greatest film artist...since the invention of the motion camera."
Bergman and actress Ingrid Thulin during the production of "The Silence"

Early this year LACMA's Film Department held a retrospective of Andrei Tarkovsky, a Russian filmmaker whose film "My Name is Ivan" (1962) was central to Kirsten Everberg's 2008 exhibition at 1301PE. "My Name is Ivan" is about a 12-year old boy who works as a spy on the eastern front during WWII. Ivan's small stature allows him to cross the Soviet/German border unnoticed, traveling through marsh, barb wire, and the Dnepr River.

Title screen for "My Name is Ivan" (translates as Ivan's Childhood)

The Gallery & Los Angeles: Behind the Scenes - Diana Thater catalogue and National Wushu Training Center II

Now available at RAM Publications and 1301PE is Diana Thater's catalogue Between Science and Magic. The catalogue includes installation images of Diana Thater's "Between Science and Magic" (2010) as well as documentation of the work's production. In addition to an interview between Diana Thater and Pernilla Holmes, there is an essay by Helen Varola following the history of the illustrious trick 'pulling a rabbit out of a hat'. According to Varola's essay, this illusion began with a notorious incident surrounding "the bizarre pregnancy of Mary Toft," a woman who in the early 18th century faked giving birth to rabbits, a deception she even performed for the king of England.

Reversible book jacket for Diana Thater's Between Science and Magic

Installation of "Between Science and Magic" at the Santa Monica Museum of Art

Los Angeles: Blue Room and Love Seat

On Sunday, the last day of exhibition "Musée Los Angeles," Jason Rhoade's Blue Room and Love Seat was inflated. Inside the steel truck, which can be turned into a love seat with a blue tarp pad, is a blue tarp room attached to a leaf blower. The leaf blower turns the room into an asphyxiation chamber, complete with viewing window (a face-sized piece of clear plastic the artist sewed into the blue tarp).

Abroad: Next Door at LACMA

LACMA puts on a one day exhibit of work by Walter de Maria in the new Resnick building which officially opens in Oct.

Abroad: In Los Angeles (A Voyage of Growth and Discovery)

Wednesday was the opening for "A Voyage of Growth and Discovery," a Mike Kelley and Michael Smith sculpture, video, and sound installation that Mike Kelley hosted at his studio in Eagle Rock.



The exhibit traveled to LA from the Sculpture Center in NY.