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the first annual art book fair…

In art & design on February 4, 2013 at 8:00 am

Photo Feb 04, 12 13 51 AM…brings visual literati to downtown los angeles.

from far and wide the visual arts community came out to the geffen contemporary to check the first annual art book fair as presented by printed matter.  opening night was january 31st and ran through february 3. i have to give them kudos for such a diverse representation of art matter ranging from commercial design to self published kick starter projects, original publication art to diy zines.  plenty of one off pieces of local pressed prints adorned the wall and a gagosian tribute to the late artist mike kelley occupied its own gallery space.

Photo Feb 04, 12 15 04 AM

Photo Feb 04, 12 18 16 AM

from low brow to fine art to art theory (there was even a book on afro american abstraction in art. yes afro, it was the 70′s.) there was something along every cultural line.  what was near and dear to me was the collection of fulton ryder, pulp fiction artist extraordinaire.  i have seen so many of these dime store fantasy smut novels in used bookstores and goodwill bins over the years having laughed at the moronic titles and purchased them as joke gifts for housewarming parties.  it tickles me to see how quaintly cliched the sexual taboos are as compared to today’s conventional attitude towards adult behavior.

Photo Feb 04, 12 21 53 AMat $150k+ a pop, these are the ultimate acquisition of the lowbrow permanent collection.

so now, what did i get?  a book or two to whet my appetite for color, a fashion magazine out of sydney of all places, a vibrant edition of psychedelic tinged graphics and pop imagery and a textile designer’s visual working journal.

Photo Feb 04, 12 26 40 AMhue, kelly wearstler; doingbird magazine (fashion); pop psychedelic, bigbros workshop

Photo Feb 04, 12 28 30 AM

lulu, lulu kwiatkowski; color, alexander girard

as the companion to the new york art book fair which happens every fall, i’m looking forward to this growing into a not to be missed annual event!

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blues for smoke…

In art & design on October 25, 2012 at 8:10 am

...moca’s geffen contemporary, 20 october.

caught the opening of this show last saturday not knowing what to expect and finding myself quite moved by a number of the pieces.  the exhibit asks the question, what is the blues and how does it influence contemporary art, music and our thoughts about our cultural roots and how we define ourselves.

‘charlie parker’

‘portrait of a young musician’, both by beauford delaney

lorna simpson’s ‘remind me who i am’, struck deep for me.

although impossible for me to photograph in it’s entirety, the wall is made up of vintage photo booth snaps of women during what appears to span the 30′s to the late 50′s.  there is so something so haunting about these long forgotten little keepsakes snapped for boyfriends, husbands and other loved ones.  having recently obtained some of my late grandmother’s pictures,  i couldn’t help but look at these wondering who the women were and what had become of them…

what were their hopes and dreams?…
 
what had their lives been like and were they still with us?
 
‘something like a bird double barbara’, barkley l. hendricks
 

loved her!!! something about her is tough but so sensitive and just screams new york in the early 70′s.

detail of ‘la vida’ by martin wong

even if i didn’t grow up on chicago’s south side or in brooklyn, images like this always seem to tap into a nostalgic sense of family and community.

 yo! mr. t wants to come over!
 

‘family pictures and stories’, carrie mae weems. love the look on girlfriend’s face in the middle!

i have to confess to normally shying away from photo essays but this one resonated as they could have been images from own childhood.  begun while ms. weems was student at california institute for the arts, the images are joined by an audio narration and on some images, text.  the overall effect on the installation is journalistic taking you through the emigration of a close knit, middle class family from tennesee to oregon while dispelling the claims of the 1965 moynihan report that depicted black communities as crumbling because of weak family structures.

any of these shots could have been taken from my own past. we had our share of issues too much like some of subjects and my family was, and still is, intact.

randy mcmillian’s ‘from asteriks in dockery’

this was an amazing reproduction of a small church with pews, podium, crucifix and even windows made out of blanket stitched red vinyl.  to be in the middle of this installation was compelling but it was a shame that the artist didn’t push further and design lighting for it.  or rather if he did, i perhaps missed it and would have expected a much moodier atmosphere…

grandma, about 17 years of age.

the exhibit was that and so much more with audio excerpts, music and film.  not everyone will agree with all of the work but it does what it aims to which is furthering the discussion on just what constitutes the blues. ‘blues for smoke’ runs at the geffen contemporary until 3 january 2013.

the geffen contemporary
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

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moca: art in the streets recap (part three)…

In art & design, culture and lifestyle on April 28, 2011 at 6:00 am

…so i’ve saved some of my favorites for last. a difficult task you might think but these struck me for various reasons and definitely finish strong…

part of the exhibit was of course dedicated to the history of street art. i can see why it was elevated to the upper level. it made sense because by the time you’d burned your brains out on everything else, it was the perfect place to catch your breath and contemplate the past. They started with the United Graffiti Artists formation in 1972 and these are some of their faces. they are the faces of so many youth i see walking my community:

you can’t have history without talking about the music and the self proclaimed father of rap malcolm mclaren. i don’t think the sugar hill gang would agree with that but ‘double dutch’ is still the bomb!:

hey ebo, ebo, ebonettes!

there is something about textures that sets me to looking for patterns and my eyes got busy when i saw the wall of spray paint cans, vintage spray paint cans:


i closed in on some of my favorite groupings. i love these and there is something about the seventies vibe on the two far left plasti-kote cans that resonates:

a nod was given to fashion as well with the focus being on one of the partners for the exhibit, levi’s. levi’s featured the vintage trucker jacket and together with moca, and 10 of the featured artists, created a limited collection of ten designs at fifty units each.

stephen sprouse’s speedy for louis vuitton was front and center. i wonder how many females fogged up the glass on that one:

speaking of females, around the corner i found miss van, interestingly though, no fafi:

not to be missed, was this beautifully beaded piece from os gemos! i was so blown away by how gorgeous it was. you can’t tell from the shot but the piece is enormous and takes up an entire wall:

and now we get around to the cars! i remember seeing people drive these around in places like hollywood and venice beach and i’d think about the dedication it took to do this. most of their cars were tricked out haphazardly and only on the outside (the inside was filled with garbage :) ). needless to say, this isn’t one of those:


of course downtown l.a. was well represented by mr. cartoon who took lowrider art and brought it mainstream. any celebrity who’s anybody, has been inked by mr. cartoon and he’s got some of the biggest corporations on his resume:

but the real treat brothers and sisters, was the ice cream man! this was just the ill-est shit i’ve ever seen! i was all over this truck like white on rice and i just couldn’t get enough. the interior was tricked out with a sick audio visual system and all the candy… click the truck for a close up:

and there you have my recap, boys and girls! needless to say there was no way in hell i could cram everything into this blog. there is way more that i didn’t get a chance to cover so obviously the only way to do it real justice is to check it out for yourself. ‘art in the streets‘ will be up until august 18th after which it will do some time in brooklyn. if you live in l.a. or will be visiting some time in the future, do not sleep on this show!

moca @ the geffen contemporary
152 North CENTRAL Avenue, Los Angeles -
(213) 626-6222

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moca: art in the streets recap (part 2)…

In art & design, culture and lifestyle on April 27, 2011 at 6:00 am

…today i’ll be taking you into the street market installation, an urban block recreated through the eyes of artists barry mcgee, todd james and stephen powers. initially conceived in 2000 as a jeffrey deitch project, street market is a collage of seedy convenience stores, liquor marts, storefront churches and hodge podge semi vacant shops representing prime targets for hits. i felt it looked better in all it’s glory in it’s original home as obviously because of space issues, the installation had to be cut down to fit the geffen:


nothing wasted: the shops provided opportunities for mini exhibits within the exhibit as artists showcased their sketches and process

loving the dimensional ‘signage’:

realistic looking taggers:

street market provided me with way too many photos to choose from but if you’d like to see the native setting, you can click here for a link to the archived images from the original deitch installation.

also featured was a memorial tribute to the late proclaimed gothic futurist, rammellzee. like quite a few artists, it was a posthumous display which encompasses an entire room. lit with black light, it was the perfect way to showcase the future-tribe effect of his work. i was blown away by the figures and sculptures featured in his portion of the exhibit and was glad to catch a glimpse of the world through his eyes. you could wind back the clock and see traces of childhood’s transformers. it was difficult to take photos in this environment so you’ll have to excuse the grain in some of the images:

the following isn’t the work of rammellzee, but the artist has definitely been touched by it. this room was a favorite, small, intimate and jam packed with pop iconography and consumer relics. make sure you click on the images as sometimes i’ve linked others beneath:

collage was used extensively throughout the exhibit and what i loved best was the re-purposing of lo-tech items within the works. without a doubt music is to street art like picnic baskets are to yogi bear and i was stoked to see old boom-box’s, a much cherished childhood item, being incorporated and elevated to new status! i carted mine with me all summer:

there were a few instruments placed in front of the work to encourage viewer participation but no one wanted to join in for an impromptu jazz session:

whew! so i’m going to end it here for now and yes, there will be a third and, i’m determined, final installment. be sure to come back because the final post will feature cars, fashion and vintage paint. peace and blessings….

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moca: art in the streets recap (part one)…

In art & design, culture and lifestyle on April 26, 2011 at 6:00 am

…last week April 17th ‘art in the streets’ opened at moca and predictably, there was scarce room for seeing the works let alone taking photos. last saturday was more than successful and i have to admit, writing a single post about this exhibition with so much to cover has proven to be an impossibility. so i’m breaking the recap down into multiple posts so as to provide you with as much coverage as possible.

this is the first major museum gathering representing a cross section of global street art dating from it’s early inception in the 70′s to the unarguable force that it is today. categorizing and curating the exhibit would have been a formidable undertaking but was done by grouping the work into sections dedicated to history, regions, cultures and evolution. no medium is left unexplored from photography, paintings, sculptures, installations and digital media.

in the spirit of street art, the exhibit isn’t limited to the confines of the gallery but also appeared as it should, on the the facade itself and an additional touch was the live painting of a metro bus in front:

french artist, invader who has since been detained and released by the lapd, in a sly act of subversion, included himself in the exhibit with one of his iconic tiled aliens subtly placed over loading dock doors and another piece hidden in plain view within the exhibit not to mention hits at various other locations around downtown. i’ve linked the invaders map for all of you angelenos who would want to collect them all:

well, the outside gets the juices flowing but once inside, it was like a three ring circus for the senses! it was hard to know where to look and that was not for the lack of good curating but because of the sheer volume! the length in front of the doors was lined with an interactive piece on which were mounted hinged wood panels. flip the panels to view the skeletons beneath the flesh, kind of like macabre wooden picture blocks. it’s drawing for the sheer love of it and beautifully done:

featured front and center was a car hand painted by keith haring. i can remember watching him paint his mural at the art center college of design in 1989. an inspiring figure in the world of street art and one of the first to make it into the museums, a revitalizing of haring’s work was long overdue:

what was surprising was the level of intricacy and the thoughtfulness in which multiple mediums were employed. i deeply love how glitter was utilized in this piece:

a great example of an intricate piece, the artist has definitely taken his influences from mandalas elevating this work to a place of spiritual meditation:

this installation has the feeling of alien hieroglyphs and the stark contrasting colors remind me of blue and white porcelain ware or jewish mezuzahs found in doorways:

almost in defiance of the chromatic minimalism of the above piece, around the corner your eyes are treated to the blazing neon colors of these screen printed posters.

of course, you can’t have street art without shepard fairey as he can definitely be crowned as the most commercial of street artists. the effect of having everything neatly framed and behind glass was a little disappointing as this would have been a great opportunity for fairey to go large and maximize on the beautiful details of the work. taking it out of it’s usual context of commercialism would force the viewer to contend with the message:

one of my favorite pieces is by european based mode 2. the sheer beauty and enormity of his urban figures exude so much energy and took me back through so many memories of my youth: the house parties, barbecues and hanging with my friends with a forty in hand. yes, me! i can see the influence of ernie barnes iconic painting, sugar shack. it made me sad to think that like those moments, this piece too would be temporary:

of course it should come as no surprise that there were quite a few political pieces since street art has it’s roots in revolt.

a cheeky play on surveillance technology aimed at stamping out street art. the complete decimation of the tree in the name of preserving public spaces and private property is chilling:

i think this is a good note to leave on as there is so much more to come. please check back tomorrow as i throw up another post recapping all there was to see at the moca exhibit. i’ve taken many other photos and details of the works including mode 2, and will post a link to my flickr gallery should anyone care to do a deep dive. peace!

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