Posts tagged ‘Kim Light/Lightbox’
Best Los Angeles Art Shows of 2009
Data + Art: Science and Art in the Age of Information @ Pasadena Museum of California Art An apt show for the Over-Information Age. Curated by Dan Goods and David Delgado, both from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the show included both aesthetically pleasing data visualizations that broadened awareness and understanding such as Jim Bumgardner’s “A Year of Sunsets,” and geeky gadgetry employed for artistic expression. The best mix of data and art was David Bowen’s “Photographic Drawing Device,” which used light-seeking, solar-powered mini-robots to draw charcoal circles on paper.
Gary Lang: Circles Lines Grids Paintings @ Ace Gallery Beverly Hills Standing up close to the surface of Lang’s paintings you could see the slight wiggle in each hand-painted line, and the color juxtapositions seemed a little odd, but when you stepped back these paintings hummed and glowed as if they were actually breathing with life. They were stunning and magical.
Femke Hiemstra: The Herring’s Hairdo @ Copro/Nason Her paintings and drawings had this authentic old-fashioned feeling that you don’t find in most Magic Realism/Pop Surrealism, and they had just the right mix of childhood fairytale/storybook style and eerie/scary subtext. I particularly liked the paintings on book covers and graphite drawings on paper.
Penelope Gottlieb: No $ Down @ Kim Light/Lightbox Monochrome color-pencil drawings of idyllic suburban homes were matched with coordinating, brightly-painted vintage frames and arranged salon-style on the walls along with a fake fireplace and gray wainscoting to boot. The cheerful display of real estate dreams juxtaposed with the phony architectural elements seemed particularly poignant as the mortgage industry was ominously imploding and foreclosures escalated.
Rebecca Campbell: Poltergeist @ LA Louver Campbell expertly took on the subject of memory and nostalgia from a particular, personal perspective without sliding into over-sentimentalization. The highlight of the show was an amazing velvet covered avocado tree populated with Windex-filled glass birds. Its haunting aura was counterbalanced by more quirky aspects in the show like the clock running backwards on the olive-colored wall oven stuffed full with childhood books.
Julie Blackmon: Domestic Vacations @ Fahey/Klein Gallery These wonderfully humorous fictional photos of family life paradoxically balanced relaxation with chaos and escape with everyday stresses. I had fun deciphering what just went on in each image from the visual cues and ended up chuckling at every one.
Kaz Oshiro: False Gestures @ Rosamund Felsen Gallery Oshiro’s painting/sculpture facsimiles were illusion to perfection. The suitcases and shelves alluded to the disparity between simulation and reality, while the metallic blue panels with faithfully replicated duct tape made evident the tenuous line between realism and abstraction.
Lorser Feitelson: Late paintings @ Louis Stern Fine Arts In these paintings, Feitelson’s took his hard-edge, straight-line geometry to another level. The sensuous curves, curls and undulating ribbons were so sexy. It’s hard to believe they were painted in the late-60s, early-70s given their immaculate surfaces and contemporary feel.
William Powhida: No One Here Gets Out Alive @ Charlie James Gallery This dead-on skewering of art world insiderness and the bad-boy-artist mayhem of Powhida’s alter ego was effectively tongue-in-cheek but also achingly honest, openly admitting artists’ gripes and egoism as well as worries and self-doubt. I absolutely loved the way he used the crossed-out word to convey humor.
Zadok Ben-David: Blackfield @ Shoshana Wayne Gallery This installation was totally amazing. As you walked into the gallery you saw a sea of tiny, delicately-cut sheet steel botanical shapes coming up from a perfect rectangle of white sand. They were black, as if charred or dead. But then, as you walked around to the far side of the gallery you began to see that the back of each minute plant was painted with vibrant, bold colors. Once you reached the back of the gallery you were faced with a glorious field of flowers, full of joy and life. Visitors were audibly gasping as they circled around the installation.
Richard Wilson: Rises @ Carl Berg Gallery The perfectly balanced, asymmetrically stacked, rectangular and square canvases had the most absolutely pristine surfaces. Wilson took Donald Judd’s dictum “one surface, one color,” and had some fun with it. The spot-on color combinations in each grouping covered not only the front of each monochrome canvas, but also rectangular areas along the edges, allowing him to toy with the tropes of geometric Hard-edge painting as well.
Irving Penn: Small Trades @ Getty Museum Amazingly, Penn’s subjects were both individual and typical. The attire, trappings and tools of each tradesperson at first seemed obvious and conventional against the plain studio backdrops. But before you could pigeonhole the sitter, their stark surroundings allowed you to notice clothing details like the wrinkled suit of a harmonica player or the crisp apron and toque of a London chef. Facial expressions and postures were also telling. Some seemed like nothing but affectation like the upturned head of a proud undertaker or the contrapposto of a deep-sea diver in full gear. Others revealed humility and honesty like the tired face of a New York groom clad in worn shoes or the slouching shoulders of a milkman with a heavy milk bottle carrier in hand. The simple style and elegance of this series of photographs could easily have seemed antithetical to his chosen topic, but Penn’s talent made this tension work.
Twitter Reviews – March 2009
Mineo Mizuno: Coexistence @ Samuel Freeman (***) Like moss covered ovoids in theory, but in reality fall short. Wish they were greener.
4:27 PM Mar 3rd from web
Mizuno @ Freeman: Misting contraptions distract. Matte-glazed works weak, but love the small, shiny river rock shaped ceramics.
4:32 PM Mar 3rd from web
David Hockney: Drawing in a Printing Machine @ LA Louver (**) Is this what phoning it in for an affordable price point looks like?
1:21 PM Mar 5th from web
Elias Sime: Eye of the Needle Eye of the Heart @ SMMoA (***) Wowed by obsessive craftsmanship of the stitching, but too much of the same.
1:37 PM Mar 5th from web
Julie Blackmon: Domestic Vacations @ Fahey/Klein (*****) Wonderfully humorous fictional photos of family life.
1:03 PM Mar 6th from txt
Jeremy Kidd: Fictional Realities @ Fahey/Klein (****) Dizzying (in a good way) urban photoscapes including LACMA under construction.
1:07 PM Mar 6th from txt
Carlos & Jason Sanchez @ dnj (***) Photos of some pretty depressing topics. Kind of a mood killer.
1:15 PM Mar 6th from txt
Angel Delgado: Continuous Limit @ Couturier (***) Liked the “objects in soap” series and sheep in metal cases. Didn’t care for drawings.
1:30 PM Mar 6th from txt
Angel Delgado @ Couturier: Objects are more metaphorical. Drawings are too literal.
1:31 PM Mar 6th from txt
Jutta Koether: Sovereign Women in Painting @ Susanne Vielmetter (*) Ridiculously awful.
2:09 PM Mar 6th from txt
Arsen Roje: Body Parts @ Peres Projects (***) Jenny Savillesque paintings of fingers, thumbs and hands.
2:22 PM Mar 6th from txt
Dave Muller: iamthewalrus @ Blum & Poe (****) “Beatles Within Beatles” is my favorite piece in the show.
2:32 PM Mar 6th from txt
Melissa Manfull: Tesseracts @ Taylor de Cordoba (****) Gridded towers and arches as organic stalactites and stalagmites.
2:51 PM Mar 6th from txt
Penelope Gottlieb @ Kim Light (*****) Suburban real estate dreams with shopping carts & fake fireplace thrown in to break the reverie.
3:03 PM Mar 6th from txt
Brad Eberhard: As Different as Twins @ Cottage Home (****) Washes, paint layering, colors, all great. “Snake Stack” my fav.
3:53 PM Mar 13th from txt
Katherine Gray @ Acuna-Hansen (***) Forest glass installations remind me of the coin toss at carnivals. Clear bubbles in back room best of show.
4:02 PM Mar 13th from txt
Vorcan: Painting Live Music @ L2kontemporary. (*) High school Day-Glo paintings made worse by 3-D gimmick.
4:11 PM Mar 13th from txt
Rebekah Bogard: Flesh & Bone @ Sam Lee (****) Pink and fecund. Cute but sexy, naughty.
4:21 PM Mar 13th from txt
David Kramer: Guilty Pleasure @ Jancar (***) Drawings with text. I laughed at “Burn This.”
4:46 PM Mar 13th from txt
“Burn This” says: Nice being an artist. Even if you are lucky enough to get famous your neighbor still doesn’t know who the f*ck you are.
4:51 PM Mar 13th from txt
Catya Plate @ Jancar/McCorkle (***) Does amusing things with clothes pins. Liked the colored pencil tarot card drawings best.
4:54 PM Mar 13th from txt
Illegiblusion @ Sabina Lee (***) Most delicate use of line. Grids for Mary Ijichi, and loops & dots for Kimiko Miyoshi.
5:04 PM Mar 13th from txt
Walter Robinson: Transport @ Charlie James (*****) Auto name plates, fun color, metallic sparkle meets Rothko and resin.
5:21 PM Mar 13th from txt
Kit Hinrichs: The Storyteller’s Art @ ACCD (***) Impressive body of graphic design. A bit stuck in the ’80s. Some stuff hung too high.
6:20 PM Mar 13th from txt
Jalopy @ Side Street Projects (***) Baron Margo’s race car and motorcycle look like something from the Rocketeer by way of the Great Race.
6:52 PM Mar 13th from txt
Eye in the Sky: JPL’s Mars Orbiter @ PMCA (***) Second time wearing 3-D glasses today. “Opportunity Rover at Victoria Crater” is amazing.
7:38 PM Mar 13th from txt
Data + Art @ PMCA (****) Best mix of data and art is David Bowen’s “Photographic Drawing Device,” solar-powered mini-robots drawing circles.
7:49 PM Mar 13th from txt
Roger Kuntz @ LAM (***) Though best know for his Freeway and Sign series, I prefer the Crystal Cove series, especially “Sea Porch,” 1960.
7:03 PM Mar 14th from txt
Kuntz created multiple paintings of same subject, starting with realistic rendering & achieving greater abstraction in each subsequent version.
7:10 PM Mar 14th from txt
The Bathroom series was Kuntz’s undoing. Especially when he added red to his favored blue and grey palette.
7:17 PM Mar 14th from txt
Kuntz gets brighter and funner in his subsequent Ocean Interior and Blimp series, bringing in luminous teals and greens.
7:28 PM Mar 14th from txt
I think Kuntz didn’t become as well known, not because the Bathroom series was out of step, but because it wasn’t as compelling.
7:47 PM Mar 14th from txt
Christine Nguyen: Dark Matter of Fact @ Angels Gate (**) Too much sketchbook experimenting. Only photo mural finds some resolutions.
3:10 PM Mar 20th from txt
Kurt Franz: Desublimated Landscapes @ Angels Gate (***) Diebenkorn but in 3-D. Nice to see construction materials used for more than scattertrash.
3:21 PM Mar 20th from txt
Amy Thornberry: Sheaths, Veils, Sediment @ Torrance Art Museum (**) Oh no–scattertrash!
4:26 PM Mar 20th from txt
Marie Thibeault: Broken Symmetries @ Torrance Art Museum (***) Paintings are dynamic, fragmented, chaotic and yes, scattered, but definitely not trashy.
4:30 PM Mar 20th from txt
Kim Abeles: Location Studies @ TAM (****) Who knew homeless sleep where the trees aren’t? Always liked her smog work.
4:34 PM Mar 20th from txt
Iva Gueorguieva @ Angles (***) So-so. Liked large B&W with collage best (The Pageantry of Power: The General).
12:50 PM Mar 27th from txt
Dimitri Kozyrev: Lost Edge @ Mark Moore (****) Love the way he uses masked areas of different paint texture & real/abstract as collage elements.
1:21 PM Mar 27th from txt
Steven Hull @ Rosamund Felsen (***) Felt like I was in a Psychedelic/Surrealist/Modernist haunted house in Disneyland with a bad hangover.
1:32 PM Mar 27th from txt
Nobuhito Nashigawara: Identities @ Mark Moore (***) Yoshimoto Nara meets Nathan Mabry.
1:36 PM Mar 27th from txt
John Miller: The Natural Order @ Patrick Painter (**) Gold-leaf pirate booty assemblages juxtaposed with ’80s decor. Kind of a snore.
1:51 PM Mar 27th from txt
Rock Paper Scissor @ Robert Berman (**) Why do rock musicians think they can get away with anything? Scissors should win. (Save 1 Pettibon)
2:07 PM Mar 27th from txt
Michael Beck: The Object as Still Life @ Lora Schlesinger (****) Each a single antique object against a wall. Multiple light sources make for cool shadows.
2:29 PM Mar 27th from txt
Alexandra Hedison: Ithaka @ Frank Pictures (***) Not about trees? Too bad–would have been better without the pseudo-theory text on the walls.
5:58 PM Mar 27th from txt
Donald Sultan: Recent Works on Paper @ Greenfield Sacks (**) Much better in reproduction than in person.
6:03 PM Mar 27th from txt
Amy Ross & Carole Silverstein: The aim of waking is to dream @ Overtones (***) Sugar pills and hallucinogens.
6:09 PM Mar 27th from txt
Give It a Whirl – Saturday, March 14, 2009
Roger Kuntz: The Shadow Between Representation and Abstraction @ Laguna Art Museum
This exhibition, organized by Susan M. Anderson for Laguna Art Museum, includes over ninety paintings, sculptures, and works on paper and features the “Freeway Series” as well as a selection from the artist’s interiors, beach, bathtub, blimp, and tennis series. This is the first major show of the artist’s work since his death, and will focus on Kuntz’s search for what he called the “middle ground” between figurative and non-figurative painting. Kuntz lived in Laguna Beach from 1964 until his death in 1975 at the age of forty-nine. There will also be a panel discussion on Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 1pm, entitled Alternate Universe: 1950s and 1960s Los Angeles and the Claremont Group. A conversation with artists Jack Zajac, Doug McClellan, Tony DeLap, and Paul Darrow will be moderated by Paul Karlstrom, former West Coast Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art.
MEMBERS’ OPENING: Saturday, March 14, 2009, 6-10pm
Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Drive
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
March 15 – May 24, 2009
Kim McCarty @ Kim Light/Lightbox
McCarty is known for her diaphanous watercolor portraits, whose expressionistic exaggerations of the figure have favored a suggestive adolescent androgeny. In this exhibition, two groups of figural works on paper further this project, bringing a maturing anatomical proportion and weight to the artist’s alternately expressive and engimatic subjects.
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, March 14, 2009, 6-8pm
Kim Light/Lightbox
2656 S. La Cienga Boulevard
Los Angeles CA
March 14 – May 16, 2009