An Interview with Chloe Chiasson and BANKS
Writer Ricky Amadour speaks with artists Chloe Chiasson and BANKS on their recent side-by-side exhibitions at the UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles. In Bird on a Wire, Chiasson assembles large-scale sculptural paintings that provide introspection into her upbringing in Texas and the many idiosyncracies of queer life in a small rural town. BANKS shares drawings and poems from her book, Generations of Women from the Moon (2019), which are letters to her younger self. Discussed are the themes of womanhood, the representation of the human body, and the preservation of queer history.
Conversations on Art: Lia Halloran
Lia Halloran traverses through mechanisms of experimentation in order to document motion of matter. As an interdisciplinary artist, Halloran examines the interconnectivity of scientistic cultures and the performance of light. Halloran recently presented Your Body is a Space that Sees at LAX Terminal 1, as well as a solo exhibition, The Sun Burns My Eyes Like Moons at Luis de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles. In this interview the artist deep dives into the creation of cyanotypes, her Dark Skate series, and the influences of mythology and science on her practice.
Interview with Artist Tara Walters on Her Recent Exhibition, “Dropping In,” at Kristina Kite Gallery
Los Angeles-based artist Tara Walters spoke with us about her recent exhibition, Dropping In, at Kristina Kite Gallery.
Review of Claire Colette: Derealization at Harper’s Los Angeles
Claire Colette’s second solo show with Harper’s Los Angeles, Derealization, whips up an Arcadian dreamscape through a unique potpourri of materials. In reference to the comely vistas that surround Los Angeles, Colette mediates between symbolic incantations to the universe and our understanding of reality.
Conversations on Art: Artist Sara Issakharian on Her Recent Exhibition at Tanya Leighton Gallery
Writer Ricky Amadour speaks with Iranian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Sara Issakharian about her recent exhibition “There's a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there” at Tanya Leighton Gallery in Los Angeles. Issakharian’s paintings enrapture her audience through candid gestures and delve into the many idiosyncrasies of clandestine Iranian politics through the use of mythology. Her works serve as postulates for a reawakened hope and confront cultural trepidation with frank conscientiousness.
Continuity of Discontinuity: Francesco Clemente at the Old Santa Monica Post Office
It has been almost twenty years since internationally-renowned artist Francesco Clemente exhibited his work in Los Angeles. Thanks to a collaboration between Vito Schnabel, the wunderkind international gallerist and son of artist Julian Schnabel, and British real estate developer Alexander Dellal, thirty of Clemente’s paintings dating between 2001 and 2021 are now on display at the historic Old Santa Monica Post Office.
Review: Oren Pinhassi’s Thirst Trap at Commonwealth and Council
Pinhassi’s Thirst Trap, at Commonwealth and Council, is an unforgettable solo exhibition that interrogates the polarization of mechanical, elemental, and societal laws of obsolescence and attraction.
Review: It’s Much Louder Than Before at Anat Ebgi
It’s Much Louder Than Before, organized by James Bartolacci and Stefano di Paola at Anat Ebgi, inexplicably lies at the taut deliberations between the adaptability and reconciliation of a party world of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Review: Marisa Adesman’s Forklore at Anat Ebgi
As the artist’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, Adesman conjures up a magnificent display of technical ability reminiscent of 20th century surrealist painters.
5 Must-See Artists at Felix Art Fair in Los Angeles This Weekend
The contemporary art fair, hosted at the storied Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, includes 29 local Los Angeles galleries featuring only the brightest talent on the contemporary art scene.
Review: Manny Castro’s Stormscape at UTA Artist Space
Taking inspiration from the land and sea, Castro creates a multi-sensory environment for the audience with the heavy thematics of emigration, invisibility amongst communities of color, and the traumatic undertakings of Cuban exiles.
Review: Shattered Glass at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery
Melahn Frierson and AJ Girard’s curation for Shattered Glass at Jeffrey Deitch is a spectacular celebration of intellectual prowess, culture, and digs deep into the artists’ black and brown communities.
Review: Experiments on Stone - Four Women Artists From the Tamarind Lithography Workshop at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
An online exhibition explores how one woman artist created a print revolution in 1960s Los Angeles, transforming the careers and oeuvres of artists like Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Gego, and Louise Nevelson.
Review: For Agnes Pelton, Color Reigns Supreme at Palm Springs Art Museum
Agnes Pelton was a cartographer of the unseen. Seeking to capture the “deeper resonance beneath the visible world,” Pelton painted landscapes of a different dimension. Her imagery came from within, often sourced from dreams, meditation and waking visions.
Review: The Earth is Not Neutral, Desert X’s Land Art Brings a Call to Action
The third iteration of Desert X, featuring thirteen artists from eight countries, includes a handful of installations that bring contemporary issues of land use, environment and restitution to the forefront, demonstrating that art and activism quite seamlessly go hand in hand.
Book Review: Frida Kahlo and San Francisco
San Francisco is likely not the first place you’d think of when imagining Frida Kahlo’s legacy. Instead, what often comes to mind are Mexico City, Coyoacán, her enchanting La Casa Azul. However, a new book, Frida Kahlo and San Francisco, published by Hirmer Publishers and distributed by the University of Chicago Press, brings to light the pivotal role that San Francisco played in the construction of the artist’s identity, embrace of her Mexican heritage and development as a skilled painter.
Review: Lorser Feitelson’s Allegorical Confessions, 1943-45 at Louis Stern Fine Arts
An exhibition at Louis Stern Fine Arts presents a selection of paintings from Lorser Feitelson’s self entitled, Allegorical Confessions, a moody and sensual, figurative wartime series that relates the artist’s own psychological torment while navigating what appears to have been a quite complicated love life.
Alison Saar: of Aether and Earthe
Artist Alison Saar’s world is one you’d welcome getting lost in. Interweaving notions of Blackness, womanhood, and a sense of mythic power and protection derived from mystical life forces and archetypal deities, her world is a place where the sacred and profane co-exist in the everyday.
5 Digital Art Talks You Won’t Want to Miss This Week
Since the pandemic hit, museums, galleries, and arts organizations have moved the party to Zoom. Here is a roundup of art talks, studio visits, and lectures from institutions throughout California that are on our radar this week.
Luchita Hurtado: A New Book by Hans Ulrich Obrist Offers a Glimpse into the Magical Life of the Artist
Luchita Hurtado, a new book from Hauser & Wirth released on occasion of what would have been the artist’s 100th birthday, presents an intimate portrait of Hurtado’s life and work through a selection of never-before-seen photographs and art from her studio, as well as her own words in a conversation with friend and colleague, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director at the Serpentine Galleries.