C-MONSTER.net » Los Angeles

Calendar. 01.25.12.

c-monster — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:39:00 +0000

In the Box-Horizontal, 1962, by Ruth Bernhard. Part of the exhibit In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, opening this Sunday. (Image courtesy of the Ruth Bernard Archive, Princeton University Art Museum.)

Berlin: Paper does not blush, a group show, at Galerie Michael Janssen. Opens Saturday at 6pm.
Fort Lauderdale: Chick Flicks: Cinematic Treatments of Female Photographers, a series of screenings, including Office Killer and Scenic Jogging, at Girls’ Club. On Saturday at 7pm.
NYC: A Feminist Tea Party will be holding a tea-shindig at the A.I.R. Gallery in Dumbo this Saturday from 2-4:45pm.
Plus: See my latest New York City picks over at Gallerina…

Calendar. 01.11.12.

c-monster — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:42:27 +0000

This will be a tough piece to watch come together: Suzanne Lacey is doing a reprise of a 1977 work in which she tracked rapes in Los Angeles for a period of three weeks. This year, the artist, with the assistance of the LAPD, will do the same for the rest of the month of January. The L.A. Rape Map will come together in Deaton Auditorium at police headquarters in downtown as part of the Los Angeles Goes Live series of performance art exhibitions presented by LACE. Seems like a must-see to me. Get the details here. (Image courtesy of the artist and LACE.)

S.F.: Skewville, Playground Tactics, at White Walls. Opens Saturday, at 7pm.
S.F.: An American Language, at Guerrero Gallery. Opens Saturday.
L.A.: Daniel Richter, A concert of purpose and action, at Regen Projects. Through February 18, in West Hollywood.
San Diego: John Banasiak, George Brown’s Bar, at Joseph Bellows Gallery. Opens Saturday, in La Jolla.
NYC: Giles Thompson, New and Used, at Pandemic Gallery. Opens Saturday at 7pm.
Plus: Get my latest New York picks over at Gallerina…

Calendar. 01.04.12.

c-monster — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:24:45 +0000

An image from Gusmano Cesaretti’s East Los Angeles series, 1974. Part of the photographer’s solo exhibit at Roberts & Tilton. This is a show I most definitely want to see. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Culver City. (Image courtesy of the artist and Roberts & Tilton.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Portland: Body Gesture: A Group Exhibition of Feminist Art. Through January 28.
NYC: Rather Unique, at the Woodward Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm.
Plus, find my latest NYC picks over at Gallerina…

What I’m reading.

c-monster — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:14:51 +0000

Rebels in Paradise, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, a look at the SoCal arts scene of the 1960s. The book is a hot mess at the narrative level and it’s a bit of a Ferus Gallery retread (as in: non-white, non-male artists are virtually non-existent). But it’s laced with plenty of funny interviews and tasty anecdotes.

One bit on Robert Irwin versus a critic from Artforum on page 58:

The early 1960s was the apotheosis of reverence toward the automobile in Los Angeles; the new Corvette convertible had a role as memorable as any of the stars of the TV series 77 Sunset Strip. Irwin took the critic out to the San Fernando Valley to introduce him to a kid who was working on a 1929 roadster. “Here was a fifteen-year-old kid who wouldn’t know art from schmart, but you couldn’t talk about a more real aesthetic activity than what he was doing…The critic simply denied it.” Irwin tried to explain, but the critic refused to acknowledge the possibility that such an activity could be considered a form of art. Finally, an angry Irwin pulled his car over. “I just flat left him there by the road, man, and just drove off. Said, ‘See you later, Max.’ And that was basically the last conversation we two ever had.”

I’d love to hear the critic’s version of this story.

Photo Diary: California Design at LACMA.

c-monster — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:20:25 +0000

OMFG, yes: lobster swimsuits by Mary Ann DeWeese, on view at LACMA as part of the California Design show.

The Avanti, designed in 1961 by Raymond Loewy. I would wear my lobster swimsuit while I drove this around.

A pamphlet advertising the City of Lakewood — L.A.’s first planned community. Speaking of which, if you haven’t read D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, then get on it. He covers this very subject.

Wish they’d had these in the gift shop. I’d look so grand in a pair of 1940 hostess pajamas designed by Addie Masters.

I would wear them while lounging in front of this 1941 sombrero textile. I mean, seriously! This is making me covet a little Spanish revival architectural number to go with.

And guess what I’d have parked in the driveway? This little 1936 Clipper courtesy of Airstream.

And when I wasn’t wearing my pajamas, I’d be wearing this little number: The 1942 “Swoon Suit” by Margaret Fellegi.

Or perhaps this two-piece dress from 1950 by Gilbert Adrian. The sort of thing that goes with some sort of citrus-and-rye cocktail.

Okay, so maybe California design wasn’t all retro cool. See Evil, Hear Evil, Speak to the FBI by Fujiye Fujikawa, c. 1942.

California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way is on view at LACMA through June 3, 2012.