Visible from the entry hallway: A detail from Smoke, by Tony Smith. (Photos by C-M, unless otherwise noted.)
I finally got to wander around the newly renovated LACMA and it’s flashy new sister museum, BCAM, which still has that new-car smell. (Or is that formaldehyde?) Anyhow, I spent some quality time checking out the spaces and the art, though I was unable to photograph much of what I saw because, as usual, no photography was allowed inside the galleries. (Not that this matters, because far-flung correspondent San Suzie already got all the illegal flicks we needed back in February.) All of this was fine with me, because it allowed me to roam around and soak up the offerings. Herewith, a short, highly-annotated tour of some of what I saw.
Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Photos: Livin’ la vida LACMA.’
The Modern Art Kids Crew, in Lost.
Eyeone of the Seeking Heaven crew in L.A. was kind enough to send me a copy of a beautifully-designed book he just produced called Lost: Graffiti in the City of Angels. This photo-heavy spiral hardback features a decade’s worth of L.A. graffiti and covers more ground than anyone with a set of four wheels and a camera could possibly hope to do.
Los Angeles, with its endless miles of concrete riverbeds, industrial drain pipes, arroyos and alleyways is a great location for graff, but unless you know where the heck you’re going, you can spend a lot of time looking at nothing. This book, however, is a great chronicle of both new and older works in places the average person would never find on their own. A lot of the pieces are long gone, produced by artists who are also gone. Thankfully for the rest of us, their work has been well recorded.
Want a preview? Follow the jump for pix of random images from the book.
Continue reading ‘What I’m reading.’
For the homegirls: Old Chola in L.A. (Photo by C-M.)
Better late than never.
- Tree art.
- Provocatively-titled guerilla art show, that riffed on the idea of the assassinations of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is shut down in NYC.
- The Whitney has a few pix of the Mapplethorpe Polaroids exhibit up on its Flickr page.
- New guidelines for museums for antiquities acquisitions. Rule #1: Never buy anything outta the back of a truck.
- Detroit cops raid the Contemporary Art Institute for after-hours drinking. Because, clearly, there is no crime in Detroit so the police have nothing better to do than to go after a bunch of white-wine sipping art nerds.
- Malcolm McLaren is blogging about Basel. Thus far: He’s had lunch at Trois Rois, been invited to dinner by Sam Keller, unveiled his “musical paintings” (???) and dropped a whole lotta names. In related stories: Super rich Russian guy shows up at Basel, meriting numerous column inches in the Art Newspaper. Also spotted: Brad Pitt.
- Plus, the art industrial average is still strong: Americans may not be buying, but apparently European collectors are happy to wield their Euros.
- Photo Essay: Cy Twombly at the Tate Modern.
- Yesterday was the 40th Anniversary of Valerie Solanas’ assassination attempt on Andy Warhol.
- The Chanel art pod hits Japan. In a related story: The Guardian analyzes the growing confluence of art and retail. (Silly question: Isn’t an art gallery a retail shop of sorts?)
- The 10 Most Worthless College Majors, according to Holy Taco. Art History comes in at #10: “With an art history degree you could maybe curate an art gallery or work at a museum or….yeah, that’s it. That’s all you can do. And seeing as how every art gallery and museum I’ve ever been to has exactly one dude sitting quietly at a desk reading a New Yorker and eating a food that requires chopsticks, I’m going to go ahead and assume there’s not a lot of positions open in the field.” (Via WBE.)
- The Sahara-ization of Spain.
- Rudolph Schindler-designed home in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon is donated to the MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
- A McCain/Viagra billboard jam by Ron English.
- Graff of the Day: Keske and Kaze in Russia.
- Graffiti writer Cope2 does a commercial piece for a new website by Barnes & Noble.
- A video Q&A with Space Invader. (Via Ekosystem.)
- Your moment of Monty Python meets Star Trek.
Posted C-Monster.
A piece of Greg Lynn’s Blobwall. (Photo by virtual.architect.)
- In L.A.: Greg Lynn’s Blobwall Pavilion at SCI-Arc, opens tomorrow.
- In L.A.: Four, a group show at Corey Helford in Culver City, opens tomorrow.
- In S.F.: Eve Sussman’s Rape of the Sabine Women to screen on Fridays through June at S.F. MoMA.
- In Orange County, Calif.: Terracotta Warriors at the Bowers Museum (via O.C. Art Blog). Looking Around dissects warrior types.
- In Chicago: Jeff Koons at the Museum of Contemporary Art, opens Saturday.
- In NYC: David Byrne turns the Battery Maritime Building into a giant organ in Playing the Building, in lower Manhattan, opens this Saturday.
- In NYC: Emergence, on Governor’s Island, this Saturday.
- In NYC: Graffiti Research Lab, tagging the Peter Sharp building at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, tonight and Saturday.
- In NYC: Louise Lawler at Metro Pictures, through June 7th.
- In São Paulo: Cena7, Emol, Nick e, GEN and JoaoH at Qaz Urban Art.
- In Glasgow: Birth Rites at the Glasgow Science Centre.
- In London: Psycho Buildings: Artists Take On Architecture at the Hayward. (The best line from this story… Adrian Searle on Ernesto Neto: “The result is a sort of chill-out zone of swollen glands and dangling testicular bulges.”) More on the show here.
- In Liverpool: Speaking of testicular bulges, Gustav Klimt is now on view at the Tate Liverpool. More here.
Posted by C-Monster.
From the perceived debris of the universe, we are still yet unable to reach the castle of nirvana, 2008.
An intrepid L.A. reader sent us a few stealth flicks of Takashi Murakami’s exhibit of new paintings over at Blum & Poe in Culver City. If you’re in the area, check it out (it’s up through June 14th). Looks like a good show!
Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Photos: Takashi Murakami at Blum & Poe in L.A.’
Cassie by Korin Faught, from her solo show at Corey Helford. Photos by Vidalia.
We here at C-Monster.net appreciate nothing more than beautiful paintings devoted to moody brunettes. Giving us a resplendent eyeful is painter Korin Faught, who had her first solo show at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, Calif. this past weekend. Dear Korin: Please call us whenever you need fresh models. We may not be this luscious, but we are definitely brunette. The show runs until April 19th.
More money shots after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Photos: Korin Faught at Corey Helford in L.A.’
