Category: Los Angeles

Calendar. 04.23.14.

Big Trouble in Lil Haiti by Michael Vasquez (Courtesy of the artist.)
Big Trouble in Lil Haiti, 2013, by Michael Vasquez. The artist will have work on view at New Image Art in Los Angeles this weekend, part of the group show This Crazy Life, also featuring Patrick Martinez and Gregory Bojorquez. Opens Saturday 7pm, in West Hollywood. (Image courtesy of the artist.)

  • L.A.: James Bridle, Military Visuality and the Work of Art Symposium, a talk at Occidental College. Thursday at 12:45pm at Choi Auditorium, in Northeast L.A.
  • L.A.: Francesco Vezzoli, Cinema Vezzoli, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Opens Sunday, at Grand Avenue.
  • L.A.: Timothy Nolan, The Soft and Sweet Eclipse, at CB1 Gallery. Opens Sunday at 5pm, in downtown L.A.
  • L.A.: Sheree Rose, 100 Reasons, at Coagula Curatorial. Opens Saturday at 7pm, in Chinatown.
  • S.F.: Wrong’s What I Do Best, at the San Francisco Art Institute. Opens Thursday, in the Walter and McBean Galleries.
  • NYC: 13 Most Wanted Men: Andy Warhol and the 1964 World’s Fair, at the Queens Museum. Opens Sunday.
  • NYC: Ultra Violet: The Studio Recreated, at Dillon Gallery. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Carrie Mae Weems, LIVE: Past Tense/Future Perfect, at the Guggenheim Museum of Art. Three days of art, music and performance in connection with Weems’s retrospective at the museum. Starts Friday, on the Upper East Side.
  • NYC: Dinh Q. Lê, Warf Woof, Zero & One, at PPOW Gallery. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Eva and Franco Mattes, By Everyone, For No One, Everyday, and John Powers, +time, at Postmasters Gallery. Opens Saturday at 5:30pm, in Tribeca.
  • NYC: Adriana Varejao, Polvo, at Lehmann Maupin. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Bob Colacello, Holy Terror: Photographs from Inside Warhol’s World, at Steven Kasher Gallery. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Sarah Charlesworth, Objects of Desire: 1983-1988, at Maccarone. Opens Friday at 6pm, in the West Village.
  • NYC: Monika Zarzeczna, sculpture and collage, at Lesley Heller Workspace. Opens Sunday at 6pm, on the Lower East Side. There will be an artist talk on Sunday, May 18 at 4:30pm.
  • NYC: Guillermo Kuitca, This Way, at Sperone Westwater. Opens Thursday, on the Lower East Side.
  • NYC: The ‘80s: Past + Present, at Bleecker Street Art Club. Opens Thursday, in the West Village.
  • NYC: It Ain’t What You Make But What Makes You Do It, a tribute to Dennis Oppenheim, at Valentine. Opens Friday, in Ridgewood.
  • NYC: Performa Events: Who Can Write About a Performance Art, with Claire Bishop, RoseLee Goldbgerg, Adrian Heathfield, Jens Hoffmann, John Rockwell, Hrag Vartanian and David Velasco, at Judson Memorial Church. Tomorrow at 6:30pm, in the Village. RSVP required.
  • NYC: Julia Bland & Daniel Petraitis, Hard As You Can, Right at the Middle, at Asya Geisberg Gallery. Through May 10, in Chelsea.
  • London: Hernan Bas, Memphis Living, and Christian Holstad, Corrections, at Victoria Miro. Opens Saturday.
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If you’re hitting the Mike Kelley show at MoCA…

Mike Kelley's Chinatown Wishing Well at MoCA

The Mike Kelley show at MOCA Geffen has a whole lot of everything going on: child nightmare videos, weird banners, scary stuffed animal sculptures, night-light installations of the fictional Kandor, and architectural models of every school Kelly ever went to. There’s also his “Chinatown Wishing Well,” above, his tribute, to a similarly garish fountain located in L.A.’s Chinatown.

It’s a lot to absorb. But while you’re at it, don’t forget to take a peek under and inside many of his pieces, since they often seem to contain little surprises. Under the architectural models, you’ll find a mattress; a pink dresser hides books about sex and a packet of birth control pills; and inside the “Wishing Well” is a mattress, a box of Kleenex, some candles and tub of Vaseline. (This latter space he once described as a “crawl space/fuck room.”)

All of it certainly gets at aspects of the forbidden he often explored in his work. But they also serve as a reminder that if you’re just looking at the literal surface of his pieces, you’re missing a good chunk of the story.

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Calendar. 04.02.14.

Rose Quartz Eroded Tire, 2014 by Daniel Arsham
Rose Quartz Eroded Tire, 2014, by Daniel Arsham. Part of the artist’s solo show, Kick the Tire and Light the Fires, at OHWOW Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Beverly Hills. (Image courtesy of the artist and OHWOW.)

  • Pasadena: Face It: The Photographic Portrait, at the Norton Simon Museum. Opens Friday.
  • L.A.: Javier Téllez, Games Are Forbidden in the Labyrinth, at REDCAT. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in downtown.
  • L.A.: Antonia Wright, Suddenly We Jumped, at Luis de Jesus. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Culver City.
  • L.A.: Roberto Gil de Montes, Hecho en México, at Lora Schlesinger Gallery. Opens Saturday at 4:30pm, in Santa Monica.
  • L.A.: Sinful Saints and Saintly Sinners at the Margins of the Americas, at the Fowler Museum. Through July 20, in Westwood. Related: Artists Judithe Hernandez and Alma Lopez have a conversation about Saints, Warrior and Women at the museum this Saturday at 2pm.
  • S.F.: Elise Ferguson, Striped Knot, at Romer Young Gallery. Opens Friday at 6pm.
  • NYC: Chicago in L.A.: Judy Chicago’s Early Work, 1963-74, at the Brooklyn Museum. Opens today, in Brooklyn.
  • NYC: Are Your Motives Pure? Raymond Pettibon Surfers, 1987-2012, at Venus Over Manhattan. Opens Thursday, on the Upper East Side.
  • NYC: Dan Witz, NY Hardcore, at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Opens Saturday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Moving Murals: Henry Chalfant’s and Martha Cooper’s All-City Graffiti Archive, at the City Lore Gallery. Opens Thursday at 6pm, in the East Village.
  • NYC: Sometimes We Explode: An Exhibition of Underground NYC Through Video Games and Hip Hop, at Babycastles Gallery. With a special performance by Ratking. Opens next Tuesday at 6pm, on 14th Street. Follow this link to RSVP for the opening.
  • NYC: Joe Sola, American Sex Room and Other Works, at Blackston Gallery. Opens Sunday, on the Lower East Side.
  • NYC: Parallax Reveries: Stereoscopic Collage by Joel Schlemowitz, at Microscope Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Bushwick.
  • Toronto: Susana Heller, at Olga Korper Gallery. Opens Saturday, at 2pm.
  • Toronto: Eva Kotátková, at Art en Valise. Opens Thursday.
  • Online: Nikki Darling, Ascension, at Light & Wire.
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Calendar. 03.26.14.

Untitled, 2012-13, by Helen Pashgian
Untitled, 2012-2013, by Helen Pashgian. Part of the artist’s solo show, Light Invisible, at the L.A. County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles. Opens Sunday, in Mid-Wilshire. (Courtesy of Helen Pashgian. Photograph by Josh Morton.)

  • L.A.: Heaven and Earth: Byzantine Illumination at the Culture Crossroads, at the Getty Museum. Through June 22, in West L.A.
  • L.A.: (en)Gendered (in)Equity: The Gallery Tally Poster Project, at ForYourArt. Opens Saturday at 6pm.
  • L.A.: Allen Ruppersberg, Drawing and Writing, 1972-1989, at Marc Selwin. Through May 17, in Beverly Hills.
  • Torrance: Prep School: Prepper & Survivalist Ideologies and Utopian/Dystopian Visions, at the Torrance Art Museum. Opens Saturday.
  • Miami: Anselm Kiefer, at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse. Through April 26, in the Wynwood District.
  • NYC: When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South, at the Studio Museum. Opens Thursday, in Harlem.
  • NYC: Matthias Bitzer: Saturnine Swing, at Marianne Boesky Gallery. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Heather Rowe, William Monk, Richard T. Walker, at James Cohan Gallery. Opens Thursday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Daniel Canogar, Small Data, at Bitforms. Opens Thursday at 6pm, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Allan Wexler, Breaking Ground, at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: 1st 20 Years, at Adam Baumgold Gallery. Opens today at 6pm, on the Upper East Side.
  • Madrid: Eltono, Amalgama, at Slowtrack. Opens Thursday.
  • Belgium: Stephan Balkenhol, at Deweer Gallery. Opens Sunday at 3pm, in Otegem.
  • Hong Kong: Billy Childish: Edge of the Forest, at Lehmann Maupin. Opens Thursday.
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Calendar. 03.20.14.

Lew Thomas, Polaroid Hand (B&W&C), 1972/2014 at Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles
Polaroid Hand (B&W&C), 1972/2014, by Lew Thomas. Part of the artist’s solo exhibition Structural(ism) and Photography, at Cherry and Martin in Los Angeles. Opens Saturday at 4pm, in Culver City. (Image courtesy of the artist and Cherry and Martin.)

  • L.A.: Stephen Prina: Take It or Leave It, a live solo concert, at the Hammer Museum. Tonight at 7:30pm, in Westwood.
  • L.A.: Ryan Trecartin: Four New Movies, at the L.A. County Museum of Art. Next Tuesday, March 25, at 7:30pm, in Mid-Wilshire.
  • L.A.: Closing reception for Out of Sight Out of Mind, at Machine Project. This Sunday at 6pm, in Echo Park.
  • L.A.: John Tweddle and Ken Price, at Kayne Griffin Corcoran. Through May 3, in Mid-City.
  • L.A.: Patricia Fernández, Paseo de los Melancólicos, and Rebecca Morris, Fantastic L.A., at LAXART. Through April 26, in Culver City.
  • Seattle: Rick Prelinger, No More Road Trips?, at the Henry Art Gallery. This Friday at 7pm, at the University of Washington.
  • NYC: Danny Licul, Model Citizens, at Gallery Sensei. Opens Friday, on the Lower East Side.
  • NYC: Bystander, a new performance by Liz Magic Laser, at The Kitchen. This looks like it’s gonna be the shizzle. Starts next Thursday, in Chelsea. Tickets on sale now.
  • NYC: Leigh Ledare, at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Opens Friday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Ben Gocker, Scaredy Cat City, at PPOW Gallery. Opens today, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Jeffrey Vallance and Carla Klein, at Tanya Bonakdar. Opens today, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Katie Armstrong, Dark Spring, at BravinLee. Opens Friday, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Coding the Body, at Apexart. Opens today, in Tribeca.
  • NYC: Steve Powers (aka ESPO) will be presenting his new book, A Love Letter to the City, at the Strand. Next Tuesday at 7pm, in the Village.
  • Boston: Permission to be Global: Latin American Art from the Ellan Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Through July 13.
  • London: Carolee Schneeman, Water Light/Water Needle, at the Hales Gallery. Through April 12.
  • Frankfurt: The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory Revisted by Contemporary African Artists, at the Museum Für Modern Kunst. Opens Friday.
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Donut luchador at KCRW’s Good Food.

El Asesino Geminis, Abel Nabor Campos. (Photo by Naomi Harris.)

Hey Folks:

I’m on KCRW’s Good Food talkin’ ’bout my Lucky Peach story on the donero luchador of East L.A., Abel Nabor Campos (a.k.a. El Asesino Geminis), with none other than Evan Kleiman. The segment contains audio of his cry, which is truly wondrous. Check it out here.

Special thanks to producer Gillian Ferguson for making me sound good while I was sick. And high five to photographer Naomi Harris for letting me nab the image above. (Follow her on Instagram for the further adventures of Maggs the Dog!)

xox,
C.

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Calendar. 02.28.14.

Gas Giant, by Jacob Hashimoto.
An installation view of Jacob Hashimoto’s Gas Giant, at the MOCA Pacific Design Center. Opens Saturday, in West Hollywood. (Image nabbed from Nancy Lee’s Instagram.)

  • L.A.: Robert Mapplethorpe, As Above, So Below, at OHWOW. Opens today at 7pm, in West Hollywood.
  • L.A.: Walead Bashty, Selected Bodies of Work, at Regen Projects. Through April 5, in Hollywood.
  • L.A.: Nicola Tyson, at Susanne Vielmetter Projects. Opens Saturday, in Culver City.
  • L.A.: Yoshitimo Nara, at Blum & Poe. Opens Saturday, in Culver City.
  • L.A.: Ray Eames, In the Spotlight, at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery. Opens today at the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena.
  • Marfa: Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Sound Speed Marker, at Ballroom Marfa. Opens today at 6pm.
  • NYC: Let’s Get Digital: Spectrum Presents a Conversation on Digital Art, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today at 6:30pm, on the Upper East Side.
  • NYC: Radiant Light: Stained Glass from Canterbury Cathedal, at the Cloisters. Through May 18, in Fort Tryon Park.
  • NYC: Germaine Richier, at Dominique Lévy, in collaboration with Galerie Perrotin. Through April 12, on the Upper East Side.
  • NYC: Jorge Pardo, Inert, at Petzel Gallery. Opens Saturday at 6pm, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Erwin Wurm, Synthesa, at Lehmann Maupin. Through April 19, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Kiki Smith: Wonder, at Pace Gallery. Opens today, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Sebastian Masuda, Colorful Rebellion — Seventh Nightmare, at Kianga Ellis Projects. through March 29, in Chelsea.
  • NYC: Rashaad Newsome, Five, at the Drawing Center. Next Thursday, March 6, in SoHo. RSVP required.
  • NYC: Abbott and Marville: The City in Transition, at Howard Greenberg Gallery. Opens April 11, in SoHo.
  • NYC: Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder, In Orbit, at the Boiler. Opens today at 7pm, in Williamsburg.
  • Tokyo: The Marvelous Real: Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Art from the MUSAC Collection, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Through May 11.
  • Beirut: Animism, at Ashkal Alwan. Through April 4.
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The donut-making luchador of East LA — in Lucky Peach!

abel

I’ve got a profile of the donut-making luchador of East LA (aka Abel Nabor Campos, aka El Asesino Geminis) in the Winter 2014 issue of Lucky Peach and it’s got amazeballs photography by the awesome Naomi Harris. You can order the issue off of Amazon or better yet, subscribe to Lucky Peach and get a whole year’s worth!

The story is not online, so the only way to read it is to get the mag! Please check it. I’m really proud of this one. Nabor Campos has a truly inspiring story.

xox,
C.

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