Dildine / Scianni Shows in Claremont

The Trueman / Rash shows were a huge hit last Tuesday. There was a great turn out, the artist talks were illuminating and the food was good!

I know its on a Tuesday night, but these CGU shows are really worth the drive... For me there isnt much of a drive, so I dont miss them. But they are good. Over the course of this blog I will review shows and give updates on upcoming shows but I will also feature established and emerging artists, local and not, that I think are worth looking at.

I will shamelessly promote this one every time. The works of Joshua Dildine are amazing, direct, complex and compelling. They are exciting to look at, and even more exciting to watch evolve. This is a painter's painter who loves paint, knows how to push it around around and every stoke is confident.

Behind the process of the work is the concept of transformation. The artist begins with a lovely piece of energetic marks in the birth stage, then kills it by overworking it and muddying up the colors. Defeated, he finds a way to bring it back to life, looking fuller, deeper and richer than the initial stage could ever have accomplished. These works accomplish an amazing sense of depth for 2-dimensional non-representational work. Come out and enjoy the show! These large pieces hung and lit are stunning.

Also exhibited are the digitized yet hand painted works of Kevin Scianni. I dont have pictures of that at my fingertips just yet but I will post some later.

Culver City Art walk this Saturday

I cant believe it's been a month since I was in Culver City for openings last... time certainly does fly.

This Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010, we will be walking La Cieniga and Washington in style with a the rest of the art walk masses. The art walk here is a great event and great fun to come out for. Shows of note I recommend seeing:

Michael Reafsnyder

Put It There: New Paintings and Ceramics
What is amazing about Michael's paintings is that they are done all in one sitting yet they remain extremely colorful and rich. If you have ever painted before you know that if you work on a piece with that much paint in it for very long, it can get 'muddy' very quickly. Complimentary colors mix together and you are left with an array of brown and greys...which isn't usually a good thing. These paintings are rick and alive and magic!
visit Western Project to check em out... try to find the happy face in each one.

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Mark Grotjahn
Seven Faces

Visit Blum & Poe (across the street from Western Project) to see more...

David Ratcliff
Bsckground

 

Visit Honor Fraser (down the street toward the freeway) to see more.

Trueman / Rash show in Claremont

In my last post I mentioned an exceptional set of Claremont Graduate University artists.
Two of them have their thesis shows this week! The opening reception is tonight at 6:00pm, and, while a little late notice for you to attend, this is well worth seeing by the end of the week. If you cant, I will have many pictures up later this week.

I have watched the systemic work of Alison Rash grow and evolve in the past couple of years and am so pleased with how she has come into her own with the work in this show. A clean curration of confident colors, white backgrounds and alternating matte and gloss surfaces works in a very acrylic-like way for oil paints. Her repeating diamond, based on an insane personal logic are so fun and no two are the same color!

 

It is neat to see how this was inspired by a 3-dimensional installation piece she did in the fall. It filled as a curtain of tenuously hung points in this outdoor space. Sometimes we need to see things in a new dimension to understand them in your preferred format... 

This show coincides with the solo show of Chris Trueman. He probably possesses some of the best usage of acrylic paint I have seen. The pieces are digitized and yet organic, designerly yet raw all at the same time. It may just be me, but it's amazing how each painting seems to have a soundtrack of its own. Upon confronting each piece I feel like I want to give expressive sound effects for each one (and I have). Fun, fun work!

 

This one is my favorite... Just like a great piece of literature, it just gets better and you find more and more in it upon further inspection.

The galleries are open from 10:00 am-5:00 pm until Feb. 26th, 2010.

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Culver City Art Walk

Dear readers,
I am so sorry that I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks. After a heavy art month in LA like January, I was left feeling the need for a little bit of a break... Not from art, but from venturing far to see art. Let me catch you up with photos from what I left hanging last month. On January 16, we ventured to Culver City for the first art walk of the New Year. We visited most all of the shows they had open, which is not for the weak footed. Parking is a bear if you don't get there early. The highlights are below.

Western Project had the inaugural show of its new La Cienega  location. Of to a good start in a revived space. The playful works fit beautifully. An old favorite of mine, but a soon to be new favorite of the LA art scene, Justin Bower had a knockout piece that absolutely stole the attention of the entire room. His androgynous youth faces are distorted in a digitized blue of superb painting. This one is on the milder side in comparison to the newest faces. But those eyes still pierce you. It was well received. Bower, and his big faces, where recently signed on at Western Project. We will be seeing more of them in the future. He is concurrently in a show on portraiture up at the Torrance Art Museum.... I need to get over to see that one too.

Also in the show was a perplexing work by Mark Dean Veca. That red is really intense when you stand next to it all night long.

 

I personally enjoyed the controversially irreverent flag pieces of Liz Young, a) because I love to see some down home sewing in an art gallery, and b) because they are just off enough to spark some serious conversation about patriotism, the flag and craft. Which it did. Do you think she is being offensive by sewing on the American flag?

 

Finally, the grandiose mural piece of Sush Machida Gaikotsu set the playful tone for the entire show, spanning the length of the log wall. I enjoy the graphic text element he places on the left of each of his pieces as his artist "signature" .

 

A one time treat that was up in this Culver City art walk was a pop up show but on by a group of graduate students from Claremont Graduate University. The cleverly named exhibition, "Crashing Culver", put out a good showing of strong abstraction and color in this alternative space next door to Roberts & Tilton. I really enjoy looking at work from all of these artists. In the show were works from Cole James, on fabric, and Michael Knight, who is a wiz with Flash acrylic paints.

 

Curator/artist, Chris Truman (right), along side a devoted fan. 

And the playful feminine works of Alison Rash. What may, on first glace seem decorative, is actually the result of a complex system for organization.

We look forward to their annual Open Studio day at the school on April 25, 2010... More details to follow.

Mid-Week Shows

For those of us that work full time, the middle of the week is sometimes a hard time to get out for a little show here or there. Openings at college/university galleries often run on Tuesdays or Thursdays and can be well worth attending. Student, and especially graduate student shows might have a few words from the artist offering insight into their developing work. This is a wonderful opportunity to see what is going on in academia and the arts and get sneak peaks of artists that might be the next big art stars of the future. On this blog, I hope to spend some time on new and emerging artists, featuring new work that I find of merit.
This week lead me to a group show at Chaffey College on a cold rainy night... I would not particularly recommend the trek in such weather but this college art department might be worth following.
Tomorrow night, the Pitzer College Art Galleries will host a reception for their current group show "CAPITALISM IN QUESTION (because it is)." with guest juror Daniel Joseph Martinez. Look out for the juicy work of Grant Vetter. Head east, up the 210 or 10, to Claremont for good times and good art.


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Weekend Events

We went to the LA Art show on Saturday with some friends. It was expansive, as expected. There was really no one gallery that I was totally blown away with, but there where certainly pieces that were worth noting. Unfortunately, when we walked in there was a big sign that said "no photography". Bummer. I made a list of artists I wanted to mention and I will have to go find images of them for you to enjoy.















This coming weekend the Pacific Design Center is hosting Art Los Angeles Contemporary (not to be confused with the previous event). While not quite as large at the LA Art Show, this event will house most of LA's big hitter galleries as well as quite a few from New York and beyond. This will be a good chance to compare the flavor of each of these exceptional galleries side by side. We will be there, you should too!

Art Los Angeles Contemporary:
January 29 - 31
Opening Night Public Reception: Thursday, January 28
Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood


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Go to the LA ART SHOW

Ok. I went to this last year, and regretted my shoe choice, but was blown away by the sheer number of pieces and galleries in one place. Now, this is no art Basel, but if your in the area its worth going to. Some of it was good, lots of it was just ok or not my taste and some of it was terrible. But still, it is a wonderful way to see the trends that are going on out beyond our golden city.

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Its at the LA convention center. If you are going, tomorrow is the last day. Print out a coupon online to save $5.
Maybe I'll see you there!