Art as Authority

by Doug Simay


Current Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions


The Reflected Gaze - Self-Portraiture Today at the Torrance Art Museum (Torrance through February 20).
I am frequently a fan of the curatorial efforts at the TAM. I also love portraiture. But this exhibition lacks a cohesive “eye” that would better integrate the artists represented. Figurative/portrait art was hugely seen about town this week and many of the artists in this show are in other exhibitions as you will read below.



Tom LaDuke and Chuck Close

Allison Schulnik at Mark Moore (Bergamot through February 6). There has been lots of media bubbling about this sold-out show. The work is interesting. There are great gobs of paint. She slathers it on more vigorously than Frank Auerbach and with the same “innocence” of Karel Appel. Me thinks the hype machine is not truly dead.



Allison Schulnik

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Posted to Art Reviews | Doug Simay's Best Picks

Ryan, Freerunner, 2009 - photo: Owen Driggs

Sit, stride, chat, hike, scramble, feed, scour, crunch, scamper, loiter
Bodily actions that interrupt the structuring of public space

an exhibition
an archive

February 6 — March 21, 2010
La Casa del Túnel, Tijuana, Mexico
Calle Chapo Márquez 133
Colonia Federal, Tijuana BC
MéxicoTel: (011) (52) 664-682-9570
http://performingpublicspace.org

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by Douglas James Martin aka Baudelaire Shepherd


Artist: Lee Puffer - Portrait: Karen McGuire, Curator of Exhibitions, City of Carlsbad’s William D. Cannon Art Gallery


On Movers and Shakers 2, at the Art Expressions Gallery


A visitor to “Movers and Shakers 2: Who’s Who in San Diego Visual Arts” might reasonably expect to be treated to a representative sampling of the best in San Diego art; what they will find instead are a few good works bobbing upon a turgid sea of proud mediocrity. The show’s title already had an air of fawning desperation before an indifferent public, but through the combination of a needlessly narrow selection of artists, a flaunting of mere technique over wit and vision, and an uninspiring theme, the organizers have perversely given the public good reason to stay indifferent. San Diego’s artists deserve better.

Out of a total of forty-four works, by forty-six separate artists, I found only seven pieces that were truly successful, including quirky sculptures by Jeffrey Laudenslager and Lee Puffer, a wittily “minimalist” painting by Vero Glezqui, and a joyful, cartoon-like representation by Michael Gross. I found Lee Puffer’s ceramic bust of Karen McGuire particularly striking, combining energetic form with lively color, as well as touches of subtle comedy. Another eight were of moderate interest. Herb Olds, for instance, presented a moody, large-scale drawing, but without the revealing detail that adds depth to his other work. Cheryl Sorg created another entry in her clever “thumbprint” series; but in the process perhaps revealed the limitations of this cleverness—the overall form risks becoming muddy and over-familiar; the textual content proves no more revelatory than a list of favorite books on Facebook.

Continue reading "Movers & Shakers 2: Who’s Who in the San Diego Visual Arts World" »

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Posted to Art Reviews | San Diego | Special Guest | Video

from the press release

The Border Corps, a group of five Southern California artists, musicians and performers, will stage an art happening entitled Coatlicue mi Amor at Agitprop on Saturday, February 13th at 8pm. The event will be a fundraiser for the gallery. Admission is $5.00 and people bringing sketchbooks and pencils to the event will get in for $2.00. Agitprop Gallery is located at 2837 University Ave.
(behind Glenn's Market on Utah), San Diego, CA 92104.

Incorporating weird combinations of materials, sound, the human body, pop culture artifacts and historical sources, the happening will use the myth of Coatlicue to examine the conflicted relationship between indigenous culture and the legacy of colonialism in the Americas.

Continue reading "ART HAPPENING AND FUNDRAISER FOR AGITPROP SPACE IN NORTH PARK" »

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Posted to Openings & Events | San Diego

from the press release


We hope you can join us this Saturday, February 6 at 7:00 pm for the next event in the Agitprop Reading & Performance Series featuring Jane Sprague and Diane Ward.

Jane Sprague is the author of THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES (Chax, 2009), *BELLADONNA ELDERS SERIES NO. 8 (with Tina Darragh and Diane Ward; Belladonna, 2009) and numerous chapbooks including APACHE ROADKILL (Dusie, 2009) and SACKING THE HENWIFE (Dusie, 2008). She teaches at CSULB and for Bard College’s Institute for Language and Thinking. She lives in Long Beach, CA where she edits and publishes Palm Press. Her current projects include editing the collection IMAGINARY SYLLABI, a utopian and practical investigation into various writing pedagogies in higher education as well as researching a project on generational poverty and histories of race and genocide in upstate New York, where she’s from.

Diane Ward was born in 1956 in Washington, DC and currently lives in Santa Monica, California. She has published ten books of poetry including, most recently, *BELLADONNA ELDERS SERIES NO. 8 (with Tina Darragh and Diane Ward; Belladonna, 2009) NO LIST (NO LIST), Seeing Eye Books, 2008, Flim-Yoked Scrim, Factory School, 2006, among others. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies, among them: MOVING BORDERS: THREE DECADES OF INNOVATIVE WRITING BY WOMEN, edited by Mary Margaret Sloan (New Jersey: Talisman House, Publishers, 1998) and OUT OF EVERYWHERE: LINGUISTICALLY INNOVATIVE POETRY BY WOMEN IN NORTH AMERICA & THE UK, edited by Maggie O’Sullivan (London: Reality Street Editions, 1996). .

Please share this information with friends and any interested parties. Agitprop readings are free, but donations to the gallery are always welcome. We hope to see you there and for festivities afterward!

AGITPROP READING & PERFORMANCE SERIES Saturday, February 6, 7:00pm AGITPROP 2837 University Ave in North Park (Entrance on Utah, behind Glenn’s Market) * San Diego, CA * 92104 * 619.384.7989

http://agitpropspace.org/

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Posted to Openings & Events | Poésie - Literature | San Diego

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Posted to Essays | Video

drawing by Kevin Freitas



click for larger image

Greg Boudreau nominated by Chris Martin, Project X: Art
Kelsey Brookes nominated by Mark Quint, Quint Contemporary Art
Stephen Curry nominated by Robin Bright, artist
Steve Gibson nominated by Laurie Mitchell
Brian Goeltzenleuchter nominated by Teri Sowell, Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Oceanside Museum of Art
Wendell M. Kling nominated by Brian Dick, artist
Heather Gwen Martin nominated by Kim MacConnel, artist and Ann Berchtold, director, Beyond the Borders International Art Fair
Robert Nelson nominated by Tom Noel and Larry Baza, Noel-Baza Fine Art
Julio Orozco nominated by Debra Poteet, collector
Allison Renshaw nominated by Patricia Frischer, coordinator, SDVAN
Lesha Maria Rodriguez nominated by Katherine Sweetman
James Soe Nyun nominated by Tom Driscoll, artist
Stephen Tompkins nominated by Robin Clark, PhD, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

San Diego Art Prize New Contemporaries III

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Posted to News | San Diego

Paradoxes in Video


Saturday, February 6 @ 6 pm

Garage Gallery
4141 Alabama Street
San Diego, CA


Last September Garage posted an open call on the net requesting submissions for a video exhibition investigating "paradoxes within performance/performative actions that find their way into video/editing."

This Saturday Garage presents the work selected.

The screening is at 6 pm. Seating is limited — if you have a chair to bring, Larry would appreciate it.

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Posted to Openings & Events | San Diego

from the press release



Dave Ghilarducci - "Circle of Complication"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Brian Goeltzenleuchter | Curator | 858.602.8448 | brian@cphomedecor.com
Contact: Patrick Stewart | Executive Director | 619.235.8466 | patrick@sushiart.org

"Circle of Complication", kinetic sculpture and drawings by Dave Ghilarducci
February 4 - 27, 2010 | Exhibition Reception: February 5, 6 - 9PM

Sushi Performance and Visual Art presents "Circle of Complication", a kinetic sculpture and series of drawings by Dave Ghilarducci.

Dave Ghilarducci’s artwork investigates perception on an everyday level, often using popular technology as the subject and object of artistic inquiry. Circle of Complication is an electronically mechanized sculpture designed to make drawings reminiscent of those made by a child using a Spirograph toy. In Ghilarducci's work, however, the drawings are made at large scale using a program designed to produce a series of random operations. Circle of Complication simultaneously evokes the spontaneous discovery of child's play and the complex laws of math and science that govern its creation.

Dave Ghilarducci was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He currently lives and works in Escondido, California. He studied engineering and physics at University of Illinois at Chicago. After graduating, Ghilarducci worked as an engineer, developing a range of culturally substantive objects - from rockets to Palm Pilots. He left the engineering word in 2006 to work full time as an artist. Ghilarducci’s work is often interactive and engages viewers while reminding them of the various and often transparent ways technology is used to manage interactions. Although still quite early in his career, Dave Ghilarducci’s work has garnered critical validation. His work has been exhibited at Track 16 Gallery and Oceanside Museum of Art, and later this year at Art Produce Gallery.

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from the press release

How Many Billboards? Art In Stead


February 5 - March 12, 2010

Reception: Saturday, February 27, 1-5 pm

www.howmanybillboards.org


The MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House is pleased to announce its most ambitious project to date: How Many Billboards? Art In Stead. This large-scale urban exhibition debuts 21 newly commissioned art works for billboards in Los Angeles.

Participating artists:
Kenneth Anger / Michael Asher / Jennifer Bornstein / Eileen Cowin / Christina Fernandez / Ken Gonzales-Day / Renée Green / Kira Lynn Harris / John Knight / David Lamelas / Brandon Lattu / Daniel Joseph Martinez / Kori Newkirk / Yvonne Rainer / Martha Rosler with Josh Neufeld / Allen Ruppersberg / Allan Sekula / Susan Silton / Kerry Tribe / James Welling / lauren woods

Each artist has produced a work especially for this exhibition that responds to the medium of the billboard and interprets its role in the urban landscape. How Many Billboards? investigates art as an idea as well as art as a media for critical intervention.

Continue reading "How Many Billboards?" »

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by Richard Gleaves







In the context of reviewing the current show at MOCA, ArtScene writer Mario Cutajar sidehands some acute insights for the benefit of artists, critics, and galleristas who find themselves unhappy with their current place in the world:

This imperative to ceaselessly produce stuff and fill ... large empty spaces ... is for me one of the most oppressive features of contemporary art…

I cannot help but think that this horror [of empty spaces] that drives artists to incessant production is the apprehension that the time of art is over. Duchamp announced as much with his ready-mades but we’ve pretended that those were just provocations. We’ve read Walter Benjamin on the death of the aura and technology’s reduction of art to distraction.

But the aura of the artwork, which was its connection to the sacred, couldn’t be allowed to evaporate because, strangely enough, art cannot be commodified without some remnant of the sacred remaining associated with it. The paradox is that we need art to have something like a “soul” in order to trade it at a price above what mere goods fetch.

The last purchase that art had on something resembling spirituality was through the much-abused notion of criticality. That too is now used up thanks to the postmodernist conflation of critique and complicity.

And despite attempts to reinvent the idea of community through subcultural affiliation, community would seem to require a foundation that exceeds the atomizing power of capital, which ceaselessly uproots and disperses people...

The larger question of what art’s purpose might be beyond amusing jaded rich people or contributing a veneer of [civic] sophistication ... will remain.

This should not be seen as a manifesto to commit identity suicide and take up volleyball, but rather as a call to think and think hard about all aspects of your practice, and then strive to ensure that none are based on the boatload of received ideas that pass these days for art.

One possible art centers on the idea of user experience — a kind of interactive participatory static theatre — which can be pursued in venues as large as the Jacobs building, or as small as a zine. In such a paradigm the traditional art object assumes the role of recyclable prop. But this is only one of many possible approaches: the important thing is to pursue a practice that actually fits with what's happening today in your life, in your society, on your planet.

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