Celebrating the Jewish artistry of Iran: Shulamit Gallery
Dec
9
2012
Two weeks after a bustling opening party launched a new house of art at Venice Beach, we revisited the multi-floored Shulamit Gallery on a grey-skied late-November afternoon. The smart, post-modern shoebox structure wedges neatly into a row of buildings that marks the end of Venice Boulevard. At this location, arguably the western-most point of sprawling ...
Carole Bayer Sager’s splendid nosherai @ William Turner Gallery
When the baseball stadium vendor cried out “peanuts, popcorn, cracker jacks,” little Carole Bayer Sager, as a kid, took that sing-song offering seriously. The prodigious lyricist/songwriter is also proud creator of a fun and poppy collection of super-sized snacks in serious, searing colors. The show’s early November opening at William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica ...
Words matter …
… at “Letters from Los Angeles,” a new show opening at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts this weekend. Rutberg’s showcase LaBrea Avenue gallery will offer the exhibit, co-curated by Aldis Browne, which features more than 30 contemporary L.A.-based artists who incorporate elements of words and letters in their work. The artist roster includes: Lita Albuquerque, John ...
Classical Underground looks above ground — and it’s a mess! 1
As part of its holistic approach to the arts (“In Art We Trust,” its tagline), the informal classical music showcase, Classical Underground, now in its sixth season, features the work of visual artists. November’s concert highlights a neo-realist painting that resonates — much as we wish it didn’t. The work, Among The Ruins by New ...
Jerry Beck & the fine art of classic animation on TCM
Expert Jerry Beck defines classic animation as “theatrically-released studio or independent animated shorts and features from 1906 through roughly 1976.” The fun, arty fodder is getting its due this Sunday, October 21, with “Rare Animation,” a six-hour broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. Jerry, who blogs at cartoonbrew, co-hosts the evening with Robert Osborne. I had ...
Sleaze as art: ‘Camera Night at the Ivar’ @ Drkrm Gallery 2
Hollywood’s Ivar Theatre — notorious, low-life, sleazy — presented crude peep shows, images of which I have interspersed in the slide show with ballet photography by renowned dance photog, Gene Schiavione. The images all feature the female body on explicit display. The Ivar strippers, and the men who clustered at the Hollywood theater to photograph ...
Guess who came to dinner at CAAM? Sidney Poitier gets award.
California African American Museum enjoyed its annual gala on Saturday, October 6. For this seventh annual event CAAM & Friends presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to Academy Award winner Sidney Poitier. The United States Gracie Fellow for Visual Arts winner John Outterbridge was similarly honored. Sidney Poitier accepts CAAM Lifetime Achievement Award Poitier & award with ...
How the Stones rolled through L.A.
Found: Photographs of the Rolling Stones, a month-long exhibition of twenty-six rare and candid photographs that document the Rolling Stones on their first American tour in 1964 opens soon at Dilettante, a creative theatre and gallery located in Compton. The Stones photo-booty was discovered in an unmarked box at a Central California estate sale — ...
In Pittsburgh, with Andy Warhol
Jul
18
2012
It was a great joy to exit my United Airlines flight last weekend — yes, the pleasure of getting off the damned airplane was augmented by an exhibition of Andy Warhol art work right there at Pittsburgh International Airport. Capturing my eye in particular was a display case of photos illustrating Warhol’s rather impressive transition ...
Gwen Samuels’ skyscraper stitchery @ A & D Museum
Looking forward to seeing artist Gwen Samuel’s amazing architectural clothing installed at the Architecture and Design Museum on Wilshire Boulevard across from LACMA. Samuels considers that when we dress and go out into the world we turn ourselves into a moving canvas or a sculpture … or even a classic building. Whatever building I am, ...