Review: Antiquity updated in SOLUNA Fest’s ‘Rules of the Game’
Vulnerable humans cower in the debris of a humongous classical bust crashed to earth. An unnatural occurrence … like an airplane felled. Symbols of ancient civilization — either Greek, Roman, or a modern approximation of both — tumble down, explode into shards. Not to worry; it’s all fake. It’s video art. This stunning and impactful ...
In Dallas, for SOLUNA Festival, coming apart at the seams
In a world that seems to be fraying if not coming apart at the seams, the ultimate deconstruction, that of the human body — a startling central image at last night’s premiere of “Rules of the Game,” a collaboration by visual artist Daniel Arsham, choreographer Jonah Bokaer, set to an original score by Pharrell Williams. ...
Review: Memphis jookin phenom Lil Buck & pals wow @ Broad Stage
Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade is only eight blocks from The Broad Stage, but it took Memphis jookin phenom Charles “Lil Buck” Riley thousands of miles and several years to get from one to the other. Six years ago, he was busking for quarters on the Promenade, but when a video of him dancing to ...
Irish painting master Patrick Graham in major show @ Rutberg’s
May
13
2016
A rare opportunity to view the works of one of Ireland’s most influential contemporary artists, Patrick Graham, who, starting next weekend will be honored with an important exhibit at one of L.A.s’ most respected art galleries, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts. Thirty-six works including Graham’s iconic large-scale paintings and complex mixed media drawings, deeply rooted in ...
Sad but beautiful: Highways remembers ‘Dancers We Lost’
“Dancers We Lost” is a comprehensive dance-history project honoring performers who died due to complications of HIV/AIDS. The Dancers We Lost exhibition is the visual component of a large history project, it’s all so sad, but forgetting these people seems even worse. The exhibit is now installed at the noble Highways Performance Space in Santa ...
Lilacs to beget roses — and dance — at New York Botanical Garden
Tony and Emmy award-winning choreographer George Faison poses in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden last weekend with Naomi Goldberg Haas, artistic director of Dances for a Variable Population. The duo is collaborating on The Phoenix Project, a citywide event that will feature a performance by legendary guest artists staged ...
Wyler’s ‘House Divided’ rises from the vaults @ MoMA
A House Divided — it’s one of those handy generic titles that has lent itself to half a dozen movies and a whole lotta TV episodes over the years. Back in 1931, it was an especially apt name for an early talkie starring Walter Huston, neatly encapsulating the drama’s dark oedipal stew. It’s a work ...
We love Hollywood ballet
‘Normal’ ballet is so boring: Petipa, Balanchine, Tudor, Robbins, Ratmansky. Those guys never put girls in pointe shoes on pianos. We prefer fancy, Hollywood-style ballet, like this photo from KING OF JAZZ (1930) made at Universal Pictures and featuring dancing by Russell Markert dancers (Markert, who, not surprisingly, founded the Rockettes, is listed as the ...
The son rises again: Universal Pictures producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. canon @ MoMA
Our friends in the film department at The Museum of Modern Art are launching a truly groundbreaking and fascinating retrospective that highlights a decade of distinguished moviemaking at Universal Pictures, the Hollywood film factory often wrongly valued primarily as a purveyor of horror fodder. Writes Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries, 1928–1937 film curator Dave Kehr: ...
Critic Stephen Farber’s TCM Fest 2016 movie round-up 1
The fun of the TCM Classic Film Festival [arts•meme has covered since 2010] is the sheer range of offerings, from obscure rarities to Oscar-anointed hits. Three of my favorite events from this year’s festival featured memorable guest appearances. The Yearling was shown in a magnificent 35mm print from The George Eastman House. Not all studio ...