Spend quality time with Bert & Ernie
In 2011, when our society was slightly more playful mood, a petition circulated to cajole the two besties, Bert & Ernie, from the closet, and marry ’em right on Sesame Street. Who knew that five years later we would elect an actual prime-time puppet to the presidency? But to take a break from all of ...
Summer flower splendor in a vase by Cara Jean
Cara Jean’s mantra is “Never Enough Flowers!….Ever!” That’s why along with her Baroque, filigreed cups, saucers, dishware, eggcups, she has created this romantic vase and crammed it with peonies. A former dancer, Cara Jean puts the movement into her dynamic, delicious porcelain ware. Cara Jean Clay | on sale on line
Isabel Emrich’s refracting beauty, in solo show 1
Gallery openings can be uncomfortable affairs, with too many bodies jammed into small, unventilated spaces. Painter Isabel Emrich’s “Progressions” opening last weekend at Skidmore Contemporary Art at Bergamot Station was no exception, but the work itself provided a visual oasis from the oppressive heat and humidity. It’s her second one-woman show at Skidmore — always ...
The look of jazz: Warhol-designed album covers
Before he became the king of pop art, Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol moved to New York to make it. Warhol wanted to be part of the elite strata inhabited by Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams and other sanctioned artists. He didn’t have what it took to be admitted to those circles but he did ...
On Memorial Day, remembering “pochoir” color prints
May
28
2018
It was nice to hear from print specialist and art dealer Georgina Kelman who shares a fascinating explanation of these two prints. I bought a sassy Edgar Chahine etching (with drypoint) from Georgina a year ago. Writes Georgina: If you’re wondering what exactly a “pochoir” is, please don’t feel embarrassed. It is, without a doubt, ...
Herb & Lani Alpert’s generous mid-career funding of meritorious artists
Robert O’Hara, Courtney Bryan, Michael Rakowitz, Lani Hall Alpert, Herb Alpert, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Arthur Jafa, Photo credit: Francesco Da Vinci The Herb Alpert Foundation and California Institute of the Arts awarded the 24th annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts to five exceptional mid–career artists at a lunch hosted by the Herb Alpert Foundation ...
In our own backyard: photography by Rafael Cardenas
May
1
2018
Rafael Cardenas, the Jalisco-born, Los Angeles-raised artist known for street photography, presents a selection of new works at the Vincent Price Art Museum in East Los Angeles. The works capture backyard scenes across the eastside of Los Angeles by Cardenas, who is widely recognized for his black and white photographs representing a cross section of ...
Our town and its city dwellers, by David Hockney @ LACMA 2
Apr
24
2018
Friend of arts·meme, the arts publicist Caroline Graham, poses with her portrait painted by her long-time friend, the British-born artist David Hockney. Caroline’s likeness occupies a prominent corner of “82 Portraits and 1 Still Life,” the new Hockney exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In the photo, Graham wears the elegant ...
Aline Mare’s resplendent body art @ Beyond Baroque
Apr
11
2018
Los Angeles-based artist Aline Mare grew up in New York City and began her career as an image maker and performer in the thriving avant-garde arts scene of downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s – her collaborators and close friends included Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Nam June Paik, and Richard Serra. Mare first met ...
Feathers, masks, veils: bodies transfigured by Charlie Le Mindu
Charlie Le Mindu‘s NOIR is an exhibition of raw sculptures; through literal extensions of his existing work with the human form, he explores the competing forces that drive our daily lives and relationships. Le Mindu will present a series of performances on the exhibit’s opening night demonstrating his provocative visual imagination, in which the gendered ...